Olympic Dream vs. Vancouver Reality

With the close of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, much of the media was quick to declare them a total success. This goes against the mounds of journalism produced before and during the games by the Vancouver Media Co-op, the city’s newly launched independent media center. Believing that their might be more than one answer regarding the success of the games, and one of those should come from the host communities, The Real News spoke to Franklin López, Video Producer with the Co-op, to find out more about the legacy of the 2010 Olympics for the people of Vancouver.



Real News Network – March 04, 2010

Olympic dream vs. Vancouver reality

Media love-in with Winter Olympics challenged by city’s new journalist co-op

Franklin López is a video producer with the Vancouver Media Co-op. You can find the co-op at vancouver.mediacoop.ca. It is one of a series of similar projects getting started in Canada, currently there are also chapters in Toronto and Halifax. For the co-op’s coverage of the Olympics, go to 2010.mediacoop.ca

2 comments

    • Edger on March 4, 2010 at 18:36
      Author

    The dream on TV is never the reality.

    See Vancouver Poverty Olympics 2010, for example.

  1. get sucked up into the Olympics.

    I think Vancouver community activists are probably among the most effective in Canada. I like the way they managed to largely peacefully state their viewpiont.

    Vancouver is such a weird city because despite some deep radical routes it still seems largely run by and for real estate developers. It is rather progressive on the surface people think of it as a “nice” city which it is but…

    And if I recall correctly when Vancouver originally got the Olympics it was supposed to be largely financed through development initiatives that fell apart when the recession hit. So once again the taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill which will of course require deeper cuts in social services and more suffering.

    And much tho I cherished the moment when hockey gold game. Do I think it was worth it? No because I know damn well the cost will be less affordable housing in a city that has damn expensive housing. Canada got its little shot of nationalism and patriotism at the expense of more empty stomachs.

    But BC is also nortorious for swinging from right to moderately left so it has a history of doing some good for its citizens and then having it all stripped away in the next election.

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