On day one of the USOC tour of Cincinnati to evaluate the city’s chances to be the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Games, the inspection team was driven by bus to Cinergy’s corporate office in the city’s downtown where members of the Port Authority made a presentation on the $1 billion riverfront development and the planned neighbourhood known as The Banks.
The group toured the riverfront, making stops at Sawyer Point, Yeatman’s Cove and the western riverfront, where two temporary facilities and the main Olympic Stadium would be constructed.
But there is a coalition that has urged a boycott of travel and tourism to Cincinnati in protest of what it says are unmet promises of racial equality. They are concerned about further development along the city’s riverfront.
The Rev. James Jones, chairman of the coalition, said the Olympics would allow the rich to thrive while the poor continue to be ignored.
On a bus trip through the downtown area, the committee will be exposed to hotels and the convention centre, before the motor coach heads north on Interstate 71 through the campuses of Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati, than on to Bond Hill.
The group will then tour Princeton High School, the site of proposed archery and cycling facilities; and go north to Dayton, where it will visit Wright State University and stop by Moraine, Ohio, to meet officials who have agreed to build a softball complex.
