Originally Posted by
Guy Betsy
For a city that is supposed to be hosting the Olympics, there hasn't been much fanfare in the streets...
There are no posters, no banners, no flags, nothing.
St Pancras:
St Pancras station by
neate photos, on Flickr
Kew:
100 days to go by
EG Focus, on Flickr
Tower Bridge (due to be properly unveiled later this month):
Nearly there by
IanVisits, on Flickr
There's a big set floating in the docks by City Airport too.
Originally Posted by
Markie
My personal views are that the city will be a nightmare on transport, and that TFL are deliberately playing this down. Many companies have therefore not planned what to do or rather how much to do, to accommodate this.
I'm not sure if they have been downplaying it - a poster at my local station says it'll be "exceptionally busy". If anything, I think they may be overplaying how bad it'll be, in order to scare people away.
(however, I'm taking the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, and my commute for the month will be a 10-minute cycle towards the Olympic Park rather than half an hour the other way on the Central Line)
Originally Posted by
stut
For me, it's not the potential transport disruption that bothers me, but rather that the spirit of the games seems to have been lost under the weight of corporate sponsorship and IOC demands (that somehow feel like they've been issued by a failing dictator injured by a deckchair or something). OK, some hyperbole, but still, the sport currently seems overshadowed.
Once it gets going, and we get to see the results of the years of utter dedication by the athletes (particularly the Paralympians), I hope this will all disappear.
^
Originally Posted by
stut
Plus, the legacy does look quite good. I used to cycle the Greenway on occasion, and the transformation is great - the riverside park in particular. The River Lea deserves to be a great feature of East London (and some bits, like Walthamstow Lock, are already) and what's left behind will definitely help this.
I went for a
wander round the area that's now the Olympic Park in 2007 - and it was a weird industrial hinterland, a sort of dead zone in east London without a lot going for it. Next year, we'll have a massive new park; some great cycling facilities; much easier access to the rivers. And hopefully they'll stop arguing about what to do with that stadium, and see some sense and flatten the IBC and perhaps put some affordable houses there instead.
As a local, I'm prepared to put up with a month of inconvenience for the benefits that it'll bring.