It was announced today in The Province newspaper that, in addition to a previous request for businesses to close down during the 2010 Winter Olympics, streets will be forcefully closed down, making traffic impossible. Street closures are nothing new for Vancouver, where the roads are perpetually being dug up to reroute power lines, sewer, gas, etc. The bottom line is, if you're an area resident, and you were wanting to see the Olympics,you won't be able to get anywhere near the events. Cross-town traffic will have to be by foot. Bear in mind that certain events will be four hours away on a good day. It's the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics, after all. Vancouver and Whistler aren't as close to each other as that little hyphen would suggest. The Vancouver-Seattle Olympics would be just as reasonable.
The whole reason behind having the Olympics is to drive business and tourism. I don't see how that's supposed to happen if businesses are locked down like a penitentiary and tourists aren't physically able to get to any of the locations they might like to visit. Vancouver is a "walkable" city, if it wasn't for the scary crackheads forming a human barrier along East-Hastings St., the street everyone has to cross to get anywhere. That's not exactly encouraging for visitors with families.
So in addition to costing billions to host the Olympics, it will also cost BC millions, if not billions in lost business, during a national and global economic crisis.
What are the people of Vancouver supposed to do when the Olympics are on? Are they just supposed to sit home, watch TV, and eat canned food? What if they want to go out, or even go to work? Can they do normal stuff like that? They won't be able to. For weeks on end.
During that time, I imagine the crackheads will take over, led by David Suzuki, ala "Mad Max" style.
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