Olympics will offer Britain 'transportation legacy' http://www.rail.co/2011/06/20/olympics-will-offer-britain-transportation-legacy/ Olympic legacy: game on http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=16730 1948 London Olympians offered 2012 tickets to mark return of the games to the capital http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2005899/1948-London-Olympians-offered-2012-tickets.html?ito=feeds-newsxml London 2012: Official site http://www.london2012.com/ London 1948 http://www.london1948.org/index.asp Big events require big plans, and the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London will see vast tracts of east London reimagined, reinvented, and reconfigured. This type of broad urban renewal is not without precedent, as massive structures and stadia were created for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In their original bid to host the games, the organizers and business partners told the International Olympic Committee that they would work tirelessly to transform this hardscrabble corner of London. One of the key facets of the plan includes the construction of 11,000 new homes after the athletic contests are completed. The idea is that many of the residences built for athletes will be turned into permanent homes for east Londoners, and still others will be built on the sites of other temporary facilities. The chairman of Triathlon Homes, Nick Raynsford, will be responsible for one such reuse project, and he commented, "Historically, people have built things like the athletes' accommodation and thought of a use for it afterwards. The problem is that a single-tenure solution doesn't work and it becomes a sink estate almost overnight." Currently, the borough of Newham in east London is the second most economically deprived area in all of England, and nearly half of its adult population is unemployed. In the long-term, the hope is that new jobs will be created in the aftermath of the Olympic Games and that some of these residents may find employment as a result. There remains the specter of widespread gentrification that may ultimately force long-time residents to move away permanently. The first link will take visitors to an article from this Sunday's Financial Times (reposted by Slate) about the ambitious plans for this section of London, post-Olympic Games. The second link offers a piece from this Monday's Rail.co website about the long-term transportation improvements that will be emerge as part of the preparations for these Olympics. The third link will whisk users away to a piece from the Public Service UK website about Andrew Altman, the CEO of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which is responsible for the linked-up planning in the aftermath of the Games. Moving along, the fourth link leads to a piece from the Daily Mail which talks about an offer to 1948 London Olympians to return for a reunion at the upcoming games. The fifth link leads to the official website of the 2012 Olympics. Visitors to the site can find out about the various athletic competitions and cultural events that will take place next year. The last link leads to a rather remarkable website which presents original newsreels from the 1948 London Olympic Games, along with information about the various sporting venues and such.