We went on the tour that is provided by London Walks, a company that provides a large variety of tours throughout the city of London. The tours they offer range from the Olympic sites, to a "Haunted London" tour at night, tours of Harry Potter sites, tours of Westminster, and much more. Each tour is 6 pounds for students and all you have to do is show up at the designated tube station at the designated time.
I learned a lot of interesting things on this tour. It really gave me the background I needed to begin my research. Here is a list of some of the things our tour guide talked about that I found interesting:
-Nothing ever really changes: things that are similar between today's Olympics and the Greek olympics
-for
young men to be fit and athletic…something to do and to prepare them for war
-sponsoring
athletes: restaurants and companies
-peace
time during the games
-100
meter dash is still the most anticipated event
-Olympic Housing to Social Housing
-After the games, there is an organization in charge of converting the Olympic village into homes. It has been decided that 50% will
be social housing and 50% will be rented by a government agency. They do not want to sell the properties and have private owners rent them for higher rates.
-The goal is the creation
of mixed income neighborhoods.
-Redevelopment of East London
-Kent
Livingston (former Mayor of London): "I didn't bid for the Olympics because I
wanted three weeks of sport," London's mayor told an election
hustings."I bid for the Olympics because it's the only way to get the
billions of pounds out of the Government to develop the East End - to clean the
soil, put in the infrastructure and build the housing."
-Words used to describe East London
-Immigrants, working class, poverty, industry, docklands
-Through the Olympics, Mayor Livingston hoped to redevelop an area of London that had been "left behind." He sought to add parks, better homes, better schools, better health facilities, and general beauty to the historically industrial section of the city.
-----------------------------
Though my area of interest in policy is usually education policy, immigration policy, or a mixture between the two, I will have to explore different subjects for this research project. I have not been able to think of a good way to link education policy to the Olympics. Thus, I have decided to concentrate on housing policy and the write an offshoot about how communities and schools are being affected by the games. Mostly, I would like to concentrate on efforts to redevelop East London. I want to find out more about the reasons behind the Olympic bid, the reasons why East London was chosen, what the average Londoner has to say about the redevelopment, and about the legacy of the games. How will the Olympics affect East London in the future? Will the area blossom and develop as hoped or will gentrification force the exile of impoverished families that have long been living in East London?
There is still much to explore and much to learn about.
Here are some pictures of some of the Olympic sites we saw on the tour and of the surrounding area:
 |
| Observation Tower |
 |
| Stadium for Opening/Closing ceremonies and track events |
 |
| Aquatic Center |
No comments:
Post a Comment