Right now, the 2012 Olympic Games are in full swing in London. But the International Olympic Committee had considered four other sites for this year, and one of them was New York City.
New York's bid was organized and led by Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration and current President and CEO of Bloomberg, L.P. Currently in London, Doctoroff sent out an email summarizing his feelings about the 2012 Games and what they could've been for New York City.
Right now Alisa and I are sitting in the stands at the Opening Ceremonies in London. Even though this is the same night that the Games would have begun had New York won, the feelings of 'what might have been' are curiously absent. London has done a magnificent job and we are thrilled to once again be part of the festive atmosphere and sense of global camaraderie that is so unique to the Olympic experience.While we won't be cheering on the athletes as they enter an Olympic Stadium on the West Side, or for the next seventeen days enjoying beach volleyball in Williamsburg, boxing in Brooklyn, or white water kayaking in Flushing, I hope you take great pride in how much your efforts to make NYC2012 a reality changed New York forever. Today, Manhattan's West Side is becoming New York's next great neighborhood, the High Line is one of New York's premier tourist destinations, on the site of the proposed Olympic Village the largest subsidized middle-income housing community in fifty years is beginning to rise, popular ferry service along the East River waterfront is connecting residents and visitors to new communities and new parks, and millions of fans attend games at new Yankee Stadium and CitiField (and soon at the new home of the Brooklyn Nets!). None of this would have happened without NYC2012.You were a key member of a team of thousands of New Yorkers who poured their energies and love of New York into an effort that was filled with joy and made a big difference. Seven years later, Jay Kriegel and I still can't thank you enough. I don't know whether New York will ever host the Olympics, but I do know that no city has ever benefited so much from trying and that no city embodies the Olympic spirit more. As we always said, New York really is an Olympic Village every day.Dan