New York’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games has overcome a major hurdle with the authorization by the New York State Legislature Tuesday for the expansion of New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which would be the venue for six sports competitions if New York becomes the host city for the 2012 Games.
The Legislature’s authorization of the Javits Center expansion is the sixth step of the ten-step public review and approval process that is required before construction on the project can begin.
At the European Olympic Committee meeting last week in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the New York delegation guaranteed that New York would have all steps of this process approved and construction underway before the IOC convenes in July to select the 2012 host city.
The $5.5 billion West Side Redevelopment encompasses a 59-square-block area on Manhattan’s far West Side and includes the New York Sports and Convention Center, which would serve as the Olympic Stadium, the expansion of the No. 7 subway line which would be a central artery of transportation to Olympic Venues, and an extensive system of parks and greenways which would serve as the Olympic Square and Olympic Boulevard where visitors and participants could gather. The Javits Convention Center expansion would serve as the venue for fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling as well as the Main Press Center.
Meanwhile, London 2012 is looking for support from the city’s licensed taxi drivers in its bid for the 2012 Games. In an open letter to London’s taxi trade representatives London Mayor Ken Livingstone outlined the potential boost for cabbies that hosting the 2012 Games would provide. He said, “the taxi community has a major role to play in helping us get the British people behind the bid”.
The bid team said the Games would see 1.4 billion pounds invested in roads and that 22,000 people will arrive every hour at Heathrow throughout the event.
Drivers will be asked to fix “Back The Bid” stickers to their taxis, encouraging passengers to register their support for the bid by text messaging.
In his letter the Mayor said “we hope that London’s licensed taxi drivers will help us by encouraging that vast number of people they are in contact with to back this once in a lifetime chance of hosting the greatest show on earth”.
And finally, it seems that Paris’ bid for the 2012 Games hit its first snag Tuesday when environmental campaigners demanded to see IOC scrutineers over plans to extend the Roland Garros tennis centre. They claim plans to extend the tennis centre in order to build a new stadium will disfigure the Bois de Boulogne woods on the chic western side of Paris.
The Roland Garros extension was estimated to cost 277 million euros, with a dome for judo and badminton, which would cost 87 million euros. The protestors claim they have a cheaper alternative, which includes putting a sliding roof over the present centre court to replace the dome.
They deny they want to ruin Paris’ chances of winning the Games.
