Olympics in #Boston2024: A great idea or a terrible mistake?
Boston won the American bid for the 2024 Olympic Games. But would another win actually be a loss?
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, left, shakes hands with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh during a news conference in Boston after Boston was picked by the USOC as its bid city for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games.
Winslow Townson/AP
Now that Boston has won the U.S. bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, people are taking to social media with their celebratory cheers and their immediate skepticism.
On Thursday, the US Olympic Committee selected Boston—over San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.—for the American bid, a decision that has Boston officials “wicked excited” for the future. One of the reasons Boston was selected for the bid is that the plan states that no public tax dollars have been spent or will be used to build venues or pay for operations, resulting in a more financially viable Games. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker stated that the bidding process will be the most transparent in Olympic history. On Friday, they announced the schedule for the first nine community meetings around the city, designed to include residents in the process.
Residents, however, are already feeling jolted and disincluded from the process. Many have taken to using #Boston2024 on Twitter to voice their concerns, and skeptics have aired many concerns, including Boston’s lack of infrastructure, poor transportation, and inefficient housing. Critics are also skeptical of the plan to avoid the usage of public tax dollars, considering the average overrun cost for staging the Olympics is 200 percent.
The International Olympic Committee will choose 2024's host city in 2017. That means Boston has two years to convince the committee—and the city—that it is the best candidate for the Games.
What do you think: Is #Boston2024 a good idea? We took to Twitter to hear your thoughts.