Just two years ago, Boston was in the middle of one of the most epic showdowns in the city’s history—whether or not we should host the 2024 Olympic Games. In January 2015, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced Boston would be the U.S. entry. With that came seven months of selling, debate, protest and rowdy meetings around the city.
A new group formed in opposition called No Boston Olympics. Then, suddenly, on July 27th, Mayor Marty Walsh announced the bid was over. The speed and timing of the announcement was a shock to nearly all involved, but the road to that day was a long and winding one. Now, it’s the subject of a new book called “No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch.”
Jim was joined by the book’s authors, Chris Dempsey, who is also a co-founder of the No Boston Olympics group and now director of Transportation for Massachusetts and Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College, who also wrote the book “Circus Maximus — the Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and World Cup.”
