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November 14, 2006

Mind the Crack

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An interesting post on the Wooster Collective caught our eye this morning (and a few of yours too - thanks to everyone who dropped us an email pointing to this):

The King's Cross area is currently being knocked down, cleaned up, rebuilt and gentrified in time for the 2012 Olympics. As a consequence of this, a large population of people who live and work on the street are being displaced. Many of these people have crack and heroin habits and prostitution isn't exactly unknown. Rather than the authorities doing anything to improve their lives the 'undesirable' people are just being moved on to other boroughs that don't have Olympic sites. Hence the official-looking signs which dr.d has put up on several of the Underground lines. Theses echo the well-known announcements to 'mind the gap' between the train and the platform and to 'stand clear of the doors', and are designed to bring attention to the public policy of ignoring the drugs and prostitution problem and simply treating the victims as an eyesore."

While we're not quite in the same league as China when it comes to 'tidying up' our Olympic areas it looks likes the next few years will see a lot more debate over the benefits and costs of holding the games here. For now any residents facing the thin end of the Olympic wedge can at least be thankful they won't have to face off against the Snow Wolf Commando Unit.

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