Vancouverites to go to polls about Olympics
Gerhard Heiberg, the head of the IOC’s evaluation commission, said recently that it would be hard to award the Games to a city unless most of the population actually wanted them. Polls have shown that Vancouver residents support the Olympics, although anti-Games forces are now cranking up their efforts. Vancouver and Whistler, which would host the skiing events, are considered the front runner among the three candidate cities.
Salt Lake City to invite the Olympics for lunch again?
PARK CITY, Utah – A year after hosting the Olympics, Park City remains aglow with the pomp and circumstance. The Park Record (Feb. 8) mistily likens the event to Brigadoon, the mythical Scottish town that existed only one day every 100 years.
Why wait 100 years? Already there is talk of seeking the Olympics again, perhaps as early as 2018. That assumes Vancouver/Whistler get the games in 2010, which means 2014 would be on another continent.
Boosters say the infrastructure is already in place, and they also point to what the Olympics do to a resort area’s economy. Despite marginal snow conditions this winter in Park City, the slopes are plenty busy. Marketing materials carefully note Park City’s now historic Olympic tradition.
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Three cities have hosted Winter Games twice: St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948; Lake Placid in 1932 and 1984; and Innsbruck in 1974 and 1976. It should be noted that Innsbruck was drafted for the 1976 competition only after Denver pulled out in 1972.
Park City unlikely to oppose war with Iraq
PARK CITY, Utah – The Park City Council is resisting calls for a resolution in opposition to a war against Iraq absent strong international support.
Although there was no resolution to vote up or down, the council is disinclined to consider one, reported The Park Record (Feb. 8). Council members suggested that such a resolution might go against the beliefs of some city residents, while others questioned whether a resolution would do any good. Mayor Dana Williams said he thought such a resolution would damage relations between Park City and Utah’s largely Republican congressional delegation.
“Park City has gone a long way over the last year to increase our relationship with our representatives in Washington,” he said, noting that the city wants federal money for water projects and continues to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up remnants of the city’s mining history. “I’m wary of jeopardizing things like that.”