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Athlete complaints at Olympic Village?

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Several people have posted a link to this article on the German news site Bild.com: Some athletes and coaches have complained about accomodations at the Vancouver Olympic Village, which is pertinent for this site since those units are set to be sold by the city after the games are over.

One of the complaints is that the walls of the rooms are so thin that the athletes are struggling to fall asleep – not a good time to have snorers nearby…

Ski jumping trainer Werner Schuster compared the Olympic Village with a boy scout camp. The 41-year-old said: “The living standard is very poor. Five, six people have to share a bathroom and the walls are as thin as curtains.”

I wonder if the complaints regard temporary walls or actual walls between units?

The size the accommodation has also been criticised. A particularly sore point is that there isn’t enough space for athletes to dry their clothes.

Don’t they know this is Vancouver?  We pioneered the art of small living in North America.  They should just be glad we didn’t stick them six to a room in a 270 square foot micro condo in the Downtown eastside.

A German functionary said: “The Village is good for summer. But now in winter with this weather it’s a problem.

“The German team have especially bought heaters to dry their things which are always getting wet due to the relentless sleet.”

It’s all about location, location, location.  That’s why we located the Athletes village walking distance from Canadian Tire, where they can buy heaters to dry their clothes.

UPDATE: Nope. We didn’t locate it near a Canadian Tire. Many people pointed out that this is about the Whistler Olympic Village, NOT the Vancouver Olympic Village.

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Anonymous

Why does Susan Anton still have a job with the city of Vancouver? She was on the previous city council, the boobs that were stupid enough to negotiate a terrible deal. Why aren't these people held accountable?

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Astrid

just to clarify, the "Bild" is comparable with the national enquirer, or the British Sun… they don't take truth to seriously!

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Meat Robot

Anyone think the emerging story of the bad rep these games are garnering will have an impact on short term prices/valuations?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/ar…

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Drachen

@tim: "the hypocrisy of the bears on this forum far exceeds anything that VANOC can dish. They love Vancouver so much that they’re clearly trying to influence with hopes to own." This blogging community has been hitting the subject for five years now. Honestly, if any of us actually thought our blogging was having a significant impact, don't you think we'd have seen results by now? This is a place for intelligent discourse, filled with factual information and time-proven analytical techniques on when and how the bubble will burst with the occasional fact and analysis free "there is no bubble" rant by people like you. We want to time the bubble and know the depths to which things will sink so we can be prepared to snap up bargain housing while people like you are going bankrupt tim. No offense,… Read more »

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tim

@Declan: Unfortunately, you'll never get the editors to make that correction. In fact, the omission was purposeful.

David Letterman is somewhat right – the luge track could have been safer. (Incidentally, so can the ski jump, half pipe and a ton of other venues.) However, the hypocrisy of the bears on this forum far exceeds anything that VANOC can dish. They love Vancouver so much that they're clearly trying to influence with hopes to own. Normally, I don't mind some trolling, but it's so transparent that these people don't believe what they're writing that it's comical.

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nick s

This may or may not be the case also, but typical construction in Germany and Europe (or at least the ones I've been in) have massively thick walls, like 1.5 feet thick. So comparing the typical constructing materials used there vs here, sounds is generally more of an issue here than there. But it still wouldn't surprise me if the walls uses minimal materials still considering how fast they built those buildings

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Furlong is Paranoid

Little Boxes on the Hillside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3rN59GlWw

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Loud Speaker

VHB spuppose to buy in 2010 whenever he don't buy market goes up.Hey Arit? I thought your dementia is under control but it's getting out of whack again,Nope?

Best Regards.

Control Arit Control.

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Declan

The post really should be updated to clarify that the remarks were about the Whistler village (where ski jumping takes place) not the Vancouver village.

Real estate bears should leave butchering the truth in order to try and make a point to the bulls (and UK tabloids) as all it does is undermine credibility.

Personally, I don't see the connection between pointing out that the Vancouver housing market is a bubble (it is) and hoping for the Olympics to fail, but that's just me.

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VHB

Hi Arit,

thanks for your nice words. Did not buy. Not looking. Life is good.

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bestplaceonmeth

@arit:

Who's going to speculate when they have to use real money?

It's over.

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White Payer

I'm in my mid forties and have no time to wait for the pyramid to collapse. So I stopped waiting and made my peace. I rent a nice place for a good price in a convenient location and enjoy life. I travel, I buy things that are fun to own, I give flowers to my wife for no reason at all. Watching the rat race where paper-millionaires topple each other struggling to become the "best slave ever" is amusing and puts things in perspective. I guess different things make different people happy – and in the end happiness is what all of us should strive for. It all reminds me of the "Planet of the Apes" on so many levels… Someone said that in today's world, Olympic athletes are merely modern-day gladiators for governments and corporations. I think this is… Read more »

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patriotzed

@arit:

First, all the existing “great fools”, haven’t even acknowledged that they were suckered. That needs to happen before the pyramid collapses

Nope, that happens after the pyramid collapses. Who got wise to Madoff's scheme before it collapsed?

The reason pyramid schemes collapse is simple – they require exponential input of capital from new participants to pay off the old ones, and that cannot continue indefinitely. No matter what.

