Mayor DeBlasio Quashes Idea For 2024 NYC Olympic Bid
Image: Sports Illustrated
Today in “dodged that bullet,” we’re glad to hear that Mayor DeBlasio finally put his foot down and effectively killed any plans for the recently proposed 2024 NYC Olympics bid.
This week, Alicia Glen, a top aide in the De Blasio administration, told The Wall Street Journal that after considering the bid idea put forth by Dan Doctoroff (the same guy that tried to pull this crap in 2012), the mayor categorically decided against the vying for the coveted hosting position.
The primary reasoning behind Mayor DeBlasio’s rejection is that New York City isn’t exactly hard up for tourists. Every year, the city welcomes 54 million visitors and that number shows no signs of slowing down, so why would we need the roughly 500,000 additional visitors (and infrastructure-related headaches) that Olympic Games attract?
“Our feeling is that you could actually deter tourism to some extent by hosting an Olympic Games,” Ms. Glen told WSJ, throwing so much shade at the IOC that it temporarily blocked out the sun.
Additionally, Glen pointed out that bringing the Olympics to New York would take time and attention away from Mayor De Blasio’s current causes like affordable housing and improving quality of life citywide.
Agreed. Plus, we already have our own Olympics: It’s called squeezing into a Brooklyn-bound L train during evening rush hour.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk
