The clock is counting down to the start of the 2012 Olympics in
London. The main Olympic Park [map] is located in East London in
heart of the Lower Lea Valley, which happens to be the same
place I studied in my recently completed PhD. My research
demonstrated the close correlation between the degraded
environmental conditions and the disadvantaged social conditions
in the sections of West Ham built on the wetlands. I ended my
dissertation wondering whether the current multi-billion dollar
project to clean up the environment for the Olympics might
result in a comparable effort to clean out the socially
undesirable people from this landscape. An article in the
Guardian, “Houseboaters being ‘socially cleansed’ from Olympics
area,” suggests this process might be underway. House boaters
are concerned that British Waterways are going to increase the
mooring costs along canals in the Lower Lea: British Waterways,
which manages 2,200 miles of canals and rivers, has put forward
changes to the mooring rules on the rive