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arit

best_place_on_meth "The most common phrase you’ll hear in 2010 is “I sell 3, my husband sell 3″." I truly hope you are right. We all wish 2010 is going to be the year when the trends revert. Unfortunately, I am not '100% sure' anymore. Like all pyramid schemes, it will end only when it runs out of greater fools. I don't see we are there yet. First, all the existing "great fools", haven't even acknowledged that they were suckered. That needs to happen before the pyramid collapses (in traditional pyramid schemes you may see protesters with signs outside the scheme's headquarters or similar. In Albania they had riots, etc). Here, the fools are still in the phase where they think they made a good investment (Do you think Supraboy is alone? There are millions like him, hypnotized by the colloseum… Read more »

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Protect the Bankster

Your future tax increase will go indirectly the banks.

CMHC are taxpayer insured motgages.

The banks are enjoying their biggest spreads ever.

We are being controlled and screwed by the banks.

The banks have no competition.

Money is the REAL power.

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Drachen

@domus: "However the lack of any insurance would effectively restrict credit, also for people who might deserve (at least some)." I don't consider that a downside. If someone who really wants to buy a house but the banks see them as too much of a risk, all they have to do is work a couple of extra years to get a bigger down payment or boost their credit score are they really suffering? Certainly they're not suffering as badly as those who recently bought in to the market and are stuck paying off a mortgage three times as big as it should be and it's a smaller portion of the public that would be in that boat. Banks want to loan people money, they're not going to cut back on the amount they lend. It's what they do. If you… Read more »

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best_place_on_meth

What does $900 million in security get you?

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=4459…

If the guy had a weapon, the U.S. Vice President would be dead right now.

But at least he would have died in The Best Place On Earth™.

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best_place_on_meth

@Pman:

Yes – the games are crap.

No – Vancouver is not crap, just the mentality that has developed among the smug, arrogant citizens, ie: best place on earth.

Yes – real estate in Vancouver will become a disaster, like the olympics.

On to Mr. Flaherty…

I really like the new 20% down payment requirement for investors because what I see happening now is a massive rush to the exits by speculators in Vancouver.

Why? Because now that it requires $100K to buy a $500K shoebox in this town, the current speculators realize that there are no more speculators lined up behind them to keep the pyramid scheme going.

The most common phrase you'll hear in 2010 is "I sell 3, my husband sell 3".

And that's a good thing.

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domus

@Drachen: Very good points you raise. And in principle there is nothing wrong in letting banks fend for themselves. However the lack of any insurance would effectively restrict credit, also for people who might deserve (at least some). Right now we are awash with credit: zero interest rates, bad loans made to unworthy borrowers, rampant speculation and government-sponsored moral hazard (I know, it sounds like a rant, which makes it even crazier since every word is true). However that is not always the case and private markets, with some serious regulatory oversight, might still be granted. This discussion is completely pointless i our current predicament: in Canada the government has swamped any natural pricing mechanism in the RE market. Think of this: if foreclosure rates on new issued loans were to go up, the CMHC and the government of Canada… Read more »

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realpaul

Sitting in an office lounge this am, read the Jan 9 edition of the Economist. It said that another asset bubble is ready to pop and that Canada Australia Spain and British RE prices are at least 50% overvalued. Economist is an elitist international socialist non IOC/Vanoc rag with a hard on for vanshithole though, so nobody pay attention. The local media knows best.

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other ted

You got to read this article

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/2010winterg…

the bottom paragraph is best:

"Under the headline, "Vancouver Games Continue Downhill Slide From Disaster to Calamity," Lawrence Donegan of the Guardian writes: "[Unfolding events are] threatening to make these Games the worst in Olympic history. It is hard to believe anything will surpass the organizational chaos and naked commercial greed of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta or the financial disaster of the 1976 Summer Games, which bankrupted Montreal, yet with every passing day the sense of drift and nervousness about the Vancouver Games grows ever more noticeable."

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Drachen

@patriotzed:

“As demonstrated south of the border (and this side by CIBC especially) the people running the banks cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of their shareholders. Market failure.”

Well the problem in the states was clearly the ridiculous bonus system they had set-up. The laws on such things are much more strict here, head bankers earn millions of dollars here true but they don’t get hundreds of millions in bonuses like in the US. If they want to retire filthy rich they have to stick it out for the long term, unlike their US counterparts who can cheat the system and retire with hundreds of millions of dollars after only a few years of pushing the envelope.

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Pman

Well maybe everyone will get their wish the olympics will be viewed as crap Vancouver as crap housing prices will go down and you’ll all be happy

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Mr. Observer

@domus:

…

In any case, we have NO PRIVATE skin in the game. Banks get to free ride on riskless bonds, speculators save half their interest costs and tax payers subsidize a system which support artificially high RE prices. Why? Why is such a system in place?

…

The question is rhetorical: Canada is moving to socialism. Why – is another issue. We socialized already education and health care. Both work badly.

Accommodation is the nest victim.

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patriotzed

@Drachen:

Why not the banks?

As demonstrated south of the border (and this side by CIBC especially) the people running the banks cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of their shareholders. Market failure.

Now that of course is the case for other corporations too, but the taxpayer is not holding the bag for them.

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