2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Super-Thread

[nova9]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Plus, my personal experience with VANOC as a volunteer has been nothing but good. I am more inclined to believe that if they're treating us volunteers this well, they must be treating other people involved even better.

Are you sure? Aren't you just a paid mouthpiece for VANOC? They obviously don't give a poop about citizens so how could you claim to be a happy volunteer? Cornholio was in a meeting. He knows ALLLLL.

[crazyjoeda]

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[whatnext]

Originally Posted by cornholio

Yes she said that they are not selling the games to Vancouverites nor are local businesses or people their concern, their only concern is visitors, media and VIP's. You can believe me or not, I work in the shipping industry and I have no reason to lie. In the end you will find all this stuff out anyways. I dont want to be involved in this anyways, im just saying how it is.

Now im done with this topic, it can be nothing but trouble for me.

edit: no i cant show any evidence, this was strictly a business/union meeting regarding what will be happening during the olympics.

I'm surprised, you're surprised.

The IOC and hence their lackeys at VANOC are essentially accountable to nobody. Their "let them eat cake" attitude towards local business has been evident since their first jack-booted attempts to bust longstanding local businesses for logo infringement. Coupled with their arrogant "just tell people not to come downtown to work" nonsense reveals how out of touch the Olympic "movement" is with reality.

The whole sorry show will provide little long term benefit for BC. The speakers brought in to try and say otherwise are generally of two camps: Olympic groupies who follow the games around the way whores used to follow armies; or the people responsible for foisting the games off on other unsuspecting jurisdictions.

Toronto does't know how lucky they were to have lost the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by crazyjoeda

It looks like things will be alright. Lets hope for cooler weather and a big dump of snow in the 19 days.

Hmm. I would think maybe they should have waited longer before pushing some snow down.

Originally Posted by whatnext

IToronto does't know how lucky they were to have lost the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing.

And yet they keep trying. Recently awarded the Pan-Am games which will cost them over $1.4 billion (low, probably), and give them all of the necessary infrastructure and new buildings for another Olympic bid in 2020 or 2024.

Unsurprisingly, the East has their crazies, too. Who now have 6 years to try and be as useless and unsuccessful as 2010 protesters have been.

[jlousa]

I personally know that Vanoc has been consulting with local business and doing the best to help them out and avoid any ill effects. I work in a building just outside the red zone. Vanoc has bent over backwards to help us manage, sure there will be some disruptions but they are pretty minimal. They've met with us close to a dozen times over the last year. They have arranged a alternate loading zone for 90% of our daily deliveries, they have provided us access to their security network to register the 10% of our deliveries that require to drive thru the security zone. They have provided us parking permits for all our monthly parkers, the daily/hourly parkers that we will lose due to the games have been made up with Vanoc buying up those spaces for their own use. As one of the buildings most affected by the games I have nothing but positives to say about Vanoc. They have been completely accessible at every step. If you've had problems it's probably been issues with the management side of your building. My wife's work is in another redzone area and again they've had no issues except with a few contractors that are refusing to deliver to them, this isn't Vanoc's problem but the companys decision. I know her company is dropping Staples due to there refusal to deliver even though other office supply companys are willing and able to.

If you are in charge of managing your building then pm me and I can provide you contacts at Vanoc to help you our. Otherwise the complaints should fall on your management team.

[NetMapel]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

And yet they keep trying. Recently awarded the Pan-Am games which will cost them over $1.4 billion (low, probably), and give them all of the necessary infrastructure and new buildings for another Olympic bid in 2020 or 2024.

Unsurprisingly, the East has their crazies, too. Who now have 6 years to try and be as useless and unsuccessful as 2010 protesters have been.

Toronto had no chance of winning in 2008 anyways. It was a landslide win by Beijing. I know some Torontonians who blame Vancouver for killing their chance of an immediate re-bid though

[Yume-sama]

I didn't even mention that, guess who, is spearheading the anti-Pan Am games movement? The one, the only, professional d-bag and protester... CHRISTOPHER SHAW.

This is not good news to everyone. “You can expect to see more homelessness; you can expect to see people displaced,” says Christopher Shaw

“They’re going to start ramping up their security apparatus.”

The current budget for the Pan Am Games calls for $1.4 billion, plus an additional billion to pay for the Athletes’ Village. “For sure the number is vastly higher; they just don't want to tell people that,” says Shaw.

“They are hallucinating; they are lying to you through their teeth,” said Shaw upon hearing the number of officers to be deployed. He compares these figures to the 15,000 police officers, military and private security being deployed to the Vancouver Olympics, questioning why a similar event would require much less security.

The guy is a joke, who obviously does not really believe half of the stuff he says.



But I guess he needs another cause to extort now that 2010 is here, and will soon be over.

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by crazyjoeda

Thanks! It looks like they are going for broke since they are utilizing heavy duty Volvo construction dump trucks instead of your run-of-the-mill dump truck.

