2024 Olympics sought by DC: the Eviction Games?

On the 9th of June, the Washington Post reported that DC is again seeking to host the Summer Olympics, this time in 2024. The bid to host the 2012 Olympics was defeated after protesters disrupted an Olympic Selection Committee event with a smoke flare and heckled the Committee at the grand reopening of the Wilson Building the next day.

As I write this, police in Brazil have staged a series of house raids and pre-emptive arrests seeking to disrupt massive protests against the World Cup, which has brought police occupation of favelas near the stadium and is opposed by 70% of the Brazilian public.

Last time DC was seeking to host the Olympics was 2001-2002, seeking the 2012 games. During the campaign to prevent former mayor Williams from closing DC General hospital, an Olympic map was discovered showing an archery range where the DC General building still stands. There was widespread belief that the Olympics would have brought a wave of housing demolitions, displacement, gentrification, and highway building to the city. They always do. The passage of the Olympics always leaves abandoned stadiums and thousands made homeless or otherwise displaced in its wake.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that this Olympic bid be stopped just like the last one was. The Olympic Selection Committee should not consider themselves any more welcome in DC now than they were in 2002, when they were hammered by protesters and DC was shortly therafter mysteriously removed from consideration for the Eviction Games.

Speaking of eviction, I saw an ugly site while descending a hill towards 14th st yesterday: a newly evicted family guarding their posessions while a condo building loomed in the background on 14th st. Expect to see a lot more of that if the Eviction Games set their sights on DC for 2024!