Thousands of homes destroyed to make way for Olympic tourists

Just to put HOAs and American municipal governments in perspective, here's what reallytyrannical land use controls look like:

YE GUOZHU used to own two restaurants in Beijing. Both were razed in 2001, as was his home in the Yongdingmen district of the city two years later, to make way for parks to beautify the Chinese capital for the 2008 Olympics. Last year Mr Ye sought permission to protest against such forced evictions. He was arrested for “disturbing social order” and sentenced in December to four years in jail. His family have not seen him since and do not know where he is held...Building an Olympic Games infrastructure is the kind of ambitious project at which China’s communist rulers, with the benefit of years of central planning behind them, are particularly adept. The plans include an Olympic Green covering nearly 2,800 acres — 1,680 acres of park and 1,000 acres for the Olympic Centre. The National Stadium, a controversial project resembling a bird’s nest that has been halted once for modifications, will seat 80,000 people. Not content with building 19 sports stadiums and refurbishing 13 others, city planners have seized the opportunity to reshape the landscape of Beijing.