Lawrence to Host Boston Olympics Community Meeting Thursday

If you’re interested in learning how Boston’s bid to host the Olympics might affect the Merrimack Valley, Boston 2024 is having a community meeting next Thursday.

Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera is hosting the meeting at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 30, at South Lawrence East School Auditorium, 165 Crawford St., Lawrence. There will be opportunities to learn about the bid proposal, ask questions and get involved.

For more information, call Rivera’s office at (978) 620-3013.

Boston 2024 Partnership announced named its board of directors this week. It includes Chairman John Fish, chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction, Vice Chairs Steve Pagliuca, managing partner of Bain Capital and co-owner of the Boston Celtics, and Roger Crandall, chairman, president and CEO of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Prominent athletes are also on the board including Larry Bird, Boston Celtics legend; Olympian and current team president of the Indiana Pacers Cheri Blauwet; Boston Marathon winner, paralympian and physician at Boston’s Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Meb Keflezighi, 2014 Boston Marathon winner and Olympian; Michelle Kwan, Olympian and member, U.S. President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition; David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox and nine-time all-star Major League Baseball player; and Joseph Henry “JoJo” White, Boston Celtics legend and Olympian.

Local leaders include Carol Fulp, president and CEO, The Partnership Inc.; Gloria Larson, president, Bentley University; Brian Doherty, general agent, Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District; and Eric Reddy, sales team leader, Bidding for Good, and cofounder of initiative to bring 2024 Olympic Games to Boston.

5 thoughts on “Lawrence to Host Boston Olympics Community Meeting Thursday

  1. “John Fish, chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction” – Considering The Fish Family own most of Haverhill, and growing, especially 40B developments and soon to be Harbor Place (no-bid?), it would be yet another economic coup for him and his family.

  2. I am volunteering for Boston 2024 – hoping to make this happen. I ask those who are skeptical to go to one of the community meetings, and read the facts. Should the Games come to Boston in 2024, Haverhill will benefit; its (by then, at least three) hotels will fill, its restaurants –yes, even DOWNTOWN Haverhill! – will be patronized by visitors. The commuter rail system makes Boston accessible. Back in 1996, when the Boston Marathon expanded its field to 38,000 entrants, our hotels filled up. It can happen again here.

    Even if no events are held here – and there probably won’t be any in Haverhill – there are prospective sites nearby (Lowell, perhaps others) and some teams will have to settle in for training in advance of the Games. And as the plan IS revised – that plan unveiled in January was a “first cut” and is undergoing changes, some events may end up closer to us.

    And having been to an Olympics as a spectator, I can assure you, it will be the experience of a lifetime for you and your family. And the USOC made Boston America’s choice for 2024 – because – most facilities already exist, the “T” will be undergoing major renovations, there is a good (weather) climate in the summer, and it’s a great cultural and historic area.

    I invite anyone to peruse the facts – from ALL sides, and then decide. While many scoffed and even ridiculed the idea of an Olympics in Massachusetts, the Boston 2024 organizers, the civic, academic, and business community, and eventually the US Olympic committee viewed the area with an open mind. They reviewed the facts and said “Boston”.

    And you’ll be seeing us spreading the word; you’ll soon see volunteer meetings, flyers, people spreading the message. But see ALL sides. You might end up thinking differently than “No”.

  3. Will the mayor also host a forum to inform citizens about why bidding for the Olympics is not in their best interest? NoBostonOlympics.org has compelling facts that get beyond the hype and expose the boosterism for what it really is…a TAXPAYER NIIGHTMARE!

    • “TAXPAYER NIIGHTMARE!” –

      That’s an understatement, but in Massachusetts, Taxpayers are an afterthought. Beacon Hill politicians will reap windfalls to their campaign coffers through their private and public union pals, as well as well heeled developers (i.e. Fish Family).

      This of course is in a state where poverty and income disparity is soaring as its Citizenry becomes ever poorer in light of massive and record breaking taxation. Then again, this is what The People vote for, voting in year after year of those connected cronies who continue to do them and their families harm.

      http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=19qJ

  4. I have to admit…watching liberal mayor Daniel Rivera try to sell the benefits of Lawrence is very entertaining. How in the world is he going to spin to Olympic organizers the fact that last year Lawrence averaged one armed robbery per day?? And how does he address the fact that he does absolutely nothing about Lawrence being the largest sanctuary city in the entire northeast for criminal trespassers from other countries? Those trespassers who commit crimes at alarming rates including a drug problem that is completely out of control. Oh that’s right…he proposes setting up road blocks on the Andover line to stop people from coming into the city to buy drugs. I can just hear it now….Rivera and the other hacks on Beacon Hill are going to promote all the good jobs the Olympics will create…with most of Lawrence’s population living off of welfare what a blessing that will be.

    The City of Lawrence currently has one of its own city councilors filing a complaint over the way the city managed a small festival….can you imagine the catastrophe that bringing the Olympics to the city would bring?