Here's a perfect little 1 minute short-- expertly crafted by the filmmakers at Homespun Productions, documenting the final moments of Monday morning's ‪#‎WUTM‬ action, where members of Safe Hub Collective and blacklivesmatterboston demanded Marty Walsh pull his support for the 2024 Olympic bid.

Have a look, be impressed, and let's re-ignite the conversation about what it means organize, execute, and participate in radical (Black-femme led) direct action in our city, friends. Women have always been at the forefront of our movements and it's our mission to continue to foster that. As far as political traditions go, this is actually Boston's finest. Let's keep it going!

Read our statement about why we do not support a Boston Olympics.

One argument for hosting the Olympics in Boston seems to boil down to the idea that we have to host the Olympics in order to prove that we can host the Olympics. Because Innovation. And Can-Do-Attitude. Or something.

Here are a few bits from Shirley Leung, whose previous comment on the bid has basically involved quoting people who stand to profit from the Olympics about how great it will be.

Quote the First:

They said we couldn’t clean up Boston Harbor. They said we couldn’t take down the Central Artery and build a third tunnel. They said we couldn’t host a Democratic National Convention.

They said we couldn’t win the World Series.

Actually, “they” was largely “we.”

Just who was actually saying we "couldn't" host a Democratic National Convention? Except for the heightened security (and the famous free speech pens), it's not like throwing a convention is especially hard. Maybe some people weren't enthused about the convention - why would they be? The Orange Line didn't stop at North Station for like a week because the politicians were in town.

But I'd like to focus on the whole "take down the Central Artery and build a third tunnel," by which Leung means The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, which you probably know as the Big Dig. Wikipedia sums it up rather nicely:

The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the U.S. and was plagued by escalating costs, scheduling overruns, leaks, design flaws, charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal arrests, and one death.

190%, incidentally, is the average cost overruns of all Olympics since 1960. Moving on to Quote the Second:

We can allow ourselves to be mentioned in the same breath as London, Tokyo, and Sydney — world-class cities that have played host before.

Conspicuously absent from this list are Salt Lake and Atlanta, the last two US cities to host an Olympics. Maybe hosting the Olympics won't magically turn us into a major global city? Weird.

Next:

People in other cities were channeling our own grumpiness. They don’t need anymore help from us. Just take a look at this dismissive tweet from LA councilman Joe Buscaino: “Are you kidding me?! Boston???”

Well fortunately I'm an adult and don't actually care about what some councilman in LA tweets (for a grand total of 6 RTs; chill out). Moving on:

We’ve done a lot of things people said could not be done. Not just cleaning the harbor, depressing a highway, winning the World Series — but also universal health care and gay marriage.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Your evidence that hosting the Olympics is a smart move for Boston is... gay marriage?

Next:

Critics of a Boston Olympics have howled about the lack of transparency in our bid. The Boston 2024 team will tell you there were ample public meetings.

Let’s all agree to disagree now that we are the US nominee. Boston 2024 vows it will hold community meetings starting this month in every neighborhood where an Olympic venue is being proposed. Let’s hold the committee to that — and if you felt left out of the process, you have a second chance to have your voice be heard.

First of all, I have no idea when these "ample public meetings" were. According to MassLive: 

Kayyem [a Boston 2024 member] struggled, again, when confronted with the issue of how Boston 2024 has not hosted a single public forum since their initial meetings on Beacon Hill during the winter. She argued that residents will have the opportunity to really critique the bid when the United States Olympic Committee decides to behind the Boston bid over the bids of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

This was at a public forum after the bid was submitted, so no it does not seem that the Boston 2024 team is claiming there were ample public meetings. They're saying the meetings that will be held in the future will be enough.

Second of all, holding community meetings in every neighborhood where an Olympic venue is being proposed is literally the bare minimum in terms of transparency. Public projects (like road redesigns) in Massachusetts have to go through numerous public meetings before being built. The Olympics should be held to at least the same standard, right?

Finally:

We should hold Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Governor Charlie Baker to their word about keeping public costs down for this privately funded Olympics. Don’t let them mortgage our future so we can put on a show for the world.

Kevin Cullen, in the Boston Globe

Backers of a Boston 2024 Olympics have downplayed the need for public money but, based on past budgets and security needs, the city would likely need at least a billion dollars in federal taxpayer support — and perhaps far more.