FEBRUARY
27,
2005 --
The
Evaluation Commission of the International Olympics Committee
(EC)
made a $3 million dollar visit to New York City, February 20-24,
to consider its bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
LPR was told by a source at NYC2012, the organization submitting
the New York City bid, that sponsors absorbed $2 million, with
NYC2012 providing the balance.
The 2012 site is to be selected on July 6. The cities competing
with New York are Paris, the current favorite, London, Madrid
and Moscow.
On February 21 and 23 the EC held meetings and heard presentations
at the Plaza Hotel, its New York City base.
On February 22 the
EC toured proposed venues in Queens and Manhattan, and
on February 24, it toured venues in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Staten
Island.
Venues are also proposed for The Bronx, including baseball
at Yankee Stadium,
but there was no indication from the EC schedule given to the
media that the group went to The Bronx. (Can we be sure there
will be a Yankee Stadium in 2012?)
A portion of the cost of the EC visit went to media hospitality,
including a reception at the Rainbow Room, February 20, lunch
at Christie's, the auction house, February 21, addressed by
the mayor, and an open
bar, February 22 in the media press room.
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The
Media Bar.
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The
working press - Amy Shipley, Washington Post, and George
Vecsey, New York Times.
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Media
contact with the EC was limited to a few photo opportunities,
until the February 24 press conference.
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Shana
outside the Queens Museum.
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February
22, for example, the media followed in the wake of the EC tour
of Queens venues. While NYC2012 Executive
Director Jay Kriegel briefed the media at the
Queens Museum, LPR spent some time with Shana, outside the museum, having decided
to drive with Shana to the tour sites, rather than take one of the three buses
provided to the media by NYC2012.
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Dennis
Davis drove one of the press buses. He also drives
visiting teams to Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees too,
of course, and also the Mets.
LPR is grateful to Mr.
Davis for his call of support on the February 23 LPRmobile
incident. This photo shows Mr. Davis at the wheel,
February 22, outside Madison Square Garden.
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Outside
the museum, LPR was given a copy of a letter calling the
NYC2012
proposal for an Olympics stadium on Manhattan's west side a "a
cost-busting urban planning nightmare," that was "arrogant,misguided" and
offering Queens as the site of the stadium for the 2012 Olympics.
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Ms.
Nawal El Moutawakel, IOC Evaluation Commission Chairwoman.
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Proposed
site of Olympic Stadium, on Manhattan's west side.
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NYC2012 has
picked a site on the west side of Manhattan for the 78,000 seat
Olympic Stadium, which, according
to
plans, would thereafter become a multi-use facility, including home to the
New York Jets football team, and owned by the Jets.
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Woman
holding NYC2012 flag
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Selection of
the stadium site was the major topic of interest for the media
during the EC visit, with Mayor Bloomberg and other government
leaders preferring
that
the site be settled prior to the July 6 selection of the 2012 Olympics city.
Such
action would, of course, turn the site over to the Jets even if the IOC did
not
pick New York for 2012.
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Carriage
horse and birds.
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Reporters also visited Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA National
Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, February 22, getting
a briefing from tennis great
Billie Jean King.
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Tennis
great Billie Jean King with the media at Arthur Ashe
Stadium.
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"Coach" Jay
Kriegel, NYC2012 Executive Director.
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International
and US gymnast Hall of Famer Bart Conner on the MSG
floor. LPR thanks Mr. Conner and his wife, gymnast
great Nadia Comaneci, for taking time, Feb. 23 to listen
to LPR's tale of woe, before going to the UN to speak
at the NYC2012 February 23 media lunch. From New York,
Mr. Conner and Ms. Comaneci went to Nagano, Japan for
the Special
Olympics World Winrter Games,
reporting to LPR that it is "great fun."
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George Vecsey
of The
New York Times on the MSG Floor.
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They also were
shown the site of the
proposed Olympics Village, opposite the United Nations on the East River.
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The
proposed Olympic Village site on the East River.
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Back on Manhattan,
the media was taken to Madison Square Garden where reporters were
invited by Mr. Kregel to shoot hoops on the Garden floor -- as the
EC had done earlier (LPR made one of two) and then went to the Peter
White studio on West 26th Street, overlooking the site of the proposed
Olympics Stadium. (Mr. White told LPR that his property taxes have
gone from $1800 to more than $90,000 over
the past five years.)
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Three
smiling people - IOC Member Els van Brieda Vriesman,
Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, IOC Evaluation Commission
Chairwoman Nawal El Moutawakel.
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The
New York City skyline with NYC2012 banner in front.
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Reporters had
a chance to photograph the EC, February 22, as it boarded a ferry
in Queens for a view of the city skyline and its return to Manhattan.
The New York City bid has athletes traveling by boat on the Hudson
River to the Olpmpics Stadium for the opening.
The media had no chance to learn, of course, if the EC was surprised at the present
lack of development on the east bank of the East River, opposite Manhattan.
February 23 for the EC started with presentations from government officials who
then briefed the media. LPR asked Congressman Charles B. Rangel if there is consensus
on the stadium site and the Congressman answered, curtly: "I support whatever
it takes."
