A report on the impacts of the Olympic Games and Paralympics on host cities

Dr Mary Smith
London East Research Institute Working Papers
December 2008

There'd've been more than a little hype about the 2010 Winter Olympics contributing to maintaining Vancouver's hallowed status not just as a 'world class city' but as the world's most 'liveable'? Whilst there's no specific mention of any Olympics effect, it's been downgraded according to The Economist.

Yet again the Olympics claims as a legacy a project which had been under consideration years before the Games were even thought of. Conniving in this deceit the BBC describes the new DLR connection between Canning Town and Stratford International as a 'new £211m DLR extension connecting Olympic Venues'. BoJo and the ODA's Hugh Sumner are then given the opportunity to claim it as a legacy.

Remember those promises from the IOC that the Beijing Olympics would result in improvements in China's human rights record? Francois Carrard told the BBC: 'If the Games were not awarded to China the (human rights) situation would not have progressed, this is a contribution to progress, an accelerating factor.' Monsieur Carrard went on 'I'm convinced that when we look at this with the perspective of history we will see that the Olympic Games will have been an opportunity for considerable progress.'

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Frederick Douglas, Speech on the 24th anniversary of emancipation, Washington , DC, 1886

A local resident is interviewed by a foreign correspondent while rioting is taking place around the Pembury Estate in Hackney, East London.




At present Sheldon Thomas runs his own organization The Helping Hand Trust which works directly with gang members especially around extreme teenage violence giving intensive support, mentoring and gangs mediation...

Neither Paxo on last night's Newsnight, nor John Humphreys on this morning's Radio 4 Today 'knew' there'd be a Westfield at Stratford. Apparently from within their BBC bubble Westfield is only that thing near to TV Centre at Wood Lane? Or perhaps they're being briefed? Whichever it was, both occasions provided a platform (again) for Tessa Jowell's lies on legacy claiming Stratford Westfield.

Far from being inspired by the Olympics to take up sport, as predicted by Tessa Jowell back in 2007, people are showing less inclination to participate the closer we get to 2012. The most recent survey by Sport England, released in June, which measured participation between April 2010 and April 2011 showed a decline among women, disabled people, white adults and the poorest Britons. The rate of participation also fell among those under 35 and over 55. The only region to show an improvement was the North-West, while in the South-East, which is where most events are happening, and the East Midlands levels of participation declined.

Can you credit it? Local MPs and Council leaders are accusing the BBC of undermining the Olympic organisers’ bid to revitalise East London and produce a lasting legacy by refusing to include the Olympic stadium on the Eastenders' map. Among the huffy MPs is Lyn Brown, who said: ‘The more people who know exactly where the stadium is, and how well it is connected to the rest of London, the better.’