Olympics: all about the money ?

The super-sized London Olympic gold medal designs were revealed a few weeks ago as the countdown to the games reached one year and counting.... I've been hearing about various examples of what seems like "cashing in", as well as stories of communities who are being affected by the preparations and will be for at least another year yet. Some local businesses and traders are not happy, mirroring some of the local traders near the South African World Cup venues...

I've already blogged about the charge to stand on the Greenwich Meridian at the Observatory. This has also been compounded by the fencing off of large areas of the park for some trial events (lots of comments on this particular web page giving a range of different views on the use of the park)

There's also the closure of a public park and the erection of fences in Weymouth which will stop even residents from having the sea view they have always enjoyed.

Want the Olympic Mascots (well, two people in costumes) to visit your school event ? That'll be £850 please... which seems like quite a lot - even I don't charge that to visit a school...

I also blogged previously about Iain Sinclair's views on the Olympic Park and his new book 'Ghost Milk', and the upheaval of communities in the East End of London, and there has been some previous discussion over the disappearance of places like the Clays Lane Housing Co-operative.

The BBC will have hundreds of extra staff to cover the games, and also the torch relay...

As always, NEF have something to say on the important issues, and their FOOLS GOLD report makes interesting reading. (Link leads to PDF download)


A few appropriate Google searches throw up a whole range of local alterations and schemes too, such as a new Travelodge, which has its objectors - I don't suppose they'll be offering £19 rooms next August...

There's certainly a longer term project for some local schools to track the ACTUAL Olympic legacy...

And a useful paper on the risks for host cities and the idea of Olymponomics.
Also controversy over the involvement of DOW CHEMICALS.

The end result of this might end up being the creation of new ruins, as described by Iain Sinclair on his visit to Athens, which hosted the 2004 games:

In Greece he finds Stratford's soured future; a real-life posthumous grand project. He wanders barely used stadiums and through echoey atria, and no one tries to stop him because no one cares and there's hardly anyone there. Meanwhile, off stage, the Greek economy collapses, and Sinclair understandably can't resist making a causal connection between the "nation's bankruptcy" and its Olympic folly. "The Games are just empty buildings," one Athenian tells him, "we have no use for them. But they have become monuments, so we can handle them and live with them. We are used to living among ruins. They are just ruins, they were never anything else."

The recent London riots (of which more to come in a future blog post) seem to have been partiy connected (in the minds of some of those involved at least) with the feelings that money is not filtering down to the communities in the area around the Olympic Park.

Will be interesting to follow this over the next few months... any thoughts ?


What about the big successes of the games and organisation so far ? Do they more than balance out these concerns ?

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