Let the Games begin — somewhere else: Hume
Toronto isn’t ready — economically or emotionally — to host the Olympics.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/01/hume-let-the-games-begin-somewhere-else.html
By: Christopher Hume Urban Issues and Architecture, Published on Tue Sep 01 2015
The answer is as simple as the question: Should Toronto bid for the 2024 Olympics? No.
The Pan Am Games were a great success; everyone had a good time — even a few commuters were able to enjoy themselves. Even better, the event enhanced quality of life in the city and the Greater Toronto Area.
The legacy of the sweat fest includes state-of-the-art aquatic facilities, a velodrome and a much-needed student residence that began life as the venue for the athletes’ big sleep-over.
But let’s be honest; from the start the appeal of hosting the Pan Am Games was based on its ability to leverage public money to pay for infrastructure projects that would otherwise languish. At best, the athletics were an excuse.
Some cities have used these revenues to remake themselves. Some have squandered the opportunity and been burdened with enormous debt. Barcelona comes to mind; but so does Montreal. The former used Olympic cash to transform itself into one of Europe’s most urban centres. The latter ended up with little more than a crumbling stadium and a $1.6-billion bill that took 30 years to pay off.
On the other hand, compared with the excesses of the Potemkin Games in Beijing and Sochi, the London Olympics of 2012 seemed to restore an element of sanity to an event grown bloated, bureaucratic and corrupt.
Though the
Olympics are justified on the basis of the nobility of sport, the fact is that such high-stakes competitions are just as likely to bring out the inner cheater in athletes as their sense of higher calling. For audiences, the Games are a two-week diversion that comes along every four years and then leave town as abruptly as a travelling circus.
Besides, does anyone in this good burg really believe Toronto is capable of pulling off something as big as the Olympics? This is Accidental City, don’t forget, a place where it can take five years to build a streetcar line that extends fewer than 30 blocks. Even with an eight- or nine-year lead time, Toronto would be hard pressed to move so quickly. Indeed, the one thing
city councillors hate above everything else is to have to make a decision. They will do anything to avoid it.
Then there’s Toronto’s police force. As the G20 fiasco revealed, the cops deal with public safety and security by assuming everyone in their way is a terrorist. Better they should stick to what they know best — paid duty, harassing jay-walkers and carding.
As for the private sector, Mayor John Tory’s hope that at least it will rise to the occasion and sponsor the $50 million to $60 million needed just for the bid seems naïve. Has the corporate world changed that much since Tory left it?
The question we face has nothing to do with sporting blow-outs, but with our inability to provide for our own needs without a catalyst such as the Olympics. Obviously, Torontonians care about making a good impression around the world, but for a city voted the world’s most liveable every couple of weeks, what more need be said?
Though Canada’s historic inferiority complex has left us a little too anxious for approval, all cities hope to use the Olympics to show themselves in the best light. But was Beijing’s prestige increased by the Games? Was Athens’, or even London’s? Not a bit.
Toronto still hasn’t come to terms with the fact it’s a big city, let alone one that should host the Games. Imagine the whining we heard about the Pan Am HOV lanes, multiplied 100 times. We’re reluctant to share the city among ourselves, let alone others.