New York 2012 announced plans Tuesday to use a site called Fresh Kills, once the home of the world’s largest landfill, as the venue for Olympic mountain biking and BMX competitions, if the city wins the 2012 Summer Olympic Games bid.
The competitions had been slated to take place at the Staten Island Greenbelt which was opposed by environmentalists, but the venue change will be part of New York 2012’s bid book to be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later this week.
The Fresh Kills project involves remaking the 2,200-acre landfill site, closed since 2001, into a public park with 30 miles of bicycle trails, 24 miles of walking paths, recreational boating and a running track.
The city said acceptance of its bid would speed up the project, partly because the private committee sponsoring the bid, NYC2012, has pledged $21 million to create the two competitions.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “should we be awarded the 2012 Olympic Games a deadline will be in place”.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg denounced two new television ads which appeared last week opposing the West Side stadium, which he said was essential to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that New York has the facilities to stage the 2012 Games.
He said the ads were “outrageous lies” and that they would wrongly imply that the city proposes to help finance the West Side project at the expense of pay raises for firefighters and police officers.
