4 ms·
Not disagreeing with you, but would like to offer a counter story. I personality live in what used to be an Olympic villag. Or, more accurately, was supposed to
by mstade 10y ago
Not disagreeing with you, but would like to offer a counter story. I personality live in what used to be an Olympic villag. Or, more accurately, was supposed to be the Olympic village in the bid for Stockholm as the host city of the 2004 summer olympics. Interestingly, just like the Rio olympics the theme was environmental sustainability. The bid failed, but they went ahead with the plans anyway, and now it's lauded as a major success in urban redevelopment, taking what used to be a run down harbor and factory area which had mostly turned into a really shady part of town, and making it a great place for people to live and work. An old waste dump is now repurposed as a ski slope, and even hosted the Ski World Cup is past winter.
While not technically an Olympic development, the idea was always to build a village that could then serve as a new residential area, and goes to show that the olympics can very much be the necessary catalyst in getting major developments off the ground. If IOC wanted to, they could absolutely push for all sorts of change by forming host requirements thereafter. They may want to claim they're non-political, but I don't think that's even possible on the kind of scale they operate.
- mstade 10y agoWow, such typo. That's what happens when you fat finger a reply on a phone, I guess. :o)
- wineisfine 10y agoThis is just an example of smart Scandinavians being 3 steps ahead again. I wonder what'll happen with the Brazil built Olympic villages.
- hardlianotion 10y agoWeren't some of the Brazilian Olympic Village reused from the London Olympics? This was going to be a big deal four years ago.
- mstade 10y agoLet's be honest, we do some dumb shit too, just like everyone else. But this particular story I like very much. It was laughed at by a lot of people before the development began, it was too expensive, nobody would like it, the design was terrible etc.; and now it's a highly sought after area to live in Stockholm. I'm quite proud of my neighborhood, I'm sure you can tell. I've lived there for over nine years as well, so I've seen the developments up close all this time, and it's been an amazing transformation! When I first moved in, it was mostly a construction area. Thankfully we had a grocery store and most other necessities in place very early on, but other non-essentials like pubs and the likes took a while. It's still a quiet part of town (which I like) but now we have a couple of really nice restaurants and such in place as well. I think in a world filled with terribly planned urban developments, Hammarby Sjöstad[1] stands out as an example where you can get things right. (They got a lot of things wrong as well, but have largely managed to successfully course correct along the way.) [1]: http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad-a-new-generation-of-sustainable-urban-eco-districts/ http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2014/02/12/hammarby-sjostad... (This link says the bid was for the 2012 olympics, which I think is true as well, but the initial planning was for the 2004 bid I believe and when they failed they continued with the planning and tried again for 2012. I may very well be wrong though.)
- mcgrath_sh 10y agoTo be fair to the 1980 games and the Olympic Village, Lake Placid is not Stockholm. I would wager the population of the pseudo Olympic Village turned housing is larger than the entirety of Lake Placid (2,521 people).
- mstade 10y agoSure, but locations aren't randomly chosen. The IOC certainly has the option to push hard for sustainability and longevity.