PHILADELPHIA 2024 Olympic Summer Games? (cities, American, reasons)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Does anybody remember the infrastructure "improvements" done on Chestnut St in the runup to the 2000 Republican convention? Cheap, slapdash streetscape upgrades that looked subpar the day they were finished and now, 12 years later, have been completely unmaintained so they look even worse now.
How about the much ballyhood improvements to South Broad Street done back in the 90s? Again, no effort at maintenance. Those expensive z-shaped pavers in many cases now have ugly asphalt patches. The chime system is inoperative. The fancy shmancy sidewalks are all cracked and non-matching replacements have been used in places.
You know what? Given this history, I'm not putting too much stock in the proper execution and maintenance of any Olympic upgrades. Can you say boondoggle?
Your post would seem to imply we face a false choice between making poor infrastructure improvements or none at all. I would look to projects such as the Schuylkill River Banks Park, Sister Cities Park, the refurbishment of the BF Parkway, Penn Park, the 30 Street Station plaza, the Race Street Pier, and the Camden waterfront improvements as successes. I also suspect the Dilworth Plaza project will be another successful endeavor. IMO, the city/metro has a better track record in this arena than your post implies.
Your post would seem to imply we face a false choice between making poor infrastructure improvements or none at all. I would look to projects such as the Schuylkill River Banks Park, Sister Cities Park, the refurbishment of the BF Parkway, Penn Park, the 30 Street Station plaza, the Race Street Pier, and the Camden waterfront improvements as successes. I also suspect the Dilworth Plaza project will be another successful endeavor. IMO, the city/metro has a better track record in this arena than your post implies.
Penn Park is not a city project. It's part of Upenn. Camden doesn't count either as it's not Philadelphia. The other ones are indeed great projects, I agree, but let's see how they look after ten years of "non" maintenance.
Sorry to be so negative. Maybe it is indeed a new day and the old ways are being cast aside. I hope so.
The Pope is coming to Philly in 2015. The way the city handles this event will be a relatively good indicator of our preparedness for a future Olympics. At the very least, it will help us gauge how much work needs to be done to plan and prepare for the games.
Does anybody remember the infrastructure "improvements" done on Chestnut St in the runup to the 2000 Republican convention? Cheap, slapdash streetscape upgrades that looked subpar the day they were finished and now, 12 years later, have been completely unmaintained so they look even worse now.
How about the much ballyhood improvements to South Broad Street done back in the 90s? Again, no effort at maintenance. Those expensive z-shaped pavers in many cases now have ugly asphalt patches. The chime system is inoperative. The fancy shmancy sidewalks are all cracked and non-matching replacements have been used in places.
You know what? Given this history, I'm not putting too much stock in the proper execution and maintenance of any Olympic upgrades. Can you say boondoggle?
Comparing the Republican Convention to the Olympics is like comparing hosting an Arena Bowl Championship to hosting the Super Bowl. In fact, no, that doesn't even begin to display the disparity between the size and scope of the two events you tried to compare. The scale of the two events is not even remotely similar. Not in the length of time the events last, not in the amount of people the events would bring, and especially not in terms of the amount infrastructure that would need to be put in place to host the event.
The republican convention was an arena's worth of people showing up in Philadelphia for a few days. If it weren't for the protesters and media that accompanied the convention it wouldn't have been much different than an eagles game.
We are talking about the Olympics. Repaving side walks is going to be the least of what would be going on. We're talking about the creation of new light rail lines, building an entire housing development, constructing hotels, possibly redesigning highways!
And you don't want these things to happen because a side walk that was installed 12 years ago has deteriorated? I don't even know what you're talking about when you say that the sidewalks were not maintained properly. How exactly do you maintain a sidewalk? It's a sidewalk. You create the sidewalk and then deteriorates and then you do it again. That's how sidewalks work.
There have been plenty of infrastructure improvements that Philly has done right, jm02 listed a few and there are more beyond that as well.
Your negativity is exactly the reason why Philadelphia needs to host the Olympics. You can be afraid of this city changing for the better if you wish, but I am going to be working to ensure it does, despite the negativity of others.
When your own mayor (John Street) doesn't show up to greet the IOC when they come to check out what you have to offer they're not going to take your bid seriously. Especially when everyone in Chicago politics from Mayor Daley to Obama went to bat for their hometown.
compared to the last 4 or 5 summer olympic cities we really wouldn't have to build much. We would have to fix a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed anyway but between the city and all of the colleges in a 30 mile radius we have all the stadia and other facilities that we could possibly need.
This is basically it. We might need a pool and an indoor bike track but that's basically it . . . When you consider that some soccer games are taking place 400 miles from London - we'll be set. If we even had to go outside of the region for a stadium it wouldn't be any further than Baltimore or the Meadowlands.
