Quick, someone prep the Lollipop Guild; it looks like someone may drop a house on #Boston2024’s bid.
The Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet, but the obvious conclusion about Boston 2024 is becoming obvious to the people who still have the time to stop it.
The USOC has come out to deny the report, but the story is writing itself from here.
Is the USOC really going to continue to humiliate itself after wasting years of effort to get back in the IOC’s good graces? Doubtful.
It’s only a matter of time, now — as Boston 2024 goes drip, drip, drip.
Please share widely!
we have 6 million residents in Mass. A cost overrun of 10-20bln would break the state. Better to host the games in California who could afford the enormous costs
Only Illinois and New Jersey are worse.
http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/ratings/current.asp
I’m sure Governor Christie can work some magic about the traffic.
It appears that we may be near a tipping point. Other than Marty Walsh, what politician is going to go out on a limb to support this? There is nothing to gain and much to lose.
And what is going to turn the polls around in the next couple of months?
Vast majority of the questioners/commenters at last night’s meeting in Allston were skeptical or outright opposed. I live tweeted it here: https://storify.com/JonathanCohn/marty-walsh-is-so-excited-about-his-olympic-commun.
What was particularly stunning to me was that Marty doesn’t feel a need to attend these meetings at all.
Hey, interested in actual content? Yes, the USOC is publicly saying they’re worried about local support for the bid. Quite logically considering that demonstrated a public support is a bid requirement of the IOC (something tap dancing celebrants yelled at me for mentioning when they didn’t like the polls).
In other words, the USOC is saying “hey, Boston2024, stop looking like a bunch of amateur-hour mooks if you want to keep this bid. You’re embarrassing yourselves and us. Get your game together because this is the Big Leagues and you’re looking like Mayberry goes to Lausanne.”
But we all know that if the USOC pulls from Boston onto another city, then they look like a bunch of stooges (the Curly kind, not the Iggy Pop kind), and the new bid will never shake being an also-ran in its own country. DOA on decision day.
tl;dr: Warning shot to Boston2024 to up their game; but a threat they desperately don’t want to follow through.
It still seems that Marty Walsh and Boston 2024 still think this is just a PR problem. They are still not making the slightest attempt actual transparency or backing up their budget or revenue estimates. So far we have still gotten absolutely nothing from them other than a glossy brochure and bunch of platitudes.
If they want to “up their game” for real, they need to do a lot more than just change their messaging. They need to open their books and prove beyond doubt that they can back up their numbers.
I get that the Olympics should not be an exercise in losing vast sums of money, but Bostonians have joined in a frenzied attack on the Olympics without any serious consideration of the potential for organizing the Olympics in a way that could actually benefit the city and the region. Boston has its strengths, but it is not by most measures a world class city. This could have been a chance to bring the city to the attention of the globe in a way that they city will never get again. But we’ll show them!
Boston already is a “world class” city and already gets plenty of attention. What is the Olympics really going to accomplish there?
So far no one has made even a remotely convincing case that the Olympics will provide any meaningful benefit for Boston other than provide lots of jobs for construction workers. You cannot simply presume that everyone has to start out with the assumption that the Olympics is going to be a huge boon before considering whether we can pull it off or pay for it without soaking the taxpayers or developing the city in a way that isn’t what we really want.
It is crystal clear that the organizers so far have not given any consideration at all to what the residents of Boston actually want and have instead spent all of their energy trying to convince us that we should want what they want.
Let’s summarize a few facts, shall we?
1. A year or two ago, Boston was going about its merry business, blissfully unaware of any serious attempts by our powerful and elite to host an Olympics.
2. A few months ago, surprise!! Our richest and wealthiest elite decided they were going to try to have an Olympics in Boston, without asking anyone.
3. Not only did they surprise us with their little idea, they then proceeded to keep every single neighborhood group and activist organization out of the process, locking out any kind of discussion or community input.
4. They didn’t hold a single, solitary community meeting.
5. They didn’t invite any ordinary individual to join their organization on their board or otherwise.
6. They didn’t even release the bid until after the fact.
7. And even then, they released it in a redacted form.
8. And we learned that despite the fact that Boston 2024 said they consulted land owners who had land they wanted in the bid, no one who owned that land was consulted. The bid was a lie.
But now we’re being the parochial ones, joining in the “frenzied” attack?
No. We are the ones being assaulted.
We’re acting like normal citizens would, if they found out a bunch of elites were trying to lord over us like aristocrats to throw a big party for themselves — and on our dime.
