Gramsci wrote:
Cross rail, a brand new tube line! Heathrow all the way to the East End. Do you realise how much extra capacity one more Tube line will give? A fuck of a lot, that's how much.

Great.

So now the East End folk get to burgle all the way to Heathrow.

If the Olympic bid involved a 3 metre wall being constructed around the East End then I might be interested...

Edward wrote:

itchy mcgoo wrote:Most cities end up in tremendous debt by hosting. I read somewhere that LA (1984) was the first host city EVER to turn a profit. I know Barcelona, Atlanta and Salt Lake lost significantly, after pitching the idea as a economic development plan.

Actually, the economic aspect was about the only thing that went well for Atlanta. The city racked up virtually no public debt. The Games were pretty much privately financed. Montreal is the city that hocked itself for the Olympics. I think they still might be paying off the debt they incurred - no joke.

I did just find a couple of articles mentioning Atlanta at least breaking even, so thanks for the correction, Edward. I guess my point is that cities often embrace hosting as an economic development tool, which is a poor choice given the risk on return, odd boomtown-esque infrastructure and other options for the same capital investment. Hosting, since LA's profit in 1984, anyway, has billed as some sort of panacea, which I think is dishonest given the track record.

itchy mcgoo wrote:I know Barcelona, Atlanta and Salt Lake lost significantly, after pitching the idea as a economic development plan.

I wonder if that factors in that Salt Lake got a 1.5 billion dollar freeway and a 300 million dollar light rail system out of the deal? Most of that money came from federal and state funds before the fact to hurry up and fix the gigantic transportation problems in the city. Ten year projects done in three and a half years. They wouldn't have received most of that dough had the olympics been held elsewhere.

Maybe I don't understand exactly how it all washed out, but I lived there at the time and yeah, they didn't bring in nearly as much money as expected, but it seems like they still did pretty well overall. Seems impossible that they would have run into debt anyway.

Gramsci wrote:

Champion Rabbit wrote:

Gramsci wrote:extra public transport in protest then.

This extra public transport you mention.

You are refering to the trains, yes?

The trains are going to where exactly? To the new arenas Presumably.

Not particularly useful to most people then.

You're not paying much attention to what's going in London are you?

Cross rail, a brand new tube line! Heathrow all the way to the East End. Do you realise how much extra capacity one more Tube line will give? A fuck of a lot, that's how much.

Are you aware that the cross rail will not be finished until 2013..excellent planning. I am trying to find something i care less about than getting the Olympics. I have found the whole thing incredibly offensive. The Sun readers have now even more opportunity to abuse French people. Why cant this country ever just be happy with winning something ? we have also involve an element of hatred towards the losers.. When France won the world cup they celebrated..they didnt ridicule the Brazilians.. if we had won the sun headline would have been " We stuff your coffee up your arse"

salfordboysclub wrote:[. I am trying to find something i care less about than getting the Olympics. "

Pete Doherty.

You hate him more.

And How about tottenham fans

salfordboysclub wrote:Are you aware that the cross rail will not be finished until 2013..excellent planning. I am trying to find something i care less about than getting the Olympics. I have found the whole thing incredibly offensive. The Sun readers have now even more opportunity to abuse French people. Why cant this country ever just be happy with winning something ? we have also involve an element of hatred towards the losers.. When France won the world cup they celebrated..they didnt ridicule the Brazilians.. if we had won the sun headline would have been " We stuff your coffee up your arse"

I can't believe that London would have won if Cross Rail was not going to be completed on time.

Look, as for Sun readers, yeah fuck 'em I agree. But the whole thing is costed not to put London in any debt and it will force much need improvements to the East End. And if that costs me £70 -that's £10 a year on council tax- so be it.

You shouldn't really just look at the surface negatives, this will run a little deeper from some of the kids living in the East End.