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London Olympics: the long distance East End legacy London Olympics: the long distance East End legacy
(about 2 months later)
Shortly before last year's Olympics Professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics quantified the task of improving life for east Londoners, many of whom are not loaded with loot.Shortly before last year's Olympics Professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics quantified the task of improving life for east Londoners, many of whom are not loaded with loot.
She pointed out that the people there have been poor compared with those in the rest of London for at least 200 years and, referring specifically to the borough of Newham, likened the effect of London's docks closing to the devastation the equivalent loss had on Liverpool. Basically, it shut half the place down.She pointed out that the people there have been poor compared with those in the rest of London for at least 200 years and, referring specifically to the borough of Newham, likened the effect of London's docks closing to the devastation the equivalent loss had on Liverpool. Basically, it shut half the place down.
That's the big, forbidding backdrop against which any catalysing force - cultural, social or economic - released by last year's athletic feats in the Olympic Park needs to be assessed. Realising Ken Livingstone's vision of an East End transformation will take decades and the process will underline bedrock truths about regeneration schemes: the public purse is shrinking; difficult deals must be struck and choices made when seeking private sector investment; for some local people change will be good, for others it will not.That's the big, forbidding backdrop against which any catalysing force - cultural, social or economic - released by last year's athletic feats in the Olympic Park needs to be assessed. Realising Ken Livingstone's vision of an East End transformation will take decades and the process will underline bedrock truths about regeneration schemes: the public purse is shrinking; difficult deals must be struck and choices made when seeking private sector investment; for some local people change will be good, for others it will not.
We're not just talking about the park and its immediate surroundings - the area now under mayoral control through the London Legacy Development Corporation - but a huge stretch of territory encompassing the six "Olympic boroughs" - Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham - and stretching further east, taking in Bexley and Havering and the Thames estuary counties beyond.We're not just talking about the park and its immediate surroundings - the area now under mayoral control through the London Legacy Development Corporation - but a huge stretch of territory encompassing the six "Olympic boroughs" - Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham - and stretching further east, taking in Bexley and Havering and the Thames estuary counties beyond.
Boris Johnson has added a large extra dimension to the mayoral ambition he inherited from Livingstone with his persistent lobbying for a new international airport to be built in the Thames estuary or else a big expansion of Stansted. Such an aviation hub would, he contends, quite literally open up the Gateway for new waves of enterprise to flow through the east of the capital.Boris Johnson has added a large extra dimension to the mayoral ambition he inherited from Livingstone with his persistent lobbying for a new international airport to be built in the Thames estuary or else a big expansion of Stansted. Such an aviation hub would, he contends, quite literally open up the Gateway for new waves of enterprise to flow through the east of the capital.
The Mayor has been loudly banging the Games anniversary drum, claiming that 20,000 jobs will be created thanks to a Chinese developer's plan to build a business park alongside City Airport in the Royal Docks enterprise zone. Meanwhile, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - to give it its royal mouthful of a full name - he heralds a viable multi-use future for the main stadium while iCity proclaims big plans for the now former press and broadcast centre buildings.The Mayor has been loudly banging the Games anniversary drum, claiming that 20,000 jobs will be created thanks to a Chinese developer's plan to build a business park alongside City Airport in the Royal Docks enterprise zone. Meanwhile, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - to give it its royal mouthful of a full name - he heralds a viable multi-use future for the main stadium while iCity proclaims big plans for the now former press and broadcast centre buildings.
For all the feelgood vibes arguments continue about how far, if at all, the Olympics project has helped the area it was based in and if the money spent on it has been justified. Sober analysts are reserving judgment. But whatever anyone concludes about all that, what matters most is what happens next. What sort of place can and should the new east London become? How can it be ensured that change benefits the local people most in need of it?For all the feelgood vibes arguments continue about how far, if at all, the Olympics project has helped the area it was based in and if the money spent on it has been justified. Sober analysts are reserving judgment. But whatever anyone concludes about all that, what matters most is what happens next. What sort of place can and should the new east London become? How can it be ensured that change benefits the local people most in need of it?
Answers to these questions have already been proposed in the form of, for example, the "mixed community" planned for the erstwhile Olympic village (now East Village), the intake of its adjoining school and Newham's now failed attempt to have the Carpenters estate redeveloped as a university campus. Some look more appealing than others.Answers to these questions have already been proposed in the form of, for example, the "mixed community" planned for the erstwhile Olympic village (now East Village), the intake of its adjoining school and Newham's now failed attempt to have the Carpenters estate redeveloped as a university campus. Some look more appealing than others.
Earlier this year Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali described growing up in an East End that had been promised great things by the area's last massive regeneration project, Canary Wharf, before observing with regret that very few local people actually have jobs there. "We must not," she concluded, "make the same mistakes in the next 10 or 15 years as we've made in the past." Are Boris Johnson and east London's politicians up to that long-distance task?Earlier this year Bethnal Green and Bow MP Rushanara Ali described growing up in an East End that had been promised great things by the area's last massive regeneration project, Canary Wharf, before observing with regret that very few local people actually have jobs there. "We must not," she concluded, "make the same mistakes in the next 10 or 15 years as we've made in the past." Are Boris Johnson and east London's politicians up to that long-distance task?
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