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July 29, 2005

Why New York City is NOT Hosting the Olympics

The Olympic announcement that London would host the 2012 games came with little hoopla and fanfare. That was not the case of the dog and pony circus leading up to the announcement. The whole scenario of cities pimping themselves out to some vague Olympic Committee who seems more like a petulant virgin on the chopping block of being married to the highest bidder left an unsavory taste in my mouth. The Olympics in NYC would have been a nightmare for most of us who live here. The conjestion, the traffic; tourists are difficult enough to stomach in Times Square on Wednesday afternoon. (Don't even get me started on the Gray Line Red Bus idiots who think it's alright to have scores of tourists loitering all over 8th Avenue in anticipation of their overpriced buses.) Can you imagine having to deal with all of the normal wear and tear of NYC AND the Olympic hoopla?

I must admit, despite all of that, I was hoping we'd get it. I already had a plan of action in mind that would have made the inconveniences absolute. If NYC made the Olympic bid, I was going to sublet my apartment for 10k/week and spend 3 weeks in Italy, or Spain, or somewhere else relaxing and exotic. I was a little disappointed when we didn't get the bid...but I also understand why.

The War on Terror

Four years ago, the Olympics in NY in 2012 seemed a shoe in. New York was reeling from the worst attack on our soil in history. The economy was just as tattered as the remnants of the once proud buildings downtown. The World was on our side. We had taken a hit for our belief in Freedom and innocent people were victims to madmen. Much of the world was unified, if not in ideology, then in wanting to heal our battered city. The Olympics in 2012 was the most obvious stage on which to prove that NY would thrive again. "We Could Do It" and the world could rejoice in New York's victory and the sure knowledge that terror would not and could not win.

And then there was Bush. Instead of fighting the terrorists of 911, GWB obscured data, appropriated funds, hired pals at a premium and pursued Saddam Hussein and Iraq in a bitter vendetta. He made a mockery of our Constitution by obfuscating the fundamental rights of Law down to the most basic writ that a person must be charged with a crime to be incarcerated and had a right to know what that charge was. He created a disregard for human decency and international cooperation by making a mockery of the Geneva Conventions and inspiring and allowing soldiers in his army to commit the atrocious crimes at Abu Ghraib. At every turn flouting Americans' fundamental principle Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. He's the alcoholic father speeding down the highway telling his kids in the backseat not to drive drunk. "Do as I say, not as I do." Within an instant the goodwill of the World had vanished and was replaced with an all too familiar wariness of American hyprocisy. It seemed within the space of moments that America was once again a dirty word and New York City was no longer an obvious or even palatable choice.

Bloomberg and the West Side Stadium Monster

Perhaps naively relying on the assumption that New Yorkers would do anything to host an Olympic Games, Mayor Bloomberg chose the Olympic Bid to try to strong arm some rather costly and, some would say, inappropriate addendums to the NYC Bid. And thus the controversy of the West Side Stadium was born. This mammoth monster relied on confusion, slight of hand, and more than a few backroom rendezvous among friends of big business.

For those of you not in the NYC area, the West Side Stadium was a Bloomberg-backed proposal that would turn land on the West Side and bought by the City into a tax-incentive filled property for the NY Jets. Like all stadium proposals this one included massive tax breaks to the NY Jets for using the stadium and huge subsidy requirements on the part of the good people of New York. Independent economists agree that these stadiums proposed do little or nothing to boost the economies of urban areas. Personally, I'd always thought it a bit ridiculous that multi-millionaire businessmen expected local taxpayers to buy them a field. Would they mind being taxed towards my buying a house if I promised to buy season tickets to their sports franchise? Dallas Mayer Laura Miller will always have a kudos from me for standing up to Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and seeing through the glitter when he tried to coax the City of Dallas to build him a new stadium. Sadly, Arlington took the bait and will now deal with Emminent Domain issues and $325 Million bill as their portion of the $650 Million Dollar construction costs of the Stadium. Arlingtonites have raised their taxes to pay for the investment. For their pains the town will recieve $2M/year for thirty years. Harldy seems worth it when you figure it'll take 162 years to make up for the start up costs and the Cowboys are only guaranteed to stay for 30.

