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Councilor wants Olympic review board, local veto of venues
By adamg on Fri, 01/16/2015 - 2:09pm
City Councilor Michelle Wu (at large) today called for creation of "an Olympic review commission with specialists in land use policy, municipal finance, and transportation planning to help vet the bid as it is being developed." She adds:
Boston 2024 should condition its bid on receiving affirmative approvals from each venue city or town by City Council vote.
The Boston City Council this week began work to set up a special committee to look at the Olympic bid.
Also, Boston 2024 should commit to an even higher level of financial and corporate standards than those that apply to the sort of non-profit it's organized, she writes.
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Comments
Why Not Just Start With An Overall Up-Or-Down Public Referendum?
Woo Hoo
So glad there's an elected official who doesn't think that John Fish should be doing our city planning.
Because...
Proponents of a Boston Olympics know it will fail. They're just looking to line their own pockets and/or further their careers.
Yeah, right...
Chris Cassidy-Boston Herald 1/9/15
Better stock up on the lozenges, folks. I'm not excited. You guys? You excited? Anybody else here notice that ole Mahty looks just like the puppet Mayor from "Boardwalk Empire"? You know, in the art imitating life department?
Bond the IOC
None of this stick us with the tab. If there's a shortfall - let the IOC eat it and they should be bonded against any shortfalls - though not sure who's going to underwrite a $10 billion or so bond - that's Goldman Sachs' problem. If the organizers aren't willing to sign on to the bond - that tells you something about their bid.
If that costs us the bid, oh well.
"Olympic review commission
"Olympic review commission with specialists in land use policy, municipal finance, and transportation planning to help vet the bid...."
Shouldn't that have already been in place to create the bid?
Boston2024 has the Authority, Not the City of Boston
Boston2024 has the authority, not the City of Boston, how did that happen?
We are playing catch-up and will continue to spend city resources playing catch-up because Boston2024, a creation of the "New Vault," which is a nickname for ~18 area CEO's of the largest greater Boston corporations, got tacit approval from state legislature to pursue the games without the consent of the host city.
NIMBY
We can't build a condo building in the city without significant amounts of abutters going nuts and fighting against it! I think we need to come up with some plan to upgrade the infrastructure of the city and increase public transit. I'm not a huge supporter of the Olympics but this seems like an opportunity to get some of the infrastructure upgrades done the city needs. If this isn't done we will end up paying much more down the road when certain infrastructure fails and needs to be replaced.
Who knows?
We're not allowed to read the bid, remember?
I really would like to see
I really would like to see the Olympics in Boston
Councilor Wu
Councilor Wu seems to be doing much of the practical thinking for Boston City Council. I'm thinking about her work to simplify the small business licensing processes, and this idea.
While the "process" so far has been messy and secretive, this does seem like a smart control to have set up before we go too far.
I don't agree with everything she does, but this seems like an attempt to actually represent the city.
Wu
has more balls than half the politicians in Boston.
Why doesn't Wu think we
Why doesn't Wu think we should have a referendum on the Convention Center expansion, at 1 billion (plus they have indicated they will need money for hotels) this is a massive amount of money, 2 billion and counting. If I had to pick Id pick the Olympics over a second convention center (we still have to pay for the Hynes too).
Have you asked her?
There are a lot of things one could ask for a referendum on.
WGBH link doesn't work
Nothing at http://wgbhnews.org/post/boston-city-councilor-open-conversation-2024-ol.... The correct link is http://wgbhnews.org/post/boston-city-councilor-open-conversation-2024-ol...
Fixed
Sorry, and thanks!
Councilr Wu
Finally,we hear tha an elected officia is calling for close review. There needs to be demonstrated the the city will not strangle on traffi nor on financial overrides.
There shouldbe a referndum ballot ?
*I* think there should be a
*I* think there should be a referendum ballot for every decision I don't personally agree with. We can add them to the referendum ballots for everything that everyone else disagrees with. *Then* each November we can all vote on 8,423 referendum ballots. This will work. Representative democracy was an insanely stupid idea.
Wonderful to live in a two paper town department
Today's Herald proudly exclaims:
Yet comments are closed, as is the case with most stories on the Herald website pertaining to the bid. I never knew that John Fish and Pat Purcell were that close.
So does she support it or not?
But, I'm confused - does she support the bid or not support the bid?
It really is a very easy question to answer.