Related: Let the Games Continue!
I'd rather they not even begin.
"Security for Boston Olympics could need US funds; Cost may be $1b more; lobbying push expected" by Jessica Meyers, Noah Bierman and Sylvan Lane, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent January 13, 2015
WASHINGTON — Backers of a Boston 2024 Olympics have downplayed the need for public money but, based on past budgets and security needs, the city would likely need at least a billion dollars in federal taxpayer support — and perhaps far more.
Then take them elsewhere.
Supporters acknowledge they will have to mount a significant lobbying effort to persuade Congress, wary of government spending, to support the price tag. Early reaction in Congress is mixed, and some fiscal conservatives appear to be skeptical.
“They made their bid. They should pay for it,” said Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican.
Local backers’ promise not to use taxpayers’ dollars refers to the operating budget of $4.5 billion. But that does not include security, a formidable federal cost.
Federal dollars also would be needed to cover infrastructure projects — such as the Somerville extension of the MBTA’s Green Line — although the Boston leaders say those costs would occur even without an Olympic bid.
“It’s the whole nation ponying up, I don’t see any way around it,” said Mark Dyreson, a sports historian and professor at Penn State University. “I imagine the security costs are going to be in the multiple billions of dollars.”
I do. Hold them somewhere else.
************
Over the years the total cost of the Olympics has grown, as governments poured billions into new buildings or overhauled parts of their municipalities. Beijing spent around $40 billion on its 2008 Olympic production and Russia tossed out $50 billion for its splendor last February.
Russia got ripped in the Globe for it, too.
The International Olympic Committee hopes to tone down the over-the-top spending in future ceremonies. But at the very least, the Department of Homeland Security would need to designate the Boston Olympics a “National Special Security Event,” which puts the Secret Service in charge of security. Congress would be expected to authorize funding for the extra safety measures.
The Secret Service in charge? God help us all.
Dan O’Connell, president of Boston 2024, the nonprofit spearheading the effort to win the Games, thinks Congress will approve a security designation — as it did during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston — and provide funding for personnel, equipment, and technology....
Even amid congressional skepticism, Boston may find some allies.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who replaced Issa this year as House Oversight Committee chairman, said the investment would prove to be worthwhile.
“I’m a conservative Republican and I’m going to fight for it because most of those dollars are going to go to national security and transportation and infrastructure,” he said. “The economic benefit long term is unparalleled.”
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said that it’s still early to say how much the city could depend on federal support but that Capuano and Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of South Boston, may play key roles. Like others involved, Walsh pointed to security and transportation but said the city would not push for projects that are not already in the pipeline. “If the Olympics will give us that little bit of an edge, that would be great,” he said.
Even some in the Massachusetts delegation are unsure how much Congress will offer up.
“I don’t anticipate there is going to be any federal bonanza coming out of this,” said Representative William Keating, a Bourne Democrat. “Clearly, on security matters that is a basic obligation that we share as Americans.”
Lynch hopes to organize a meeting with the delegation and Walsh in coming days to discuss how they can help. He and Walsh have texted back and forth about “the whole security apparatus that would be necessary,” he said.
--more--"
Related:
"A hazmat team was called to a Liberty Square office building Tuesday after a letter was found containing a suspicious white powder, Boston police said. David Estrada, a police spokesman, said authorities were alerted at about 3 p.m. that people at One Liberty Square had found the letter. Estrada said no evacuation of the building was needed, and that the hazmat team brought the letter to a state lab for testing, where it was determined to pose no harm. No injuries occurred and the scene was cleared by 5 p.m."
I'm so sick of these staged and scripted psyops and hoaxes.
Also see: The Olympics shouldn’t consume Walsh’s agenda
Here is what is is consuming him:
"Walsh focuses on education, housing in State of City address" by Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff January 14, 2015
Mayor Martin J. Walsh, in his first State of the City speech, staked out education and housing as areas of focus for his young administration, promising Tuesday to build new schools and use city-owned land to spur construction of affordable homes.
Addressing an audience of 2,500 in Symphony Hall, Walsh presided over an event infused with pomp and an air of formality more typically seen in speeches by statewide officeholders. He highlighted the nuts and bolts of modern government, with news of a larger discount on water bills for seniors and the launch of a previously announced mobile app that allows drivers to use their phones to pay parking meters.
