Olympics: Dodged a Bullet, Set a Precedent?

Mayor Dad announced yesterday that Toronto is not going to bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Good.

As observant readers have noted, this blog was opposed to the greed-corruption-anti-democracy festival that the Olympics bring to town.

What galled me the most was the total needlessness of this kabuki.

Some points:
• We had already decided against this idiocy until John Tory got a bee in his bonnet and decided to drag us all through his dithering for more than a month.

• An Olympic bid was not on anyone's agenda. No one campaigned on it. It had zero interest, let alone support. (See link above. Not one person appeared at the economic development committee meeting to speak in favour of a bid.)

• One man, John Tory, all jacked up on Pan Am juice -- a third-rate sports event, amounting to a "high school track meet" in comparison to the Olympics -- decided to revisit an issue that no one gave a shit about. Why? Who knows? Maybe because he's an elite former executive who wants to run a one-man show.

• Speaking of which, Tory completely ignored elected representatives on city council, while lying his ass off about consulting them.

• Speaking of which, look how many council members refused to disclose where they stood on the matter, despite being repeatedly asked by constituents and media. (And kudos to those who did.)

• And finally the total lack of transparency. Which, one gathers, is typical for this sort of elite takeover of civic processes, but which, none the less, is infuriating.

In short, I was deeply offended and mightily pissed off by the sheer gall of elites deciding that we peons were going to pay BILLIONS for a big-ass party, while having no bloody say in it at all.

Then, as the topper, Mayor Dad calls a press conference to gather on the roof of a snack shop -- and doesn't that just scream World Class City? -- to blather on and on about how carefully HE considered everything (someone really should count the number of first-person pronouns in that speech; it's embarrassing) only to decide HE couldn't look people in the eye …

The truth is, I can’t look people in the eye at this point in our city’s development and tell them that an Olympic bid is the best use of our time, our energy, or our investment.

John Tory, the very embodiment of the Olympic Spirit -- in all its entitlement and noblesse oblige.

Toronto is entering dangerous territory here that I and Cityslikr thought we had faced and (barely) survived in the Rob Ford era.

But even if the mayor declines to proceed, city council needs to make it clear, in the strongest way possible, that this was never a mayor’s decision to make alone, that all the behind-the-scenes, Freedom of Information access only deliberations were unacceptable and undemocratic. If Mayor Tory’s doing all that on an Olympic bid, what else is going on back there?

City council needs to nip this mayor’s imperious inclinations in the bud now. It needs to show the mayor exactly who the boss is here. Like Rob Ford before him, Mayor Tory seems to have claimed a mayoral mandate as some sort of executive fiat. He’ll keep thinking that until city council shows him otherwise.

Wakey, wakey, city council.

And citizens of Toronto.


UPDATE: Janice Forsyth, who was a strong voice for reason and facts, still has questions too.

Owe-lympics Myths: Reuse Pan Am Venues*

One of the biggest porky pies hyped by Toronto's millionaire hucksters is that we're good to go for the Olympics because of all the dandy new Pan Am venues.

Or, Myth 5 at NoTO2024.

Myth 5: We can re-use most of the Pan Am venues
Some sites can be re-used, but even under the relaxed Agenda 2020 guidelines there will be major holes. The ACC and Rexall Centre should be ok, but the velodrome and aquatic centre are too small and too inconveniently located. The Rogers Centre is exactly the wrong size for everything.  The athlete's village will have been converted to housing and we need to find somewhere to stick a $1B+ 80,000 seat track and field stadium. The Olympics are much larger than the Pan Am Games and that level of infrastructure just wasn't built.

Mayor John Tory seems to have been sold this bill of goods.

The mayor added that he’s asked for a report from city staff on the usability of Pan Am venues for a potential Olympic Games.

“It would disappoint me if all that investment we made in very excellent facilities was not to be, under these new rules, something to be taken into account, if one wanted to bid.”

Prepare to be disappointed, Mr Mayor.

Chris Selley of the National Post pointed out that "the Pan Am organizers have always been frank: their facilities are not designed for the Olympics." He also says of the 80K+ seat stadium: "Toronto has no earthly need of such a facility."

