The negative social impacts as a result of Vancouver hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics
Normally, the days in which the Olympic Winter Games occur are not usually public holidays. However, the government of the host city may carry out temporary traffic control measures, for example, road restrictions. Workers who are working in the host cities are allowed to take vacation to watch the Olympic Winter Games or become volunteers of the Game. Moreover, hotel reservation rate will also increase during the period of holding this Winter Olympics Games. Apart from this, tourist attraction sites will also become extremely busy (timeanddate.com, 2010).
Upon the holding of the Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver’s streets were full of various activities. The scene in streets of Vancouver can be described as surreal and magical. Everyone in Vancouver is watching the game whenever they can. People gathered in their living rooms, at bars and restaurants to watch the Olympic Game, screaming and cheering from time to time, causing a lot of noise within the city. It was reported that about 200,000 people descended onto the streets, resulting in all roads into the Downtown peninsula to be closed. A photo of madness could be seen in every street of Vancouver. Thousands of people travelled across streets of Vancouver to take part in the celebrations (Chan, 2013).
On the other hand, protesters and activist mobs tried to attract attention of the government. As a result, they decided to generate a violent rampage through inciting a riot across the city streets. As a result, during the period of holding the Winter Olympics Game, Vancouver streets experienced chaos since the protesters tried to catch the attention of the world’s audiences. They did so in order to get what they want and disrupted people’s enjoyment of the Olympic festivals (Chan, 2013).
The third aspect of negative social impact caused by the holding of the Winter Olympic Game lies in order to hold this Olympic Game, Vancouver city needed to build up more venues to the highest practical standards. The designing of these venues were required to convey multiple functions after the Games. As a result, the government needed to set up an inner-city job-training programme so as to enhance working capability of construction labor. Meanwhile, an auditing committee was necessary to be set up so that both national and international suppliers could ensure that they did not violate environmental, labor and safety laws (Maclean, 2009). In other words, extra effort was necessary to be made so as to increase working labor’s capability.
The fourth type of negative impact is that Vancouver needed to ensure safety of the public, visitors, athletes, and media and so on. However, Vancouver did not want to the security job to be overbearing. Thus, Vancouver further eroded human rights of citizens. The state government introduced special legislation for empowering the police and other security forces extra powers to question and search citizens in business district. Even worse, there may be an extended effectiveness and validity of these “temporary” measures in the long run after the holding of the Games (Lenskyj, 2010).
The fifth type of negative impact of hosting the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver lies in that financial costs will affect all tax payers. Policies regulated by the Vancouver government will affect all renters, including the poor homeless. First of all, cost of living will increase during the hosting of 2010 Winter Olympic Game in Vancouver since consumers and athletes will increase their demand for basic goods, for example food, resulting in price increases. City residents, both youth and adults may begin to seek employment before the Games. During the period of holding the Winter Olympics, prices for everything in restaurants will increase rapidly. Although in most cases, cost of living will return to normal after the Games, some restaurants will continue raise their prices a bit(Parkinson, 2010).
The sixth aspect of negative impact lies in that Vancouver will come in significantly over budget. Labor disputes, overtime pay for workers, mis-management, inflation and financial graft will also increase as a result. After the game, sports facilities may be more expenesive to get access to than initially anticipated. Furthermore, more accurate budget forecasting and careful management will need to be ensured so as to make the game under budget(Parkinson, 2010).
On the other hand, there are also some policies which have negatively affected renters, poor and the homeless. For example, the homeless people need to move to a shelter place so as to keey the city look tidy. Poorand homeless people were moved to the downtown, near those low-rent hotels and homeless shelters, making themselves highly visible to public media and tourists. It is embarrasing for affecting Vancouver city’s image. Prior to hosting of an Olympic event, the police will often make street sweep, forcing homeless people off the streets and out of the public view(Parkinson, 2010).
Administrator. (2010).Vancouver hosts winter Olympics in February 2010.Retrieved 4 March 2015, from:
http://www.timeanddate.com/events/winter-olympics-2010.html
Chan, K. (2013).Four years later, a reflection on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Retrieved 4 March 2015, from:
Lenskyj, Helen, J. (2010).Inside the Olympic industry: power, politics and activism. New York: Albany.
Maclean. (2009)."Vancouver's Olympics environmental and social impact. Retrieved 4 March 2015, from:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/vancouvers-olympics-environmental-and-social-impact/
Parkinson,R.(2010).Vancouver's Olympic vision: Stimulus for change or risky business venture? The impact of rewarding the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to Vancouver. Retrieved 5 March 2015, from:
Lenskyj,Helen,J.(2010).Inside the Olympic industry: power, politics and activism.New York:Albany.
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