With so much attention focused on the future of the Olympic stadium lately, it's been easy to forget that the main venue is but one aspect of the "legacy" objectives of the Olympic project. The 2012 Games are also intended to provide a platform for London's cultural sector and to generate skills and employment in the East End in particular. On Tuesday morning, the London Assembly's economic development committee will be examining progress towards those objectives with the help of expert guests. If you can't get to City Hall to watch it, you can follow the proceedings via the webcast.
Unfortunately, I'll have to catch up on all that later because my week will be dominated by the small matter of solving the capital's housing crisis and by Running London.
Housing is on my mind even more than usual just now because I'll be among those speaking on the subject at Saturday's Progressive London conference. Between now and then I need to pull together an array of half-formed opinions and imperfectly-understood facts into something I can say out loud in the space of a few minutes without getting laughed at. I'll be trying to explore some of the key issues on this blog in the coming days. In the recent past many readers have contributed helpful comments about what a truly "progressive" housing policy for London would be. The more of those this week the merrier I'll be.
On the creaky athleticism front, my plan is to devote two days to running, jogging and (I admit it) briskly walking through large parts of Greater London: from Crystal Palace to the King George V DLR station on Tuesday, and from that same station to my home in Hackney via a highly circuitous route on Thursday. It's all part of my training for the Virgin London Marathon on 17 April. I'm raising money for Shelter (housing again - not a coincidence). Pledges and donations now total a figure teasingly close to £1,600. I'm sure the £2,000 barrier can be effortlessly sprinted through before many more weeks have elapsed. If you can spare a few quid for a good cause, please visit my giving page. Many thanks.