I also completely reject the notion that Boston isn’t well known, or isn’t a world class city. By the organization that ranks cities, Boston not only is world class, but is Alpha World Class.
We’re known throughout the world as an intellectual and biotech hub. We have many international headquarters located in or around the city. We have world class museums, universities and athletics. We have history, and a beautiful and attractive city and Commonwealth that attracts tourists throughout the world.
We don’t need the Olympics to get the “attention of the globe.” We already have more than our fair share of it.
And the idea or notion that we won’t ever be able to ‘get it’ again, or even another Olympics again, is pure histrionics. Not only have plenty of cities “gotten it” again, rebounding, but just look at Salt Lake City as an example of a city that pulled out of the Olympics very late in the process, only to be awarded with another Olympics years.
Boston won’t be going away on the world wide stage if we reject the Olympics, but it *could* go away on the world wide stage if we allow ourselves to mortgage away our future.
What does an Olympics get anyone, anyway? Other than those who live in it, is anyone really going to give a damn about Sochi in 2020, never mind 2050 or 2100? I’m sure plenty of people will still be caring about Boston, visiting the USS Constitution and visiting our museums. I’m sure they’ll still be sending their kids to Harvard, MIT and BU. How well we do as a city will not be effected by the Olympics, except if it bankrupts our city and institutions to the point where we are no longer competitive.
Boston has many excellent qualities, but Bostonians have a highly exaggerated quality about just how world class their city is. What has happened over the last few weeks and months is not a real discussion of pros and cons but a rush to judgement that in many ways displays the worst aspects of public discourse in the age of the Internet.
When Boston 2024 presents a dishonest argument to begin with, why would you expect the discourse to then proceed at an elevated level? I have yet to hear Boston 2024 even admit there are any cons at all.
The reason that there has been a so-called “rush to judgement” against this bid, is because a very small group of rich highly-connected citizens, most of whom don’t even live in the City, have decided for us that Boston should host the Olympics. If we were having this debate *before* the bid, then we could have a more leisurely and measured debate.
if King George decided to talk to us about the tea tax, and let a few of us plebes sit in his parliament.
Strike that. I meant to say it wouldn’t have been a rush to judgement if John Fish decided to talk to us about an Olympics, and let a few of us plebes sit on his board.
Also, have you ever considered that the vast majority of us on BMG have looked at pros and cons in depth and decided that the overwhelming majority of them are cons, to the tune of billions upon billions in public debt to pay for the thing and the use of eminent domain to destroy entire city blocks to make room for temporary venues that will only be destroyed as soon as the games are over?
Just because we’ve come to conclusions that you don’t like, doesn’t mean we rushed to judgement.
Boston 2024 has no actual benefits to offer, so instead they pull a Sylvester McMonkey McBean and try to bait Boston’s insecurity about being “a world class city.”
First of all, WTF “world-class” mean? It’s a generalization in search of specifics.
We’ve hashed over research on the issue. There’s not a huge research base, but we looked at it. Is that parochial?
I can only speak to the bakeries, but in my humble opinion they stand up to anything in New York, and Paris. Though I’ve never been to Italy …
It’s getting better. The “artisan” breads in Star Market and Stop
& Shop are way better than they were a few years ago. The “Bazaar” in Coolidge Corner had a fabulous Russian dark sourdough until the baker retired a few years ago.
I’m not that impressed by the bakeries in New York. I don’t know about Paris or Italy. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russia — they know to how to make bread. As a bread baker and lover, I’ll say that I have a reaction to Italian and French bread similar to my reaction to Irish “cuisine” — why bother?
When it comes to bread, I agree that Bostonians have a highly exaggerated view of just how world-class our city is. Even in little towns like Traunreut, not to mention Munich, Zurich, Innsbruck, Salzburg, or Vienna, pretty much every neighborhood has access to fabulous bread at every-day prices.
In Boston, if you love really good hearty bread (especially dark breads), you pretty much have to bake it yourself.
Although Jack’s Abby is good if you want to skip that part (go Framingham)
As I’ve been saying from day 1, you can have a world class sporting event for three weeks with the world watching if you want-funded ideally by entirely private funds. Don’t tell me it’ll fix our transit woes, create permanent jobs, make money, or somehow provide affordable housing-when in every other Olympics the exact opposite has happened. Don’t take a piss on me and say t’s raining.
