If there were an Olympic medal for acrimony, Boston would take the gold.
The debate over the city’s embattled bid to host the 2024 Summer Games has featured F-bombs at public hearings, shouting matches and online abuse in both directions.
Regardless of whether the bid advances, some say the venom and vitriol represent a new low in a city where political disagreement long has been a blood sport.
“This has been damaging to our discourse. It’s a wound to our civic morale,” said Ed Lyons, a Boston political activist whose arguments in favor of the Olympics have been met with profanity on social media.
“There’s no decorum. It’s all just so vicious,” he said. “I’m concerned that if it continues like this, I don’t know where we go next.”
Dismay at the tone of the debate cuts both ways.
Britni de la Cretaz, a social worker and member of No Boston 2024 — a spirited opposition movement — was at a recent public meeting in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood when a woman raising concerns about how the games might affect low-income residents was shouted down by a man who called her a “fucking piece of shit.”
No Boston 2024 condemned the hostile environment as “aggressive and threatening,” and de la Cretaz said she feared for her own safety.
“It makes for a really intimidating environment to voice how you’re feeling when you feel like you’re going to be attacked or heckled,” she said, adding that she has had to block people on social media, because they used nasty or abusive language.
Boston’s troubled bid got off to a rough start when skeptics questioned how much public money would be spent to bring the games to an already congested city, and it has foundered since.
Polls have shown local support at less than 50 percent. Last week, US Olympic Committee (USOC) board member Angela Ruggiero said the USOC was still vetting the bid and that there was “no guarantee” the city would be put forward as the US candidate — suggesting Boston could be ditched in favor of Los Angeles, which hosted the games in 1932 and 1984.
Boston organizers are to update the USOC on June 30, and that could decide the fate of the bid. The deadline is Sept. 15 to submit a final bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is to select the host city in 2017. Rome and Hamburg, Germany, also are declared bidders, and Paris and Budapest, Hungary, are expected to enter the race soon.
New revelations that a Boston Olympics likely would rely on substantial public funding touched off fresh squabbles. Boston Magazine obtained a copy of the presentation to the USOC showing the bid is not relying on taxpayer funding solely for security and infrastructure, as the organizers long insisted.
Inflaming all that is the massive bribery and corruption scandal engulfing FIFA, soccer’s world governing body. Boston 2024 cynics were quick to suggest the IOC might be cut from the same cloth.
Even so, the incivility is jarring — all the more so considering the debate centers on a global movement built around the concept of unity, said Ira Jackson, chairman of the Center for Civil Discourse at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
“Our better angels call upon us, if we’re going to retain our sense of coherence and community, to work hard at being more civil,” he said.
“We don’t necessarily all have to sing Kumbaya or play touch football together, but all of us need to listen to each other and understand one another’s fears,” he said.
Instead, some have likened the tension to court-ordered public school desegregation in the 1970s, which touched off a decade and a half of rage and racial violence as 18,000 students were bused to schools outside their neighborhoods.
Is the atmosphere now too toxic for the Olympic torch to burn over Boston?
Corey Dinopoulos, a cofounder of the Boston 2024 organizing committee who got the bid rolling three years ago, calls the tone “kind of depressing” for a world-class city with a chance to showcase itself.
“The city needs to calm down,” he said. “People are expecting a lot from the organization. We’re trying to plan for the next 15 years and that doesn’t happen overnight. I think everyone needs some manners classes.”
However, for Olympic Games opponents like de la Cretaz, it is about more than manners — it is about the future.
“People are asking questions because they care about our city,” she said. “If they didn’t care about the city, they wouldn’t come to the meetings.”
US track and field athletes have about four dozen pieces to choose from when assembling their uniforms at the Olympics. The one grabbing the most attention is a high-cut leotard that barely covers the bikini line and has triggered debate between those who think it is sexist and others who say they do not need the Internet to make sure they have good uniforms. Among those critical or laughing at the uniforms included Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku, sprinter Britton Wilson and even athletes from other countries such as Britain’s Abigail Irozuru, who wrote on social media: “Was ANY female athlete consulted in
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Former US Masters champion Zach Johnson was left embarrassed after a foul-mouthed response to ironic cheers from spectators after a triple bogey at Augusta National on Friday. Johnson, the 2007 Masters winner, missed the cut after his three-over-par round of 75 left him on seven-over 151 for 36 holes, his six on the par-three 12th playing a big role in his downfall. Television footage showed Johnson reacting to sarcastic cheers and applause when he tapped in for the triple bogey by yelling: “Oh fuck off.” Such a response would be considered bad form in any golf tournament, but is particularly out of keeping
Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan on Saturday won the men’s doubles bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, after they were bested by the hosts in their semi-final. The Taiwanese shuttlers lost to China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who advanced to yesterday’s final against Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzudin. The Chinese pair outplayed Lee and Yang in straight games. Although the Taiwanese got off to a slow start in the first game, they eventually tied it 14-14, before Liang and Wang went on to blow past them to win 21-17. In the second game, Lee and