8 O’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing with guest Theresa Williamson, Director of Catalytic Communities, discuss the long-term and short-term social impacts of the 2016 Olympiad held in Rio de Janeiro. Williamson has worked in and studied Rio’s favelas for decades.
The 2016 Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, completed on Sunday, officially cost a total of $12 billion, which is being touted as less than the previous three Olympiads in London, Beijing and Sochti. The Mayor of Rio de Janeiro points to investments in public transit and affordable housing as lasting impacts of the games that will benefit cariocas for years to come. Still, in a city that cannot pay its government workers, and where thousands have been relocated from favelas to make way for Olympic villages, the true economic impact is not entirely clear.