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You can’t transform the area and expect it to remain cheap. I lived in the Olympic Village for 3 years and they did a great job: - lovely park - completely p

• leoedin 4y ago
  Yes, this article feels slightly disingenuous. "We campaigned to bring the Olympics to an industrial area full of dirty industrial businesses so it would regenerate, and it did, and now we're angry that our dirty industrial businesses are gone and the area is appealing to live in". Unfortunately the reality is that gentrification and regeneration go hand in hand. If you make an area modern, clean and pleasant then it will become desirable. Desirable areas cost more because they are desirable. Businesses invest in improving areas because that will make them more valuable. The problems in Stratford - "locals" getting driven out by new developments - are not really due to the Olympics. They're playing out in every corner of London (and many other western cities), and the causes are the familiar bogeymen of rising housing costs - low interest rates, population growth and demographics, and the increasing concentration of high paying jobs in a limited number of cities.