Toronto will host the 2015 Pan Am Games. But you wouldn’t know it from some of the reactions in the blogosphere.
Or, for that matter, reportage in the papers on the weekend raising money issues – as in, how the hell are we going to pay for all of this in a time of economic upheaval?
Fair question, but a little curious when those concerns are coming from the likes of energy and infrastructure minister George Smitherman since it’s the province which has been leading the charge for the Games.
Did I say George Smitherman?
Now that Smitherman has officially announced he’s running for mayor, he doesn’t want to look like a big spender. A little too late now, wouldn’t you say George, almost two years removed from the decision to get ahead with a bid?
And Furious George says he wants to usher in a new “post-ideological” age for city council. Yeah.
Chalk it up to political posturing.
But that’s politics for you in the Age of Pleasin’.
See David Miller. The Pan Am Games win had a little something to do with the city he and is allies on council have helped build. Would T.O.’s bid have been successful without Transit City and the planned waterfront development?
The damned if you do, damned if you don’t mayor gets no credit.
Not even the Star could muster a few crumbs for Miller. No. It was “great leadership from the premier and former premier” according to Bob Richardson (surprise, a Liberal) that put the city over the top. Undoubtedly.
Question is, will the Pan Am Games be a good thing for the city?
Not according to No Games Toronto.
“How can our government spend an exorbitant amount of our money on a one-time sporting event and then blame their funding cuts for desperately needed public services on the economic downturn?” asks Joeita Gupta, a spokesperson for the group.
Fair enough.
Miller has tried to turn the Games into a win-win, especially for priority neighbourhoods, in particular Malvern, which will benefit with community programs being planned for aquatics centre to be built at U of T, if all goes according to the mayor’s vision.
Right out of the blocks, Miller’s agitating for a rapid transit line to the proposed aquatic centre through Malvern.
For the working poor working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet, accessing rapid transit is crucial. But wannabe mayor Smitherman’s not on board. No money for that, Smitherman seems to be saying.
The Pan Am Games is not the Olympics, nowhere near the scale.
But if Smitherman’s narrow thinking is a hint of the mindset in the provincial cabinet, then we’re inviting the kind of legacy that has saddled other Games with financial costs and sports venues of little use save for the few.
The big fly in the ointment: plans for an athlete’s village on the West Don Lands.
The West Don Lands is a crucial piece of the waterfront puzzle.
Grand plans envisioned for the parcel, before the Pan Am Games came along, that Miller again, included a mix of residential and commercial development around a central park.
Athletes villages tend to be homogenous, dominated by one architectural style.
Will the promised affordable housing transpire? Over to you George. [rssbreak]
