Capital of Subculture

Yesterday I walked into town from Wavertree with my fiance. It might sound a bit mad, it took about 45 minutes but it was really enjoyable. On the way I popped into a specialist Polish shop on Picton Road for a look around - I'll be back to buy some stuff - and finished the stroll with a nice meal at the Cathedral restaurant on Mount Pleasant. Just as we were coming out, we were approached by a team filming greetings from the Capital of Culture, so I obliged with a quick video interview, even though it was my day off. If I find it online, I'll link to it later.

Like most people living in Liverpool, I was delighted to see the Capital of Culture awarded to Liverpool for 2008. Like most people in Liverpool, I've been disappointed about how poorly things have been handled since. The Grosvenor development in Liverpool is due to open in May, a "shopping paradise", if you read the local paper. Not really. A number of local and independent retailers were moved out of the Quiggins site on School Lane to make way for it. We lost the Flying Picket on Hardman Street and a lot of the filming contracts have been awarded outside the city. Capital of Culture and Regeneration now seem to be dependent on a retail led development that looks increasingly shaky as the credit crunch kicks in.

I lived in a flat in Toxteth up until 2006 at the city centre end of town but moved out then. I therefore have a great deal of sympathy for those who have been encouraged to buy one and two bed flats in the city centre of Liverpool only to see the prices already falling ahead of the national market slowdown. There are a lot of overpriced properties in Liverpool, without the economy to back it up. We also have seen the misguided impression that retail can somehow lead Liverpool's economy into a successful future. Instead after nearly 10 years of Liberal Democrat administration, we are going to pay the price for a failure to invest in real business and a Green economy. It is going to hurt a lot of people financially.

It doesn't help matters to see the council leader Warren Bradley engaged in some rather reckless secret meeting with a former employee as reported in the Daily Post last week and rather more extensively covered Subculture blog. There is the usual Liberal Democrat versus Labour argument about whether Liverpool is getting enough central funding and a criticism from the Taxpayers' Alliance that our council is spending over £10 million on spin. That is a week of Liverpool politics for you.

Green Cllr John Coyne will be putting some tough questions to the council again this week and with two meetings tonight, I have my work cut out for me.