Joyce...
I'm with Neville.
This area is so over-populated already -- I'm hesitant to celebrate too much
until I know what impact the Games are going to have on the environment and
my pocketbook as a taxpayer.
My home state of Colorado was the only US state to vote down hosting the Olympics...the story is at < http://www.denver-rmn.com/millennium/1012stone.shtml> The vote occurred in 1972 and stopped the hosting of the 1976 Winter Olympiad.
In the end, the vote did nothing to stop the rapid pace of development and environmental destruction in Colorado. What developers want, developers and their big money usually get. I attribute the anti-Olympic vote to the strong influence of then lawyer-activist, later state Governor Richard Lamm.
Eventually we moved to Oregon a progressive state known for its pro-environmental leanings and controlled growth attitude. I was able to get a close-up look at the developers who have turned Bend into a 'boom town', and I've never witnessed a more relentless, deep-pocketed, politically coercive bunch of people.
Polite apologies if I am describing the way you make your living...but not big apologies.
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
"While I can perform the odd small miracle, I only heal the sick not raise the dead..." - Anonymous
