IOC warning: too many 2010 live sites

Word that Vancouver City Council might cut the budget for the city’s two 2010 live sites triggered a wave of e-mails to councillors from worried Yaletown residents and businesses.

They love the idea of two weeks of activity at David Lam Park, on one side of them, and Larwill Park, the parking lot next to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, on the other.

But council approved cuts to the two-site budget March 24  and left the door open for further reductions, including possible elimination of one site,  if reduced budget projections fail to pan out.

The next day this warning from the IOC: Vancouver is planning more downtown “activation” for the 17 days of the Games than any previous Olympic city,  summer or winter. “They’ve made the observation that we may not need as much as is being planned,” VANOC executive vice-president Dave Cobb told reporters.

Huge sections of the downtown peninsula are scheduled to be converted to free or limited access party areas, including the two city parks, a large Concord Pacific area between Science World and the Plaza of Nations, long stretches of Robson and Granville, and Robson Square. That’s not to mention the countless national “houses” for visiting teams and other Olympic-related installations.

It may not be sustainable.