Senate jumps on Boston Olympics issue

Yeah, I'm all for shining a light on the greatness of Boston to the rest of the world, but hosting the Olympics just doesn't seem feasible in any way, shape or form.

I'm surprised they're even considering it. Luckily, the odds of Boston landing an Olympics is very, very unlikely.

2024 is a long way off, but the public transit infrastructure can barely handle the current population. The T would need a MASSIVE overhaul to avoid complete embarrassment and total gridlock of the city. Shaking my head just thinking about it.

It'll bring our city to a crawl.

I came here to post this. Can you imagine millions of visitors coming to Boston, and attempting to attend events all over eastern Mass? What a stunningly bad idea.

Yeah, screw all those tourist who want to see our city, support local business, and generate tax revenue while the college kids are out of town. Who do they think they are?

I do agree that the Olympics would be a nightmare though.

it's not fun.

Gridlock traffic. Areas around town fenced off to the public (the village is). People renting out homes/condos for obscene amounts of money for visitors of the Olympics. Heighten security, more riders on the subway.

I was forced to move for 2 months in 1996 (actually just went back to NH). Because my landlord was renting out my apartment.. furnished.. for 7000/mo (mind you *I* paid 650/mo).

Not even that, this is MA we're talking about, the state of nepotism and back room deals. I cannot help but think the friends of politicians who run construction companies are salivating over this.

Plus the Olympic Committee requires heavy infrastructure changes and must be done months before the games start. MA is the land of cost overruns and construction projects that take far too long to complete. Do you think we'll be able to complete it in time? Probably not (or it will cost the tax payers a semi fortune in overtime).

Yeah no thanks. take it from someone who knows better.

To have fun than the state blowing billions of dollars that really just ends up being a private corporate welfare on a scale that makes these tax holidays seem quaint.

First, we’d need a heck of a lot more housing development [i]starting now[/i], otherwise expect to see (metro) Boston property values and rents skyrocket as foreigners come in and buy up everything. Good luck with that with the red tape and NIMBYISM as is now. It just exacerbate an existing problem that is driving the next generation out of state (which is really going to take a bite out of the economy when the boomers finally die behind their desks).

We already have plenty on checkboxes on the tourist list of reasons to come to Boston with our history and our economy. We’re not a city like Atlanta or Salt Lake City that needs an excuse to get people to come visit here.

I really don’t see anything positive or fun about it, and only the potential to completely embarrass the city on the world stage due to years and years of infrastructure neglect. Seeing as the Dem legislature can’t even get a funding bill through that realistically meets the current needs of the state…..

I guess maybe that would be an excuse they need to hide behind. Maybe.

That's all.

But "hell?" Naw.

They were up around TD Banknorth Garden.

was a stroll through he garden compared to the Olympics. Think the largest 4th of July, now X10 over 2-3 months and everywhere inside 128.

I usually went to work in the Medical area, and biking was very useful because there were many spots where I could just dismount - if I even had to - and cross the course on police signal.

I'm not sure an Olympic event would permit even that.

I was able to buy a new car with the money I made on the DNC. Of course the client had to take the car for a 12 hour minimum and they had to take it for the whole week, but hey, I had media, so they didn't care!

Who cayahs what those dumb Habs think? We'ah wicked smaht.

So, at least to the extent that there is any seriousness attached to this (I don't believe there is), we could at least look forward to badly implemented public transportation infrastructure "improvements."

Fixed that for ya. 8-)

Pretty much the tangible positives to me too. Mostly cause I barely see any chance of major infrastructure re-hauls without such an excuse. With it, at least there more of a chance it would happens.

I mean look how negative we are at the mere thought. Obviously none of us expect improvements without such an impetus even though we don't need the Olympics to do the same improvements. So, such pressure means more of a chance. And if there's one thing I like to be wrong, I would be shown wrong on the city/state's ability on such an event, because it would nice to dream big.

I, for one, think that the city could still function, we['d just need more people to take the T, and the T would have to up their capacity.

Not a chance, unless the T is expanded out to Rt. 128 in every direction. You think the Commuter Rail could handle this? They can't even handle commuters. And don't forget the traffic impact of countless shuttle busses that will be needed to get people from the T to most of the out-of-town sports venues.

... stadium upgrade ... BC Football ...

OH YOU JUST SAID THE MAGIC WORDS!!!

And get back to us on how "everybody can just take the T". We already need major upgrades to capacity without an Olympics.

Consider as well that, like the whole DNC boondoggle, we'd have parts of the system completely shut down for "security" reasons.

Everybody apparently already is. Even at 8-9pm, trains are fairly full on the Red and Orange going north/west.

Closer to the mountains.