Should Boston Host 2024 Olympics?

Alexandra Pigeon, Veritas Editor-in-Chief

The city of Boston, Massachusetts is one unlike any other. We are known for our accents, our funny phrases, our rude drivers, our top-notch colleges and universities and hospitals, our courage in the face of adversity, and, most of all, our love of sports.

Having been chosen as the bid city that the United States will submit to the Olympic Committee for the games in 2024, Boston has been given the chance to host the Holy Grail of sporting events. After beating out San Francisco, two-time Olympic host Los Angeles, and the nation’s capital Washington D.C., Boston now has to face tough competition from other cities of the world including Rome, Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul, and more.

City officials are thrilled at the chance to showcase all that Boston has to offer.

“This selection is in recognition of our city’s talent, diversity and global leadership,” says Mayor Marty Walsh. “Boston hopes to welcome the world’s greatest athletes to one of the world’s great cities.”

Governor Charlie Baker adds, “This is great news for Boston and the Commonwealth as it provides an exciting opportunity to promote Massachusetts on the world stage.”

Instead of seeing the small size of the city as a disadvantage, a new and improved kind of games is being conceived.

“Boston’s modest $4.5 billion proposal envisions a new Olympic model: a walkable, bikeable, sustainable Games that uses mostly pre-existing structures. This compact city of 646,000 plans a downsized, compressed, antisprawl Olympics,” commented a New York Times columnist.

While some disapprove of not creating an overly extravagant place for the Games to be held as most countries have done in the past, construction company CEO John Fish says, “A Boston Games can be one of the most innovative, sustainable and exciting in history and will inspire the next generation of leaders here and around the world.”

However, even with this conservative approach, Boston would have to do a lot of building, creating, and renovating in preparation to host the 2024 Summer Olympics which, despite what skeptics think, could be a really great thing for the city.

There is actually a good amount of undeveloped or wasted space in Boston such as giant, open slabs of land or old, abandoned buildings and factories. Since architects can now very effectively re-purpose Olympic venues, they could not only be used for that but they could be turned into prettier, more useful buildings. We could even solve the shortage of indoor space in the city by turning these buildings into turf fields, courts, and more.

More benefits that would come with hosting the Olympics in Boston would be improvements in roads, bridges, and public transit. One of the main concerns Bostonians have is how congestion and traffic will affect the city during the games. But with these upgrades it will be worth it in the long run. Essentially, this would give Boston the perfect reason to change the city for the better.

Another factor that has people thinking about whether or not Boston should host the 2024 Olympics is the potential for terrorism. After the devastation of the Boston Marathon bombings from 2013, this is a legitimate worry. However, we are the people that shut a whole city down to find the bad guy. We are the people that came together to provide an incredible amount of support to those affected. We are Boston Strong. And we will not shy away from this wonderful chance because of terrorists.

Overall, Bostonians would be crazy not to embrace the opportunity of hosting something as important and exciting as the Olympic Games. It is very unlikely that Boston would have this chance again in our lifetime.

To see such amazing athletes perform at such a high level of talent in this elite athletic event is a rare and special occasion and we should take advantage of it.