There’s been a lot of talk recently about Boston’s bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2024 and the growing concern that many people in the Boston area feel towards that bid. However, a lot of the coverage and comments coming out of the media and the Olympic committees seem to have created this notion that athletes are not welcome in Boston or that Bostonians don’t like the Olympics and, to be honest, this notion is pretty ridiculous.
Boston is a city that has an enormous amount of pride in its athletes from the Patriots to the Red Sox to the Celtics to the Bruins and every other team or individual athlete from the area regardless of the sport they participate in. In fact, there are more people in the northeast watching the Olympics every two years than there are in any part of the United States except for the very center of the country. As a result, the people of Boston are not against the Olympics because we don’t like the Olympics or because we don’t want athletes here, but instead because we are greatly concerned with the ability of our infrastructure and our leadership to handle something as monumental as the Olympic games. Now, you may be sitting there thinking “O.K., why are you so concerned?”, and that’s a very good question. So good, in fact, that I thought it was worth taking a break from my normal posts about events in the Boston area to answer it.
If you keep up with Boston news or you’re familiar with the events and projects that have taken place in Boston over the last 30 years, you probably know that Boston has a rich history and that rich history includes more than its fair share of problems. In fact, there were two particular problems during the last 30 years that have led the people of Boston to doubt the city’s ability to handle large endeavors.
The first, of course, is the Big Dig. The Big Dig, for those of you who may not be familiar with it, was one of the largest construction projects in the history of not only New England but of the United States as a whole. This project, which was also known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, was intended to be a 16-year, $3 billion operation to build two new tunnels, a new bridge, a new park, and to alter the path of route 93 in order to relieve some of the traffic congestion around the city. Unfortunately, like most great plans of mice and men, the project went awry and after 25 years and over $14 billion (9 years and over $11 billion more than originally expected), the city ended up with a new park, a less congested highway, and two leaky tunnels complete with falling ceiling panels, falling light fixtures, and unsafe guardrails. This led not only the citizens of the Boston area, but their elected officials as well to doubt the ability of the city to carry out large-scale projects and a number of projects, including the Green Line Extension Project, were put on hold. To make matters worse, the city didn’t have the money to pay for the entire project in full, so it is still paying for it now and estimates the final cost of the project after interest to be approximately $24 billion ($21 billion over the original estimated cost.)
The second problem, which has recently been brought to the forefront, is the city’s public transportation system. The city’s public transportation system, the T, has faced a number of challenges over the years, but this year’s historic winter proved to be a grueling test of the T’s ability to operate during difficult and/or unfavorable conditions. The problem is that when the T’s ability to respond to the unexpected (or even expected conditions beyond the norm) was put to the test, it ultimately failed. In fact, the T was not only forced to shut down completely on multiple occasions without warning, but was also unable to restore full service for almost a month after the big storms were over. Now, there is no question that there was a ludicrous amount of snow in Boston this year, as the city broke almost every snow-related record, and no one can completely fault the T for its failure to operate. However, if the T cannot handle a rough winter in an area that is known for its rough winters, how can anyone expect the T to handle millions and millions of extra people trying to enter and exit the city on a daily basis for several weeks?
In the end, the fact of the matter is that as much as Bostonians would like to be able to say that they hosted the Olympics and actually have the opportunity to attend them, it’s hard for the people of Boston and the surrounding areas to believe that the city could actually pull it all off without breaking the bank, bringing our highways to a standstill, crippling our public transportation system, and causing a slew of other unforeseen problems.
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Hoffher, Justine. “Can We Talk Rationally About the Big Dig Yet?” Boston.com. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC, 5 Jan. 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
“How Different Genders, Ages, Races, and Regions Watch the Olympics.” Nielsen. The Nielsen Company, 25 Feb. 2010. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
Macur, Juliet. “If 2024 Olympic Bid is a Hot Potato, Boston Has No Appetite.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
Wikipedia contributors. “Big Dig.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
Wikipedia contributors. “Boston Bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.