No, it's not a movie. It's LA's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. I had no idea until I saw a man wearing an "LA 2016" pin on his suit. I have fond memories of the last time LA hosted the summer games, in 1984. Who can forget Mary Lou Retton and Tim Daggett and, of course, Carl Lewis?LA also hosted the Olympics in 1932, making it the only U.S. city to host the summer games twice. The chance it will host a third time is somewhat slim (at least right now), but it's possible. Come 2016, 32 years (can you believe it?!) will have passed since that last time the games were in LA. A lot of the sports infrastructure already exists (much of it built after 1984) and the games might be an opportunity for LA to improve and expand its sad public transportation system, much like how the 1984 games modernized LAX. It will be a couple years before we know if this idea has any traction, but I, for one, think it's pretty exciting.
5 comments:
BEST BLOG ENTRY _EVER_!
Yay LA 2016!
If LA gets the Olympics again, we better get that jetpack guy from 1984 to come back.
the creepiest remnant of the 84 olympics is that toddler-looking boy (midget?) painted on the side of 101 freeway (mural done for the olympics)...he has a bowl cut and is holding this basketball in his hands, and he's all wrinkley with this strange look on his face.
Sounds like it might have been a portrait of Kim Jong Il.
LA 2016, I think not.
How about NYC2016!!!
Come on.
NYC is a smaller version of the world.
Every athlete will feel at home.
Every athlete will have their own cheering section.
The 2016 Olympics should be in NYC.
Hardy: Thanks for the comment. NYC is a prime U.S. city for the summer olympics for all the reasons you mention. Maybe they'll get it in 2016, but I got the feeling that the city wasn't very supportive of the games coming to NYC in 2012 for whatever reason (primarily not wanting to shell out the $$$ necessary to get all the facilities up to par?). I'm not sure if Bloomberg is going to push 2016 like he did 2012. Aside from NY, LA has a lot of the attributes that you mention, so I'm going west coast with this one!
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