More Evidence That the Olympics Won't Fix Your City

Looking back from Britain’s current chaotic state, the 2012 Summer Olympics seems like a golden era. Bringing the world’s attention to a run-down part on the city’s east side, the London Games succeeded in promoting a vision of the city and its country that was efficient, self-confident, and diverse.

Certainly it didn’t entirely succeed in creating venues that were sustainable longterm, but unlike too many hosts before it, London really did try. The games were a successful international branding exercise for East London and provided a large glut of short-term employment. But how well did they do in delivering long-term improvements to the relatively deprived boroughs surrounding the park? A new report provides a pretty stark answer: For East Londoners, the games mostly failed.