Nick Vehr, former city councilman and president of Cincinnati 2012, a lobbying group for the 2012 Olympic Game, said that Cincinnati’s bid faces an uphill battle following April’s race riots.
Vehr said, “we cannot act as if nothing happened. If we ignore it, it makes our bid that much harder. This city, in fact this whole area, has to respond with the social changes that will make the healing permanent”.
Cincinnati is competing with seven other U.S. cities for the 2012 Summer Games.
Vehr said he didn’t want to over-emphasize the challenge Cincinnati faces from the riots that ravaged the city during the second week of April. “We have to treat this as an historic and significant moment in Cincinnati’s history toward producing the kinds of social changes that will make this a very attractive city for the 2012 Games. If we do that, every last person living in this area will benefit”.
USOC officials are scheduled to visit the Cincinnati area for four days beginning July 23 to inspect the city’s plan for the Games.
Vehr said, “we figure we already have existing facilities for 78 per cent of the veneus we will need for the Olympics — which should put us in very good shape versus the cities competing with us”. He realizes that it has become more difficult to obtain substantial financial help from the city, which now faces staggering expenses as an outgrowth of the riots.
“But we already have received tremendous logistic support from city departments and expect much more in preparing our bid”, he said.
So far, businesses and private donors have pledged more than $5 million to promote the Olympic bid with another $2 million yet to be raised.