The city isn't going to be bearing all of those expenses either. The federal gov't and state always step up for these sorts of things. That was true in Atlanta and SLC as it was and will be in Athens, Sydney, London, Vancouver, Rio, etc. This country has always put on a good games and I don't think the USOC would let a Philly games fall flat.
Penn Park is not a city project. It's part of Upenn. Camden doesn't count either as it's not Philadelphia. The other ones are indeed great projects, I agree, but let's see how they look after ten years of "non" maintenance.
Sorry to be so negative. Maybe it is indeed a new day and the old ways are being cast aside. I hope so.
A couple of points:
- Infrastructural improvements don't need to be entirely or even partially funded by government. In this era of decreased government revenue, I predict more private-public partnerships as Philly (and likely all cities) look to the future. In the event of the Olympics, a prudent university would try to tap into its donors to fund some sort of venue. For example, imagine if Temple or 'Nova built a swimming venue. The university would receive world-wide exposure and once the Olympics was over, would have a first class facility for its students.
- Camden counts. The Olympics will be an event for the Delaware Valley. As it is now, the Camden waterfront benefits not only Camden but Philadelphia as it is yet another tourist draw for the city.
- You are free to be as negative as you'd like. I see things differently.
A couple of points:
- Infrastructural improvements don't need to be entirely or even partially funded by government. In this era of decreased government revenue, I predict more private-public partnerships as Philly (and likely all cities) look to the future. In the event of the Olympics, a prudent university would try to tap into its donors to fund some sort of venue. For example, imagine if Temple or 'Nova built a swimming venue. The university would receive world-wide exposure and once the Olympics was over, would have a first class facility for its students.
- Camden counts. The Olympics will be an event for the Delaware Valley. As it is now, the Camden waterfront benefits not only Camden but Philadelphia as it is yet another tourist draw for the city.
- You are free to be as negative as you'd like. I see things differently.
Not negative about Philadelphia overall, just negative on this particular idea.
Your negativity is exactly the reason why Philadelphia needs to host the Olympics. You can be afraid of this city changing for the better if you wish, but I am going to be working to ensure it does, despite the negativity of others.
Definitely a fan of the city changing for the better. In many ways, it has been and continues to get better all the time. Just not a fan of the Olympic thing.
Does anybody remember the infrastructure "improvements" done on Chestnut St in the runup to the 2000 Republican convention? Cheap, slapdash streetscape upgrades that looked subpar the day they were finished and now, 12 years later, have been completely unmaintained so they look even worse now.
How about the much ballyhood improvements to South Broad Street done back in the 90s? Again, no effort at maintenance. Those expensive z-shaped pavers in many cases now have ugly asphalt patches. The chime system is inoperative. The fancy shmancy sidewalks are all cracked and non-matching replacements have been used in places.
You know what? Given this history, I'm not putting too much stock in the proper execution and maintenance of any Olympic upgrades. Can you say boondoggle?
You're making some good points, and you're giving examples of the way the city half-asses things. The city and state have been half-assing everything since the '50s, if not before then, and I'm sick of it. They half-assed urban renewal and did a one-size-fits-all plan that screwed many neighborhoods in the city. They half-assed the Bicentennial in '76 and really disgraced the city. They constantly take the easy way out of everything and I'm sick of it.
The way it seems to be to me is that Mayor Nutter takes these things a lot more seriously than others and wants to do them right. Even still, things like Philadelphia 2035 still seem to be half-assing what should be a much more complex and much less one-size-fits-all plan for the city. I hope I'm wrong about that but it's off-topic anyway so I'm not going to get into it any further.
The point is that the only way the city and state will stop half-assing things is if we force them to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soug
The Pope is coming to Philly in 2015. The way the city handles this event will be a relatively good indicator of our preparedness for a future Olympics. At the very least, it will help us gauge how much work needs to be done to plan and prepare for the games.
Really? I didn't know that. Wow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drive carephilly
This is basically it. We might need a pool and an indoor bike track but that's basically it . . . When you consider that some soccer games are taking place 400 miles from London - we'll be set. If we even had to go outside of the region for a stadium it wouldn't be any further than Baltimore or the Meadowlands.
The city isn't going to be bearing all of those expenses either. The federal gov't and state always step up for these sorts of things. That was true in Atlanta and SLC as it was and will be in Athens, Sydney, London, Vancouver, Rio, etc. This country has always put on a good games and I don't think the USOC would let a Philly games fall flat.
It's a shame the track can't be an outdoor one because we have one of the most famous cycling tracks in the world in the Lehigh Valley.
I really don't think there's any way the state or even the federal government steps in and helps with costs though unless we get rid of the Republican majority in local and federal government.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
