OK - die schlagzeile ist sicher überraschend, aber die bewohner von Whistler sind verärgert
warum?
nachzulesen hier
Zitat
Vancouver 2010 Anti-Olympics mood deepens in Whistler
The laid-back town is growing cranky over higher taxes, looming school closings and a weak economy
Gary Mason
Whistler, B.C. — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Jul. 10, 2009 10:41PM EDT
There was a time when the worries Linda McGaw had about her town's role in playing host to the coming Winter Olympics were viewed with ridicule and contempt. She was one of a dozen residents who put their names to a letter to the editor a few years ago urging people to take a step back from the unabashed enthusiasm they were expressing for everything Olympics.
“The people who put their names to that letter were lambasted by the boosters in town,” Ms. McGaw recalled this week over coffee. “They told us the Olympics could do nothing but good. All we were saying was, ‘Nobody is asking hard questions here.' I lost a friendship over it. Some of us were verbally abused. Part of me would like to write a letter today that says, ‘Well, what do you think now?'”
Just seven months before the Games open, the mood in Canada's famed resort town is anything but celebratory. In fact, there is growing anti-Olympic sentiment created by double-digit tax hikes and new user fees that residents feel are being levied to help pay for what many see as a three-week-long party.
Even the man who has been the focus of much of the anti-Olympic rhetoric, Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed, concedes that the town's normally laid-back residents have become a crabby, cantankerous lot. Partway through a discussion of the town's grievances, the mayor stopped and said, “You're starting to get the sense of why the community is feeling some frustration, and there's a lot of tension, I acknowledge that. We deal with it on an almost hourly basis.”
The mayor is the town's biggest Olympic cheerleader, an irony not lost on long-time residents. Before ascending to the mayor's chair, Mr. Melamed was a councillor, the only one to vote against Whistler becoming part of a Games' bid.
Lennox McNeely, philanthropist and retired investment analyst, is an eloquent letter-to-the-editor writer. Paying for parking won't affect his bank account, but he's worried about young families who don't have much disposable income, and are, in many ways, the lifeblood of the town.
“What bothers me the most is the total lack of concern for the financial squeeze residents are going through,”
etc.
Zitat
Whistlerites are saying, ‘I came here to simplify my life, now I'm paying more tax than I did in the big city.'”
Zitat von porcupine_islandund das alles für gedopte sportler die sich und die welt belügen und in ihrer schizophrenen welt leben und für einige die sich dabei bereichern
kann man den ärger gut verstehen
Keine Angst. Die Chinesen bringen ihr eigenes Doping mit. So wie immer.
die chinesen.....soso was ist mit den deutschen wintersportlern geschützt von der politik und ganz besonders vom verteidigungsminister wird alles untern teppich gekehrt, mal sehen ob die pechmarie starten darf
Whistler wird durch die Olympiade noch bekannter und wird einen besonderen Status wie Cortina, Moritz und Lake Placid erhalten auch wenn offiziell die Spiele in Vancouver stattfinden. Dies wird Wistler und seinen armen armen Mitbuergern sehr viel Geld und Arbeitsplaetze einbringen ... durch noch mehr Besucher und die Grundstuecke werden sicher im Wert steigen. Dies und all die vielen "upgrades" die Wistler durch BC und National taxpayers erhalten hat, sollten auch von denen getragen werden die in den naechsten 30+ Jahren von den vielen Investitionen profitieren.
Die klare Mehrheit hat sich fuer Whistler entschieden ... das ist Demokratie ... wenn das jemanden nicht passt .. wegen solch Nichtigkeiten wie Parken ... naja BC ist gross, da wird sich noch ein Nest finden wo Parken kostenlos ist .. leider dann auch ohne Perspektive.
Wenn jemand glaubt das Hockey oder Lacrosse Canada's Nationalsport ist .. weit gefehlt .. IMO ist es das fast infantile Gejammer ueber noetige Gebueren und Abgaben.