Mayor announces Office of Olympic Planning with full-time director, but don't worry: Boston 2024 will pay for it

The canard is that hosting the Olympics would help the city move forward toward reaching its own goals.

The truth is it would hi-jack the city's agenda and 10 to 18 billion would be spent and we'd get 2 to 3 billion of stuff we need, and taxpayers would be stuck with the debt for cost overruns for the whole thing.

Walsh, and his wing man Linehan, got hooked by the swells, the 1%, and he's just starting to wake up to it but it's too late. He can't be the one who kills this. I don't understand the politics. I wish they were different.

Falchuk has a state-wide ballot initiative in the works that would pass a state law prohibiting the spending of public funds (except existing transpo project money.)

Walsh is getting pushback in Savin Hill-- where it counts.

For some reason they want to drag this out to Nov. 2016. I've had enough already.

Wow, you sound like a total dick. Way to be condescending, calling people "son" and "young lady." Also, WTF does their race have anything to do with the Olympics?

Also, let me fix this for you:

I was waiting for a flight to come in, so I sauntered over to the table to harass and assert my superiority on them.

Me: Young lady, ask Mr. Fish why his company has allegedly hired small time contractors in the past to do work on Suffolk projects and then told to pound sand when it comes time to pay. That often these contractors were told to go ahead and sue, it will cost you more in legal costs than what you're trying to recoup. These guys see the Olympics as a cash cow,nothing more, nothing less.

[citation missing]

I'd think you'd be excited about all those Olympic fares : )

Sucks.

Bike 'GoPro' vid or it didn't happen.

She is being paid through the BRA

Wasn't that the sort of activity that got Dianne Wilkerson in deep trouble?

And look what happened to him

I'm not sure that I would have put up Boston2024 up in your comparison, but I would certainly put up the needed overhaul of our public transportation system (and transportation infrastructure in general, particularly real high speed rail) in its place.

If you actually, you know, listened to or read anything from the main opponents of the bid (and Boston2024) you'd know that your argument is pure bullcrap. I won't speak for everyone, but the main concerns I have and are shared with most of the organized opposition groups is precisely the opposite: we have TONS to do as a region to make this a better place to live, work, and thrive.

Putting all of that aside for a freakin' decade to fast-track development of the Olympics means that housing, infrastructure, funding for the T, funding for schools, fostering long-term economic development (not one month in 2024) will all be second-fiddle to the needs of the IOC.

Boston2024 has done a good job of implicitly linking any improvements like those mentioned above to their bid and the games. They say things like "catalyst" and "legacy" but when the city signs on the dotted line anything that is not a requirement for the games will a priori get pushed lower in priority. We have a finite pool of money to spend as a region, and if you really think that it will get sprinkled around like fairy dust when, come 2023 the venues aren't completed and projects are woefully behind schedule, then I've got a bridge you can buy.

Let's actually focus on making the city and region better for the residents who live here now, for those we want to attract, and for the families and small businesses that will make this an even better place to live. THAT is what the opposition has been arguing.

I'd rather not have my tax dollars spent on a month-long party that disrupts everything in this region, which will conclude by selling the venue spaces to the highest bidder for luxury townhouses financed by us. Ask yourself: why is it that Boston2024 won't say who will own the land they will seek under eminent domain once the games are done? And why is it that they keep saying that the stadium they'll build will be temporary? Maybe it's because Fish and his pals see the long game for their own interests here?