The Russians Are At It Again
Sep 26th 2007ericjhoroSports of the Olympiad
When the Olympic Games are held in America, the host city will often build new parks, stadiums, and roads. For the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, the Russians are going a step further.
Russian developers outlined plans on Saturday for a 350-hectare artificial island in the shape of Russia to be built off the Black Sea coast near the future Olympic venue Sochi.
Federation Island is expected to house around 25,000 people in apartments and villas and is to be completed in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, said its designer, Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat.
It will have two marinas, three religious centres, roads, parkland and artificial rivers, the latter designed to mimic some of the major rivers of Russia.
Doesn’t that sound nice. And if you’re thinking that Russia should work on improving areas of the country where people actually live instead of building new land, you obviously know nothing about using the Olympic Games to inject your city with as much government money as possible.
One thing to watch for is the American response to this island project. I can just see it now. Soon the U.S. will to try and outdo the Russians by building a bigger and better island. Perhaps it will be near Chicago, where in an effort to land the 20016 Olympics the city agrees to build a 5,000 square mile island in Lake Michigan. They’ll hold the team handball matches there. In the end the whole island thing will be just like the space race—only without the threat of communist nuclear weapons being dropped on America from the stars.
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