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Between LA, Paris and Rome, none of them REALLY needs a Summer Olympics to stamp their mark on the map. They've all HOSTED it before anyway. So, it's just which one will be the more fitting setting for a Return Pahrt-tee!!

And I think it will be Paris for this round.


; the USC Swimming Stadium of course is a legacy of '84 but is no longer configured to host an Olympic Swimming competition (lack of seating).

Not even that. It's an 8-lane pool. Oly or even world champ, I believe, now require a 10-lane pool so that there is a whole lane on each side to receive the backwash (or whatever the right term is).

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Yea, though we disagree I think LA wants to change the images it has engraved of itself in the eyes of the world, and the Olympics present an excellent opportunity for that.

Huh? You think or you know? How will an Olympics change that? It's something that comes once every 52 (the first gap) and 40 years. So how can that change "images"? Is the entertainment industry pulling up stakes and moving to San Diego or San Jose? Are they going to close down the freeways and make everyone use the subway and buses?

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Huh? You think or you know? How will an Olympics change that? It's something that comes once every 52 (the first gap) and 40 years. So how can that change "images"? Is the entertainment industry pulling up stakes and moving to San Diego or San Jose? Are they going to close down the freeways and make everyone use the subway and buses?

They could invest in creating the world's largest light rail network, and become famous for their fleet of shiny red streetcars.

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Between LA, Paris and Rome, none of them REALLY needs a Summer Olympics to stamp their mark on the map. They've all HOSTED it before anyway. So, it's just which one will be the more fitting setting for a Return Pahrt-tee!!

Also, a small point (it only struck me today), but LA's chosen the only race in recent years where their already-built stadium doesn't put them at an advantage.

Which kinda makes this race a little dull in a way. No crazy Bosphorous amphitheaters or Hadid bike helmets or imaginary demountable downtown stadiums with murals of athletes on the side. I hate to say it, but this race needs Qatar! :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

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Not that you guys are serious, but I don't think streetcars are a good fit for LA. It makes sense to build heavier rail because LA is spread out over a large area, and trams are not fast enough to carry people around efficiently. Even back in the 1930's they were losing lots of money.

The good news for LA on the transportation front is that the metro connection to LAX should finally be done in 2024.

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Yea, though we disagree I think LA wants to change the images it has engraved of itself in the eyes of the world, and the Olympics present an excellent opportunity for that.

Let's say for argument's sake that LA does indeed win the vote for the 2024 Olympics and hosts a very successful Olympics. What will the world see about LA from their Olympics that will change that perception and how will LA hosting an Olympics help them get rid of these perceived stereotypes against the city and the area?

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Let's say for argument's sake that LA does indeed win the vote for the 2024 Olympics and hosts a very successful Olympics. What will the world see about LA from their Olympics that will change that perception and how will LA hosting an Olympics help them get rid of these perceived stereotypes against the city and the area?

The world will see what LA shows them.

Beijing showed power and stylish modernity. London showed ethnic diversity and welcoming light-heartedness (amidst the historic sites that Hollywood then rushed to destroy in CGI).

Maybe LA could hold some of the events on Hollywood sound stages, with the sets for forthcoming blockbusters forming the background to badminton matches etc.

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The world will see what LA shows them.

Beijing showed power and stylish modernity. London showed ethnic diversity and welcoming light-heartedness (amidst the historic sites that Hollywood then rushed to destroy in CGI).

Well, a lot of the tunnels and that construction site, etc., were all in Bulgaria anyway.

Maybe LA could hold some of the events on Hollywood sound stages, with the sets for forthcoming blockbusters forming the background to badminton matches etc.

Uhmmm... construction and safety codes would NOT allow it. Insurance premiums would go altissimus!!

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London showed ethnic diversity and welcoming light-heartedness

You must be confusing that OC with the one from Sydney. Yea sure London used a crowd of volunteers with ethnic diversity, but no OC has done true justice in showcasing their ethnic diversity like the Sydney OC had. They had a whole segment, Awakening dedicated to the aboriginal people and used actual aborigines. And they also had the Arrivals segment that exclusively celebrated their ethnic diversity from immigration. Plus the OC as a whole wasn't a complete and utter bore and cheesefest like London's OC.

