SFU dissects Olympic Village performance
Contact:
Doug McArthur, 778.782.5208, 604.786.0016 (cell), dmcarthu@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Doug McArthur, a Simon Fraser University professor in the School of Public Policy, agrees an upcoming public forum on Vancouver’s Olympic Village project puts the spotlight on another uncomfortable legacy of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
But McArthur adds the slaying of sled dogs and Olympic officials’ alleged ignoring of safety concerns about a deadly luge track in Whistler provide an important context for evaluating the once-lauded housing project.
SFU’s School of Public Policy, the Planning Institute of British Columbia and Think City, a Vancouver think tank, will co-sponsor What Can We Learn from the Olympic Village Debacle? The event takes place Tues. Feb. 22, 7-9:30 p.m. at the Segal Graduate School of Business.
“Organizers and planners predicted the games would give the Lower Mainland a long-term economic bounce, immortalize Whistler as a premier Olympic venue and turn athletes’ housing into a progressive condo development,” notes McArthur. “It was supposed to fill the desperate need for housing for middle-income residents.”
“Serious cracks emerging elsewhere in the Olympic legacy dream reinforce the importance of closely evaluating why the athletes’ temporary home for the games failed to become the well-planned waterfront community we wanted.”
McArthur, Vancouver developer Michael Geller, UBC Associate V-P Nancy Knight and Vancouver city councilor Geoff Meggs will form an expert panel that will try to answer several questions, a year after the games.
What went wrong with the Olympic Village project? What could have been done differently? What are the housing, planning and other policy lessons? How can the Olympic Village experience improve the way we do housing, development and planning across the Metro Vancouver region?
Vancouver journalist and blogger Frances Bula will moderate the forum.
Admission: $25. Students: $15.
Registration in advance is recommended as space is limited.
— 30 —