Note that this article quotes large gobs of blather from politicians, but only one or two ordinary, tax-paying, subway-riding, library-using, parks-enjoying normal people.
I have not met any New Yorkers who thought this bid made any sense, except as a way to put city and state money into construction companies to build things nobody needs.
New York's Olympic Comeback Falls Short
By LARRY McSHANE
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; 10:28 AM
NEW YORK -- Standing in Rockefeller Center on a gray Wednesday morning, Nick Patrickas absorbed the bad news: New York's bid to host the Summer Games came up short. The weather fit his mood.
"Everybody seems disappointed," said Patrickas, a painter from Huntington, on Long Island, who came into Manhattan hopeful of a New York victory.
One month after their bid to build a $2 billion stadium on the West Side of Manhattan was torpedoed, city Olympic officials had their bid shot down in Singapore by the International Olympic Committee.
"I'm terribly disappointed," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who viewed the bid as a part of New York's recovery from the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "It was a unique opportunity for New York. ... I don't know what's going to happen down the road."
He and fellow delegates, clearly dejected at a post-election news conference in Singapore, said it was too soon to say whether the city would try for the 2016 Olympics, which stand a good chance of being awarded to the United States for the first time since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
A planned Rockefeller Center victory party Wednesday instead turned into an outdoor wake. A giant Jumbotron, used earlier to beam in a feed of the vote, carried a message of defeat: "Thank you New Yorkers for your support."
Leo Zuniga, 44, of Westbury, wasn't surprised by the result: "The other cities have a longer history of bidding for the games." New York was the second city eliminated, after Moscow. Eventually, London was crowned the home of the 2012 Games.
"I wish London well," Bloomberg said _ but then expressed hope that U.S. athletes would win every medal at the 2012 Games.
He and other delegates _ including New York bid organizer Dan Doctoroff and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton _ said they were not sure why New York fared so poorly.
"It's very difficult to analyze," Clinton said. "I'm not going to be looking into the minds of anyone who cast a vote."
Barely a month ago, it was unclear if the city would even make a presentation in Singapore. A bitter political fight ended with the scuttling of the planned stadium on Manhattan's West Side, once considered the key to New York's bid.
But the city moved forward with a revised plan featuring a less expensive stadium in Queens that would double as a replacement for Shea Stadium, current home of the New York Mets.
City Council member John Liu, a Democrat, quickly called for the city to mount a bid for the 2016 Games.
"Mayor Bloomberg and Dan Doctoroff deserve credit for saving the 2012 bid after the rejection of the West Side stadium," said Liu. "In the same way, they should persist in an effort to bring the Games to New York in 2016."
Bloomberg has said that crucial deals for public funding and land _ including the proposed Olympic Village site in Queens _ were valid only for the 2012 bid.
"I think this was our moment," Doctoroff said.
Peter Ueberroth, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said New York _ despite its energetic campaign _ would not gain any special status if it entered the race to be the U.S. candidate for 2016.
"We will have a new process for the next four years," he said. "We'll open it up."
