Why do Americans hate New York?

Evidently, "we have let America down," says Mayor Michael Bloomberg, by not managing to secure the 2012 Olympics, going instead to London. He lays blame on New Yorker's refusal to go along with an almost $2 billion West Side stadium, money that most citizens believe should be used for other more important things like fixing our schools, rebuilding a post September 11th downtown, granting reasonable contracts for city workers, increasing security, etc. The rest of America has moved on since the attacks, but New York is still struggling. Let's face it, the burden of another terror attack falls squarely on the shoulders of this city and yet, per capita, it is still not receiving nearly as much fiscal government support as Wyoming, who has been granted $27.80 per person in anti-terrorism grant money (as opposed to NY's $15.54 per person).

After 9/11, New York City was chosen as the American bid for the 2012 Olympics, based mainly on the heroism of its citizens and not on any sort of preparedness. The Village Voice argues that U.S. Olympic Committee should stop blaming New Yorkers and start blaming themselves for choosing NY instead of let's say San Francisco who had already built 80% of its facilities.

From the New York Daily News, "Ever since they got in office, Mayor Bloomberg and his supersalesman, Doctoroff, have been waving the Olympic flag. Nothing so absorbed their time and energy - not proper funding for our public schools or our transit system, not rebuilding Ground Zero or providing decent labor contracts for our cops and firefighters. But underneath that Olympic flag and those grand Olympic dreams were naked land deals to make their rich friends even richer. Thankfully, last month's defeat of the West Side stadium showed some New Yorkers aren't easily fooled."

New Yorkers were pretty indifferent to the Olympics one way or another. We are used to crowds and tourists so what's a few more. I for one was excited at the prospect of having us host the games.

NYC2012 claimed in the bid that it has encountered no organized opposition to bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to New York. In fact, New York's . . . Plan has received overwhelming public support, though isolated concerns regarding traffic and the environment have been expressed about a few sites.

However only 54 percent of Americans surveyed approved of having New York host the games, while 79 percent of the French supported staging the Olympics in Paris. So America, you got your wish now stop bitching.