London 2012
LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS
Holding the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to account to ensure London 2012 Green/social provision legacy objectives are met:
- Capital Growth - The campaign for 2012 new food growing spaces in London by 2012: http://www.capitalgrowth.org/
The campaign is run by London Food Link, launched by London Mayor Boris Johnson & his food adviser Rosie Boycott, as part of the idea to make the 2012 Olympics the greenest games ever – an exercise which has a hint of greenwash about it but which is nevertheless much welcomed and hugely positive. Those of us keen on embracing the substance of this popular rhetoric must ensure this elegant vision doesn't become more Boris Balderdash! Keep informed on this specific issue by subscribing to the following email list: ecoaction@lists.riseup.net
(To subscribe, send a blank email to: ecoaction-subscribe@lists.riseup.net ).
Encouragement comes from British Waterways who in early 2009 launched a major wildlife survey on UK canals and announced it was turning over unused canal-side land for use as vegetable-growing allotments.
Ref: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/26/allotment-gardens-hug...
Further info - positive London projects populating the rhetoric of sustainability:
* London Orchard Project: http://www.erm.com/About-Us/ERM-Foundation/Foundation-in-action-/The-Lon...
* Growing Communities - organic box-scheme social-enterprise sourced from allotments run by local people in Hackney, East London: http://www.growingcommunities.org/
Link to website of 'Manor Garden Allotment Society' whose allotment site was moved to make way for the Games in 2008: http://www.lifeisland.org/
- Social Provision Legacy:
In terms of issues of legacy of social provision in the area around the Olympic Park, the chair of the urban regeneration company set up to secure a lasting legacy for the Olympic Park - Baroness Ford - told London Assembly members in a committee meeting at City Hall on Wed 21st Oct 2009 that the "Olympic Village risks becoming a sterile block of flats with little community feel after the 2012 Games." Paul Norman from his blog: "Most interestingly Ford made it clear that the newly formed Olympic Park Legacy Company wants to redesign the LDA's masterplan for the 500-acre Olympics park so that swathes of high-rise apartment blocks are replaced with lower-rise housing targeted at families. Ford said that an initial review of the London Development Agency's current masterplan for the Olympic Park post Games had found that around 75% to 80% was "reasonable" but that far too many of the 10,000 residential units were high-rise flats." (Ref: http://www.estatesgazette.com/blogs/olympics/2009/10/oplc-signals-major-... ).
More info on deal agreed between the Government, the London Mayor and the five host boroughs that the legacy development of the 2012 site & its surroundings will have to contribute to closing the deprivation gap between east London and the rest of the capital, here.
Games Monitor
To keep up to date with real story around London 2012 free of ODA/London Organising Committee spin, take a look at: http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/
Email message-board here: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/gamesmonitor/
Further Reading:
'The Regeneration Games', by Mark Saunders (published by Mute Magazine, 12/09/2007): http://www.metamute.org/en/The-Regeneration-Games