Post by Bozur on Jul 3, 2005 23:54:17 GMT -5
Trying to Lift Morale and Profile, Paris Goes Out to Play
By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: June 6, 2005
PARIS, June 5 - Paris on Sunday shut down the Champs-Élysées for a huge street party in support of its effort to be selected as the host of the 2012 Olympic Games. The event provided a poignant counterpoint to the gloomy political mood that has pervaded France since it rejected the European Union's constitution last month.
Stuart Isett for The New York Times
A French teenager tried out the pole vault yesterday on the Champs-Élysées during a street party featuring Olympic sports. The event was in support of Paris's effort to be chosen as the host of the 2012 Olympics.
While Madrid, another contender for the Games, held a similar event on Sunday, the daylong sports festival in Paris carried more symbolism as both officials and citizens tried to look beyond France's economic and political malaise toward what most agree would be a prize around which people could unite.
"The French have had it with politics, the social situation, everything," said Raphaëlle Monteau, a television producer watching a table tennis match on the avenue with her two children. "The Games would boost morale."
The Olympic committee will issue a report on Monday evaluating the efforts of the five cities in contention. Their decision will be announced on July 6. Many people regard Paris as the front-runner for the 2012 Games, partly because the city already has about two-thirds of the required venues in place and its plans to build the rest are neither prohibitively expensive nor politically difficult.
New York, by contrast, has yet to win $300 million in public financing for a stadium it would build on the West Side of Manhattan. If the stadium issue is not resolved, New York's chances of landing the games may be diminished. On Friday, supporters postponed a vote on the financing in Albany when they appeared destined to lose.
In New York on Sunday, intense lobbying by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg failed to break the political logjam. The leader of the State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, met several times with the mayor throughout the day, but said he remained opposed to the stadium proposal.
Madrid would have to do far more building than would Paris: one proposed stadium would cost more than all of the construction planned by Paris combined.
Moscow, another candidate, has already been the host for more international championships in Olympic sports than any of the other candidates and, plagued by power failures and organized crime, is not believed to be the likely choice.
London, which plans a new rail line to connect the city with Stratford, where most of the events would be held, is considered the most serious competition to Paris.
There is a widespread feeling in France that this country needs a lift and that losing the Olympics again - the city lost the chance to be host for the 2008 Games to Beijing - would only deepen the sense that it has lost its direction.
France has been gripped in a torturous struggle between the government and powerful unions over the future of expensive worker entitlements that the government insists that the country can no longer afford. The economy has sputtered and unemployment has surged, while frequent strikes have played havoc with people's lives.
One result has been widespread popular discontent, which found an outlet in the May 29 referendum on the European Union constitution. The overwhelming no that voters delivered was less about the constitution, which few people read or understood, than it was about frustration with the status quo. In response, President Jacques Chirac reshuffled his already well-shuffled cabinet in a vain effort to appease the public, but the national temper remains grim.
That was the context to the festivities on Sunday, which turned the Champs-Élysées into a long series of sporting arenas, from a running track near the Arc de Triomphe to a swimming pool near Place de la Concorde. Olympic athletes and sporting clubs put on exhibitions of everything from fencing to baseball. Children were invited to participate between events.
Of course, no one believes that if Paris is chosen the host for the Olympics, it will solve the country's many problems. There was still plenty of pessimism to go around on Sunday. "The reality is that companies are moving to the countries in the East," said Philippe Wramour, a mechanic, when asked if Paris's being chosen would help France. The loss of jobs to the European Union's new members in the former Soviet bloc is among the most emotional issues causing anger toward the government. "It's a mess here," Mr. Wramour said.
Many people worry that the country's frequent strikes could cost Paris its chance to be the host. Unions angry at the government's effort to loosen the rules around the country's 35-hour workweek called a strike the day that the Olympic inspection committee came to town in March.
But the Olympics is a popular cause here. Even many of the striking workers wore Paris 2012 T-shirts.
"To have the games would bring a little fun, as you say, a breath of fresh air," said Benoît Génuini, president of the French operation of Accenture, a global consulting company, on a balcony of the Louvre last week during an event to highlight the city's cultural attractions as an Olympic host. He remarked that the country was morose and that the city itself had become a sort of museum. "The games would put Paris back in the saddle and lead it into the 21st century," he said, "get it out of its stupor."
Hélène Fouquet contributed reporting from Paris for this article, and Mike McIntire from New York.
FOREIGN DESK | June 6, 2005, Monday
Trying to Lift Morale and Profile, Paris Goes Out to Play
By CRAIG S. SMITH; Hélène Fouquet contributed reporting from Paris for this article, and Mike McIntire from New York. (NYT) 975 words