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Rep.
Charles Rangel
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LPR then left
to return to the LPRmobile to drive Shana home, before the next lunch
for the press, at the UN.
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LPR
took a photo of a work for sale by the artist Matthew
Brzostoski.
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Walking back to
the car, LPR got a photo of a work sold by the painter on the Madison
Avenue sidewalk, and then, going to the car, on the avenue's soutwest
corner at 65th Street, LPR found a cab parked where the LPRmobile had been --at
an hour meter. The car was taken with Shana inside.
In Mayor Bloomberg's New York, when a car is missing, the presumption should
be that it has been seized by a Parking Violations tow, or a city marshal executing
a judgment that may not have a court or judge's name on the seizure order.
And LPR learned, nearly two hours later, through the efforts of Laz Benitez of
NYC2012, and Lt. Eugene Whyte of the public information office of the NYPD, that
the car was at a marshal's pound, in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, with
Shana inside.
While LPR was at the briefing given by Mayor Bloomberg, Congressman Rangel, and
Gov.Pataki, the city took the LPRmobile and Shana away.
Consequently, LPR missed the lunch at the UN, hosted by former ambassador Richard
Holbrooke. Instead, LPR got Shana, who was okay, and, a bit later, the LPRmobile.
Thursday, LPR attended a briefing given in the morning by Peter Ueberroth, chairman
of the United States Olympics Committee, and the press conferences, that evening,
of the EC and then of NYC2012.
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USOC
Chairman Peter Ueberroth
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Mr. Ueberroth,
who headed the Los Angeles games in 1984 and was later baseball commissioner,
thought the fact that New York had never hosted
the Olympics might
be in its favor for 2012.
The media guide for the EC visit notes that it is expected 9 million visitors
would attend the 2012 Olympics in New York, and that the IOC would get more than
$150 million.
During the EC press conference, LPR asked Chairwoman El Moutawakel her reaction
to "The Gates." She called them "beautiful," and noted that
Jeanne-Claude is from Morocco -- the chairwoman's
country.
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"The
Gates" exhibit in Central Park.
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The EC toured
part of The Gates, without
notice to the media, and apparently met Christo and Jeanne-Claude for the tour
and also at Mayor Bloomberg's dinner for the EC, at his East 79th Street residence,
February 23, following a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time Warner
building.
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Ed
Hula, founder and editor of the sports website: Around
the Rings.
Mr. Hula came up to LPR, February 24, to inquire about Shana, having
heard about the February 23 incident. LPR thanks Mr. Hula, here shown
asking a question at the EC press conference.
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Mayor
Bloombeg, at the concluding IOC Evaluation Commission
press conference.
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At the NYC2012
press conference, LPR asked Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, founder
of NYC2012, if the organization will continue, should the IOC not
select
New York for 2012. He was noncommittal.
LPR offered the question in view of the Wednesday experience, convinced there
should be some effective group to whom
ordinary citizens can turn for relief from the hard fist of New York City.
On Wednesday, police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly briefed reporters, while LPR
awaited word on Shana.
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NYPD
Commissioner Ray Kelly.
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There is no indication
if the commissioner was asked about detentioin facilities for persons
arrested, the numbers expected to be arrested if the games are held
in New York -- and the number of persons expected wrongfully to be arrested as
well.
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Bill
Bradley
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At a lunch
for reporters, February 22, at the Waterfront Crab House, former
Olympian,
former U.S. senator and former basketball star Bill Bradley reminisced
about his experience playing the Russians in the Olympics -- and
beating them. He also said that athletes must have "discipline,
courage and resilience."
LPR learned, within 24 hours, that this advice has far-wider application.
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A New York Triumph
The Gates: Symbol of Freedom and Friendship |
FEBRUARY
27, 2005 --
Long
before the incident of Wednesday 23, LPR concluded that "The
Gates" have the color of the "orange alert" envelopes that accompany PVB summonses.
(University
of Tennessee fans might see their team's color in "The
Gates.")
Even
before the LPRmobile was seized, LPR regarded "The Gates" as
protest against the thousands of PVB summonses that afflict drivers
in
New York every day -- as if the city had this as its motto: To every
driver a summons, to every car a tow.
Mayor Bloomberg, introducing Christo and
Jeanne-Claude, to the media, February 11, at the Metropolitan Museum,
noted that they had sought to put" The Gates" in Central
Park for more than a quarter of a century, and noted that their
accomplishment showed that perseverance succeeds.
(Perhaps it also did not hurt that the mayor is a friend of Christo
and Jeanne-Claude and has purchased
their artwork.)
Thank you Christo and Jeanne-Claude for your magnificent contribution
to New York.
LPR is aware that you have disclaimed any intent beyond creating
a work of art.
For LPR, you have provided a symbol of
freedom and friendship. For LPR The Gates represents "communion
of interests and sympathy of sentiments" with the people.
From February 12 to February 27, in Central Park there were so
many smiling Gates -- and so many smiling faces.
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