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Olympic Meltdowns
October 2nd, 2009

With Chicago losing its Olympics bid today, some New Yorkers are recalling our futile attempt to win the Olympics four years ago. That effort — and the accompanying push to build a football stadium on Manhattan’s West Side — was a key goal of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first term.

In her new book, Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power Politics, New York Times reporter Joyce Purnick reviews the missteps that led to the defeat for the mayor and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff.

While we don’t know what people in Chicago think about their city’s going for the gold, most New Yorkers — unlike Bloomberg and Doctoroff — had little interest in the Olympics. Purnick writes, “The very idea of staging the Olympics in New York drew yawns from people who feel no need for more excitement. … There was no excitement, no wellspring of support for it.”

Not understanding this, Bloomberg pushed ahead. “The stadium failure stands as Bloomberg’s greatest miscalculation and embarrassment. Doctoroff and Bloomberg misjudged not just the politicians but also ordinary people. The public did not want that stadium,” Purnick recounts. And they did not really want the Olympics much either

To read the excerpt on the Olympics, see Going for the Gold. Purnick is answering reader questions about Mike Bloomberg. If you have any questions for her, please submit them below.

By Gail Robinson on October 2, 2009, 12:37 pm
In category: Gotham City | No Comments »

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