2016 Olympics: Chicago Has No Chance

I was looking at the Olympic bid cities for 2016 and came to a realization, Chicago has no Chance at winning. Cities that are biding are: Chicago, Prague, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Baku, Doha and Madrid. I am personally betting on Doha or Rio de Janeiro, they are both in non developed countries that have never held the Olympics before and in regions that have never held them before as well. The Olympics should not go to Europe or North America, the previous 3 Olympics where held in those regions. It is true that the USA has not held the summer Olympics since 1996, but that does not matter, other countries have never held it.

Doha has a better chance at winning the summer Olympics than most people realize. It is the first bid from the Arab world that has a real chance, that helps a lot. It is also in a location that has never help the games, that should have a large impact. The city has also gained the support from its neighbours, which does not seem that large but will help in the voting process. They have also taken out their possible bids for the games as well. The city has held major regional athletic events in the past few years. And the city and region has a lot of Oil wealth that will not hurt the bid at all.

Rio de Janeiro has a good chance as well. They held the pan-american games and put it together and ran it, it was to be even better than the games in Winnipeg. It is also in a region that has never held the games, though there have been previous attempts.

It is time for the IOC to stop being dominated by Western powers and choose a location by what it can do for the world. I am sure that having the games in a developing world would do more to spread the spirit of the games than if the games were held in a western country. North America has held the games 5 time, Europe has held them 15 times. The games have only been in other areas 5 times. IOC let the rest of the world have the games, just once.

Near War in Latin America

Ahh yes I am commenting on one of the less pleasant aspects of our world. I understand that I am doing what I do not want the media to do.

So Columbia tried to stop FARC from continuing their actions in Ecuador this week, and of course this meant going beyond their borders and attacking FARC in Ecuador. This event has been viewed as a bad idea, and most governments stated that it was not a good idea. I say most because the USA supports their action. The incursion caused Ecuador and Venezuela to cut all diplomatic ties with the Columbia. They have in the past said that Columbia is a pawn of the USA, hence why the USA did the wrong thing again. Why did the USA not support Columbia so much, causing their insults to become more true.

FARC: I find that this organization has lost almost all of their support for the actions that they do. I think the that USA has too much power in Latin America but I do not support kidnapping people and selling drugs. It will be really hard for them to stop their actions but I feel they should rebuild and be reborn as another more peaceful organization.

Peterborough Train

The train to Peterborough from Toronto is one of the best public transportation decisions that the federal government has done in years, NOT. Come to think about it, it may be true. What has this federal government done for public transit, next to nothing. So if they are willing to put money into public transit then it would be a good change of heart. But the choice, could they be more wrong.

To begin with the train that went to Peterborough would not even fit with most people's standards of trains. They were cars that were self propelled, yes the train was around 3 cars long max. This means that only a few people were taking it when it was still in place, and VIA does not even really use that type of train anymore, it is not worth the investment. Along with that GO transit looked into if they should run trains, or even buses, to Peterborough. The study showed that they would not even make the money back if they only used buses. Did the federal government even look at the reasons why there were no trains going to Peterborough.

That gets me to my next point: it was political decision, nothing else. The minister of Finance just happens to live and run in one of the ridings that the train would go through. Why would the minister not support the local community by wasting tons of money. As well destroy people's positive view of public transit. This reminds me of the O-Train, another minister destroyed a real, viable public transit development because the minister did not like the local politicians. Why will the federal government stop interfering in the lives of the cities and instead help them, by funding and support.

Translink

While studying a started to look into the planning decisions of Vancouver. It was not a subject that would be tested on but it would have been knowledge that would be helpful in making informed answers. There were two issues that took me by surprise: Translink's Evergreen line and BC governments control issues.

To begin with Translink is the company that runs the public transportation system in the greater Vancouver area. It is in charge of the buses, seabus and the skytrain. They are currently in the stages of rapid growth, which is not completely under their control. The skytrain system is currently being expanded to the Vancouver Airport (Canada Line), mostly because of the Olympics. This is a needed improvement because over 500,000 people take that route daily. The Evergreen line is going to be a new skytrain route that goes to the Port Moody area. This route was going to be part of an earlier expansion but was too expensive, and was not done. Then recently there was talk of creating a LRT line, like street cars, to the area instead of expensive skytrain development. This was approved but then the provincial government decided to step in and change the plans. The route will now be skytrain and will start to be built after the Canada line is finished, this moves back the opening day by years. It causes the route to be in competition with the West Coast Express, commuter rail.

The provincial government is trying to control translink a little bit to much. If the company has gone through studies and realize that one way is going to work best, let them do it. The province of BC is trying to be a little too green and not realize that development should take time. They are also suggesting a skytrain that will go to UBC, currently only buses go through out much of that area. Translink is also going to have street cars that go through downtown Vancouver, which will be a interesting idea. Instead of that why not make a new link to the north shore that is only for public transit, it will make a bigger difference I am sure.

Don't get me wrong I like investment in Public transportation, money and development that is thought out. I think that some of these decisions will be looked back as a mistake. Costs will increase, prices will have to go up, ridership will go down, the system will suffer.