Why Paris ‘Gets the Gold’ for 2024 Olympics Planning

In the wake of a diminished 2020 games in Tokyo due to Covid pandemic restrictions, there is a renewed excitement for the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, says Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU for more than 50 years.

What's more, the Paris Olympics-which kick off with opening ceremonies on Friday, July 26-will have enduring effects on the city's cultural life, transportation systems, and environment, explains Moss, who co-authored an influential study that documented how New York's plan for the 2012 Olympics spurred infrastructure development and led to permanent improvements in transit, parks, and recreation facilities.

NYU News spoke with Moss about his 2011 report, titled "How New York City Won the Olympics," and why Paris "gets the gold" for its preparations.

How do you think Americans will receive the Paris Olympics?

Many Americans feel burnt out. We're tired of air travel delays, still not prepared for an intense presidential campaign, and eager for a break before protests resume on college campuses. We need the 2024 Summer Games-to celebrate the achievements of world class athletes, experience the cultural attractions of Paris, and even the promise of international cooperation.

There's long been debate about whether hosting the Olympics is worth the cost and trouble. Do you think France's investment will pay off?

Clearly, the French have learned the lessons of prior host cities and kept costs down by not building an array of expensive stadiums and arenas. They're drawing, with creativity and prudence, on the unique assets that define Paris. Rather than holding the opening ceremonies in a newly-built high tech stadium where athletes enter in military formation, the Seine River will be the site not only of swim races but the "opening ceremonies," with a flotilla of boats carrying athletes from participating nations down the river through the heart of the city.

Yes, beach volleyball will be played next to the historic symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower; for television viewers, athletic excellence will be competing with architecture that's recognized around the globe.

The multitude of Olympic sports will not be the only attraction for visitors. Thousands of new, specially designed culinary venues will be created in close proximity to the athletic events. All dining establishments will be required to serve food that contains 80 percent sustainably sourced ingredients as well as having vegan options. There will even be vegan hot dogs available for those not inclined to appreciate French cheese or rabbit pate.

And more than 40 French museums and other cultural institutions are making their collections accessible online at no cost, whether you are in France or anywhere else.

(Getty Images.)

What about the concerns of attacks or disruptions?

In a world where terrorism is a pervasive threat, the French will employ, according to David Goldblatt in The London Review of Books, "30,000 gendarmes, 15,000 members of the armed forces and secret services, and 22,000 private security guards." New laws have even been passed that allow the French police and their contractors to use AI to review video and camera feeds. According to Anne Toomey McKenna, professor of law at the University of Richmond, France is the first EU country to legalize such a wide-ranging AI-powered surveillance system. There are serious concerns about privacy rights and the staying power of such surveillance, but this debate will probably occur after the Games are held.

You researched New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics, considering it as a win for New York City and noting that the Bloomberg administration, without federal aid, invested in new infrastructure like the extension for the No. 7 subway line in Manhattan, a project that stimulated growth of housing, open space, and offices in once-abandoned industrial areas.

I believe that New York actually "won" the 2012 competition that resulted in London's selection as the host city that year. In planning for the possibility of hosting the 2012 games, the New York administration of then-mayor Michael Bloomberg strategically built the No. 7 subway toward the Hudson River, where commercial office and residential developments then rose, and invested in athletic facilities, and in the renovation of parks and armories across all five boroughs. Today, for example, the rezoned East River waterfront that was to be an Olympic village is filled with new housing and parks as well as the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge Park.

What about concerns of displacement of immigrants to make room for new facilities in the poor suburbs, along with the potential for gentrification?

There is a long, and painful, tradition of displacing low-income groups to accommodate new facilities for the Olympics in countries around the globe. Brazil, for example, relocated homeless people to new areas for the 2016 Games, but the government failed to improve living conditions for them.

The plans to build the Olympic village in an old industrial area just on the edge of Paris does involve the relocation of poor immigrants who live there, though it is part of a larger effort to connect the banlieues-the outer suburbs to the city of Paris itself, from which they are now cut off-with new mass transit lines. In addition, housing for athletes will be converted to residential use, with about 40 percent of the new units to be set aside for low-income households.

For most people, though, the Paris Olympics will be experienced on television channels and streaming media. This will be a rare chance to see the world's leading athletes and the City of Paris without leaving home.