Bravo to Boston! No Boston Olympic Games for 2024!

thank gawd...

apparently one of the factors was Toronto considering making a bid after the very successful Panam games just completed here

(did anyone else know that the Panam games are bigger than the Olympics - in terms of sports and # of athletes? I had no idea til the dang thing started)

if the Olympics ran as smoothly as the Panam games, I'd go for it. I wasn't all excited about the events, but it did go well and we've got some terrific facilities here as a result.

I say that phrase makes me

It's along the lines of "cheers" in the reaction it inspires.

I was channeling Hawkeye there. Very weird.

<agreed>

Well, I liked them in Los Angeles in 1984, when I knew some people who worked on design stuff. But Los Angeles is quite a spread out place, times were different, at least in some ways. The women's marathon ran, uh, five blocks from our house, so we just walked over and sat on the lawn in the Marina and watched Joan Samuelson zing on by.

yeah - that's part of the reaction it gets

correction - the Pan Am games are bigger than the Winter Olympics

http://www.toronto2015.org/about-us/pan-am-games

This sure makes the politicians of Boston look stupid. And they have certainly jerked the United States Olympic Committee around.

Given the reaction to the 2004 Democratic Convention I never did see where the support was going to come from. Clearly the leaders misread the people when they decided to go after this.

EDIT: also I bet that the trauma of the BIG DIG plays into this. Expecting local government to pull off a project of this size seems at least a little crazy. And calling for tearing up the city again? Already?

Also I dont live there, only visited once, but I have been hearing for 30 years that the transit system is sub par. Two things about that:

1) if the leaders want to get the olympics maybe they should show over 30 years that they can run transit systems, that is a heck of a lot easier, and it would show competence

2) The transit system allegedly sucks, with money often being blamed, but Boston can come up the money to do the Olympics?

I can picture the people thinking " wait just one cotton picking minute!"

I don't think Southampton will be in the running anytime soon.

I don't live in Boston, but I do get in there from time to time. It's very difficult to drive in Boston. The streets make no sense and the traffic is awful, and that's in the summer time, when there's no snow, and it's between rush hours. I can't imagine Boston being able to handle a big event like the Olympics or to prepare/repair their infrastructure quickly enough to make hosting an event like that anything other than a commuting/visiting nightmare. So I'm not surprised or disappointed that they gave up their bid to host it.

I think that the requirement that the local government has to absorb cost overruns pretty much precludes a US summer Olympics for most cities. There is always an overrun (London 107% overrun) and the numbers are typically in the billions. Maybe Los Angeles can do it on the cheap since they've done it before, but asking a few hundred thousand people or even a few million to foot a bill like this is ridiculous. Unless we are going to fund it as a country or curtail the FIFA-like IOC, it doesn't make sense for a US city to host the games.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/07/los_angeles_and_boston_olympic_bids_we_should_force_cities_to_participate.html

Boston is on the band wagon saying no to the Olympics. This is a problem that the IOC had a huge hand in causing with their expensive demands, and it is only they who can fix it. I am fine with killing the olympics, but of they are to continue I want the summer games every 4 years in Greece, and the winter games somewhere else permanently. Neither the athletes or the IOC need a new place to go every 4 years.

THe benefits of the olympics are much like the benefits of the superbowl, the figures are fantasy because they dont count the cost to the economy of lost business because the games mess up the city and drive other activity way in many other ways, to include sucking up hotel rooms. Even stuff that is thought of as a full benefit such as improvements in the transit system are not actual as beneficial as claimed, because what get built is optimized for a few weeks use patterns, not normal usage. There is no rational way to get to local tax payiers saying yes to spending big money on this.

So I guess the US is going to pick Washington D.C., San Francisco, or Los Angeles now for our 2024 bid??

http://www.teamusa.org/News/2014/June/13/List-Of-Cities-For-Potential-US-Bid-For-2024-Games-Narrowed-To-Four



If I lived in a city, I'd be all for it.

Slightly off topic: China and Kazakhstan are the only two left in the running for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The winning city should be picked this Friday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics

Whatever city takes the booby prize will end up with an additional $billion deficit. Boston doesn't need that.

BREAKING: United States Olympic Committee chooses to move forward with Los Angeles for 2024 Olympics, eliminating San Francisco and D.C.

http://twitter.com/thebenbergman/status/631586945588539392

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee ruled out conducting viral tests of Rio de Janeiro's sewage-laden waterways ahead of the 2016 games, a top official said Wednesday, despite an Associated Press study showing dangerously high levels of disease-causing viruses at all aquatic venues, with experts saying athletes are almost certain to be exposed to pathogens.

Speaking at a news conference dominated by questions about Rio's sewage pollution problem, Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said the IOC will be sticking to World Health Organization guidelines recommending only bacterial testing.

The AP's independent analysis of water quality showed high levels of viruses and, in some cases, bacteria from human sewage in all of Rio's Olympic and Paralympic water venues, including the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, where rowing will take place, the Guanabara Bay, where the sailing competition are to be held, and at Copacabana Beach where distance swimming events will take place.

In two separate emailed statements following the AP's July 30 publication about its study, the World Health Organization said it was advising the International Olympic Committee "to widen the scientific base of indicators to include viruses."

However, in an emailed statement Monday, the organization backpedaled and said that "WHO has not and will not issue an 'official recommendation' on viral testing."

"WHO is very clear that bacterial testing is what should be followed," said Dubi. "They have restated that bacterial testing is the measure that has to be used and will continue to be used by the authorities. ... It is the best measure to be used."

Several water experts cited by the AP disagree -- and have underscored there is little to no correlation between the amount of bacteria from sewage in waters and the amount of viruses, which is what the AP study has so far found, with astronomical viral counts up to 1.7 million times what would be considered alarming on a southern California beach, yet with bacterial levels often within legal limitations.

Dubi dismissed reports that about a third of members of a U.S. rowing team came down with stomach illness because of exposure to lagoon water at the World Junior Rowing Championships here last weekend, though the team doctor said she suspected it was due to pollution at the Olympic venue.

The AP viral testing, which will continue through the Aug. 5-21, 2016, games, found not one water venue safe for swimming or boating, according to global water experts who analyzed the data. A risk assessment based on the study found that athletes who ingest three teaspoons of water have a 99 percent chance of being infected by a virus -- though that does not automatically mean they would fall ill. That depends upon a person's immune system and a number of other factors.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/40db75c007604c4d816c3336a933d53b/ioc-rules-out-viral-testing-rios-olympic-waters

At this spoon, the United States should boycott the 2016 games.