Olympic Village "Uninhabitable" - or however you spell that

[Road Guy]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/sport/olympics-2016-rio-village-australia/index.html

Don't we go through this every 2 years?  Isn't this just part of giving a semi 3rd world country the shot to host the games part of the experience? To see if they can get it all done?  Seems like this happens every Olympics.  I am not sure if this happened in Salt Lake City or Atlanta.  I know for Atlanta they pushed some type of fancy ITS signs that told you that you were stuck in traffic before the games (I worked on some of it) but it was ready...

 

[Supe]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/sport/olympics-2016-rio-village-australia/index.html

Don't we go through this every 2 years?  Isn't this just part of giving a semi 3rd world country the shot to host the games part of the experience? To see if they can get it all done?  Seems like this happens every Olympics.  I am not sure if this happened in Salt Lake City or Atlanta.  I know for Atlanta they pushed some type of fancy ITS signs that told you that you were stuck in traffic before the games (I worked on some of it) but it was ready...

I doubt it.  USOC takes pretty damned good care of its athletes.  The worst rooms out at the USOTC in Colorado springs were the equivalent of a modern college dorm, so I'd have expected Atlanta and SLC to be the same.

 

[Road Guy]

The only negative news story I remember about the Atlanta Olympic housing was that one of the building settled about a foot

I personally think the Olympics are a huge waste of money with very little benefit for anyone

 

[Supe]

Very little benefit?  Do you even KNOW where Subway finds a new spokesperson every 2 years?

 

[Road Guy]

At the kiddie porn shop?

 

[jeb6294]

I know Georgia Tech was used for a lot of housing when they were in Atlanta. The fraternity I was in had a chapter at GT. The USOC tore down their old house and built them a new one with the understanding that it was for athletes during the games. Once the Olympics were over, they had a brand new fraternity house that worked perfectly because it was designed to house quite a few people as opposed to an old house that was scabbed together over time.

 

[Road Guy]

yeah the Olympic Village was at GT, but most of the dorms they built are now being used by GA State and some other Atlanta Colleges. But I think one is for GT? (there are 6 I think that were built)   but Tech did get tons of new stuff as part of the games, and the best benefit is they tore down "Techwood homes" a housing development that was basically a crime center right next to a major university

I had a unique perspective of the games, I worked at GDOT as an intern leading up to the Olympics and everything we did work wise was related to the Olympics, and then my National Guard unit had to work "security" during the Olympics (It kind of sucked for me to be honest) , I was able to go through the dormitory and the coolest thing I remember is seeing some tiny gymnast eating at McDonalds (in the food court they had)

They put us (the military) up in these old City of Atlanta schools to sleep in, we worked at night mostly and since I lived just north of Atlanta I usually went home and slept during the day.  Everyone talked how bad traffic would be but it was really not too bad, I think most people that lived in Atlanta just worked from home those weeks and avoided downtown.

I hope Denver never takes the winter games (while I live here) I know they turned it down once, but we just have pretty old infrastructure leading into the mountains- I don't think it would be pretty..its bad enough when just the locals are trying to get to the ski areas on the weekends

 

[Supe]

Personally I think they should bring the winter games back to Atlanta...

 

[roadwreck]

yeah the Olympic Village was at GT, but most of the dorms they built are now being used by GA State and some other Atlanta Colleges. But I think one is for GT? (there are 6 I think that were built)   but Tech did get tons of new stuff as part of the games, and the best benefit is they tore down "Techwood homes" a housing development that was basically a crime center right next to a major university

There were numerous on campus apartments that were constructed on Georgia Tech's west campus that were always in use by GT after the Olympics and are still in use today.  The building you are thinking of that was occupied by Georgia State immediately after the Olympics was the most visible because it overlooks the interstate.  That building did have settlement issues (which were corrected) and is now occupied by GT students. 

The Olympic pool is also still there and in use on the GT campus.  

 

[Road Guy]

doesn't one of them also say "Atlanta University" on them or something? 

 

[roadwreck]

I'd be surprised if it did.  Changing the name on a building would be pretty easy.  I know when Ga State occupied the apartments next to the interstate the building had the Ga State logo on it.  Now it has a GT logo, so if there had been a building that had "Atlanta University" on it somewhere it would have been changed by now. 

 

[Road Guy]

I haven't been home in three or four years but I don't recall ever seeing a Georgia Tech logo on the ones you can see from the interstate, just the Georgia State logo and some city of Atlanta college

 

[roadwreck]

Here is "North Avenue East" (as it is called) with the Ga State logo

And here it is with the Tech logo

I'm not sure when it was changed but it has been that way for several years now.  Ironically the only place I could find a picture of it with the Ga State logo was on Georgia Tech's campus housing website. 

 

[Road Guy]

 where is the Tri Lamb Sign?

 

[roadwreck]

it was already taken 

(although the colors are similar)

 

[willsee]

America did it right.  Built buildings for the Olympics while having a purpose for them after the fact.  Most of these other countries spend this money then after the Olympics they become abandoned buildings.

 

[jeb6294]

a housing development that was basically a crime center right next to a major university

Uhhh, hello...the correct term is "affordable off-campus student housing".

 

[jeb6294]

Cincinnati put their bid in to get the summer games one year. They would have been centered here but it would have been more of a regional thing, i.e. Dayton, Lexington, etc. Being 10-15 minutes from downtown, I was all set to stay at mom's house for a couple weeks and rent my house out to some Japanese tourist for some fatty $$$.

 

[Road Guy]

Atlanta was pretty spread out as well, from North GA down to Savannah I think?

The Olympic people are a total mafia- My grandfather owned a lake house where they did the Olympic rowing (lake lanier) they were told that they could not view the rowing from their own dock (since the dock was based on a COE permit- somehow they had them basically "revoked" during the Olympics.  So my grandfather and other family just watched the rowing from the shore.. But the whole thing was pretty bad. some guy who had owned a pizza shop called "Olympic pizza" for 20 years had to take his signs down during the "games"

 

[roadwreck]

America did it right.  Built buildings for the Olympics while having a purpose for them after the fact.  Most of these other countries spend this money then after the Olympics they become abandoned buildings.

There were quite a few buildings from the Atlanta Olympics that were not reused.  Apparently they had a tennis area (stadium?) that they tore down recently which was never used again after the Olympics. I'm sure there were plenty of other examples of this.