London Could Show How to Build a Better Olympics

It has been only two weeks since the 2012 Summer Games ended. Londoners are still giddy about their success, which feels all the more satisfying when considering the chaos over security and other preparations in the days before the athletes arrived. Yet the question of whether the Olympics proved to be a financial boom or bust will be unanswerable for a while. But at least there is the signage. For the geographically challenged, the ideal time to visit a city is immediately after it hosts an Olympics. Every hundred feet there are large placards directing the masses who came here, and those who will be arriving for the Paralympics this week, how to get to where they want to be. Big maps with red circles explain “You Are Here.” They also seem to symbolize a different, and potentially longer-lasting, legacy of these games: You will not get lost. London may debate the costs of hosting for sometime, but the benefits are already visible. And if they prove to be enduring, the city might have helped the global Olympic enterprise find its way again.