Wednesday, July 06, 2005

2012 Olympics for London

Being a Londoner born and bred I’m pleased that our city has been given the chance to hold the Olympics. We could do a fantastic job. We are certainly up there with New York in terms of world importance, and as for running projects on this scale, we’ve become a lot better at it, Wembley and Picketts Lock aside – the latter being a miserable failure, and former a project which is driving the construction company towards bankruptcy.

Yet while I am proud that my home city managed to pull itself from third place (and gave the French something to think about) I do wonder about the long-term effect, and the aftermath of the so-called legacy.

If managed well, it could be a wonderful thing for Londoners. It’s just that in the past this is something we have been very poor at.

Only time will tell. I hope that in 2016 we are not looking at a load of underused or derelict stadia, swimming pools etc. But I think that’s what we’ll be seeing.

Stratford, at least the area between the station and Hackney Wick, is not an area rich in beauty. If you’ve travelled through it on the 276 you’ll know what I mean. It is one full of dirty industry – industry that employs real people and pays real wages. What will happen to the businesses currently occupying that area? Some of them are complaining that they haven’t been given full compensation, money that in my opinion they fully deserve.

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