picard102
Senior Member
It's all about balance.
And on the balance, hosting the Olympics is an exercise in excess and greed that rarely pays off.
It's all about balance.
But where do we draw the line? Next thing you'll be saying is that we should be able to shop on a Sunday.Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat.
Everything else is a needless frill. It's how we've functioned here for decades...
And on the balance, hosting the Olympics is an exercise in excess and greed that rarely pays off.
But where do we draw the line? Next thing you'll be saying is that we should be able to shop on a Sunday.
Well then I guess throw all the money into the fire so we can have a new stadium and some parks. That will show them who's boss.
Alright, let me spell it out for you.
Scenario: Toronto is awarded the 2024 SOG.
1) Transit: LRT would need to be built along the waterfront, into the Portlands. GO RER would have a set date for full operations, and other incremental improvements would be made. All within a reasonable, 9 year deadline.
2) Housing: We have a significant subsidized housing shortage in the city. 10,000 athletes need to be accommodated for the SOG, and these units can be 75% transferred to TCHC and the difference to market-rate condos.
3) Public Realm: I don't need to add anything to this.
4) Brownfield regeneration: Portlands completed by 2024. Current timeline ~30 years from now (2045).
5) Intangibles: pride, marketing, etc... The Panams have really boosted Torontonians' pride in their city. Some of you like to minimize and trivialize this, but it's incredibly important.
Perhaps you should ask Sydney or London how they felt about it. Certainly they didn't have much by the way of regret. Funny how little buyers regret there can be if it was well planned and well run.
1) Transit: LRT would need to be built along the waterfront, into the Portlands. GO RER would have a set date for full operations, and other incremental improvements would be made. All within a reasonable, 9 year deadline.
2) Housing: We have a significant subsidized housing shortage in the city. 10,000 athletes need to be accommodated for the SOG, and these units can be 75% transferred to TCHC and the difference to market-rate condos.
3) Public Realm: I don't need to add anything to this.
4) Brownfield regeneration: Portlands completed by 2024. Current timeline ~30 years from now (2045).
4) Intangibles: pride, marketing, etc... The Panams have really boosted Torontonians' pride in their city. Some of you like to minimize and trivialize this, but it's incredibly important.
When watching the closing ceremonies from Humber Bay Park (mostly for the CN Tower fireworks) EVERYONE around me was yelling THAT'S MY CITY!!!
I tend to agree with this - given the urban/suburban split and how there seems to be a similar level of support for hosting the games, this is something that can be leveraged on as a regional city building exercise.
AoD
Actually none of that had much, if anything to do with the 2008 bid - they came way after. The only piece of transit project that is remotely related to the Olympics is some kind of train service running between Exhibition, Union and a new Cherry St. Station.
Why the Rio analogue? Toronto's execution of the Pan Am suggest it has more in common with London than Rio.
AoD
Cities are both places for people to work, live and play as well as striving for bigger things (you may call it ego or hubris, but great things and inspirations often requires that - say if Toronto didn't have a sense of hubris, we wouldn't have built the CN Tower; if Sydney didn't have a sense of ego, it wouldn't have built the Opera House, which went 14x overbudget). It's all about balance. No one here is sincerely suggesting we follow the footsteps of Beijing and Sochi.
Because that's what was in the article we are talking about.