Cause/Effect Thesis Statement Start Assignment For the cause and effect essay, you will either consider the cause of something or the effect of something. You must begin by deciding on a topic and t

and Need a Permanent Location, An Annotated

Example

EM IL Y B U RA CK works as deputy managing editor at Alma , a Jewish culture publication online. Her writing about sports,

culture, and books has been published in Teen V ogue , Marie Clair e , and on Alma ’s website. Burack wrote this piece for T een

V ogue in 2021. Visit everyonesanauthor .tumblr.com to access the links (underscored here) as you read.

The Olympics Devastate Host Cities and Need a Permanent Location

EMILY BURACK

A dir ect statement of the pr oblem, with statistical evidence in support of canceling the Olympics.

THE O LY M PIC S A RE B RO KEN . Nowhere is this clearer than in Tokyo, where polls have indicated more than 80% of Japanese

citizens oppose the [2020] Summer Games and the Japanese government has declared a state of emer gency [due to COVID-

19]. There’ s never been an Olympics so deeply unpopular with a host city—and so dangerous to hold—and yet by all

indications , the Tokyo Games will go on as scheduled.

A br oader ar gument for why the pr oblem matters, which the following paragraphs support with data.

Even without a pandemic, the impact of the Olympics on host cities has become too devastating to ignore.

Acknowledges a stance that runs counter to the big pr oblem.

It’s hard not to feel the hype during an Olympics. Held every two years since 1992, it’ s an absorbing competitive spectacle

featuring the world’s best athletes. Plus, female athletes, disabled athletes, and athletes from sports who typically don’ t get

media coverage are given a well-deserved and long overdue turn in the spotlight. Quoting an expert reinforces the author ’s claim.

“The Olympics are very popular , as long as they’re not happening in your city ,” political scientist Jules Boykoff, who has

written extensively on the Olympics, explains to Teen V ogue . “While the Olympics tend to bring out the very best in athletes,

they also tend to bring out the very worst in host cities.”

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In host cities, the games have displaced residents, sped up gentrification , and increased policing and the militarization of the

public sphere. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 1.5 million Chinese residents were evicted from their homes. In preparation

for Rio 2016, countless neighborhoods were destroyed —an estimated 60,000 Brazilians lost their homes—to make way for

Olympics infrastructure. Ahead of the Tokyo Games this summer , some residents of the Kasumigaoka apartment complex in

Tokyo were evicted to make way for the main stadium. Communities across the city saw “severe gentrification,” according to

A yako Yoshida, a member of Hangorin No Kai , the Japanese anti-Olympics activist or ganization. “Under the banner of so-

called neighborhood ‘redevelopment,’ we witnessed private corporations kick people out of their homes and transform

neighborhoods for their own profit,” she told Teen V ogue .

Examples give a pr ecise description of the pr oblem, and explain why it matters.

Seven years out from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, the local community is already seeing this pattern of displacement

and gentrification. “For the Olympics, [what’s] going to drive people to be displaced out of rent-stabilized housing is the

construction of new hotels, which are being built in now-gentrifying neighborhoods around Olympic sites in downtown and

South L.A., which are predominantly communities of color ,” NOlympics L.A. organizer Gia Lappe, tells Teen V ogue . Lappe

points to the Ellis Act , a loophole in state law , that allows landlords of af fordable housing to evict tenants if the landlord is

planning to “change the use” of the building, i.e., make that property a hotel. She speculated that displacement, like the recent

clearing of a homeless community in Echo Park Lake , is happening now in preparation for the Games.

Cites an opposing perspective, one that ar gues there’s no pr oblem at all.

When reached for comment, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told Teen V ogue that their sustainability ef forts

include only building new sports venues in host cities that don’ t have them. “If a host does not need a new permanent sports

venue, its leaders will not be asked to build one,” they said. “This has significantly reduced the costs of or ganizing the Games

while ensuring their fundamental values of universality and diversity.” When asked about the redevelopment ahead of Tokyo

and Los Angeles Games, specifically , they referred Teen V ogue to the local city or ganizing committees, stating, “LA28 games

are a no-build Games with a master plan specifically designed to use the city’ s existing sports venues. There’s no connection to

Echo Park.”

