The Boston 2024 Olympic bid is no more, but its legacy is only getting underway. For the residents who opposed the bid in a citywide majority, it’s a moment for celebration. That said, the celebratory hour passes quickly, and the reality of Boston remains. In many ways, the city is (as both proponents and opponents of Boston 2024 asserted) world class.
Yet the city and state’s problems persist. What Boston Olympic opponents undoubtedly believe is that defeating the bid has given the region a chance to truly grapple with those problems, instead of seeing precious resources diverted to hosting a mega-sporting event. Now, together with their former adversaries, opponents of the bid must work toward solving some of the regional issues. In doing so, they can help to ensure that the opposition victory over Boston 2024 was not a hollow one.
In the effort of defeating Boston 2024 (a bid that was equipped with some of the most conventionally powerful people in the city), the Olympic opponents formed a very broad coalition. This was obvious from the first community meeting of No Boston Olympics in January.
“I ran for office as a Tea Party Republican. Let me tell you, this is an issue that will unite left and right,” declared a prescient George Boag at the First Church in Boston. His words ring particularly prophetic months later, as observers can now look at Boston 2024 in retrospect.
Now, as the bid is officially removed from the spectrum of Massachusetts politics, the all-encompassing cause that united opponents from all walks of life is also gone.
Thus, the challenge is only beginning for a post-Olympic scene. No Boston Olympics co-chair Chris Dempsey alluded to this in his final press conference with the highly successful organization on Monday afternoon.
“I think No Boston Olympics will go away,” Dempsey said. “Our organization was focused on opposing Boston 2024. At the same time, there’s been a lot of energy from Olympic opponents that should be turned into something positive. So we’ll have to figure out how to do that.”
That’s the hard part, in other words. “Figuring out how to do that” will be the (multi) million dollar question for Massachusetts.
And of course, the burden shouldn’t be on Chris Dempsey anymore than it is on any other private citizen.
The difficulty will be in keeping the united “left and right” (as Boag put it) together on fundamental issues. Notably, one of the largest issues was on full display as the USOC pulled Boston’s bid on Monday.
The MBTA experienced a power outage along several critical Green Line stops, as if to provide one last reminder to those on both sides of the Olympic discussion that the Boston 2024 debate was never just about hosting a sporting event. It was a wider discussion about infrastructure, and the city/state’s future.
After all, as was revealed in Boston 2024’s formally redacted “1.0” bid chapters, polling showed that the “single strongest message” to “bolster public support” was one that tied the Olympics to improving transportation and infrastructure:
The improvement we make to roads and highways, the T, and other regional transportation systems are vital to our economic future, and they will continue to benefit this region long after the Olympics are over.
That statement drew massive approval from residents, because it speaks to the fundamental issue that must be resolved in the long term, Olympics or not.
Though Boston 2024 will officially never happen, the Olympic-sized hole it leaves in uniting a diverse array of groups and interests will be a challenge to the community. The bid is dead, but the fight to accomplish the numerous projects that the opposition furiously argued “didn’t require the Olympics” is alive and well.
Image via No Boston Olympics
