November 03, 2002

New York gets 2012 USOC nod, $6.5 billion bill

The fix is in - er, that is, the votes - and New York is the U.S. Olympic Committee's candidate to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Initially been considered a longshot because of its mammoth $6.5 billion construction budget (including a $1.5 billion subway extension, $1 billion convention center expansion, and a $1.6 billion Olympic Stadium on the West Side of Manhattan that would be the most expensive athletic facility in history, jointly paid for by the city and the New York Jets), New York was approved over San Francisco by almost 60% of voting USOC members.

The bulk of the Games' public cost is supposed to be raised by "tax increment financing," a controversial instrument whereby local property taxes are used to pay off construction bonds - the city's Independent Budget Office warned in September that other cities using TIFs have fallen short of expected revenues, forcing bailouts from the general fund and so "undermining the reason for using TIF in the first place." Moreover, residents of the neighborhoods targeted as Olympic sites are stepping up their anti-Olympic organizing, promising to make for an interesting three-year interval until the IOC selects its final choice for the 2012 Games from among the cities remaining in contention: New York, Paris, London, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Moscow, Istanbul, Madrid, and as many as four different German cities.

Meanwhile, at least one Bay Area columnist suggested that San Francisco was the real winner here, for being spared spending the next ten years with "a herd of blazered hyenas (with a few human beings of honor and decency sprinkled on top for cover) whose only regret in life is that they only have two hands to put in your pockets."