Assuming the dreams of London's Olympic planners come true, London 2012 will be as much a regeneration project as a global athletic event. From the outset, its defining mantras have been regeneration and 'legacy''East London's future. The location of the Olympic Park, straddling four of the city's poorest boroughs in East London's Lea River Valley, is far removed from the royal palaces and leafy residential squares of West London. During the early planning for the Olympic bid, a brief flirtation with a northwest London site centered on Foster + Partners' Wembley Stadium, which was under construction at the time. But then Mayor Ken Livingstone (who was defeated again by Mayor Boris Johnson last month in a run for a second term) was adamant that if London were to host the Games, the occasion should be used to redress the city's long history of economic disparity between east and west.
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