As Boston '24 organizers seek to persuade local residents to back the Games ahead of a November '16 referendum, they "may have no tougher sell than in South Boston, the politically potent neighborhood that has a long history of fighting changes imposed by outsiders," according to Michael Levenson of the BOSTON GLOBE. No other neighborhood "would be as directly affected," as the plan "calls for the three largest facilities -- the temporary Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village, and the International Broadcast Center -- to be constructed along South Boston’s borders" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/3). In Boston, John Powers noted Paris, Rome and Hamburg are the three European cities that "probably will be Boston’s biggest rivals" for the '24 Games, as they "offer many of the same advantages as does the U.S. bidder -- intimacy and walkability, existing facilities, and historic backdrops." Because of their "recent Olympic quests, Paris and Rome have more fully-formed venue plans than do Boston or Hamburg" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/3).
CHANGE OF FOCUS: A BOSTON GLOBE editorial states with the Olympic bid headed for the public vote, Mayor Martin Walsh and Boston '24 boosters "will soon need to move beyond stirring marketing campaigns and vague promises toward something more robust: A platform that outlines concrete plans for how to use an Olympics to reshape the city and the state." That will "require substantial changes to the initial plan the organizers submitted" to the USOC, which was "light on vision for a post-Olympics Boston." Because the public "will be voting on a post-Olympics legacy as much as a one-summer event, the organizers should reorient the entire bid around meeting existing public needs and positioning Boston and the Commonwealth for the future" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/5).
