AT LAST! You wait for ages then two come along at once! Check out two pieces below, on initiatives that may have a profoundly beneficial effect with regards to how we organise our metropolitan affairs.

A Mayor For Liverpool?
Liam Fogarty is heading up an initiative that will call for the people of Liverpool to be given the chance to vote for change in the way in which the city is run.

His proposal (amayorforliverpool.org) is for the city to directly vote for a mayor of the city, and to that effect he aims to collect the nescesary signatures to trigger a referendum on the issue. Check out what he has to say here... and get on board if you agree... we certainly intend to look into it! Excellent stuff.

A mighty metropolis to face the world
Downtowner, Louise McWatt attended yesterday's launch of the New Local Government Network's Seeing the Light? report into new ways of governing, managing and marketing the UKs' metropoli.

You all know that this is a subject close to our hearts. Read Louises' report and contextual analysis here. Pick up a report and start badgering your local councillor.

All change? Ronnie Round for mayor of the metropolis? Stranger things happen at sea

The more the merrier
Yet another magazine, 'Just Liverpool,'is to hit downtown news-stands, proving that the city is really on the up. There have been a number of titles launched recently and this is an exciting sign of change in the city's outlook and fortune. It is an option we have been considering ourselves.

The media choice in the city has been relatively weak for so long... but this is now being rectified. Some of these titles will fail whilst others will grow to become vital parts of our fabric, that's enterprise. Good luck to the team behind this latest venture. For more info contact 0870 446 2008 (nice one!) or email.

Ticket to ride... and it's only 10 bob!
Remember, every Thursday evening and all day Sundays, you can get the train downtown, from anywhere across the metropolis, for just 50p between now and Christmas. Be sure to take advantage of this great annual offer from Merseytravel.

Not so good however is news that the central lanes of the Queensway (Birkenhead) tunnel will be closed from Wednesday evening(14th Dec) until 6.30a.m Thursday... avoid the rush and let the train take the strain?

Towards an urban renaissance?
Plans to give the go ahead to 'regional hyper-sheds' across the country compounds news over the weekend that John Prescott is to personally pursue the clearance of thousands of houses in areas of Liverpool, like the Welsh streets, where the housing market has well and truly recovered....talk about not being able to stop the jugonaut!

Just how much of the thinking behind the Urban task Force actually sunk in? Not a lot it seems.

Does Cheshire hold the key
to the beginnings of the much needed change of focus from 'regional' to metropolitan? If our civic leaders where not so untalented then the potential would have been immediately seen and grasped. Instead we see the usual and insufferably petty 'patch protecting' that is only too common in our Balkanised metropolis.

Government will force Police Forces to combine... the task is to reconfigure in a way that best serves a metropolitan focus, so it's Cheshire for us...teaming up with Lancashire and Cumbria would only fall wonderfully into the hands of those who would like to see the reorganisation after next to be a 'North West Force'. Think chess... these buggers are into the long game!

A Titanic Struggle?

Neptune and Nautilus-downtown streetart

Now that a new leader of the Council has been appointed by the Lib Dems, we hope that the internicene power struggles can be put to bed and as the clock starts ticking louder and louder until 2008 that the 2006 themed year Liverpool Performs is actually more like Liverpool Delivers.

Remember everyone - the world is watching - so let's get on with it.

Greatest place on earth at Christmastime
That special Christmas buzz is evident where ever you go downtown now...so please be sure to get down and experience it as often as possible if you don't already live down here.

Colourful, unique retail in downtown Bold Street

The place is open 24/7 now, culture and creativity has vastly increased the interest, business and activity have given us back our bustling sidewalks, the City Central BID team have even half-inched Manchester's excellent German market so there is no excuse ...spend your money downtown.

Love downtown, love your city and play an active role in our continuing revival.

On the downside - can something please be done for the poor souls who run stalls at the Liverpool Farmers' Market at London Road. Poor publicity, lack of joined-up thinking, and sad-to-say (for DL has always supported the London Road area) wrong location, has meant some traders finding very lean pickings here... Should be noted 'though that the other downtown locations and Lark Lane are doing really WELL! Check them out and get some local produce.

Why has Mersey Waterfront(who?!!) recruited a Manchester company to do its community consultation programme in Liverpool....? Just a thought.

Cheer up - Downtown's great
With December here we hope that we can put what has been the quite negative last four weeks of November behind us. Things took quite a negative dip, culminating in the blow (to some) that came with the demise of Merseytram.

It is vital that we keep things in perspective however. Even though the journey back to greatness has only just begun, If we are to build on current growth, then we need to appreciate just how much we have already done. Downtown is buzzing once again... and with the passion of our downtowners it will only get better.

Cast your minds back for a moment to the 1980's, where instead of there being booming business to be inconvenienced by the 'Big Dig' we had empty streets, Soviet style, running by block after block of empty commercial buildings and shops; rather than seeing an unrivalled explosive growth in our downtown residential communities, the city suffered unprecedented and catastrophic depopulation... and instead of enterprise there was revolution in the air (well, in the minds of a few deluded folk, who just happened to be running the Town Hall!). The 90's were little better.

Liverpool is a city built on the creativity of culture and commerce...finally we are beginning to remember this. With downtown once again beating healthily at the heart of our culturally unique and mighty metropolis we can all look forward to a great Christmas and an even better '06.

Love your city and get downtown
When the next leader of Liverpool City Council emerges from the bowels of the town hall the first thing they should do is climb to the top of the Liver Building and make the call to all entrepreneurs.

We had to find some way to get this fabulous article in. The fact is that, actually, it is the job of all downtowners to be boosters for the place... but remember, the best spin is that based on solid foundations of strategy and vision!

The Future's in those air miles - and the metropolis!
As well as a thriving downtown, enterprise culture, a metropolitan focused structure for governance, relevant universities and new media industrial sector, we, vitally, need an airport that can take US anywhere around the globe that commerce can build and the market can sustain.

Airports will be vital to any city wishing to grow in the globalised 21st Century. Liverpool's JLA has the potential to provide huge benefits to the metropolitan region, but are our opportunities a priority to other's 'Dead Big Strategies'?

A quick skip around the statist fantasia that makes up 'Englandsnorthwest and the 'grand' Northern Way will soon reveal that command principles put us on the periphery, both literally and metaphorically ...again. We just couldn't imagine Dallas, for example, giving their benefits away to Austin... could you?

Have your say too?
There has been some excellent debate on your downtown Community Forum of late, as well as some really fantastic pics being posted. What do you think of the Central Station proposals, the gates from the old Sailors home being returned or how we compare to NYC and Dubai? Join in and have your say.

Incidentally, one of our forum members has requested some help, see if you can oblige?

Top Trumps Skyscrapers
Winning Moves
No Liverpool Buildings - yet! ... But a great game for all aspiring cityphiles.

Architecture Tomorrow
Francis Rambert
Terrail November 2005

Stadium Engineering
Peter Culley and John Pascoe
Thomas Telford September 2005