Should Chicago bid on the 2020 Olympics. No way, says the Chicago Tribune in a June 20 editorial. Here’s what they said: An Olympic bid is an all-consuming exercise not only for a mayor but for corporate leaders and philanthropists. We backed the bid two years ago, but a lengthy bidding process now would hinder, …
From The New York Times, February 23, 2011, a story headlined “In Vancouver, a new Effort to Sell Olympic Condos.” A year after the winter games, fewer than half of the 737 condos have been sold — almost all as preconstruction sales in 2007 — and the city’s taxpayers now owe about 750 million Canadian …
Tom talked about the story and strategy behind the No Games campaign at the College of Complexes. This video is divided into three sections – the first part is the story and is about 45 minutes. The second is questions from the audience. The third is mostly unrelated to the No Games narrative.
Frank Deford has covered sports for major media outlets for decades. He does a weekly op-ed piece on NPR. Today he commented on the coats of mega-events, such as the Olympics and the World Cup. “…as Vancouver goes about the nasty business of trying to pay off this winter’s Olympics, and as we approach the …
The February 2010 issue of the American Planning Association’s magazine, Planning, gives a brief postmortem on the 2016 bid. The article asks the questions that no one in Chicago seemingly wants to face: “What does a city gain, or lose, by hosting the Olympics? Did Chicago lose? Or did it win?” The author then goes …
From the Canadian Press: A preliminary report estimates that hosting the 2010 Olympics cost Vancouver over a half a billion dollars. The report will be presented to city council next week and suggests the lion’s share of the costs went to venues and local infrastructure improvements. The bottom line doesn’t include the cost to the …
Chris Shaw is a professor at the University of British Columbia. He has been one of Canada’s leading anti-games activists. He started his opposition to the 2010 Vancouver games in September of 2002. Here is an excerpt from a column he recently published, “Eight billion dollars got Canadians high on the Olympics. Was it money …
This comment was posted to an anti-war email list that we subscribe to. Our discussions about the Olympics were mooted by events, but in case you are still dreaming about what might-have-been I quote below part of an email I received today from a former student who know lives in Canada (by “former student” don’t …
As the 2010 Olympics wind down in Vancouver, commentators and sports fans will be reviewing the footage and sorting through the performances, includng the death of one athlete. But here’s one statistic that will likely haunt the citizens there for some time to come – one billion. That’s how much debt the city is facing …
Check out this video from activists in Vancouver. It gives you a taste of what Chicago was in for had we got the 2016 Olympics…