John Barber weighs in:

Meanwhile in Ontario, taxpayers just spent $450 million on the four most expensive venues for the Pan Am Games, none of which will be good enough for the Olympics, all of which will have to be replaced by larger facilities if Toronto hopes to host in 2024. There is a long list of new stadiums and every variety of gold-plated facility to be built.

Not only are these venues too small -- and will be too old by 2024 -- some are too too far apart.

. . . many of the venues built for Pan Am are so far from Toronto that they may not meet Olympic committee standards. Some events were in Minden Hills (more than two hours from the city), Welland (90 minutes) and Hamilton (one hour).

New ginormous 80-100K seat stadium, new athletes' village, new/upgraded/relocated velodrome, ditto aquatics centre. . . the list goes on.

In short, existing Pan Am venues are just not viable for Olympics. They will need to be upgraded, expanded or replaced.

All costing mega-bucks.

In other words, a successful Olympic bid would create white elephants like the totally ridiculous baseball stadium in Greece (pictured above).




*Second in an irregular and ongoing series.

Previous posts:

Owe-lympics Myth 5: Health and Fitness Legacy.

Toronto Star and Olympics: Something Stinks

Toronto Councillors' Twitter Accounts

10 People on Twitter

Toronto Council Twitter Accounts (and Some NoTO2024 Links)

I just did this for the opposition to Toronto Olympics campaign, but it will be handy for other purposes and people.

Feel free to bookmark, copy, whatever.

Mayor, John Tory: @JohnTory
1 Etobicoke North, Vincent Crisanti: @VCrisanti

2 Etobicoke North, Rob Ford @TorontoRobFord

3 Etobicoke Centre, Stephen Holyday @stephenholyday

4 Etobicoke-Centre, John Campbell @Campbell4Ward4

5 Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Justin Di Ciano @JustinDiCiano

6 Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Mark Grimes: @Mark_Grimes

7 York West, Giorgio Mammoliti: not found on Twitter.
8 York West, Anthony Perruzza: @PerruzzaTO

9 York Centre, Maria Augimeri: @MariaAugimeri

10 York Centre, James Pasternak: @JamesPasternak

11 York South-Weston, Frances Nunziata: @Nunziata2010

12 York South-Weston, Frank Di Giorgio: @FDiGiorgio12
13 Parkdale-High Park, Sarah Doucette: @Doucetteward13
14 Parkdale-High Park, Gord Perks: @GordPerks

15 Eglinton-Lawrence, Josh Colle: @JoshColle

16 Eglinton-Lawrence, Christin Carmichael Greb @CarmichaelGreb

17 Davenport, Cesar Palacio: @CllrPalacio
18 Davenport, Ana Bailão: @Ward18AnaBailao

19 Trinity-Spadina, Mike Layton: @M_Layton

20 Trinity-Spadina, Joe Cressy @joe_cressy
21 St. Paul’s, Joe Mihevc: @JoeMihevc

22 St. Paul’s, Josh Matlow: @JoshMatlow

23 Willowdale, John Filion: @JohnFilion23

24 Willowdale, David Shiner: not found on Twitter.
25 Don Valley West, Jaye Robinson: @JayeRobinson

26 Don Valley West, Jon Burnside @jon_burnside

27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale, Kristyn Wong-Tam: @KristynWongTam

28 Toronto Centre-Rosedale, Pam McConnell: @PamMcConnell28

29 Toronto-Danforth, Mary Fragedakis: @MFragedakis

30 Toronto-Danforth, Paula Fletcher: @Paulafletcher30
31 Beaches-East York, Janet Davis: @Janet_Davis

32 Beaches-East York, Mary-Margaret McMahon: @mary_margaret32
33 Don Valley East, Shelley Carroll: @ShelleyCarroll

34 Don Valley East, Denzil Minnan-Wong: @DenzilMW
35 Scarborough Southwest, Michelle Berardinetti: @CouncillorMB

36 Scarborough Southwest, Gary Crawford: @CllrCrawford

37 Scarborough Centre, Michael Thompson: @ward37
38 Scarborough Centre, Glenn de Baeremaeker: not found on Twitter.

39 Scarborough-Agincourt, Jim Karygiannis @jimkarygiannis

40 Scarborough Agincourt, Norm Kelly: @norm
41 Scarborough-Rouge River, Chin Lee: @CncllrChinLee

42 Scarborough-Rouge River, Raymond Cho: @rcho42
43 Scarborough East, Paul Ainslie: @CllrAinslie

44 Scarborough East, Ron Moeser: ron_moeser



Previous post on NoTO2024

Website for NoTO2024.

