Underground, overground….

If you’ve been in Manchester recently you couldn’t help notice that there is a problem with transport in the city. I’d like to begin to talk about some of the things that other people aren’t, as I think the real issues are being glossed over, with deregulation of the buses being made a practical and political scape-goat for the situation. If we don’t resolve these problems the life could be choked out of our city centre, without people being able to access places they need to go and stifling development of the city.

The focus of the press coverage recently has been on the buses which have been clogging the Piccadilly Gardens hub, causing gridlock and stopping the trams from being able to pass through on their route. At one point 8 trams were stuck in a row on Mosely street. We’re all very keen to see the Metrolink extensions happen, (but currently our Labour Council has been thwarted by our Labour government over the issue) however bear in mind this will increase the network and volume of tram traffic a great deal….

There was an article in the Manchester Evening News laying the blame firmly with the deregulation of the buses, claiming it to be the fault of the Tory’s decision to create deregulation, but this is not in essence the heart of the recent problem – its about space in the city, and the foolishness of having an ever-expanding transport hub mixed with the central focal point of our city centre – Piccadilly Gardens. This is another example of the council making a mess of the expansion of the city. They’re thrilled that the city is growing and becoming more busy all the time, and are of course doing their job encouraging business and residents into the city, but at the same time don’t realise that the growing gridlock is related directly to that. How on earth is Piccadilly going to manage when the Metro network is 4 times as big as it is now, with Piccadilly Gardens being the hub that all the lines go through? Buses are also important because they serve many parts of Manchester that will not be served by the trams. We need people to be able to drive into our city and park there – add to this the doubling of the city centre residential population and there’s a problem that isn’t restricted to how many buses we have in Piccadilly.

Many European cities such as Vienna and Milan (to name just two of many) have public transport we could be very envious of. They are also bigger cities with more space and less congestion. They have trams, buses, but more importantly in order to avoid overground congestion of their streets the have a SUBWAY rail system. We are smaller in size, in the structure of our streets but far more congested, a quickly growing population and you could argue more people coming into our city centre from outside. A subway system even very limited in its size would transform the future of our city. A subway that connected major points in the city (Piccadilly, Deansgate, the stations etc) and also the different tram lines would allow people to avoid gridlocked streets and ease the pressure on places such as Piccadilly Gardens – this is the lesson from travelling around other European cities.

It seems like there are obsticles to this happening (look how hard it has been to get the Metro extensions years after they should have been here!) but a subway isn’t the only answer although it may be the best. The Chicago elevated light rail system (the ‘L’) is fantastic and solves the problem of overground congestion by making it  ‘above’ ground level. The tram naturally does this in varies places, but having an evelated system in the city centre may help a great deal. In Chicago main roads in the centre of the city run directly underneath the railway system above. This naturally blocks out some light, and although cool and futuristic can be argued to be esthetically less pleasing.

One of the main reasons I want to run for the city council has come from the feeling that some people at the town hall just haven’t got their brains in gear to cope with the changes that are happening,  and need to happen in our city. Transport is a pretty good example of this. Instead of thinking, “great we’ve got an ever increasing interest in people travelling into and moving into Manchester and we therefore need to change the way we do things in order to make that possible” they would rather still talk about things that are to do with yesterday, not tomorrow. Blame the Tories deregulation for the transport mess? Come on this isn’t Milton Keynes, we’re trying to be a ‘world city’, get your thinking caps on! The idea that if we restrict the number of buses in the city by regulating them the problem will go away is just a joke (although more controls need to be in place – and by controls I don’t mean the genius idea from the council of putting parking tickets on buses!) we need more public transport, not less, it just needs to be organised properly! Lets have a proper debate about the future, what our ambitions are, and the role of Piccadilly Gardens in our city – is it a focus of our city or just an overgrown bus stop….

Why is this an acceptable activity in the city?

I’m talking about people having sex in public…in broad daylight…next to the canal…next to my apartment building where people of all ages, gender and sexual orientation live.

I only contacted the police when it was clear that prostitutes and pimps were using the area – this is connected to other kinds of crime too, if I wanted to live somewhere else where there were also prostitutes and drug dealers on my street it wouldn’t be a residential street where I was paying band E council tax.

The worst spot is a doorway thats part of the tall white 111 Piccadilly building. People use it as a place to have sex by the canal, I’ve seen up to 6 people at a time queing up to have sex with a prostitute infront of 4 star hotels and apartment buildings. There are also people there injecting themselves, vomiting, urinating and defecating.

I’m not being a prude about this, I could state the obvious like its actually illegal etc. but its just about respect for our environment. This is another example (like people urinating on apartment buildings in the city) of lack of respect for our environment – ITS A RESIDENTIAL AREA! A fact that seemed to be lost on the police when I brought this up with them once. The city should be a place where you can meet people and go and do whatever, just not on a residential street, you don’t see it on residential streets in Chorlton or Didsbury which are other parts of Manchester we could all migrate to for the same price we live here, if we all finally get fed up with the lack of care and attention to our residential environment. 