I honestly feel if they had been upfront making the arguments Christopher and Sabutai have been making-“hey these games would be pretty neat-let’s reach for the moon! Let’s find a responsible way to pay for this!” People wouldn’t be upset.
Instead they over promised and ubderdivered-just like Daley. The only surprising thing for me is how quicker the cycle happened this time. Maybe it’s because Walsh is just a first termer and not an institution like Daley or because Bostonians and Massholes are outraged by their tax dollars wasted on boondoggles while Chicagoans view waste and fraud as the regular price of doing business. Either way, kudos to Bostonians for waking up a lot sooner and demanding a public vote.
Maybe we’re just smahtah. 🙂
“Boston Smart”.
Works for progressives, works for no-on-2024, even works for BMG.
Maybe BMG can print and sell them as fund-raising swag.
Downratings come from a BMGer who worked for Kayyem Solutions, LLC and Juliette Kayyem who chairs the Innovation and Technology for Boston 2024.
Thank you for flagging! One wonders how much expertise all that consulting money is really buying.
So this full disclosure — downratings from a former employee of someone who has a job (unpaid?) somewhere in the bid bureaucracy? Anybody here worked with someone in Nolympics? Anybody here work for/with a candidate in an unpaid capacity who is for or against the Olympics?
a college kid. I don’t hold it too much against him. If he commented, I think we’d expect him to fully disclose. Just as David has done before. Kind of hard to disclose when you’re just downrating.
He’s a college kid with a history of just downrating instead of engaging in informed discussion, and failing to disclose his biases. Going back at least 5 years. I do hold it against him.
Maybe not recently, but he has engaged with comments on BMG in the past. I believe he is the son of State Rep. James O’Day.
The picture becomes much more clear, including the down-ratings.
I didn’t realize the family connection to THAT O’Day (he of the Probation Department hearings and recommendations).
Indeed, I would have appreciated a more full disclosure (emphasis mine):
I for one didn’t realize Rep. O’Day was caught up in the Probation mess, but that seems to be a very different issue from the Olympics. Is Rep O’Day at the forefront of pushing for the Olympics?
We already know that Tyler O’Day is working for “Kayyem Solutions, LLC”, presumed owned by Juliet Kayyem — former candidate and chair of the “Innovation and Technology” for Boston 2024. Now you enrich that knowledge by sharing that he is also the son of a sitting Representative, James O’Day, who testified at the Probation Department trial and whose name has been linked to at least one of the suspect hires.
Given the players involved in Boston 2024, and their intimate ties to Masachusetts Democrats, and given the rich collection of nepotism and “family connections” that so pervasively permeates Massachusetts government today, I think Tyler O’Day’s family connections are very relevant to all his commentary here at BMG, including our exchanges about Boston 2024.
He should have disclosed these relationships. I think he violated the disclosure guidelines I cited, and did both he and BMG a disservice by not doing so.
…but I completely missed the memo that he was working for them. I don’t think as a general matter the sins of the father should fall to the son (or whatever that expression is) and disclosure is only necessary if there is a direct connection to the topic at hand, like for example Rep. O’Day being a key proponent of the Olympics. It sounds like you are saying that regardless of the topic because there have been nepotism issues in the past every family tree is presumed suspect, and I cannot agree to that.
on his Facebook page. He lists working for Kayyem IN THE PAST. I’m inclined to join RCMauro in his defense of Tyler O’Day. He’s a college kid. He worked for a friend of his father. I sourced his likely motivation for downrating, but I’m inclined to give him a break.
I don’t see any of this as an attack. Instead, I see it as part of the ground rules of participation in our community.
When his father is a state Rep, and “a friend of his father” is a former candidate for governor and a key official in the Boston2024 campaign that we’re discussing, then I think disclosure is called for — even for a college kid.
So long as our state government is dominated by a zaibatsu of sons, daughters, wives, mistresses, brothers, and sisters of our government officials, then close family ties to elected officials (such as being their son) are relevant to me. If Christopher Bulger was to comment here about, for example, UMASS, are you saying he would have no need to disclose his relationship to his famous father?
If so, then I disagree.
I said if it were directly relevant he should disclose. Yes, Christopher Bulger should disclose if commenting about either UMass or the State Senate under his father’s leadership. Yes, Tyler O’Day should disclose Kayyem connections when discussing the Olympics or if discussing matters in which his father is involved. What I don’t think is relevant is disclosing who his father is when discussing the Olympics unless there is a connection between the two that I am missing.
