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HOW THE OLYMPICS DAMAGE CITIES
ALTERNET - The toll the Olympic industry takes on host cities is made
worse because it's so predictable. Their destructive impact is
documented in an extensive study of the seven most recent cities (Seoul,
Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London) chosen to host
the Summer Games. It was released in June by the Centre on Housing
Rights and Evictions, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The worst abuses COHRE documents have taken place under the most
repressive regimes. Beijing will displace 1.5 million people to host the
2008 Games, as it doubles the already frenzied pace of its urban
redevelopment. Often without notice, officials cut off electricity and
water to convince residents to leave. If that's unsuccessful, garbage
and sewage are allowed to pile up in entryways. Left without recourse, a
few residents threatened suicide. Some succeed; others are arrested for
creating public disturbances.
Beijing's brutality is hardly unique. COHRE details how South Korea's
military dictatorship cleared out 720,000 people for the 1988 Seoul
Games. Private security forces roamed the streets at night, using rape,
beatings and arson to break community resistance.
But it doesn't take a one-party state to bring out the jackboots when
the Olympics come to town. Atlanta gained notoriety among Olympic
watchers when it declared the central business district a "sanitized
corridor" and had police pre-print arrest citations, with the words
"African-American," "Male," and "Homeless" already filled in. In the
lead-up to the games the city arrested about 9,000 people, a "crime"
that has significant implications because people with criminal records
are not eligible for public housing. Some of the homeless were given
one-way bus tickets out of town.
What mass-produced arrest citations and bulldozers don't accomplish the
market's invisible hand usually does. Real-estate speculation and
ballooning rents push out vulnerable populations with inescapable
regularity. Barcelona, touted as the most successful recent games,
registered a 240 percent increase in new house prices in the run-up to
the Olympics.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/56128/
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HOW THE OLYMPICS DAMAGE CITIES
ALTERNET - The toll the Olympic industry takes on host cities is made
worse because it's so predictable. Their destructive impact is
documented in an extensive study of the seven most recent cities (Seoul,
Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London) chosen to host
the Summer Games. It was released in June by the Centre on Housing
Rights and Evictions, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The worst abuses COHRE documents have taken place under the most
repressive regimes. Beijing will displace 1.5 million people to host the
2008 Games, as it doubles the already frenzied pace of its urban
redevelopment. Often without notice, officials cut off electricity and
water to convince residents to leave. If that's unsuccessful, garbage
and sewage are allowed to pile up in entryways. Left without recourse, a
few residents threatened suicide. Some succeed; others are arrested for
creating public disturbances.
Beijing's brutality is hardly unique. COHRE details how South Korea's
military dictatorship cleared out 720,000 people for the 1988 Seoul
Games. Private security forces roamed the streets at night, using rape,
beatings and arson to break community resistance.
But it doesn't take a one-party state to bring out the jackboots when
the Olympics come to town. Atlanta gained notoriety among Olympic
watchers when it declared the central business district a "sanitized
corridor" and had police pre-print arrest citations, with the words
"African-American," "Male," and "Homeless" already filled in. In the
lead-up to the games the city arrested about 9,000 people, a "crime"
that has significant implications because people with criminal records
are not eligible for public housing. Some of the homeless were given
one-way bus tickets out of town.
What mass-produced arrest citations and bulldozers don't accomplish the
market's invisible hand usually does. Real-estate speculation and
ballooning rents push out vulnerable populations with inescapable
regularity. Barcelona, touted as the most successful recent games,
registered a 240 percent increase in new house prices in the run-up to
the Olympics.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/56128/
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