This is another message to those people who feel we should put up with a sub-standard quality of life because we live in the city – GET A GRIP – if it was cheap to live here and we got a reduction on our council tax to live here fine, but we don’t, I’ve gone through FIVE council tax bands since I’ve been living in the city, lets start demanding the services and environment we’re paying for.

The reason why I get really annoyed about things like this is that when you speak to people about this (who aren’t city residents – note that none of your Lib Dem Councillors are city residents) they say “oh well they’re the gritty things you have to put up with in city life, its just Manchester and it’d loose its character without these things” That kind of comment is SO insulting to Mancunians. I’ve actually had people say to me that we have to put up with stepping over pools of urine and vomit in the streets we live on because thats part of city life – there’s nothing edgy and gritty about that, its just totally innapropriate for a residential area and a great city. If its so ‘Manchester’ then why don’t they add that to the council’s website for visitors to Manchester, “and walking through the Piccadilly Gateway you’ll have the pleasure of stepping in some genuine Mancunian vomit”….NOBODY moves into the city to put up with these kinds of things, and it actually makes people move out. When will we realise in order for the city to work we really have to change this culture, Manchester should be gritty and edgy because of its culture, buildings and Northern toughness, not because it occassionally resembles a small town full of scallies, isn’t Manchester surely worth much more than that?

Manchester’s Soul – Public Debate at the Circle Club

I attended the public debate at the Circle club on whether Manchester had lost its ‘Soul’. It was an entertaining debate hosted by Mark Garner of Manchester Confidential (otherwise known as Gordo) and the panel included Andy Spinoza (founder of City Life magazine and general PR guru) and Ian Simpson (architect of some of my favourite buildings in our city). Lots was said and maybe no conclusions reached but it was clear that people enjoyed it and everyone had a view of some sort or other – well done to the Circle Club and to Dale for organising it. There are future public debates to be had there – a healthy thing I think.

A few interesting things came out of it. The main point I think to pick up on that interests me a great deal is how to keep our city healthy economically, make it a place where people want to live and not loose its creative spirit that seems at the heart of what many feel is Manchester’s ’soul’. Ian Simpson had an idea which appeals to me a lot which was regarding providing space for small local businesses to grow.

15% of new-build residential buildings has to be commerical space it seems. You will have noticed the empty units at street level in new buildings – it can make even a new building seem somehow shabby, and hadrly does much to make our streets feel vibrant. Ian Simpson’s suggestion was for spaces such as these to be given rent free to businesses (creative or otherwise) for 2-3 years in order to allow them to become established.

Argent did a good job of this it seems with No 1 Piccadilly, so its function has gone some way to compensating for its rather awful form! Independant businesses such as Manna the organic coffee shop provide a focus for people to meet, for business and pleasure. This kind of thing then attracts the bigger clients (such as the Bank of New York in this particular case) who would view the building very differently if it was enpty at street leve, or simply contained a Subway or Gregs.

I’d like to talk more to Ian about these things and would be glad to hear proposals from developers as to how such a scheme could work in practice. I think it could be an idea we should back to the hilt as good for city life, good for business and good for Manchester in general. There’s a lot more to say on this issue, comments welcome…

Buildings…

I’m curious to know what other people think about new buildings going up near where they live. I’ve always been near some new development or other since I’ve lived in the city, but never quite so much as now, and it makes me think a little more about whats going on.

1 Architecture worthy of a great city?
I’d have to say on the whole absolutely not! Didn’t we learn anything from the Arndale? Although buildings like the red-brick No 1 Piccadilly on the gardens brings some much needed life to the area its not worthy of the title of ‘landmark building’ that the council promised, I think its a disgrace the council sold off part of our public space (which is in such short supply anyway!) for a building that looks like it has migrated from Milton Keynes. Apparently (a much more knowledgeable source than myself has assured me) that there is an identical building in Birmingham….I can’t imagine they trumpeted it as a landmark there!?

2 Building tall
I must admit I like tall buildings, especially in a city as flat as Manchester is it provides much needed perspective, and its probably a hangover from my days in the city which is the home of skyscrapers, Chicago. I’m glad I’ll soon(ish) have another tall building near to where I live by the architect Ian Simpson. I’d like to see more architects of quality having a positive effect on our city skyline.

3 Planning decisions
Some planning decisions are odd to say the least. some appartments in my grade 2 listed apartment building are going to loose all their natural light to a 20 storey building given planning just feet away….what were they thinking?! The mind boggles and comes up with some depressing answers. People have recently been expressing concern at developments such as St George’s Island in Castlefield – an island that will house roughly 400 plus apartments and have one access road on and off the island accross a Victorian bridge over the canal….

