Olympic Games: the tiger raffle?

Every morning, along with millions of users, my children and I board Parisian public transportation with uncertainty.

It is rare that a work week goes by without one of the subway, commuter, bus or tram lines that we take not suffering one or more incidents: from technical problems to service interruptions caused by a forgotten package, which activates a demanding security protocol. security, or by a passenger who is unwell due to crowding at rush hour.

The question that many of us ask ourselves is: how is a city unable to adequately ensure the movement of its own inhabitants going to accommodate the millions of passengers added during the Olympic Games that will be held this summer?

Along with security (the current alert level in France is “reinforced security – risk of attack”), transportation has become the Achilles heel of Olympic Paris.

“We have an obsolete network.

At least eight out of ten lines are no longer in a position to provide a quality public service,” said Jean Castex, former prime minister and current president of the RATP (Autonomous Paris Transport Regime) last December.

In addition to the structural deficiencies of an aging metro and commuter network, there are delays in the construction of two new metro lines that were expected and the lack of personnel in the network, from drivers to technicians, who ceased their activity due to the prolonged closures decreed during the pandemic.

The problem is especially serious given that the competitions will take place in 13 different intramural venues and another 12 extramural venues.

What should be an advantage, taking advantage of the existing sports infrastructure throughout the city and its surroundings, implies that millions of attendees will need to travel daily from one point to another.

Although the Games will be held during the summer holiday period, when it is estimated that between 30% and 45% of its usual residents will leave Paris, there will be “a base of five million daily users to which will be added daily about 500,000 spectators of the Games,” according to data published by the newspaper

Les Echos

.

The authorities have started an awareness campaign in which they ask Parisians to work from home during the Games and to

anticipate

and

adapt

their trips.

Perhaps it is not surprising that enthusiasm for the Games has plummeted in recent months: already last November, almost one in two residents in the Île-de-France region viewed the reception of the Olympic event as something negative.

In an open letter to the competent authorities, hoteliers and restaurateurs have reacted to the recent campaign as “anxiety-generating” and “defeatist”: what should be a collective celebration is looking more and more like a confinement of the local population.

Paris is an Olympic city for the third time since the Games were reinstated in 1896 at the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The challenges facing the French capital are not exceptional and there is much to learn from previous experiences in organizing this type of mega-events.

There is quite a consensus that the key to successful Games is planning, not only of the event itself, but of its legacy in the medium and long term;

more than the budget.

However, Olympic budgets have skyrocketed in recent decades.

When celebrating a Games, a universal exhibition or a World Cup, cities seek at least three things: attract tourism and investment, expand and improve urban infrastructure and, in symbolic terms, place themselves on the global map.

If the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 are often evoked as a success story, it is because it is perceived that these three things were achieved.

The urban remodeling works undertaken in the years prior to the event served to modernize the city, opening it to the sea and creating spaces and infrastructure that still survive.

Together with the Universal Exhibition in Seville, the Games were part of the launch of the young Spanish democracy and turned Barcelona into a world tourist reference.

Not everything was smooth sailing, but the contrast with some later experiences such as the Athens Games in 2004 or those in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and their poor planning is notable.

In both cities, most of the sports infrastructure quickly fell into disuse, becoming the feared

white elephants

—expensive-maintenance swimming pools and stadiums—for which no authority wants to take responsibility.

In the case of Athens, some experts attribute the financial crisis that Greece suffered from 2009, at least partially, to the extra cost of insufficiently planned Olympic works.

Many cities take advantage of the organization of macro events to rehabilitate

sensitive

or apparently disused areas, seeking to provide them with better housing, services and transportation.

However, it is not uncommon for there to be a considerable gap between the improvement objectives that appear on paper and the results achieved in practice.

Plans to redevelop a vast area of ​​London's East End to house the Olympic Park for the 2012 Games promised the construction of 30,000 to 40,000 new affordable homes

.

The promise was never honored, nor was the impact of the renovations on the existing urban fabric considered.

For Juliet Davis, author of

The Caring City , who documented the area before the works, a logic of

tabula rasa

was applied ,

expelling vulnerable local residents and merchants, instead of protecting and reintegrating them.

In Beijing, geographer Hyun Bang Shin reveals, thousands of rural migrants who made a living from street stalls and other informal activities were expelled from the city before the 2008 Games. It is also known for the resistance that its residents put up against be relocated, the case of the Vila Autódromo favela in Rio, demolished to facilitate access to the Olympic facilities.

Based on these experiences, the perception has been spreading that the Olympic Games, as they have been held in recent decades, are not such good business for cities.

In the bidding for this year's, three cities withdrew their candidacies, leaving Paris and Los Angeles as the only finalists.

In an unprecedented move, the IOC suddenly awarded the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles, the only candidate for them.

In response to this lack of candidates, the IOC has reviewed the bidding process, trying to reduce its competitive aspect, which favored the most ambitious and expensive plans, democratizing the process by requiring the venues to hold a citizen referendum

prior

to the presentation of its candidacy and seeking to reconcile the existing urban improvement plans in the cities with the demands of Olympic infrastructure.

Although the Olympic Games can be a catalyst for urban improvements, like any public policy, they must be played in favor of a majority of citizens, focusing on their daily well-being, including their travel possibilities.

Hopefully Brisbane, which was selected for the 2032 Games with the new IOC criteria, will usher in a new era.

If Madrid and Barcelona aspire to celebrate 2036, the matter directly concerns us.

Olivia Muñoz-Rojas

has a PhD in Sociology/Cities from the London School of Economics and an independent researcher.

oliviamunozrojasblog.com

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