London Plan Examination in Public (EiP) opened Monday 28th and I postponed travelling to Inura to be there for the first part. I have trouble taking seriously those introductory bits of plans about ‘vision’ and ‘objectives’ but people less cynical than me got it going well and perhaps we made some impact on the Panel - pressing for more serious commitment to equality, social housing, ’sustainable development’ (which now seems like quite a progressive demand, the orthodoxy having slipped so far to the right) and for taking the crisis seriously. Skilled stonewalling from the GLA team. We are trying to keep rough track of the events on Just Space blog. Then off to Inura’s 20th birthday meeting in Zürich where it all began. Read the rest of this entry »
London Plan / Inura Zürich
July 4th, 2010The world’s local language
May 27th, 2010HSBC, which already has its logo all over London’s airports, is distributing stacks of booklets at Gatwick called Welcome to London. Inside, it has descriptions of various locailities, including the news that Wimbledon Common is criss-crossed by bridal paths. Pity there’s no picture.
Nice local English in Rome though—probably Google’s:
Day in Rome
May 14th, 2010 Some sheep spotted in via dei Serpenti |
 |
I have now spent 3 weeks out of my planned 4 in Rome. Today is the first I spent entirely at home, in Leslie Caldwell’s flat near Piramide, which I have rented. I worked rather hard all day (relieved by trips to the adjacent cafe), trying to finish a write-up of a talk for Bob Colenutt, promised a year ago but just too hard to do. I made a lot of progress and the result so far is at http://societycould.wordpress.com. Do please look and comment if you have time. The other thing I did was the washing. Tricky because it keeps raining: shocking for everyone here because Rome should be dry and hot in May. But I’m on my third umbrella. Read the rest of this entry »
If voting could change anything…
May 5th, 2010There we were, walking past the Baths of Caracalla in Rome when the Evening Standard phoned, asking for a critical comment on today’s leader which recommends David Cameron. So in rather a hurry I sent them this. We’ll see if they publish it. At least Anne Gray, our Green candidate in Haringey, should like it.
Your leader coming down on the side of David Cameron really is the wrong advice for the country, and especially for Londoners. You write exclusively about the three main leaders, but we are not electing a president. We are electing a party, so let’s look at them. Read the rest of this entry »
Amsterdam visit, April 2010
April 16th, 2010On the way back from 3 very good days in Netherlands with Bob Colenutt on our Leverhulme project about fixing broken British urban development and housing systems. Highights for me were learning more about state leasehold forms of development and seeing the incredible variety of tenure forms and housing configurations in Ijburg. Lots more pictures if you click on one of these.
 collective / co-op project of flats, shared space, cafe, theatre in Ijburg. |
 …and some ideas not so easily transferred to UK: next house arrives at floating neighbourhood from factory 120km away. Small tug on right. |
Londoners’ right to the city
April 3rd, 2010On Tuesday 30 March about 40 people came to a seminar, organised on the initiative of CITY journal, which followed on from Peter Marcuse’s visit last autumn. There was a good discussion on actions surrounding the London Plan and Right to the City actions and organising in the USA. There will be an extended write-up. Meanwhile there is a flyer here and a two-hour sound file.
rttcflyer03_10-3 and the podcast is here
Tory plans for planning
March 15th, 2010Had to start a discussion today, at the London Planning and Development Forum, on the UK Conservative Party’s “Green paper” on planning. It’s bad, but i was trying to make light of it. [Later: this text later appeared in Issue 73 of Planning in London Ap-Jun, along with some other, more normal, reviews.] Read the rest of this entry »
Mike Ball on planning delays
March 13th, 2010Went on Wednesday 11th to a seminar at which Mike Ball was presenting a study he led for a (Treasury-inspired?) agency called NHPAU, exploring the variation in time it took for planning permission to be granted for housing schemes. It transpired I had heard it before (at UCL I think) and read the report so I was a bit prepared - as was Duncan Bowie who also took part. We both made critical comments and received some tongue-lashing for our pains. But it is worth discussing as an example of hegemonic discourse having weak underpinnings. Read the rest of this entry »
Going too fast…
February 21st, 2010A week with a lot of stimulating events and exchanges, and no time to write them up and digest them. It was a good start when I returned feedback on 45 essays - which had taken me ages to prepare and was a great weight off my mind. I get faster at most things but slower at that.
Then on Monday evening the LSE had a seminar by Ian Gordon - very stimulating and data-rich as usual - in which he was trying to work out why London has such high levels of worklessness. Part of the concentration of worklessness is, of course, an illusion Read the rest of this entry »
Medical research v social housing: UKCMRI
February 11th, 2010Last night the proposers of a major new medical research centre at Brill Place (King’s Cross St Pancras) showed their scheme at a meeting called by Camden Council in Somers Town, the adjoining district. There is huge conflict about this project because the site has long been earmarked for a mix of activty including social housing and community facilities, none of which could be built if the research centre goes ahead. It was a fraught, tense, meeting at times with objectors expressng variously frustration, impotence and rage while the proponents were very civilised and rather peeved to be seen as anything other than battling for the public interest. It tells us a lot about the balance of power in urban decision making, the weakness of the planning system and the transformation of democratic local govenment into a neutered facilitator of the city’s transformation. This is a quick short note to capture some reactions and I may expand it later. Read the rest of this entry »