But Mayor Bloomberg and his posse wanted this stadium despite the baggage of higher taxes. To ensure success, he decided to make the West Side Stadium an integral part of NYC's Olympic-bid. For many months the mantra was, "No West Side Stadium, No Olympics." Mayor Bloomberg may have been surprised at the response, but I wasn't. A major fight ensued and soon it came to light that the Manhattan Transit Authority, an organization that is notorious for mismanaging money, agreed to sell the property to the Stadium Planners for far less than other bids submitted by Cablevision and other major players. As tax incentives, and rate-hikes, and feasibility studies about the inefficiency of having an Olympic stadium on the West Side during the Olympics as opposed to Queens came to light, the battle raged on fiercely. Soon the writing on the wall was so clear that even Bloomberg could read it: New Yorkers wanted no part of a West Side Stadium, Olympics or not.

In a last ditch effort, the NYC Olympic planners altered their bid to put the Olympic stadium in Queens; a place where most argued it should have been in the first place. This was too little, too late. Instead of seeing a unified city fired up about the prospect of hosting an international event, the International Olympic Committee saw a city divided by a frivolous proposal, and in turn, saw a city divided about hosting the Olympics.

In the days just before the announcement of the host city, when I was assured that West Side Stadium was dead in favor of a more viable proposal, I found myself getting a little caught up in the idea that New York might host the games. Maybe I would stick around for one of those weeks and hit Italy a little later. It might be fun to get caught up in the spirit of the Olympics even if it meant getting caught up in the chaos of Olympic traffic. I was a little disappointed that I didn't have the chance to get excited about the idea. I didn't have the chance to "get on board" and really hope for NYC Olympics in 2012. It's as if on some level I and other New Yorkers knew; we had lost the Olympic bid a long time before the announcements made it official. On June 7th, London was chosen to host and, though I had fleetingly fantasized about a New York Olympic Games, it was not meant to be...at least not in 2012. In the end, Bloomberg proved himself to be remarkably prescient...No West Stadium, No Olympics.


Posted by mermu at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2005

Septet

Lance Armstrong won his 7th consecutive Tour de France four minutes and 40 seconds ahead of his main competitor Ivan Basso of Italy. For those of you who haven't been impassioned by this year's tour and Lance's attempt at his 7th and last win, Lance rode 3608 Kilometers over a period of 19 days in 86 hours, 15 minutes and 02 seconds.

Today I rode approximately 3 miles in 35 minutes as part of my training for the Danskin in September. Hey, it was hilly and full of traffic signals. Even so, I have a real appreciation for Lance's accomplishments.

Like Team Danskin, Lance's training relies on Heart Rate Zone training. It's pretty interesting stuff. Basically you burn more percentage of body fat in the lower, less intense zones, while the higher, more intense zones phase out the fat burning and increase carb burning. Don't for a minute think you can work less and still lose weight though. When this process was being explained to me, I tried to find that shortcut where I could workout consistently at easy Zone 1 and burn 100% of fat calories. Woo hoo! Size 4 here I come! The kicker is you burn more calories in total in the higher zones so 80% of total calories burned in Zones 2 and 3 are more than 100% of calories burned in Zone 1. Ah me. So it's off to train I go....

Some good news about this whole zoning thing. There is that point in Zones 3 and 4; a sort of threshold where the majority percentage of calories burned are carbohydrate calories and the lessor percentage is fat calories. As you continue a workout regimen and continue to hit this threshold, you begin to push this threshold higher and higher. So that I may actually hit my threshold in Zone 2 in this early stage of training but may extend my threshold to Zone 3 in the next few months. It's fascinating stuff I tell you. Lance Armstrong, at least according to my trainer at Team Danskin, has pushed his threshold so far into Zone 4 that virtually all of his exertion is dedicated towards fat-burning. Hmm. How lucky for Lance.

As for me, I will do my best to finish my first Triathlon...a bonus would be coming in at under 2 hours though I feel this will be tricky for a first timer who is woefully out of shape. It would be really great to meet this goal as it means I'll have achieved what my sister who also had this under 2hour goal could not in this year's Austin Danskin.

This is Lance's final Tour. He announced well before the race that he would retire after this year's Tour de France regardless of the outcome. It's great that he can retire a winner. He's won more Tours than any other rider in the history of the race. (There are a few men who've won 5 but that's it.)Although I and other fans worldwide are left to wonder from time to time if he doesn't have an 8th win in him. Either way, I applaud his efforts and his strength of will to know when it's time to move on. Congratulations, Lance!

And if you ever find yourself in Weehawken, how about a stroll around the Boulevard?

Posted by mermu at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2005

Funny...while I'm away

Here's a little funny whilst I'm woefully remiss in my blogging....

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time,
which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate
very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he
suffered from bad breath. This made him ...

(Oh, man, this is so bad it's good).....

A super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Posted by mermu at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)