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You must be confusing that OC with the one from Sydney. Yea sure London used a crowd of volunteers with ethnic diversity, but no OC has done true justice in showcasing their ethnic diversity like the Sydney OC had. They had a whole segment, Awakening dedicated to the aboriginal people and used actual aborigines. And they also had the Arrivals segment that exclusively celebrated their ethnic diversity from immigration. Plus the OC as a whole wasn't a complete and utter bore and cheesefest like London's OC.

Since I generally don't respond to your posts...but Sydney's arrivals/immigration angle seemed very forced. For a long while, Oz had a "whites/European" only immigration policy. The "black" contingent? How many thousands of African blacks really migrate to Oz? Of course, they wouldn't highlight that -- and of course, how could they NOT do an Opening ceremony without the Aboriginal peoples? They already didn't do the ethnic diversity angle in Melbourne 1956. No big shows yet then.

(Just out of curiosity--and probably JMark Snow will come up with some stats -- how many embassies did Oz and NZ really have in continental Africa in 1950s and 60s, other than perhaps in the ex-Commonwealth countries (so Egypt, S. Africa, Namibia, probably Kenya, Nigeria) through which Oz could attract :rolleyes: and process interested emigrants?) Even when Oz was a penal colony (which I don't recall being touched upon in the Opening), I wonder what the statistics were of prisoners of color being shipped off half a world away??

But with Lillehammer, Atlanta's "Welcome to the South" portion, some of Ainus in Nagano -- how could Sydney/Ric Birch NOT force a multi-ethnic face for Sydney in 2000 as even the composiiton of the IOC membership indeed already reflected that (despite its still being very Euro-centric in its membership).

Anyway, my point is -- In contrast, London (messy as I found it) didn't really and blatantly hit you on the head with ..."oh look, how diverse British society is" message. Even the acknowledgment of the UK's south Asian populations didn't really appear until the Bollywood portion at Closing.

Finally, remember that the IOC Executive Board vetts the message and content of the Ceremonies--so who knows how tweaked and bleached the Ceremonies turned out from their original visions without the Executive Board's input?

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Looking at the situation unfolding in Rio I wonder what the Chicago officials are thinking now? It's a shame really and worse yet we can't even say awarding Rio the games was a bad decision in hindsight. The IOC committee and voters knew Rio was not as strong of a bid as the others, they even evaluated it lower than the other cities even lower than some of the cities that didn't make the shortlist and still the political reasons won out. I wanted Rio to do well It's an amazing city, I love it but when I read articles like this http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/03/news/world/olympics-rio-ticket-sales/index.html I am left heartbroken that the city isn't in a better position to pull off an incredible games. The Athens 2004 alarms bells are ringing way too loudly on this one.

I say all of this to say I truly hope that 2024's bid is less political. That the IOC voters actually look at the bids and truly pic the best one. No, it needs to go here because it hasn't been there, no it needs to go there because they make a lot of money etc. I am happy that both LA and Paris are putting forth such strong bids but I just hope that the whole pity vote thing that has sunk many a front runner doesn't happen this year. 2016 to me was a case where the IOC tried to cut off their nose to spite their face.

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Looking at the situation unfolding in Rio I wonder what the Chicago officials are thinking now? It's a shame really and worse yet we can't even say awarding Rio the games was a bad decision in hindsight. The IOC committee and voters knew Rio was not as strong of a bid as the others, they even evaluated it lower than the other cities even lower than some of the cities that didn't make the shortlist and still the political reasons won out. I wanted Rio to do well It's an amazing city, I love it but when I read articles like this http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/03/news/world/olympics-rio-ticket-sales/index.html I am left heartbroken that the city isn't in a better position to pull off an incredible games. The Athens 2004 alarms bells are ringing way too loudly on this one.

I say all of this to say I truly hope that 2024's bid is less political. That the IOC voters actually look at the bids and truly pic the best one. No, it needs to go here because it hasn't been there, no it needs to go there because they make a lot of money etc. I am happy that both LA and Paris are putting forth such strong bids but I just hope that the whole pity vote thing that has sunk many a front runner doesn't happen this year. 2016 to me was a case where the IOC tried to cut off their nose to spite their face.

Why is this about Chicago? Especially when 2 other cities got more votes than they did.

