Posted on 09/10/2015 9:16:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We all tend to have fond memories of our greatest moments, and for Los Angeles, the 1984 Olympics has served as a high point in the city’s ascendency. The fact that those Summer Games were brilliantly run, required relatively little city expenditure and turned a profit confirmed all those things we Angelenos loved about our city – its flexibility and pragmatism and the power of its civic culture.
After Boston turned down its chance to be the U.S. entrant in the sweepstakes to host the 2024 Olympics, it’s natural that Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city establishment, at least what’s left of it, desire a return engagement. But the Los Angeles of today barely resembles the vibrant, optimistic city of 30 years ago.
“The city where the future once came to happen,” a devastating report from the establishmentarian Los Angeles 2020 Commission recently intoned, “is living the past and leaving tomorrow to sort itself out.”
Last Best Chance?
So rather than a bold move toward establishing the city’s preeminence, the current move smacks more of a Hail Mary pass. It also seems to embody a kind of nostalgia, a sentiment reflected not only in the desire to relive Olympic glory but also in the efforts to bring pro football back to town, including, perhaps, a return of the long-departed Rams.
Yet ultimately, neither a third Olympics (the first was in 1932) nor the return of NFL football can alter a city’s fate. After all, the 2000 Athens Olympics did not lead to a new Greek renaissance, but may, instead, have contributed to that country’s fiscal morass. Summer Games in Montreal (1976) and Atlanta (1996) did not usher in a golden age for those cities, but periods of decline.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Montreal only paid off their debt from the games four or five years ago.
London broken even, though, because they planned smartly to reuse existing infrastructure and repurpose venues constructed for the games for other purposes. It is possible, if you don’t go nuts and you’re basically solvent to start with - the Greeks failed on both counts. (Though LA might fail the solvency test.)
Winter Olympics are harder to pull off because there’s little way to repurpose many of the venues to any profitable means.
Los Angeles, wants tb the host of Los Olympicos? I remember the ‘84 games McDonald’s lost it’s ass with it’s Olympic promotion when the Russians boycotted them. L. A. has enough problems with failing infrastructure and declining tax base that it would be stupid to take on another Olympics.
Nitpick, Athens was 2004, not 2000. 2000 Summer was in Sydney. A side note, I remember for the 2004 games, they used a lot of 2004 Hyundai Sonatas to pace and track the bike and foot marathon races and that was the same year Mom got her Sonata. I joked, “looks like you went to the Olympics. Since Mom passed, I now drive the same car today.
Number One reason I don’t want the Games in the US.
Guess who is going to light the Olympic Flame? Three guesses and the first two don’t count.
it would be stupid to take on another Olympics... Bingo!
You just described the L.A. City Council and mayor Numbnuts!
awful comparison...in ‘84 Uberroth showed how combining commercial enterprises can limit the cost exposure...
If you want to see what 30 years of zero infrastructure improvement or maintenance looks like, come to Los Angeles.
The article states that 12 Fortune 500 firms were headquartered in LA in 1984. Now it is downs to three.
That is why LA won’t return to glory. This trend has to be reversed.
Orange County is better off. They get it, except for the Angels fans. I was at the Angel-Dodger game last Monday.
RE: If you want to see what 30 years of zero infrastructure improvement or maintenance looks like, come to Los Angeles.
ZERO? Where did all the money go?
I remember back in 2004 Athens, IIRC, Bob Costas on NBC, despite the babbling, he was right on one thing. He made the point that the Greeks when into huge debts to host the games and one day it will come back and bite them.
You need a Humvee to drive in downtown L.A....Can’t wait for the El Nino when it will all be underwater and you’ll need a submarine to get to work! Ha! Ha! Ole!
Maybe they’ll have to put waterwings on all those half empty metrorail trains to downtown...
Where do think all the money goes when Democrats run everything?
It goes to all of their special projects to buy votes and subsidize "minorities." Then they blame Republicans or conservatives for the decaying infrastructure.
The problem with the Olympics is they’re so huge, and after 9-11, they now always have a giant security bill - about $2 billion for each of the last games.
Unlike infrastructure, you never get any of that back. None.
Olympics are for suckers. And the few rich contractors who profit a lot.
And the IOC never forgave him for it.
I think the situation is way past where Peter Ueberroth could save the day again.
Nothing can save L.A.!...IT sucks major huevos down there!
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