Eastside info needs a home

Andy at Substrakt wonders, what’s up with Eastiside? Considering he works there and has friends who live there he’s surprised to realise he doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the redevelopment. So he digs around online and finds… not much really.

On the one hand this isn’t too surprising. The Eastside development is a pretty massive project with loads of companies and government departments involved so tying it all together at a granular level would be a nightmare. But if you’re just interested in the broader strokes it would be handy to have some kind of website that brings together all the developer sketches and so on into one place.

Something like, say, Manchester’s New Islington site, as suggested by Andy. Only a little less c-r-a-z-y please.

I can’t think of anything for Eastside. Does it exist? Should the council (or whatever body is overseeing the whole project) do one? Is that an unreasonable request? If it is, does anyone want to start a blog on it? I suspect the AdSense revenue would be pretty good on something like that… Let me know if you need a hand setting it up.

Photo by Dr King Bertt. Click on it for details.

8 Comments

  1. Hate to break this to you Pete but the pic to accompany this post may be of Digbeth but that ain’t Eastside (actually it’s of what they now call the ). That’s according to the map on the council website anyway.

    You’re right in that there’s little public dialogue about Eastside yet there has been myriad strategies for it over the years. Even some very recent stuff that seems to have had little attention whatsoever. If I could pull my finger out and refocus on my strategy blog, I’d have a go at listing them all. Might take me a while though. You could start with the 2002 Eastside Sustainability Vision but there are plenty of others.

    Having worked (and run and driven) around the place for a couple of years now it’s clear that what was incremental change in the first half of the decade has suddenly speeded up, particulary in the ‘upper’ part north of the railway line.

    Given that the Lower Eastside Dialogues guys still have a web presence of sorts I wonder if they’d let someone use their space to continue the dialogue and start a blog?

    Dave

  2. Simon Howes

    Right, what’s going on. A lot in fact!

    Millennium Point – finished in 2001 and now fully occupied.

    Masshouse, phase two is underway, is at a snails pace though.

    City Park – BCC have scaled it down after not winning the Lottery money. It is still going ahead, just at a slower pace.

    City Park Gate – Full planning consent, building work is imminent.

    Etna House – Under construction, steel is current going up.

    VTP 200 – Has outline planning, awaiting full planning after a slight re-design after public consultation. New designs have been shown to the public now.

    Curzon Gate – 700 apartments, due for completion by the summer.

    Curzon Gate – outline planning given.

    Birmingham city University – outline planing give. BIAD and Conservatoire are both moving to Eastside in the next 2010-2011. This is the same land where the Lord Rogers library was planned to be.

    Venture East – land is being cleared as we speak. In for full planning in the next couple of months.

    Multi-storey car park – Planning given.

  5. Eastside, westside. Where are we bloody new york or in Staines with Ali G?!!?!?
    I hear Broad St may be renamed Westside. What a joke!

  8. discovered a little more…

    Kinetic are working on a master plan for Warwick Bar, Eastside.
    http://www.kinetic-aiu.com/warwick.html
    Looks exciting!

    There is an Eastside Community Group. Next meeting is at the old crown pub on the 20th feb 6pm. I have just spoken to Anne Parouty (Chair) who informs me that they have no web presence but have been keen to develop one. I will be attending the next meeting to see if we can get a blog set up to assist them in communicating their discussions, findings and views.

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