Democratic Urban Planning v. Boston2024 Urban Planning

COMPARATIVE VIEW: A) BRA Fort Point 100 Acres Plan and B) #Boston2024 Fort Point Plan (ground level) http://t.co/GIPS8uE2uq

— The Fort Pointer (@FortPointer) March 8, 2015

Can the Olympic bid provide an impetus for long-range planning for greater Boston?

As you can see from these competing plans, one is informed by planners and residents. It focuses on creating living, working and recreating spaces, in short, a neighborhood.

The other plan meets specific criteria of an month-long Olympic event planned by a small group of folks invested in bringing the Olympics to Boston, and it does so without the public as integral to the process. Sure, they solicit feedback after the fact but it is clearly a very different planning process than the democratic process you see as a matter of policy in planning urban spaces.

Note that local Olympic authorities that plan, acquire property and build are commonly given extroidinary legal authority by the legislature such as the power of eminent domain, exemption from BRA and public approval process, and exemption from environmental law. Sometimes developers can take advantage of the olympics to maneuver access to real estate on which to build lucrative developments after the games.