…Mayor Daley’s legacy was going to be the 2016 Summer Olympics, as opposed to high taxes, a sharp looking park, and floundering public schools?
It was just a javelin throw away.
A year ago, Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics? Remember those? No? Well, its scale is much smaller than the typical summer games. There was a hockey game, some longhairs on snowboards, and women curling. In this edition of where are they now…
if you say so
ELEVEN months ago there was dancing in the streets of Vancouver, as Canadian athletes wound up the winter Olympic games with a record 14 gold medals. Today, true to Olympic tradition, the host city is dealing with a nasty financial hangover. It could have been much worse, and in other Olympic cities often has been. The Vancouver organising committee balanced its C$1.9 billion ($1.9 billion) budget for running the games. At least another C$4 billion was spent on building sports venues and a fast rail line from the airport to downtown Vancouver, expanding the highway to Whistler and providing security. Since this left some useful infrastructure and its cost was split between the federal, provincial and municipal governments, most British Columbians are content. But Vancouver’s taxpayers are unhappy that their city government faces the possibility of a big loss on the Olympic village…With the debt now standing at C$743m, the city has pushed the project into receivership.
Chicagoans – count your blessings. and your ground beef intake.
Prove me wrong, Rio!
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Those games would have bankrupted the city, I have absolutely no doubt. Although the eventual documentary on the graft and shenanigans that would have taken place would have been stellar.