New York Times Reports on 2016 Meetings

Even the New York Times has reported on the angry reception the 2016 Committee is getting from community residents:

“You all are projecting we’re going to make a lot of money,” a resident, Robin Kaufman, told Olympics planners at a neighborhood meeting, one in a series intended to shore up support. “But the bankers were projecting they were going to make a lot of money. Bernie Madoff was predicting he was going to make a lot of money.”

Ms. Kaufman lifted a sign that read, “No Blank Checks.”

At a high school auditorium on the West Side, where the bid leaders showed glossy Olympics schematics and stood beside toned former Olympians, Stephanie Patton asked, “Why should we trust you?”…

What strikes some residents as particularly puzzling is the bid committee’s refrain that, as a private nonprofit entity, it is separate from city government and public money. Technically, that may be, but skeptics note the committee and City Hall share goals and often seem intricately intertwined; Ms. Healey, for instance, stepped down as the mayor’s chief of staff to lead the committee.

Crucial to maintaining residents’ support for the Games, polls suggest, is convincing them that their dollars will not be spent. In February, a poll by The Chicago Tribune found that 64 percent of residents of Chicago and its suburbs favored having an Olympics but that 75 percent were against the use of tax money to cover shortfalls.

OK, for all you doubters who didn’t believe it when WE said the 2016 Committee couldn’t be trusted – will you NOW believe the New York Times?