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It's reached the point where simply to apply for a major international sports or cultural event is an admission of civic failure.
Whether it's the Olympics themselves or even, as in Toronto's more modest case, the Pan Am Games, the conclusion is the same: This must be a city that hasn't got its act together. This must be a city desperate for the torrent of cash and energy unleashed by a global athletic event to rise above the inertia, the political impasse, the sheer passivity of business-as-usual. Why else would anyone want the hassle?
So it's no surprise Toronto's argument for the 2015 Pan Ams boils down to need. If the city and region were to win the Games, Toronto, Ontario and Canada would finally have to address issues that have been ignored for decades. Transit and housing come to mind, both abandoned by "senior" governments years ago.
Of course, everyone hopes Toronto gets the nod; so many times has the city been passed over, it boasts a world-class inferiority complex.
In fact, the world loves Toronto; there's nowhere people would rather be. It's just that ...
It's just that we've rested on our (non-athletic) laurels too long. In the '70s, Toronto was The City That Works; it has since become The City That Can't Keep Up.
No longer do we hold up the TTC as a North American success story; The Better Way has become The Bitter Way. And now we're looking at fare increases to avoid cuts that would devastate the system.
The last time Toronto competed for a major international event (not the Olympics) was in 2006, when we went after the 2015 World's Fair, which was eventually awarded to Milan. That fell apart because the three levels of government were unable to submit a bid by the deadline.
This time, Toronto's chances look much better. Though the Pan Ams aren't quite the Olympics, they're large enough to kick-start a building program that, done well, could benefit the city hugely.
Just ask Franco Vaccarino, principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. It stands to gain a state-of-the-art aquatic centre, one of the game's "legacy facilities," as well as the new LRT line that would run through the campus along Military Trail Dr.
"We're on the radar now," says a smiling Vaccarino. "Scarborough is where the growth will happen. The Games would have a huge impact."
Think how Barcelona used the 1992 Olympics to transform itself. That city serves as the model for Olympic host wannabes, a shining example of how to buy a new city spending money on sports.
It can be done, and Torontonians must hope it can be done here. Having created a multi-level governance structure focused on internal wrangling, the odds aren't great. On the other hand, the pressure of mounting the Games might inspire an outbreak of cooperation among our bickering governments, at least temporarily.
If it doesn't, we face more of the same. The subways, the light rail vehicles and bus lines, the affordable housing and recreational facilities that come with the Games will fall into the cracks.
But just as the city continues to thrive because of investments made decades ago, the spending prompted by the Pan Am Games would enable future generations to inhabit a much tougher city than the one we have today.
Toronto's failed Olympic bid was in many ways the opposite of Beijing's. China needed the Games to show the world what it can do; Toronto needed them to show itself what it can do.
Christopher Hume can be reached at [email protected]
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http://www.thestar.com/sports/panam...the-subway?bn=1
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