Via The United States Olympic Committee.
The group behind the D.C. area’s Olympic bid has declined to send a representative to a meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission that represents the area where RFK Stadium is located before a decision is made by the Olympic Committee.
With D.C. United expected to vacate RFK for a new Buzzard Point stadium in the coming years, the future of the site is up for debate. Washington 2024 — a group of local leaders and sports team owners devoted to bringing the summer Olympics to D.C. — has floated the site as the location of a stadium that could host the games. Reservation 13, where the D.C. General homeless shelter and D.C. Jail are currently located, has been imagined as a site for the Olympic Village.
District leaders, including outgoing Mayor Vincent Gray and Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, are firmly behind the bid. Bowser will join Washington 2024 officials this week to make the final pitch to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which is expected to make a decision in December or January.
ANC 6B sent a letter to Russ Ramsey, chair of Washington 2024, in November, requesting he attend a meeting to provide specific details about the bid. “In your June 2014 press release, Washington 2024’s Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis said that D.C. would host the ‘most transparent’ games in history,” Brian Flahaven, chair of ANC 6B, wrote in the letter. “It is in this spirit that we send this invitation. We look forward to learning more about the bid and how it will affect our constituents and city.”
Washington 2024’s Ramsey, however, declined the offer in a letter, saying that community engagement will begin if the U.S. Olympic Committee picks D.C. as the final host city candidate.
“We look forward to working with the various communities to understand concerns and needs of the affected constituencies,” Ramsey said. “If we are selected, the public engagement process will start at the beginning of the year and will be ongoing. It will focus not only with ANCs but with neighborhood associations, local business groups, community-based non-profits, other opinion leaders and concerned citizens.”
Flahaven attended Councilmember Vincent Orange’s economic development summit Friday, which was attended by Washington 2024 representatives, and learned some information about Reservation 13’s possible role in the Olympic Games.
“Community engagement should be the centerpiece – not an afterthought – of an Olympic bid,” Flahaven wrote on his site. “Residents shouldn’t have to attend business roundtables and summits to learn basic details. I plan to continue pushing city leaders and Washington 2024 to share more information about the bid.”
