Bill Linehan

District 2: Chinatown, Downtown, South Boston, South End

 

 

On January 8, 2015, after the USOC selected Boston, Councilor Linehan “lauded” the development then remarked to the Globe, “We need to get out to the community and talk to folks about what this means for the city to get the Olympic Games. Because this is only one step in a series of steps to potentially host the Olympics in the City of Boston.”

 

On February 3, 2015, after Councilor Zakim submitted four ballot questions for consideration, Councilor Linehan remarked that it was “premature…to make a judgment” on whether or not there should be a vote.

 

On March 3, 2015, Councilor Linehan created a special committee on the Olympics, appointing himself as chair. He notably excluded Councilor Zakim, who had proposed ballot questions for November, from the special committee. On creating the committee, Linehan remarked, “Boston does not need the games, but I have to ask the question ‘Why can’t we host the games?’ The City of Boston has a strong Olympic legacy. American athletes from Boston led the charge to victory at the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896…I believe we need to look hard at our ability and capacity, and execute our goals with the intention of being Boston Strong.”

 

In his opening remarks at the City Council hearing on March 6, 2015, Councilor Linehan repeated that the main question to him was “Why can’t Boston host the Games?” (as opposed to “Should Boston host the Games?”—a question he didn’t even consider, contrasting “Why can’t we?” only with “Is it necessary?”). He thanked Boston 2024 for the “extraordinary work” they had done so far.

 

Councilor Linehan did not respond to the JP Gazette’s request for his current position on the bid as of the publication of their piece on April 10, 2015. He did not respond to No Boston 2024’s request ten days later either.

 

At the City Council hearing on May 18, 2015, Councilor Linehan asked about how the IOC and the USOC can play a role "from right now" to encourage Boston youth to “partake in the ideals of the Olympic movement, sportsmanship, and all the like.”

 

At the June 26, 2015 City Council hearing on Olympic venues and financing, Councilor Linehan said that he saw a “marked improvement” in the parts of Bid 2.0 released so far, noting that there are “legitimate venue locations” and a “legitimate application to try to build these.” He asked about whether building temporary stadiums of the size proposed has been done in the US or anywhere in the world, and he noted that there has been concern in his district about the international communications center. He said he was “excited” about the bid but still needs to know the bottom line. At a later point in the hearing, he cut off Councilor Jackson’s questioning about the release of an unredacted version of Bid 1.0 to play defense for Rich Davey, and he did not mind that Rich Davey left the hearing early before the public testimony.

 

On July 22, 2015, Councilor Linehan blocked a vote on Councilor Jackson's motion to subpoena Boston 2024 to obtain the full, unredacted version of Bid 1.0, thereby preventing it from being considered until August 12 at the earliest.