Sanitizing Public Space in Olympic Host Cities: The Spatial Experiences of Marginalized Youth in 2010 Vancouver and 2012 London

Abstract

This article is based on a cross-national qualitative study of homeless and street-involved youth living within Olympic host cities. Synthesizing a Lefebvrian spatial analysis with Debord's concept of 'the spectacle', the article analyses the spatial experiences of homeless young people in Vancouver (host to the 2010 Winter Olympics) and draws some comparisons to London (host to the 2012 Summer Olympics). Tracing encounters with police, gentrification and Olympic infrastructure, the article assesses the experiences of homeless youth in light of claims made by Olympic proponents that the Games will 'benefit the young'. By contrast, the authors argue that positive Olympic legacies for homeless and street-involved young people living within host cities are questionable.

Witnessing urban change: Insights from informal recyclers in Vancouver, BC

“…Respondents commented on the increasing concentration of poverty in a small area of the DTES (also observed by Dale and Newman, 2009;Kennelly and Watt, 2011) The respondent is referencing the blocks of Hastings Street that surrounded the thenlocation of the United We Can depot, where the interview took place. This section of the DTES has been the epicentre of visible poverty in the city, largely because of the prevalence of street vending, the line-ups of informal recyclers with their carts at the depot, the line-ups of people waiting for food at soup kitchens and other food service providers, and common open drug use in this area (all of this despite the close proximity of a police station).…”

“…Anywhere I walk, under my two feet is private property. (Respondent #11,male) Increased securitisation in the DTES can lead to reduced access to previously public spaces (see also Kennelly and Watt, 2011).…”

Economies of (Alleged) Deviance: Sex Work and the Sport Mega-Event

“…Kennelly & Watt, 2011;Silk, 2014). As observed in the wake of a bid announcement, event construction is perpetually paired with policies that dismantle social welfarism, promote entrepreneurialism of a certain kind, and mobilize new strategies of social control to securitize, sanitize, and spectacularize the cityscape (Hodkinson, 2011;Paton, Mooney, & McKee, 2012;Peck, Theodore, & Brenner, 2009).…”

The ‘lamentable sight’ of homelessness and the society of the spectacle

“…Indeed, in recent decades, despite the attempt of various cities to curb and limit homeless people's use of, and presence in, public space (such as laws against sitting on the curb in San Francisco; the criminalisation of begging in Melbourne; Major Guiliani's move-on practices in New York City; and the various 'management' techniques of homelessness in preparation for large events such as the Olympics: e.g. Kennelly and Watt, 2011;Lynch, 2002;Mitchell, 1997; see also Stuart, 2014) homelessness has not abated. In addition, whilst Lois Wacquant (2007) suggests an emergent spatial alienation, a 'territorial stigmatisation' in which 'the poor' are increasingly ghettoised in particular neighbourhoods and areas, encounters with homelessness in cities and towns still remain a feature of everyday urban life.…”