I'm with zeke and FYI on this one.. EVERY Olympic host city has issues in the lead up, some more serious than others. Yes, some of these faced by Rio are pretty ugly, but it's hindsight to say we should have seen these all coming, let alone that Chicago of all cities has a beef that they should have been selected. And maybe Brazil and Rio 2016 are destined to fall into an abyss like Greece and Athens 2004 did, but similar to that selection, a lot changed after the vote that caused some of those issues.

As for 2024, picking "the best one" is still in the eyes of the beholder. Politics aside, there's more to these selections than just evaluation scores. The IOC had an M.O. with their 2016 pick. It wasn't just about checking off a box. The idea is to increase their presence in South America, the same way FIFA did with Africa in 2010. There were some red flags obviously, but I don't think anyone anticipated it was going to go south like this. And especially as 2024 is concerned, there are at least 2 strong bids out there that both can make a case that goes beyond a pity vote or "it hasn't been there" or any nonsense like that. But at the end of the day, the IOC is still trying to make money. There will always be individual politics. No way around that.

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LA 2024 in Spain for Olympic meeting-LATimes

The private committee bidding to bring the Summer Games back to Los Angeles will have five representatives in Madrid this week to attend an International Olympic Committee workshop.

LA 2024 Chief Executive Gene Sykes and his staff are joined by Patrick Sandusky, the chief external affairs officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Other LA 2024 members will participate by video conference.

L.A. is competing against Paris, Rome and Budapest for the 2024 Summer Games. This week's meeting represents the latest step in a nearly two-year bidding process scheduled to end with an IOC vote in September 2017.

Sykes is bringing Danny Koblin, chief bid officer; Tamara Christopherson, associate director of athlete relations; Bill Hanway of the L.A.-based engineering firm AECOM; and Doug Arnot, sport director.

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Since I generally don't respond to your posts...but Sydney's arrivals/immigration angle seemed very forced. For a long while, Oz had a "whites/European" only immigration policy. The "black" contingent? How many thousands of African blacks really migrate to Oz? Of course, they wouldn't highlight that -- and of course, how could they NOT do an Opening ceremony without the Aboriginal peoples? They already didn't do the ethnic diversity angle in Melbourne 1956. No big shows yet then.

(Just out of curiosity--and probably JMark Snow will come up with some stats -- how many embassies did Oz and NZ really have in continental Africa in 1950s and 60s, other than perhaps in the ex-Commonwealth countries (so Egypt, S. Africa, Namibia, probably Kenya, Nigeria) through which Oz could attract :rolleyes: and process interested emigrants?) Even when Oz was a penal colony (which I don't recall being touched upon in the Opening), I wonder what the statistics were of prisoners of color being shipped off half a world away??

But with Lillehammer, Atlanta's "Welcome to the South" portion, some of Ainus in Nagano -- how could Sydney/Ric Birch NOT force a multi-ethnic face for Sydney in 2000 as even the composiiton of the IOC membership indeed already reflected that (despite its still being very Euro-centric in its membership).

Anyway, my point is -- In contrast, London (messy as I found it) didn't really and blatantly hit you on the head with ..."oh look, how diverse British society is" message. Even the acknowledgment of the UK's south Asian populations didn't really appear until the Bollywood portion at Closing.

The embassies question is awkward as, until the Japanese started ripping the British Empire in the western Pacific region to shreds in WW2, no separate diplomatic was really needed for countries like Australia, so by 1956 they were only just starting to build an independent system.

Birthplaces in the 1996 population census are mildly interesting- nearly half a million out of a total Aus population then under 18 million were born in south-east Asia; a quarter-million in north-east Asia; over 100,000 in Africa (and of course well over a million Poms).

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What's the breakdown for that? How many of that number are ex-colonials (i.e., whites) from So. Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc., who moved to Oz?

No table for that- but I think your instinct is very likely to be correct. On closer inspection, however, I see that I missed another 40,000 from north Africa (who are listed alongside 150,000 from the Middle East) and another table shows over 160,000 people speak Arabic some of the time- no African language gets a listing, which suggests very small numbers for Swahili, Yoruba etc. would have to be in the 430,000 "other" language speakers. As you'd expect, the commonest languages are European (including nearly 45,000 Maltese, and 70,000 Macedonian) and east Asian.

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