With a brash young lawyer-lawmaker named Dick Lamm leading the way, residents said they didn't want the 1976 Winter Olympics. And they said it in a big way. The landmark vote on Nov. 7, 1972, wasn't even close -- 514,228 to 350,964. A 59.4 percent majority said they weren't willing to spend tax dollars to have the Games in their state.

'That thing is going to cost about nine billion pounds. That's a lot of money to watch some guy run around a track. I could go to some gym and see that for free.'

Ozzy Osbourne

From: Quotes of the week, Sunday July 15, 2007,The Observer

© Mike Wells, 0 77 99 152 888, mikejwells@yahoo.com

Synopsis

For more than a century what will be the Olympic Park was home to some of the nation’s dirtiest industries. Within, and surrounding, what will be the Olympic Park some 7,500 people were employed in the chemicals industry. A new document reveals a second case of radioactive waste dumped in 1953 in a former landfill site within the Park. An Environment Agency analysis shows higher than normal levels of radioactive material in the River Lee. The article examines the historical information available, includes quotes from experts and lawyers, and is critical of the LDA’s work in the Park, which local residents fear puts them at risk. Mike Wells is also a photographer. The article comes with photographs.

Massimo Allamandola has at last been able to bring to my attention the report, which I have attached below, about the response in Nov 2005, by the 'Regents Network' of canal users to British Waterways proposal to impound the River Lea by building a 'Water Control Structure' at Prescott Channel.

A recent e-mail dialogue from 2010WATCH in Vancouver:

Ian Gregson from 2010watch@yahoogroups.com wrote:

Protest Against Olympic ‘Countdown Clock’
Monday Feb.12th @ 12 Noon Vancouver Art Gallery

THE government was rightly lambasted last week by a parliamentary committee for its mismanagement of the 2012 London Olympic finances since winning the games in July 2005. But the Eye has discovered that even as the crowds were erupting in Trafalgar Square two summers ago, the government knew the real costs bore no relation to those set out earlier that day in Lord Coe's decisive presentation to the International Olympic Committee.

For all the hype, there are no noticeable economic benefits to the Olympics. There may be some gain to smaller cities wanting to boost their world image, such as Atlanta and Barcelona. London has no such need and the IOC has priced small cities out of the market.

The LDA estimate that in the 'red line area' alone, somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 jobs could be created (private conversation). Later projections are as high as 35,000 (E. Goodwyn and K Munn, October 11, 2006). However, it is clear that social actions and relationships, development plans and economic strategies, have all been defined by a discourse of uneven development, that of poverty in the Lower Lea Valley and Olympic boroughs (a continuing product).