The author r esponds to the opposing view , citing an expert for support.

Yet, every two years in cities all across the world, poor communities seem to pay the price of hosting the Olympic Games.

As Yoshida explained, “The sacrifice will be burdened by everyday people, who are often poor or in the most vulnerable

position in society .”

Succinctly states a clear solution to the pr oblem.

A clear solution to the disastrous impact of the Games is a permanent location. On an emotional level, athletes may not care

where the Olympic Games are held—they simply want to compete in the Olympics. And there could be something meaningful

about competing in the same spot where champions played years before.

Evidence for how the solution addresses the problem.

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It makes sense economically too as the Games have evolved into a money-losing endeavor for host cities. Economist Victor

A. Matheson told Teen V ogue that “no possible understanding of the benefits could possibly cover the cost of a typical Olympic

Games these days.” In a study published in 2016 , Matheson and coauthor Robert A. Baade found that hosting the Olympics is

not economically viable for most cities. Indeed, the Tokyo Olympics, which originally anticipated would cost about $7 billion

in 2013, was on track in 2018 to cost upwards of $30 billion , according to the W ashington Post —and that was prior to COVID.

“This was at least a $25 billion debacle, even before COVID added to the problems,” Matheson said. There will be a

significant one-time investment with a permanent location as the necessary athletic infrastructure is constructed and then

continued upkeep cost, which would be much lower, he explained. Acknowledges other possible solutions.

Even if the Olympics doesn’t find one permanent home, rotating between a few locations would still be a more sensible

alternative. A study published last month in the journal Natur e Sustainability proposed a few options to improve the Games:

downsizing the event, having the IOC implement an independent body to monitor its promise of “sustainability ,” or, critically ,

rotating the event among the same few cities, so the Games “could be hosted with minimal social and ecological disruption and

at minimal cost.” Imagine that the infrastructure built in Olympic cities didn’ t go to ruin , but was reused again and again.

Imagine an eco-friendly Olympic Village ready to host athletes and coaches, and serving as dorms and temporary housing in

the Games’ off years.

It’s easy to imagine, but it all rests on the IOC, an or ganization that many critics see as having no incentive to reform. The

IOC was founded in 1894 under the name the Olympic Congress. According to a 2015 article in the European Journal of

International Relations , the non-governmental sports or ganization has no real oversight, and seemingly , no pressure to change

the way things have been done. Some of its members have reportedly benefited greatly from the Olympics. In 2014, Slate

described the IOC as having “diva-like demands for luxury treatment,” including what Norwegian media reported as the

creation of separate lanes on public roads, ceremonial greetings, and more, prompting the Norwegian capital of Oslo to drop its

bid for the 2022 Games. The IOC’s members include royalty , corporate executives, and many wealthy individuals, who are

likely accustomed to receiving lavish benefits.

Details the major obstacles to the pr oposed solution.

“Fundamentally, their job is a very enviable one: They own the rights to a sporting event that draws billions of eyeballs

every two years. And yet, they’re actually responsible for very little,” explained Chris Dempsey , who co-led the No Boston

Olympics movement . Though it may be the only sustainable way to continue holding an Olympics, Dempsey doesn’ t believe

the IOC will ever move to a permanent location. He theorized they simply risk losing too much money in broadcasting rights.

Cites additional proposals for combating opposition.

Boykoff takes a similarly pessimistic view on any possibility of IOC reform. “The International Olympic Committee has to

be one of the most pervasive, yet least accountable or ganizations in the world, sports-related or otherwise,” he said. “Until we

get [some] hook where we can hold them accountable, it’ s going to be dificult to change. That means we’re only left with the

athletes to stand up and speak out, break rules, and maybe even challenge the Olympic system, the corporate sponsors to back

out, or the broadcasters to say, ‘This isn’t worth our money anymore.’”