The question should be: Would that transformation have happened anyway?

London has been re-developing brown fields since the mid-80s and shows no sign of slowing down. The Olympics may have accelerated it, but I'm not sure anyone I know who lives in East London or works in Techcity would buy that this re-development wouldn't have happened anyway. The pressure for space is just too great.

I'm fairly pro-Olympics now, afterall... that velodrome is something beautiful and I'm going to ride it.