I reject your attempt to so narrowly define “nepotism”, “patronage” and apparently “disclosure”.
The motivation for restrictions and constraints on nepotism and patronage, and for disclosure both here and in government, is to recognize the influence that wealth and therefore power can have on government. So long as we have so much wealth concentrated in so few people, we in Massachusetts are particularly vulnerable to the manipulation of our government by those few wealthy people. So long as we have such a deeply-entrenched political culture of patronage and nepotism, not to mention absolute domination of the most powerful agent of Massachusetts government (the legislature), then our legislators are even more vulnerable to manipulation by the very wealthy.
On a different thread, last week, we learned the John Fish apparently picks up the phone and calls the sitting Mayor of Boston and Governor of Massachusetts whenever he likes. Is there any doubt about his ability to do the same with Mr. DeLeo?
Here is a key takeaway from that other thread (emphasis mine):
I have no insight into Mr. O’Day’s record as a legislator, beyond whatever is reported in the press. It seems clear enough, from reports of Mr. DeLeo’s recent consolidation of power, that Mr. O’Day is a supporter of Mr. DeLeo and Mr. Hecht was not. Mr. O’Day’s continuing role as Chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs provides further evidence of his loyalty to Mr. DeLeo.
In a perfect world, the narrow limits you propose might be sufficient. In today’s real world, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that John Fish can command whatever he wants from Mr. DeLeo with nod, and that will surely include the enthusiastic support — including support from friends and family — of each and every legislator loyal to Mr. DeLeo.
Disclosure by Tyler O’Day of his professional and personal ties to both Boston 2024 and to the legislature and, through his father, to Mr. DeLeo is not an onerous demand. In my view, the benefits — to both Tyler O’Day and to BMG — greatly exceed the very minor burden.
As we all know, Boston 2024 has hired a lot of former appointees and associates of Mr. Patrick, not Mr. DeLeo.
I suspect that Mr. DeLeo has been in the bag all along, but since all these exchanges happen off the record and in private, we’ll never know.
Deval Patrick and his team have certainly been tarnished by all this. Given Mr. Patrick’s support for casino gambling while in office and now this, I’m left wondering about how much of “Together we can” was real and how much was campaign-driven window-dressing.
That’s how I knew, but unless Rep. O’Day is working on the Olympics I still don’t see it in this context. I reject that because there is generally a problem with families, something I obviously don’t get nearly as upset about as you do anyway, then everything is on the table.
you can’t disclose with just ratings.
As far as nepotism goes, how many people got jobs because they were related to someone? My first job I got because I knew someone who worked there. So I got to wash dishes! When I was college, I worked in a factory one summer. The personnel director knew my baseball coach. I had two patronage jobs, one in the private sector (they almost worked me to death; I quit two weeks later and was hired at my family’s shoe store) and one on in the public sector on the Massachusetts Turnpike. My first job as an adult, at an independent bookstore, I got because I knew the family that owned it and was a customer. Except for my teaching job, almost every job I’ve had has come through some personal connection.
I follow him on Twitter and he is a huge sports fan, independent of any personal or political connections.
Also, he is in Western Mass, which I think is significant. I’m doing some independent polling at the family holiday gatherings this weekend, and noticing that support does seem to vary depending upon how close you are to Boston. Whether you are going to experience all the potential construction and traffic nightmares yourself seems to be the main differentiator.
I don’t read any of this as an attack, no “defense” strikes me as needed.
Even those who live in Western MA are presumably expected to follow the same disclosure guidelines as the rest of us. The point of disclosing personal and political connections is to let the community make its own judgement in such cases.
Well, it’s not like I’m best friends with this family so I don’t know Rep. O’Day’s position, but since Lake Quinsigamond has been mentioned as a possible (although improbable) venue, and it appears to front on the 14th Worcester, I guess I would admit that the relationship is relevant. (Not that it wouldn’t be appropriate for Rep. O’Day to support Boston 2024 if he thought it would benefit his district.)
But I think the disclosure rule really applies more to comments and posts rather than uprates/downrates.
Boston 2024 Olympics: Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond off Olympics map for now
I have not worked with any person or entity in any capacity whatsoever who is either for or against the Olympics. What you see here is what you get.
Although I do have a long history here of uprating and publicly agreeing with the emerging Western Massachusetts political juggernaut, Mark Bail. 🙂
my students last week. He’s Hindu god or avatar called Juggernath. I’m happy to say that no one has thrown themselves down in my path during the Memorial Day parade.