It’s been a while since the last (public) handwringing over why Birmingham’s reputation suffers nationally. Thankfully, the Independent has steeped in with an article doing just that (as pointed out by Neil Holland on Twitter last night).
Link: Brum deal: A second city with a third-rate reputation
They point out that there are some great things about this city:
- The Cotswolds aren’t far away
- High speed rail may soon allow us to get to London in 49mins
Um… thanks. To be fair there were shout outs to the BRB and CBSO massives too.
Features quotes from Siôn Simon, Adrian Goldberg, Clare Short, Helga Henry, Khalid Mahmood and Trevor Beattie.
Building it up
I like this from Si Jobling (one of Multipack‘s founders). He’s miffed that the Midlands are often overlooked when people talk about the Web industry in the UK, so:
Throughout the Summer months, I’ll be visiting a variety of design/Web/creative agencies around the West Midlands as part of a Design Tour of The Midlands to promote agencies in the region and find out how they work.
Knocking it down
I think the Independent Article quite good, after a bit down it does pick up at the end, and probably is quite astute at picking out a lot of reasons things are and aren’t working. Can only make us stronger!
Lucky for Aston University that they can afford to blow up their halls of residence. As far as I can remember they were some of the nicest ‘halls’ I’ve been in. And not that old either. Still, you have to get your priorities right when you’re dealing with ‘paying customers’ rather than students.
Aston Uni used to be a really nice bit of Birmingham to hang out – some nice pubs, Triangle Arts Centre and cinema (also demolished for some unknown reason), good art college etc. Last time I went back there it felt like a soulless business park.
Interesting article. I grew up near Manchester and the big difference I see between the 2 cities is that Birmingham has to stop looking back.
Yes celebrate and embrace the past, but that has been and gone, the city should spend more time looking forward.
The last interview I saw with our council leader was about the new library, he never mentioned how great it was for the children and adults of the West Midlands to have a fantastic new cutting edge library, instead he went on about how people could come and see an original James Watt drawing.
Great in certain circles, but it’s probably not going to get them banging on the door.
We need an enemy. In my town of San Francisco, the people are similar to Brummies, with all sorts of global regions represented. When we look at each other, we see other San Franciscans; not Asians/Orientals, South Americans, Mexicans or Africans. If anything, we see ourselves as not Los Angeles. Birmingham needs its Other, and London fits that job description.