Cincinnati riots may hurt bid for 2012 Olympic Games
( 2001-06-01 09:20 ) (7 )

Cincinnati's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games may be undermined following last month's race riots, the city's main lobbyist said on Thursday.

"We cannot act as if nothing happened," Nick Vehr told Reuters in an interview.

"If we ignore it, it makes our bid that much harder.

"This city - in fact this whole area - has to respond with the social changes that will make the healing permanent."

Vehr, a former city councilman and now president of the lobbying group 'Cincinnati 2012', said the city's final bid to be the US candidate to hold the Games was due this week.

Cincinnati is competing with seven other cities to be US candidate to hold the 2012 Games. Also in contention are Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

Vehr said he did not want to over-emphasise the challenge Cincinnati faced from the riots that ravaged the city during the second week of April.

The four days of rioting resulted in more than 100 injuries, 800 arrests and damage from vandalism, looting and arson of dozens of stores.

The riots erupted after a white policeman killed an unarmed 19-year-old black youth, fuelling feelings of resentment in the black community that police were targeting blacks.

The US Justice Department has begun a sweeping review of Cincinnati police policies and practices, seeking to address the rift in police-community relations.

"We have to treat this as an historic and significant moment in Cincinnati's history toward producing the kinds of social changes that will make this a very attractive city for the 2012 Games," Vehr said.

"If we do that, every last person living in this area will benefit."

Officials from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) are scheduled to visit the Cincinnati area for four days from July 23 to inspect the city's plan for the games.

USOC is expected to make a decision next year on which city will become the US's candidate city to host the Games.

The International Olympic Committee chooses the venue of the Games some six years before they take place after bids from around the world.

It has yet to decide on who will host the 2008 Games.

"We figure we already have existing facilities for 78 per cent of the venues we will need for the Olympics, which should put us in very good shape versus the cities competing with us.

Vehr said he realised that it had become more difficult to obtain substantial financial help from the city, which now faced heavy expenses from the riots.

"But we already have received tremendous logistic support from city departments and expect much more in preparing our bid," he said.

So far, businesses and private donors have pledged more than US$5 million to the drive to win the Olympic bid, Vehr said, with another US$2 million to be raised.