But the mayor, who just last week marked his first year in office, also talked about the look and feel of the city, describing an effort “to reimagine City Hall Plaza as the thriving, healthy, innovative space that it should be.”
City officials intend to issue a call for proposals to rejuvenate the plaza, an often barren, wind-whipped expanse in the heart of the city. Other big cities, such as New York, have used such arrangements to introduce restaurants and other amenities to underused public spaces.
Walsh gazed far into the future as he outlined his vision for the city, tying his policy goals to Boston’s 400th anniversary in 2030.
********
The address lacked the announcement of a major new initiative, but Walsh, was frequently interrupted by applause as he emphasized accomplishments from his first year in office, including a deal with the teachers union to extend the school day by 40 minutes for 23,000 students.
Bunch of sychophants.
Related:
"Lengthening the day at dozens of Boston public schools has yielded mixed results, a Globe review has found, offering a cautionary tale as the city seeks to double the number of schools with extended learning time. For many schools, a longer day has failed to dramatically boost academic achievement or did so only temporarily. The uneven results prompted school district officials to scrap the extra minutes at some schools and the state to pull funding or pursue receiverships at others. But other schools have successfully used an extended day to boost MCAS scores or expand offerings in the arts and other electives. “I think there are lessons to be learned,” said John McDonough, interim superintendent. “We know time matters, but it only matters if it is used well.” The latest proposal would add 40 minutes a day to more than 50 elementary, middle, and K-8 schools over the next three years. The plan is scheduled for a vote Wednesday by the Boston Teachers Union. Once fully implemented, the change would cost $12.5 million annually. The question of why some schools have done well with expanded time and others have not is complex."
Not really.
See: Longer School Day For Boston Students
Also see: Boston School $y$tem Thinks You Are Stupid
Are they right?
The speech made only a passing reference — which drew especially robust applause — to Boston’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. There was no mention of the Games until midway through, with only 128 words dedicated to the topic in a speech of about 3,200 words.
The message from the fleeting mention seemed clear: The push for the Olympics will not hijack Walsh’s administration.
That is such an odd choice of words.
********
The speech drew protesters who objected to Walsh’s handling of the closing of a bridge to Long Island, the site of the city’s largest homeless shelter and addiction treatment facilities. As Walsh walked on stage, a large banner was unfurled that read: “People are dying. Long Island. Where’s Marty?”
See: The King of Bo$ton
Related: Developer breaking ground on Boston’s tallest new skyscraper
Also see: Fallon's Friend
He's gone now.
About 40 peaceful protesters gathered outside Symphony Hall, representing groups and causes including school bus drivers and advocates for the homeless.
Inside the hall, the response to the speech was positive....
--more--"
It's a real conundrum.
Related:
What Boston can learn from NYC’s failed Olympic bid
If Boston loses out for 2024, US looks like a lock for ’26
Let 'em have them in Seattle:
"Delayed Seattle tunnel project draws comparisons to Boston’s Big Dig" by Reid Wilson, Washington Post January 01, 2015
SEATTLE — For an entire year, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine has been stuck deep below this city’s waterfront. Engineers still do not know why ‘‘Bertha,’’ the 326-foot, 2,000-ton behemoth custom built to create a nearly 2-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle, is not working.
The malfunction is delaying the most ambitious infrastructure project in the city’s recent history. After a 2001 earthquake damaged the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a two-level state highway along Seattle’s waterfront, Washington state set out on a multibillion-dollar project to build a tunnel underneath its largest city, connecting an industrial area near major port facilities with transportation routes that bypass the crowded downtown streets.
Chris Dixon, a top executive at Seattle Tunnel Partners, the contractors group picked to head the project, said last week that an effort to fix Bertha will push the completion date to August 2017, instead of December 2015. And even that may be optimistic.
Supporters of the project include Governor Jay Inslee, Mayor Ed Murray, most of the City Council, and major businesses. But even some of them are beginning to mention the project in the same breath as Boston’s Big Dig, the series of tunnels and bridges that took two decades to build at a cost nearly 10 times initial projections.
Related: True cost of Big Dig exceeds $24 billion with interest, officials determine
Also see:
"Legislators also agreed last week to change legal language in the recently passed sales tax hike to assure credit agencies that $100 million earmarked for the Turnpike Authority would go toward paying off Big Dig debt."