Petition for NoTO2024.

There are a ton of resources to counter any bullshit claims of benefits coming to host cities. I'll post some after I've gone through them, but a good place to start is here.

Another is from the fabulous and inspiring effort in NoBoston2024.

And a ton more from Boston's Claire Blechman.

"No Toronto Olympics" Say 10 People on Twitter

They did it. Ten people on Twitter got the Boston 2024 Olympic bid pulled.

Olympic officials hate an argy-bargy and the good people of Boston put up a heckuva rumpus.

So, they took their ball and went elsewhere. Probably Los Angeles.

Toronto, chuffed from pulling off a second-rank sporting event -- for which the costs and overruns will not be revealed for months -- at which Canadians won the second-most medals after the US's less-than-star athletes, is again contemplating a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

To which we say, NO FUCKING WAY.

A few points to start.

First, it's expensive.

But the Olympics are a much bigger event. This summer, more than 7,000 athletes from 41 delegations travelled to compete in Toronto. That's at least 3,000 athletes and 164 delegations fewer than what London managed during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The city would need to galvanize public support to spend taxpayer dollars this way. The bid process could run the city between $50 million and $60 million, while a successful bid could cost up to $6.9 billion, according to a 2014 feasibility report.

"They're always looking to open up new markets for the games," says Janice Forsyth, former director of Western University's International Centre for Olympic Studies. That could explain why many recent host cities have never staged the Olympics before.

Got that? It costs at least $50 million to buy a lottery ticket to this bunfest and if we win, we get to spend up to $7 BILLION more.

Second, the cost overruns. Since 1976, cost overruns have averaged more than 200%.

This is largely a factor of estimated costs being pulled out of various assholes to begin with.

Next, Toronto already said no thanks. At that committee meeting in January 2014, not one person showed up to support a bid.

Not. One. Person.

What's changed?

Mainly the mayor, who wants the Games, but who is playing it cozy so far saying people would have to be "reasonably interested" for Toronto to bid.

Now this is the really clever bit. If we want to mortgage our city for 30 years, we must act fast. A letter of intent has to go to the IOC by September 15.

Classic huckersism. Buy now! These prices won't last long! Deal of a lifetime!

No.

Let's strangle this notion in its cradle.

I have more to say about the brilliant, hard-working people of Boston, but their advice is: get to the councillors.

Here are their Twitter accounts.

@cllrainslie

@JustinDiCiano

@PamMcConnell28

@MariaAugimeri

@FDiGiorgio12

@mary_margaret32

@Ward18AnaBailao

@DoucetteWard13

@joemihevc

@CouncillorMB

@JohnFilion23

@DenzilMW

@jon_burnside

@PaulaFletcher30

@ron_moeser

@TorontoRobFord

@shelleyCarroll

@Mark_Grimes

@JamesPasternak

@rcho42

@stephenholyday

@gordperks

@JoshColle

@jimkarygiannis

@PeruzzaTO

@CllrCrawford

@norm

@JayeRobinson

@joe_cressy

@m_layton

@vcrisanti

@CncllrChinLee

@Thompson_37

@Janet_Davis

@kristynwongtam

@JoshMatlow

@Campbell4Ward4

David Shiner, Glenn De Baeremaeker, and Giorgio Mammoliti seem not to have Twitter accounts.

Other contact info here.

On Twitter, use the hashtag #NoTO2024.

Just to forestall any accusations that I'm a Negative Nellie, I want to go on record as in total, ethusiastic support of Matt Elliott's Fakelympics.

Let's get this done.