[flight_from_kamakura]

noticing this reminded me that i really ought to get out to the ubes. i haven't been out there forever.

http://www.joconl.com/article/id37235

Some University of British Columbia fields are being transformed into a staging area for the 2010 Olympic Games.

The Lord, Buck, Spencer and Osborne athletic fields, located south and west of the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre (also known as the UBC Thunderbird Arena), are being transformed into a staging and service area for staff, media, construction and operational vehicles during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are taking place February-March 2010.

[Denscity]

The Olympic torch came through here in Castlegar today!!

[giallo]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

I didn't even mention that, guess who, is spearheading the anti-Pan Am games movement? The one, the only, professional d-bag and protester... CHRISTOPHER SHAW.



The guy is a joke, who obviously does not really believe half of the stuff he says.



But I guess he needs another cause to extort now that 2010 is here, and will soon be over.

I appreciate that there are people looking out for the little man and all, but Chris Shaw is really annoying. He seems like the guy that would tattle to the teacher if you and your friends were having a cigarette just slightly on school property. Or he'd call the police on a house party because he wasn't invited.

Between City Hall and these guys, Vancouver is really going to have to work hard to shed its 'No Fun' image.

[Yume-sama]

Chris Shaw is not looking out for the little man, though. He travels around Canada (hell, North America, as he was part of the anti-Chicago 2016 movement) from big event to big event, trying to get in the papers and sell his book by being against everything, with nonsensical rants about the evils of the Olympics, Pan-Am games, etc. Even though both the Pan-Am and Olympics will be responsible for major social housing projects, he continues to rail how they will displace people (which is just silly in both cities) and will increase homelessness. Chris Shaw is out for himself, which is why he has now leeched on to Canada's next big event in Toronto, as the opportunity to extort 2010 is coming to an end, and he can't just slip away in to obscurity.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Olympic groupies who follow the games around the way whores used to follow armies

Wow..

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Chris Shaw is not looking out for the little man, though. He travels around Canada (hell, North America, as he was part of the anti-Chicago 2016 movement) from big event to big event, trying to get in the papers and sell his book by being against everything, with nonsensical rants about the evils of the Olympics, Pan-Am games, etc. Even though both the Pan-Am and Olympics will be responsible for major social housing projects, he continues to rail how they will displace people (which is just silly in both cities) and will increase homelessness. Chris Shaw is out for himself, which is why he has now leeched on to Canada's next big event in Toronto, as the opportunity to extort 2010 is coming to an end, and he can't just slip away in to obscurity.

If only he could stay in his UBC laboratory...

[crazyjoeda]

I find the whole anti-olympic nonsense to be quite sad. There are so many serious problems in this country and the world that people should but don't protest against; to see people waste there time and energy on something so frivolous is depressing. Even if you are blind to the benefit of the games and think they are a waste of money canceling them now would only cost more money.

For the most part the people causing trouble and being disruptive are doing so because they want to and are simply using the Olympics as an excuse, but I do respect the people who peacefully protest. People have the right to their opinion.

[sacrifice333]

those cypress pics are awesome! There may not be a lot of snow off piste, but there's more than enough where they need it... thanks in large part to their contingency plans. The grand stands look really cool!

people are never going to want to have the olympics in a winter climate again!

[canucks23]

^ Yay! thanks for the optimism

[WaxItYourself]

Originally Posted by crazyjoeda

I find the whole anti-olympic nonsense to be quite sad. There are so many serious problems in this country and the world that people should but don't protest against; to see people waste there time and energy on something so frivolous is depressing. Even if you are blind to the benefit of the games and think they are a waste of money canceling them now would only cost more money.

For the most part the people causing trouble and being disruptive are doing so because they want to and are simply using the Olympics as an excuse, but I do respect the people who peacefully protest. People have the right to their opinion.

yes they do have a right to their opinion however instead of protesting something that is going to occur anyways I would suggest they try and make this Olympics the best. The way to help out the economy, which they seem so mindful with, is to allow the province and the people out on the best Olympics in history. In order to bring people back you have to make their stay enjoyable and memorable. Having protestors at every turn ridiculing you because they don't like the Olympics or putting up banners and holding rallies where the fans and observers meet is shameful and I'm sure that will happen a few times during the games.

[mooks28]

As we get closer to the games, the anti-games people seem to have just lost it.

People are having fun? Oh no!

[WarrenC12]

It's pretty laughable to suggest VANOC will be giving people the cold shoulder. Consider that the world's media will be descending on the city, looking for other side stories to cover other than the events themselves. Clearly VANOC's PR department needs to work in over-drive the whole time.

Secondly on the weather, I think it will be fine. It seems like we always get a "false spring" here in Vancouver, and in fact it normally happens in early Feb, then we get "2 more months of winter" which is typically rain in town and snow in the mountains. It will be great. I'm getting more excited every day.