A little history on Lake Placid's Olympic Village

I saw this and thought of you guys/gals on here. This is a pretty interesting article on Lake Placid's Olympic Village and it's connection to the Nixon era , his War On Drugs, and the prison system.

http://allday.com/post/9808-this-1980-olympic-village-was-actually-built-to-house-inmates-not-athletes/?exp=3&utm_source=ADS&utm_medium=FBO&utm_campaign=HIP

Yeah this is a widely known fact locally , i had worked with McEwen on several other initiatives in higher education, he lived in our town. Unfortunately for many,  building prisons was seen as economic development to the detriment of the wider region's effort to ratchet up both tourism and regional. Tech oriented incubators and parks affiliated with the regions four colleges and universities

The athletes complained about the small sized rooms (prison cells ) . You canonly imagine how cramped they would be when occupied with their gear and luggage .

This era was the impetus for turning The North Country into French Guyana  North  .  Rapid expansion  of the prison system was forced into the region with very little local input or planning .  PLaces from Watertown to Dannemora , places like Ogdensburg, Chateaugay, Malone , Cape Vincent , Raybrook and t .o lesser degrees Lyon Mountain, Gabriels etc were turned onernite from scenic , bucolic , tourist or lite industry or agricultural centers into prison towns .

Yes , some benefitted form payroll but the ambiance for everyone was dramatically changed and the social problems and other forms of criminal activity that came with it would  substantively change the quality of life in these towns forever.Things were no longer safe , the north country culture of laid back living where no one locked homes or vehicles was forever altered . Petty Street crime and the drug culture were theresult but other more heinous crime was also imported with the problem , out of state drug trafficing, violent domestic abuse , and even murder resulted from street crime in the region that neither  pre - existed at these current levels in scope or degree of severity .

Now the prison system is entrenched has had the law of unintended consequences come to bear and localities are burdened with that fallout . So yeah the OLYMPIC village was a part of this scene and now is a pen .

You could say that the prison system and the poor's involvement with the justice system has it's function sort of like being involved with a never ending war. People get jobs and industries flourish but if it's at the expense of other people's lives it doesn't seem right to me. Ugh...morals and stuff.

The prison system just like the military is a drain on the economy. If we did not need these we could put those resources to much better use.

I agree , just lament the short sighted decision made by politicians .  This both despoiled a pristine area and sold  our potential for expansion of tourism and incubate technology center develoment in this region for a few measly low skilled jobs rather than leverage better , higher paying jobs and acleaner economic develoment that bolsters a regions image .

Face it , people neither want to live near or vacation near prisons  and companies look at quality of life issues and environment before choosing relocation . So this stupidity was like shooting oneself in the foot .

The other screw up was This was forced on the population by a very small coterie of short sighted politicians with little vision as no other region WANTED. prisons .

That prison is in Ray Brook that was the Olympic athletes housing.  They did a good job of hiding it from the road and the signage is minimal.  It has not affected the tourist biz in LP or Saranac Lake one bit.  I know plenty of prison workers and the pay and benefits are far better than tourist revealed jobs unless you own a business.

LP and Orda have a better job of keeping the Olympic venues running and viable than just about any other Olympic site.

True for Raybrook coach BUT putting 3 prisons on our waterfront right at the International bridge and on the best beach on this strentch of thr St lawrence has effed up our tourist trade and damn bnear made it impossible to attract  tech oriented firms into the co adjacent industrial park which now has lower skilled lower paid jobber type firms rather than the intellectual capitol type orgs that were sought .  Other area like Cape Vincent and Malone were alao short sold , Chateugay and Gabriels and Lyon Mtn have subsequently closed leaving empty hulks to rot

Si while Raybrook is tucked out of sight , McEwen and other local short sighted politicians were absolutely stupid to have allowed HIS HOME TOWN to be screwed over for this boondoggle . Yead it adds a few  jobs but what was lost was a brighter future . Now this is a bleak prison town with all the social issues that result as i cited . MAny have moved out of town to get away and that void has been filled ti some degree with social detritus that follows these kinds of installations .

Is it terrible , no BUT there was a much better plan that could have economically UPSCALED the region and raised all boats as a result.


Yeah prisons are an unfortunate necessity that neither add value nor enhance the marketing image