Planning & Development
London Plays Games - Podcast
"Mega-events, such as the Olympic Games, have often been described as a preferred tool of place promotion and marketing and a primary connection between the local and the global. The Olympics are a global spectacle literally taking place in a single locale. Olympic Games are tightly interwoven into the urban economy and (re-)development schemes. They are also an increasingly important driver in the creation of new leisure and consumption spaces and the interests of international property firms. Like all mega-events, the Olympics are almost exclusively urban phenomena that require large public and private investments."
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Mon, 06/08/2012 - 09:46.
Opinion | Displacement | Economics | Human Rights | Planning & Development | Politics | Protest | Regeneration | Sport
Boris does Flag Fan Dangle Thing
Perfect casting for being hoist by his own petard. It's not everybody has their own Petard. The rich fat bastards have all the fun. That's not raw talent you know. They have the breeding you see. And the fagging. That and centuries of de Feffling about on a wet Saturday indoors with the croquet mallets.
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Thu, 02/08/2012 - 22:43.
Blog | Video | Contamination | 2012 Jobs | Airways | Attractions | Compulsory Purchase | Corruption & Ethics | Crime | Cycling | Legacy | Olympics Studies | Paralympics | Protest | Security | Skills Training | Swimming
More lying about the Olympic regeneration of East London
Nick Whitten recently posted a guest contribution by Matthew Black of estate agents CBRE on the Estates Gazette Olympics Blog. On their website CBRE describe themselves as 'key property adviser' to the now defunct London Development Agency in relation to the London 2012 Olympic Games bid.
In his contribution Mr Black wrote of the Olympic Park:
It also had its issues including heavily contaminated ground, buildings that were no longer fit for purpose, electricity pylons crossing the whole site and Europe's largest redundant fridge mountain. This was an opportunity to revitalise an area of London that had suffered from a lack of investment for a number of decades and the Games was the opportunity to rectify this and bring it back to becoming a core part of London again.
Submitted by Julian Cheyne on Wed, 01/08/2012 - 14:53.
Article | Contamination | Radioactivity | Compulsory Purchase | Legacy | Planning & Development
Preparing London for the Corporate Games: the Docklands Planning Model
from Corporate Watch
Submitted by Steve Dowding on Wed, 01/08/2012 - 14:28.
Article | Displacement | Planning & Development | Regeneration | Thames Gateway
Space Hijackers should award this spieler free membership
I know its been a long day but the Five Ring Circus engages unsung volunteers who give it their all. Some achieve transcendental states of delusion.
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Mon, 30/07/2012 - 12:07.
Blog | 2012 Arts & Culture | Attractions | People | Skills Training
Local Heroes
By Leah Borromeo
The motto of the Games is "inspire a generation". However, not everyone is enthused. Londoners from the poorest parts of the city facing major upheavals from losing their homes, livelihoods and public spaces to the mercy of a few weeks of medal-chasing over the summer. They believe that the Olympics gave local councils and big business an excuse for a land grab - in which the community had little or no say. When they voice their opposition, they are hushed by the machinery of bureaucracy, the suppression of protest and the reality of losing the roofs over their heads. But their concerns are as real as the Games itself, which have received some £9.3bn in UK public funding. Community life will continue long after the athletes, the fans and the confetti have gone. I spent a week listening to and gathering the stories of Londoners shouting at the walls of an Olympic Jericho.
Photo: Leah Borromeo
Joe Alexander, 38, is in property maintenance. He lives on the Carpenters Road estate and is vice chair of the local campaign group Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans. I spent the day with Joe - a quiet, eloquent divorcee and father who moved to Stratford in London's East End in the hopes of starting a new life
Submitted by Carolyn Smith on Sat, 28/07/2012 - 15:51.
Article | Contamination | 2012 Legacy | Clays Lane | Compulsory Purchase | Displacement | Environment | Human Rights | Legacy | Protest | Regeneration
Look what they did to my home, Ma! Clays Lane - A brief memorial
Clays Lane - completed 1982 closed 2007
Daly Courtyard from garden outside Community Centre
July 23rd was the day they closed the Clays Lane estate for good...
Daly Courtyard from outside Community Centre after closure of Clays Lane Estate
ResonanceFM Radio marked the day with a broadcast of a series of talks and walks with local people from 2007 to be followed by Against the Olympic Myth: a Memorial to Clays Lane in three broadcasts on Tuesday 24th, Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th July all at 10am. This will be followed by a programme of events - 'Clays Lane Archive' - put together by Adelita Husni-Bey, starting on 11th August until 19th, at Supplement Gallery and Bethnal Green Library.
Submitted by Julian Cheyne on Tue, 24/07/2012 - 01:09.
Article | Clays Lane | Compulsory Purchase | Displacement | Human Rights | London 2012
adiZones and Lo-Lifes
by @spitzenprodukte
GAMIFY INSURRECTION
Submitted by Steve Dowding on Sun, 22/07/2012 - 11:25.
Article | 2012 Legacy | 2012 Sport | Health | Mega Events | Olympics Studies | Regeneration | Sponsors
Olympic State of Exception
photo copyright Giles Price, from The Art of Dissent
by Isaac Marrero-Guillamón
Every other year the Olympic machine lands at a different city, where it nonetheless encounters a familiar scenario: by the night of the opening ceremony all the necessary infrastructures will have been built, free of charge, by the host; all of the city’s advertising space will have been occupied by the official sponsors of the event; state of the art security and military measures will have been deployed to protect the event; high-speed lanes connecting the venues with certain hotels will have been made exclusively available to the convenience of the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); and, if everything has gone according to plan, tickets will be long gone and an army of eager volunteers will be at the disposal of the organisers.
Submitted by Steve Dowding on Fri, 20/07/2012 - 17:00.
Article | 2012 Legacy | Human Rights | IOC | London 2012 | Mega Events | Olympics Studies | Planning & Development | Politics | Protest | Security | Sponsors
The Juggernaut rolls on - Olympic Autocracy at Leyton Marsh
Following earlier extraordinary legal decisions, including the acquittal of PC Harwood and the ruling in the High Court that pre-emptive arrests were not unlawful, comes the news that Save Leyton Marsh's application for judicial review of the planning permission for the Basketball Training facility had been thrown out without the applicants even knowing it had been heard. Even more extraordinary was the fact that the ODA had taken over the defence from Waltham Forest, even though it was not the defendant and it had not granted the planning permission. And as if that was not enough the ODA, using public funds of £40million to defend itself, applied for and has been granted an order for costs of £20,142.96, and another £4,140.00 for Waltham Forest, against the Save Leyton Marsh campaigners!
Submitted by Julian Cheyne on Thu, 19/07/2012 - 23:57.
Article | Environment | Hackney | Human Rights | Local groups | London 2012 | Planning & Development | Protest | Security
by