Obviously you've never heard of ROI idiot. Time to move along and do some learning. You can't look at things from one side of the coin Sean. Look at it from both perspectives. Why don't you mention that the Convention centre booked some big conventions. Ones it could not have at it old size. Mention the spin-off benefits there, the jobs created, hotel rooms booked etc.. Oh right you don't like to work, everything should be free.

You guys seem to be pro transit, yet Canada Line was a bad idea. Down Arbutus, eventually there will be something down there, but there isn't the density and the concentration of businesses along Arbutus.

Go back to rolling burritos at a hipster joint or better yet back to Surrey, your true home. Thanks.

To be fair, Sean and Morning Brew is the other side of the coin. You need two teams in tug of war to make the whoe thing work.

And he does make some good points, if the grossly miscalculated costs of the games, the misrepresentation of those costs, and the bail-out of the Athlete's Village were all actions done by a public corporation, there would be calls for executive resignations, a furious board of directors, and shareholders bemoaning ugly capital losses.

Thus far, it's beena comedy of errors. But the games haven't even started yet. We don't know the long-term effects of these games, and probably won't until well after 2010. Personally, I'm still divided.

But there's no point in even arguing with Sean because he's just an ideologue. He may introduce some good points, but he's totally unwilling (incapable?) of recognizing upside in anything he's emotionally opposed to, and reacts to legitimate counter-points with the snide sarcasm of a someone who can only espouse an opinion. He's incapable of debate.

And what you do for a living or where you're from shouldn't matter, there's 10 million Americans with no job at the moment, does that mean their opinions are irrelevant?

I think this is an easy argument to have....

Those of us (myself included) who have been fighting against having the Olympics can whine and moan from here on out about all the crappy things that happen to us and our communities such as raised taxes and losing crucial community and city services...

Those of you who are pro-Olympics and get upset and defensive every time one of us opens our mouths or waves a sign get to say nothing, nada, no complaining, as your taxes increase during a recession where unemployment rates rise to unbelievable heights and crappy one bedroom rentals rise well above the thousand dollar mark. That means, later, years from now, never ever ever....

If you like the Olympics, thats awesome, enjoy the games! but from here on out you never get to complain about any of the issues in this city and province that are by-products of holding this event.....

We'll never even say "I told you so", we'll just agree to this and happily go on living our lives. Sounds fair to me....

The convention centre was a mistake - the industry has been in decline for a decade(s) and it's not lack of space. This doesn't even account for the 'age of the internet'...

A good piece on it all (from '05 no less):
http://www.straight.com/article/think-vancouver-convention-centre-ii-boon-or-boondoggle

Vancouverite, (catchy moniker by the way, very original) why would you waste your time reading a blog published by an idiot? Too much time on your hands perhaps?

The other side of the coin is the 'official line' we already know that. What we need are more dissenting opinions and some reality mixed into the debate.

Gary Mason is very disingenuous with his harping over the Guardian story. I read the story a few days ago. From my perspective I thought it was quite accurate. I think the Globe would have been proud of itself for publishing a story like that if it had been writing about an Olympic venue outside Canada.

Your comments regarding the Canada Line are non-factual.

1) Translink never went bankrupt.
2) The Evergreen line was never cancelled.
3) Whatever financial stress Translink is under, it was certainly not by prioritizing the Evergreen Line over the Canada Line. Translink committed $400 million to Evergreen and only $334 million to the Canada Line. If the ordering of those projects were flipped, Evergreen would be a much greater financial stress. This is compounded by the fact that Evergreen has a lower projected ridership of 70,000 (in 2020!). Canada Line is already pushing 120,000 on peak days.
4) Inflated ridership number? The actual ridership is 3-4 years ahead of projections. That's a lot of vehicle trips and greenhouse emissions saved.

The need for balancing opinions is certainly valid, but by publishing fictionalized facts you are just pretending to be a journalist.

" let's pretend they're not spending a billion on security, only to harass local activists. "

Right, it has nothing at all to do with, oh I dont know, keeping people safe. I am sure with a $10 security budget things would have gone off without a hitch.

Not to say that they didnt completly blow the budgeting of it, but to say "only to harass local activists" is a huge stretch.

There's only an upside to the Olympics if your thing is economic progress and the commodification of BC's resources. For most people, it's a waste of money and a step backwards. We could have spent the money we have so far on the Olympics on much more necessary things. That much is obvious. But the weirdest thing about these games is that most people I know aren't attending them, so we're closing down our city so a bunch of tourists can have a party at our expense and then hopefully invest in the raping and pillaging of BC afterwards. Bah. The whole thing is absurd.

This just shows that folks in Vancouver doesn't have an elementary grasp of arithmetic. (case in point, the uber moron poster, "Vancouverite" actually believing on ROI on this disaster. Talk about being a 12 year old for rest of your life!)

Enjoying footing the bill for corporate games and orgies starting in a few days.