Just weeks after Olympics, Sochi is already a ghost town

[bohica]

The Sochi Olympics concluded barely a month ago, but according to a local photographer, the Olympic Village and surrounding hotels are already a ghost town.

Alexander Valov, who runs "Blog Sochi," captured photos that depict a desolate Sochi, with infrastructure already breaking down and some construction never completed. Clearly, Russia's priorities are elsewhere with Sochi complete and crises in Ukraine and Crimea. And, yes, photos can be taken at certain times of day or from certain angles to communicate agendas. Even so, these pictures depict a city that has a long way to go in order to meet gaudy promises of becoming a world-class tourist destination.

[Ozymandias]

What a peaceful town. . . . . . . . . .

[jamesbond]

just like the other past olympic venues, they became white elephants... except... the recently concluded summer olympic games held in London.. the venue was constructed and designed to be detached after the games...

[caligula]

And the Vancouver venues used on 2010 Winter Olympics.  They spent $110 million after the Olympics to retrofit the facilities para magamit ulit. Money well spent I would think.

[bohica]

And the Vancouver venues used on 2010 Winter Olympics.  They spent $110 million after the Olympics to retrofit the facilities para magamit ulit. Money well spent I would think.

Here is the news article referring to Cali's comment.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Olympic+venues+four+years+later/9375947/story.html

[caligula]

Sa kabilang dako ng Canada, there is the Montreal Summer Olympics site. The games were held in 1976 at the staggering cost of $1.5 billion, super laki na yon at that time. At alam nyo kung kailan lang nila nabayaran ang lahat ng utang? 30 years after. And the venues are still a wasteland.

Sometimes it makes you think why they even submit a bid to host these big games? The glory is such short lived, it will pump money to the local economy during the games but the long term cost is passed to the next generations of taxpayers.

Just like the way corruption sips into every government undertaking, gumastos si Putin ng  $50 billion exceeding the original budget of $12 billion for Sochi. Contracts were awarded to his cronies. I guess that answers my question.