Jan 2005 : 3 MILLION HITS TO DATE
Thank you Everyone!
You are all part of Liverpool's downtown revival.

We loved the Cloud Will...but!
Will Alsop has just launched his idea for a megacity running from Hull to here....Gawd!

First the 'Northern Way' and now this....can't folk just get it into their heads that great cities are the best... then we can stop thinking about 'utopias' (egos of folk who think they can do better) and restore our metropoli!

(Ed: we have heard that the next 'Big Idea' may in fact be based on this)

More downtowners than ever
Downtown's booming population continues to grow apace. There are more downtowners now (or metroscousers as stated in the Echo) than there has been for decades.

Great news for business and quality of downtown life. We would urge more diversity in downtown accommodation rather than the whimpering negative plea to BAN downtown apartments...

There are a whole load of new markets out there that will greatly benefit downtown if tapped... developers?


Downtowners must make their concerns known about the proposed (anti) tall buildings policy that is currently out for 'consultation'.

Our concern is that it is based on issues of pure aesthetics as envisaged, rather than fixed within a wider remit that encourages downtown commercial and cultural growth through maximising mixed use development and intensive repopulation as required.


That's Better! Mini Manhattan on the Mersey

Surely this issue is important enough to actually go to a referendum, or at least a poll - as with the street traders on Church St - after a suitable period where arguments for and against could be forwarded with the intention of aiding informed choices...after all it is your city's future that is in danger.

Downtown entrepreneurs? They're everywhere
Excellent story about an initiative conceived of by enterprise strategist and downtown supporter Colin Prescott that can be taken to all areas of downtown activity. Forget the '6 priority areas' lets all look at the rest of the phone book!

Doing it for ourselves
Downtowners are a creative lot and have the capacity to make 2008 a spectacular Liverpudlian
success.

The core message that we have to get through though is that it will only work if we do things for ourselves. We highlighted last year the folly of expecting the council and Culture Company to have either the resources or inclination to do everything... and this is borne out by a searing article in The Times recently by Waldemar Januszczak.

Amongst the less cutting comments were

'Already this year, the city has revealed itself to be unusually philistine in the fields of architecture and art'

You have to register (free) but well worth checking out!



Downtown Vision of future
Chiefs of downtown strategic regeneration company, Liverpool Vision called to be allowed to do the job they were set up to do.

We couldn't agree more with Sir Joe Dwyer. Good urbanist ideas and a strategic overview is desperately needed in the city and LV has been frustrated in its aims by public sector power politics.

Let LV provide the intellectual rigour downtown so desperately needs from its 'leaders'. In an intelligentsia that sees relevance in WHS and blocking development of tall buildings there is plainly a desperate need for some guidance, indeed, VISION!

The journey's only just begun
Whilst we are on the subject of Liverpool Vision, its CEO Jim Gill also had some wise words recently with regards to Liverpool's much vaunted 'renaissance'.

He stated that we should not 'rest on our laurels' but get a true perspective of Liverpool's relative position. Again we agree...though we would go much further and demand that the current lift be seen as nothing more than the earliest murmurings in this great city's revival to international status...blimey, the journey's hardly started!


Keeping it simple
Tying in nicely with our little piece about Tokyo we like the sound of the latest traffic management proposals for Kensington&Chelsea (the ROYAL borough! SUV's, people carriers intense London traffic, tourists, full employment, thousands of companies etc, etc..)

The consultants are also heritage experts, but we bet they weren't invited downtown to help craft the current 'Big Dig'!

In our heritage-obsessed city we still leave 'movement' to 'highways planners'. How inappropriate is that?!

Downtown entrepreneurs focus please?
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce have appointed their new CEO. Welcome to Jack Stopforth. Let's hope it is good news for downtown entrepreneurs. We will have to see what downtown agendas and priority he pursues. Good luck too to outgoing-CEO Peter Ralphs.

Don't forget 05 is Year of the Sea
When Liverpool ruled the waves, [and everyone's bank accounts], downtown was probably the greatest, most productive, incredibly diverse place on Earth.


The Lady of Man: on the Mersey

We aim to do our bit to make it so again. 2005 promises to be an incredible year in our city's ongoing recovery. Though there is still plenty to do.

When Liverpool was the thriving port we all know about, the problems faced by tens and tens of thousands of its inhabitants where unbearable. Today's city also faces many severe problems!

Making downtown work helps to tackle some of the worst of these, by providing an environment where people can help themselves to derive an income, realise their creative potential and take even more pride in their city.


Job Done!
Whilst Liverpool prevaricates about major issues of regeneration like how to span the Strand, super dynamic city Tokyo gets the paint out...problem solved! emporis.com

Are You Latte or Butty?
The 'Cafe' has always been an important part of downtown life...remember Coopers
in Church St, all the really posh ones around Bold St...and a tradition of 'Cocoa Rooms' that went way back into the 19th C in Liverpool?

Just as good though where the hundreds of 'dockers cafes'. There used to be a belter on the landing stage...they should reopen one for the cruise liners!


Here's a great site celebrating some of London's greatest, but not posh, cafés.

January READING

The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture
Phaidon Press
824pp
ISBN: 0714843121

Content
Rem Koolhaas
Taschen
544pp
ISBN: 3822830704