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.