Glaisek says the facilities locations have been dubbed "the X" as they cross from Northern Manhattan to Staten Island and North Jersey to Brooklyn. "We propose dedicated ferries to transport the athletes and officials only to and from the Olympic sites," he explains. The development of the new ferry docks would be primarily on the East River, and many he says would be left as a "high-speed ferry system."
NYC2012 hopes this and other elements will be a "revitalization catalyst" for the East River. "The East River was boating dependent, therefore predominantly industrial," he says. "We propose to create a linear park system that will set the tone to make the area desirable for residential development."
Mass transit would be expanded and Glaisek says this would be a "public transportation" Olympics. "We propose to extend the 7 Line subway to 33rd Street and 11th Avenue," he adds. "We propose a new Metro North station, bringing Amtrak's Empire Line down to 11th and 10th Avenues, opposite the Javits Center and a special purpose LIRR station there."
Glaisek notes that facilities for amateur athletes have not kept pace with those for professionals in the city and the committee hopes many of the sites it proposes to create for the games will remain after the Olympics. Perhaps the biggest development proposed is the construction of the Olympic Stadium.
Glaisek acknowledges the controversy surrounding the proposed West Side Stadium. He residents of Hell's Kitchen oppose it, a stadium that seats at least 80,000 is mandated, and the plans are part of a bigger picture for the West Side of Manhattan. He says no facilities exist here that are big enough. He's quick to note that none of the other competing US cities have a stadium adequate yet either.
"A football stadium comes closest, but its field is half that needed," he explains. "We're working on a convertible stadium that could function as either." The plans also call for the expansion of the Javits Center there. "It really needs to be enlarged," Glaisek says. "We'd like to expand it to the north and south."
The committee sees this all as a "nexus for development." He adds, "An 8 and a half-acre public park is planned for over the mass transit too." NYC2012 believes "new commercial and residential development will take place around the site," following the development. They are hoping to help finance the development on this belief. "We hope to capture the increased value and capitalize on future transferable property rights and sales to float bonds," he explains.
Facilities plans require juggling land acquisition, lease-type deals and use of state land. "Many of the facilities are in public parks," he says. "The Astoria Pool, for example, was built in 1936 and the city's Parks Department has wanted to renovate it, but not had the resources. We're proposing to do that and then return it to the community."
He adds, "With the exception of the Olympic Village, there's not that much that's on private land, and in those cases we're working to partner with the owners." The Olympic Village is proposed for Queens West on the East River. The proposal includes a total of 4,400 apartments.
"Our entire budget," he notes, "takes into account the fair market value of land. While we haven't figured what our mechanism would be for acquiring land we needed to buy, we've chosen sites where this really isn't an issue in most cases. We also have 200 other possible sites examined in case any fall through."
While the city is hoping for the development to take place without problems, as Glaisek says NYC2012 is predicting $11 billion will be generated for the city, $3.3 billion of that in "pure revenue," he says they don't want their plans to impede development by others. "Life goes on and we don't want to hold back anyone from developing their sites because we're eyeing them for the Olympics. The Olympics should not delay development in our opinion."
An evaluation team will be sent to each of the competing cities over the summer and possibly again in September. A shortlist will be created and possibly additional visits will be made. The US candidate will be announced in October 2002. Then the International city will begin its review process and a final decision will be announced in the fall of 2005.
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