Four years before it hosts the summer Olympics, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, hopes that the games will help revitalize the city’s reputation.? After the 1960s, the city saw decline, with its major industries and government moving to other cities in the South American country.? The city is spending some $4.5 billion on renovating its downtown alone, and that doesn’t include the stadium complexes it needs to build before 2016 (altogether, it plans to spend $10 billion on the Olympics).? Other problems include the city’s geography-right in between the coast of the Atlantic ocean and three major mountain ranges- which doesn’t allow for moving the games a little outside of the city; shantytowns, too, provide the government with a big problem, for it will be a huge problem to displace a huge percentage of the city’s poorest residents.? High rates of crime remains an issue throughout the country, despite it being one of the world’s fastest growing economies.? Hosting the 2016 Olympics just makes the city more motivated to change its face and bring Olympic gold to a once-great city.
For an interactive map of Rio’s Olympic plans, click here.