When you look at great modern cities, (I mean like Chicago, Frankfurt, Shanghai etc) there is a scale and scope to the developments which immediately says quality, ambition and confidence. Cramming buildings next to eachother on tiny plots of land in our city makes it less pleasant in, and smacks of desperation to fit as much in, have as many council tax payers as possible within our city centre. So few buildings are left with real outlook and have the space they need. It could end up looking and feeling dingy and clostrophobic rather than impressive and ambitious.

Planning should think more about the impact of new developments on exisiting residents.

Recycling

Did you all see the leaflet from the Council (your lib dem city councillors)? It proudly stated that we could now sign up to a city centre residents recycling scheme. When I rang the number they gave to register my building I was told there was no such scheme in operation. I explained about the leaflet and was told that although they’d like to start, there was no proposed start date as yet. Does anyone know whats going on?

City Trees

I’m not quite sure why the city seems reluctant about trees, there are all kinds of rumours about people at the town hall not being very keen on the idea. There have been some trees planted recently, but WHY are they all sycamores!? Surely everyone learns as a child that they are the trees that support the least amount of wildlife, and lets face it they’re not particularly attractive, but they’re certainly better than none.

How green our city is was brought into focus for me personally again during two recent trips away to other citys. It amazed me in Milan how much people in that city grow from their city balconies, everywhere you go there are amazing things overflowing from the tops of buildings, and they use the roofs of office blocks in the same way too, whay don’t we encourage something like that here?…suggestions anyone?

Also in Spain where so many cities have stunning streets (small residential streets in the city centre) lined with blossom trees, and trees that are skillfully pollarded – made me think of our clumsy sycamores….the thing is, so many things grow so easily here in the city. Maybe people don’t quite realise that. Our climate (although dull!) isn’t cold, and is clearly wet. Last year I had big bunches of grapes on my vines that I grow outside on my terrace, fruit bearing apple trees etc. maybe we just need to be a bit more bold. There’s something so ‘civic’ seeming about just plonking sycamore trees down, lets have a bit more imagination please!

Rob’s City Diary

Well, this is my first post now that I have finally joined the world of blogging! I had wanted to do so for some time, simply to record all the amazing, fun, bizarre and frustrating details of city life.

My interest in politics has been the catalyst for this however, and has just led to me being selected as the candidate for Manchester’s city centre ward on behalf of the Conservative Party.

Its always the details of your experience of something that usually forms a strong opinion, and its the details of city life which fascinate me, and also illustrate why I want to help change the way we live for the better. Its a shame that these days people seem reluctant to believe in the power they have to change their world “Why vote?” for example – everything we do, no matter how small the detail, can have an impact, negative or positive….every little bit of litter thats dropped on our streets in changing our environment.

To give a trivial example, I was walking along my street today (Dale Street in the Northern Quarter) and had to stop dead in my tracks so as to not get run over while crossing Newton St on the green-man (by a Hastings taxi 9307 for those interested in details). This happens often, there is no left turn up Newton St from Dale St and taxis regularly abuse this, mostly it seems through laziness, or they simply don’t know the city streets well enough to know what else to do. I was in a taxi with a friend recently and we were sharing a cab to drop her off at her apartment building on Newton St. You get used to having to explain to cab drivers where things are, so it was normal to suggest giving directions from Dale St to get there quickly and efficiently. This particular cabbie told us he was going his own way – left on Newton St. We told him there was no left turn there and his response that he was keen to tell us it didn’t matter and nobody would care. Despite our protests he turned left despite telling him again not to and dropped us on Newton St.
This tedious little description (sorry folks, the exciting stuff about how many D List celebs I saw will have to come later!) illustrates in a minor way the manner in which we need to change the culture in the city. This cab driver didn’t care at all that someone who is walking down the street where they live could get run over crossing on the green-man – its the city, and anything goes, he doesn’t see it as a residential area, and we should change that culture. Most people treat the city as a playground where the rules are different to their home, people behave in a way that they wouldn’t on their own street. This has a miriad of manifestations and consequences in all kinds of ways, many of them you could imagine, many you wouldn’t, or simply wouldn’t have the same signifiance if you weren’t also a city resident.

We have to decide if we want a residential city or not. If its not then fine, these things don’t matter so much, but not only have many people been encouraged to move into the city centre to live, but it seem we can expect the population to double. I’ve lived in the city fo 6 years, and although the population has increased, and there are more bars and places to eat, the basic quality of life in some ways has got worse, while we pay more for our apartments and therefore council tax than most other parts of Manchester. (When I first moved into the city my first council tax bill was for band A, now its E)
It already is a residential city, and people’s attitude and bahaviour, and our services need to reflect that. If I’m paying that much to live here I don’t want to get run over on my own street, be without recycling facilites that people in Chorlton and Didsbury take for granted, or return home to find people urinating and graffiting on my building (which happends). You and I are pioneers of the ideal of city life, lets stand up for ourselves and demand that our services and quality of life keeps step with our passion for this city. You and Manchester are worth a great deal more.