For eight months, the Boston 2024 bid to host the Olympic games sparked spirited debate. Then, on Monday, in the face of growing local opposition, the United States Olympic Committee withdrew Boston as its proposed city to host the games.
The USOC move came as Mayor Martin Walsh announced Monday that he would not sign a contract with the organization, citing lingering questions about potential costs to Massachusetts taxpayers.
“I cannot commit to putting the taxpayers at risk,” he told reporters. “If committing to signing a guarantee today is what’s required to move forward, then Boston is no longer pursuing the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
As the dust settled on the Boston 2024 bid Monday afternoon, elected officials in Boston’s black community reacted with a mixture of relief and optimism.
“The mayor did the right thing,” said at-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley. “He protected the taxpayers from an unreasonable risk. Now we can get back to work.”
State Rep. Byron Rushing said the failed Olympics bid underscored the need for city planning in Boston.
“I think for people of color it was a huge distraction, and I think we need to take advantage of this to work on all the things that we noticed were missing during this bid,” he said. “If there are things we think needed to happen around public transportation, let’s keep talking about those things.”
As Rushing pointed out, the Olympics bid drew attention to underutilized and under-served areas of the city Olympic planners had hoped to use as venues for sporting events. In Franklin Park, where Olympics backers hoped to site equestrian events, abutters cited a lack of coordinated planning and maintenance. In Columbia Point, where backers planned to house athletes, city officials saw a potential for affordable housing.
And in Widett Circle, an area of Roxbury between the South End and South Boston where Olympics backers proposed building a temporary stadium, Walsh envisioned a brand-new midtown neighborhood.
“I think we should take them up on that,” said Rushing, whose district includes Widett Circle. “And the Roxbury neighborhood should be the primary neighborhood involved in the planning.”
Pressley echoed Rushing’s notion that the failed bid could serve as a springboard for further city planning.
“There was a citywide planning exercise that took place that really highlighted what people want and what the city needs,” she said. “It’s bigger than temporary stadiums and restricted travel lanes.”
Pressley pointed to affordable housing, improvements to Boston schools and improvements to the city’s transportation infrastructure as key priorities Boston residents voiced during the Olympics bid.
Risk aversion
Olympics officials cited a need for upgrades to the MBTA to help shuttle tens of thousands of spectators to Olympic venues. Upgrades were proposed for the JFK/UMass stop on the Red Line. The Fairmount Line, which MBTA officials say will receive new diesel multiple-unit train cars to allow more frequent service, was cited as a means to transport spectators to Franklin Park.
But the need for transportation upgrades — and the potential costs to the state — further stoked fears of Olympic-sized cost overruns that opponents said would have saddled the state with Olympic-sized debt. While Boston 2024 officials advocated for the business community in the Greater Boston area to pony up for MBTA upgrades, Pressley said that scenario was unlikely, citing failed efforts to have businesses underwrite the costs for late-night MBTA service.
“If they couldn’t do it for late-night T service, which has everything to do with late-shift workers, why would we believe they could do it for the Olympics?” she said.
While the Boston Redevelopment Authority is launching a citywide planning process called Boston 2030, District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson said the Boston 2024 process underscored the need for local residents to lead planning efforts.
“What came out of this is a very real need for Roxbury residents to have a plan that looks at housing, economic development and transportation,” he said. “Roxbury residents need their own plan, Dorchester needs its own plan. The people who live in the neighborhoods need to be able to determine what happens in their neighborhoods. I think the conversation about the Olympics should have been based on the community’s needs. I think it was a missed opportunity.”
