In Vancouver, and notwithstanding the eye-opening eco- encompass 11 blocks. These will be composed of six to
technologies and designer interiors of the impressively eight buildings. Social housing will be allocated buildings
executed waterfront village; the outcome seems to be, at separate to the buildings assigned for private homes.
best, mixed. In order to recoup the additional expenditures There is already disquiet about the dynamics of this mix;
emerging from collapsed private finance arrangements a conflict between a marketing conception of Return on
this city has had to make some ‘hard decisions’ about Investment and a legacy conception of sustainability. There
the housing mix in the village. There have been strident remains a good deal to settle, even while there are, as yet,
calls for the city to ignore commitments to the 252 social no indications that published affordable housing promises
housing units on the grounds that subsidising these (at est. in the village will decrease.
C$600,000 per unit) is not and economically efficient use
of public funds. Housing, after all could be built elsewhere,
increasing the likelihood of higher market returns on the
village-legacy properties. Properties marketed heavily on
their Olympic-pedigree – with the offer of a chance to live
in a legacy.
The difficulty of marketing condos at C$1,000,000 while
also incorporating affordable tenants means that fewer units
appear to have been sold than more optimistic projections
suggested would be the case.This will likely have the largest
potential unknown impact on the City’s financial exposure
in this matter and while currently available estimates might
suggest at this time a relatively neutral outcome for the
City, the current state of the real estate market makes
forecasting the City’s financial exposure with any degree
of precision extremely difficult (KPMG)
There have been protests linking the Olympics to the
homelessness issue in Vancouver with housing activists
bring a “Poverty Olympics torch” to relay protest. Press
coverage has identified muddle, mismanagement and Work on the London Village
lost opportunities. The negative impacts on Olympic
budget are likely to put other ‘legacy’ projects at risk. The credit crunch and consequential impacts on planning
The definition of sustainability as a vision that “looks to and financing the village rocked, if not destroyed, V ancouver’s
the public interest beyond narrow market decisions” has ambitions for building a sustainability legacy. The public-
been challenged – as market considerations have come to private model has been found inadequate in this case.
define one interpretation of the public interest. The Village
seems unlikely to live up to the highest aspirations initially If London can better resolve the problems facing
set out – for a sustainable mixed community enjoying village-sustainability in the immediate months, perhaps
an environmentally well conceived housing development taking further heed of some of the complexities made
inspired by the ‘glow’ of Olympic legacy-success. The ‘green’ manifest in Vancouver, then that would be progress. To
aspect of the development seems the only component of more successfully address problems which seem to be
the sustainability vision to have survived uncompromised. remaining precariously unresolved in Vancouver is an
Is this a feature of an Olympic fetishisation of ‘green’ Olympic challenge for London. If it can credibly meet that
sustainability – with harder, less glamorous, socio-economic challenge then London will have contributed a positive
sustainability issues deferred or avoided? Is there such a legacy, one with potentially far-reaching consequences up
thing as a ‘Green Elephant?’ and down the Thames Gateway.
The issue facing London then is how to maximise a The full version of this article is at www.tglp.org.uk
return on the Governmental investment while respecting
commitments to a socially inclusive definitions of
‘sustainable communities’. The London Olympic Village will
Vancouver’s impressive waterfront village
10 11
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12