24 February, 2005

He's not in an olympic state of mind - NY's bid for 2012

Like I did in London, I saw many campaign advertisements of the bid for the 2012 Olympics in New York. One of the ads says "we're in an olympic state of mind". Among some of New Yorkers, however, there is a sentiment against the Olympics, which brings unfavorable problems to their daily life. Robert Lipsyte, a former columnist for the New York Times, writes in 21 February's USA Today;

My city, New York, is vying for the 2012 Games, and the IOC is here to sniff around. My message to them: Bestow the 'honor' of gridlock, additional noise and a hefty price tag on Paris or London instead.

Questions are - who wants the Olympics in New York?

It would be helpful to know exactly who is going to profit and who is going to lose if the 2012 Games are awarded to New York, should the IOC disregard my protest. New York's proposed budget for the Games, not including the privately financed Olympic Village and a $1.6 billion stadium that will also house the NFL's Jets, is $3.7 billion.

Does that make sense when Mayor Bloomberg announced a $3 billion budget gap for 2005? To help close that gap, he ordered cuts that will affect police and fire protection and the public schools.
Meanwhile, there will be fat contracts to create the Olympic venues and service them. Will it be worth Halliburton's while to pull out of Baghdad and come to New York?

He also mentions the recent event in the Central Park and the redevelopment of the World Trade Centre.

Even for plans less masterful than war. This is why my neighborhood in Manhattan is often cluttered with TV crews. It is why Central Park, one of the city's treasures, has been draped with 23 miles of orange-colored fabric panels by an artist named Christo. It is why the few public spaces left with light and air are in continual danger of being crowded by some massive chunk of stone or metal dubbed Art. It is why the battle over Ground Zero has been about architectural visions vs. development interests rather than anything resembling the people's choice.

Which brings us to the ultimate grotesque extension of this kind of master-planner arrogance: the war in Iraq. The planners didn't ask the Iraqis if they wanted to be invaded, and they didn't ask the Americans who paid for it in money and blood. Talk about gridlock, noisy construction, strained facilities and diverted resources.

» USA Today | Olympic unwelcome mat
21 February 2005
By Robert Lipsyte

» NYC 2012