Who is government working for again?
‘‘Obviously, it’s very disappointing,’’ said Jean Godden, the City Council member who chairs the Central Waterfront, Seawall, and Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program committee. ‘‘We’re concerned about the disruption during the time that the tunnel construction is underway.’’
Repairing the machine is itself a major undertaking. Bertha, built by the Japanese company Hitachi Zosen Sakai Works, is not able to reverse itself. It has tunneled a little over 1,000 feet into a more than 9,200-foot route, leaving engineers with two options: burrowing into the machine from behind, or tunneling down from above and hauling the whole machine out. They opted to drill down from above.
Engineers have dug a 90-foot hole, three-quarters of the way to the machine. A massive red crane that will drag the malfunctioning front end of the machine to the surface looms next to the Viaduct it will replace. But Bertha is stuck in soft ground just a few feet from the shoreline of Puget Sound, an area that was beneath water until engineers filled it in a century ago, said Joe Mahoney, a professor of construction engineering at the University of Washington. Freeing the machine from that soft ground has required pumping out surrounding groundwater to keep pressure off the hole.
That created problems last month when, in the course of removing ground water, some buildings in the Pioneer Square neighborhood, the oldest in Seattle, sank about an inch, opening cracks in walls and frightening building owners and tenants. Dixon said they would continue digging toward Bertha, but only a few feet at a time, to ensure no further damage.
STP anticipates repairs will be complete by April, when Bertha would be able to continue excavations for the first time in 16 months. ‘‘The uncertainty is how long [repairs are] going to take, because we’re really attempting to do something here that hasn’t been done before,’’ Dixon said.
The decision to move forward on the tunnel came after a decadelong political fight. The state Department of Transportation initially decided, in 2004, to build a conventional ‘‘cut and cover’’ tunnel — digging a tunnel from above like the Big Dig. Voters rejected that, along with another option to rebuild an elevated structure. Local and state officials chose the only remaining option, the bored tunnel, in 2009. The legislature authorized $2.8 billion.
Opponents, including environmental activists, city councilors, former one-term mayor Mike McGinn, and The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative weekly newspaper, have kept up a drumbeat of criticism ever since.
With costs spiraling, some on the City Council are nervous that Seattle could be stuck with the bill. And with Bertha sleeping, some tunnel opponents are reminding supporters of their pessimistic predictions.
‘‘I think we’re at a point today looking forward where people need to be asking, OK, we’ve sunk a lot of money into this. If we get to a point where the contractor isn’t willing to sink any more money in, where do we go from there?’’ said Councilman Michael O’Brien. ‘‘I hear a lot of frustration from folks that they’re not seeing elected officials step up and own up.’’
Other observers see signs the Department of Transportation and Seattle Tunnel Partners are preparing for lawsuits. The DOT is documenting every detail of the delay and the settling around Pioneer Square on its website. On a recent afternoon, survey crews were inspecting the area that had settled, and several blocks north, closer to Seattle’s downtown core.
Elected officials repeatedly invoke safety concerns, which some observers say could indemnify the state against massive cost overruns in a legal case, should the tunnel be mothballed.
‘‘It may be something that it will take some lawyers to figure out,’’ Godden said.
While Bertha is dormant, STP has hastened construction of other parts of the project, like entrance and exit portals. Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson said this month the project is 70 percent complete, though the boring machine has more than 8,000 feet to go. And until Bertha revs back to life, even STP’s August 2017 estimate is just a guess, based on assumptions that everything goes well in the future.
--more--"
Also see: Police link 5 guns to shooting suspect
Moscow Idaho Shooting is a Treacherous Gun Control Hoax
Aren't they all these days?
NDUs:
"Perhaps just as challenging, the stadium would need to be a showpiece, striking enough to be broadcast around the world as a symbol of Boston, said Mike Holleman of Heery International, the architectural firm that designed the stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. “It can’t be a bunch of bleachers stuck up there,” Holleman said. “It needs to look like an iconic Olympic stadium, if you’re going to have any chance” of landing the 2024 Summer Games. Some architects cast doubt on the claims of cost savings, however, because no sports team in Boston wants such a stadium after the Olympics, a hulking eyesore, mostly vacant “white elephant.”
Maybe Boston could house the homeless in them.
Also see: Olympic backers to make more bid information public
Just say no.
