Early Council Housing in Nottingham

I've been doing some research into Council Housing in Nottingham and have written this guest blog for the excellent Municipal Dreams site. Enjoy.

Nottingham's Early Council Housing

Order Ref: FPS/Q3060/7/1

An obscure title I know but all will become clear.  But be prepared, this is a geeky post of maps, rights-of-way and legal processes!

I'm a little late to this but hoping that this will bring the story to a wider group of people.  

What is a Right of Way anyway?

You've probably saw them on an Ordnance Survey map if you went for a walk over Christmas or the New Year break.  Little green line, sometimes dashed, sometimes dotted.  But what actually is a Right of Way?  Courtesy of Gov.uk: "Public rights of way are open to everyone. They can be roads, paths or tracks, and can run through towns, countryside or private property."  Uh-huh.  "You have the right to walk along them. Some rights of way are also open to horse riders, cyclists or motorists".  Ok, I can live with that.  What are the different sorts?

• footpaths - let you go by foot only
• bridleways - let you go by foot, horse or bike
• restricted byways - let you travel by any form of transport that doesn’t have a motor
• byways open to all traffic - let you travel by any form of transport, including cars (though they’re mainly used by walkers and horse riders)"

The point is that no-one can close or divert (with a few specific instances around the ploughing of land) a Right of Way without going through the proper legal process and satisfying some pretty stringent tests.  

Why does that matter? 

It's one of the things that makes me proud to be British - a legal defined right to use paths, criss-crossing our country: no tickets, permissions, opening hours, nothing - just free access to the countryside (and quite a lot of urban areas too) that no-one can take away.  George Orwell summed this up brilliantly in his essay, 'Thoughts on the Common Toad';

"How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can’t. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, Spring is still Spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it."

The right to access land and enjoy it peacefully is a hugely political issue of course - the best example of this is the Mass Tresspass of Kinder Scout in the Peak District.  

Kinder Scout (image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_Flank_Kinder_Scout.JPG)

Cool. I like a walk. Sorted.

Almost.  Some people don't like the fact that other people can access land that they own.  Every scrap of the United Kingdom is owned by someone and plenty of those people don't want anyone else to enjoy it.  In a recent Tory proposal lapped up by the Telegraph and other media outlets, it looks like this basic right could be under threat.  

Oh. But all the ones currently used are ok aren't they? 

Maybe.  

(This is where it gets really geeky - stay with me).  

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 made it (among other things) a legal duty for Surveying Authorities (usually your local Council) to keep a map (the "Definitive Map") of all Rights of Way in their local area.  This means that everyone can see where the Rights of Way (RoW) are and there's no debate about them.  

One of the brilliant pieces of legislation from the 1997 Labour Government was the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.  Commonly known as the "Right to Roam" Act but actually much more than that, this Act "provides for public access on foot to certain types of land, amends the law relating to public rights of way, increases measures for the management and protection for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and strengthens wildlife enforcement legislation, and provides for better management of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Act is compliant with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, requiring consultation where the rights of the individual may be affected by these measures".  

Phew.  

In practical terms for a casual walker, it has two effects: (1) a right to access Mountain (land over 600 metres), Moorland, Heath, Downland alongside Registered common land.  (My sister was involved in the official mapping process following the passing of the Act and still has a set of 'Mountain', 'Moor', 'Heath' and 'Down' mugs from the office where she was working at the time).  And (2) puts in a place a deadline that if a RoW isn't on the Definitive Map by the year 2026 then it's gone forever.  

Ah, that'll shake things up a bit

You'd have thought so, but in reality progress against that 2026 has been horrendously slow and I imagine it'll be pushed further into the future as we get closer to that time.  

But it has meant that where paths were sort in dispute but everyone had been muddling along things were put into focus a bit more.  

And this is where it gets distinctly Nottingham-relevant.  

The City Council has an excellent (if small) Rights of Way team and the contents of the Definitive Map are integrated into 'Nottingham Insight Mapping' - click through the Layers section to 'Transport and Streets' and then scroll down to 'Public Rights of Way'.  

As a small-ish urban authority there aren't that many official RoWs and the number of applications to 'Modify' the Definitive Maps as recorded here has only ever been a dozen or so.  
But there's one controversial one isn't there?

Yup.  

To understand this bit, you need to know about the Park Estate in Nottingham.  It's a pretty special place in many ways - probably the best history I've found is here but the summary is that it's a private estate with some amazing architecture (including quite a few Watson Fothergill specials) and a fab location just a mile or so from the city centre.  Oh, and owls.  Lots of owls that you can hear hooting at night.  

Would you like to live in a house with a turret?
(image Copyright David Lally and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

There's a footpath that runs along the Southern part of the Estate, as shown on this map that has been used for many years to cut through from Lenton to the City;

Click for link to Google Maps

Except that the Nottingham Park Estate Limited who run the services of the Estate and maintain the communal facilities like the green spaces and the (amazing) gas lamp system decided that it wasn't a Right of Way and that they would put a gate in (this happened in 2003) and then start regularly locking this gate in 2009 - essentially denying access to local residents over a Right of Way that has existed for nearly 1000 years.  

Nottingham City Council decided this wasn't right and so added the route to the Definitive Map (see, there was a point to all of the above background!) to make its status clear and ensure that the gate was removed or left open.  This was challenged by the Estate and there was an official enquiry and everything, eventually culminating in an official Decision by the Planning Inspector which can be found here.  

Bearing in mind the initial status of the Estate as the deer park for the Castle, the route from the West of the City including Lenton (originally an agricultural village separate from the City itself) makes perfect sense, especially with the Castle at the end of it.  I'm pleased as that all of this is clearly laid out in the Decision, complete with lots of geeky detail and references to some excellent maps too.  

To me it's important to stand up for what might seem like little things - once they're gone it's these kind of rights that we'd miss.  

Okay, thanks for that, good to know

You're welcome.  

(more here, here, here and here if you're interested).  

Detroit, Always On My Mind

It is fairly typical to see building like this on most blocks

I think I am a little bit obsessed about Detroit.  I see from my speaking notes to the Nottingham Roosevelt Travelling Scholarship annual dinner last year that I described it as a "tragic, brilliant, beautiful place full of contradictions, challenges and hope".  It is a place that really gets under the skin - see my previous posts on the place here.  I see that the backlash against the 'ruin tourism' is in full force which I've got some sympathy for - it felt quite voyeuristic looking around neighbourhoods that used to be peoples' homes.  I certainly don't like the idea of organised commercial groups charging for tours.  

The green clapboard house to the left was occupied, surrounded by abandoned and demolished homes

I thought I'd share a few articles from the last few months on Detroit and then point people to another broader piece about cities in general.  

This piece on the FT (registration, free) has been sitting in my pile of "things to read properly" for nearly six months but it's definitely worth checking out.  It's a good read and has a striking main picture to boot.  The key moment for me is this quote from a middle-aged firefighter, David McLeod, regarding his move out of the city to the surrounding counties,

"Everyone who can afford to leave has left.  The only people remaining are poor or sick or criminals"

The broad point here is right.  

But the key missing word in Mr McLeod's comment, however, is "Black".  

As this article and map shows, the divide between poor, decaying and Black Detroit and richer, successful, and White Oakland County is incredibly stark.  I talk a bit about this here but the map is a brilliant articulation of the issue.  If you're at all upwardly mobile in Detroit you "got out" years ago and moved to the more prosperous and probably safer suburbs.  Sadly this has the impact of making the city you left behind even more impoverished until it gets into the sorry state it's in today.  And even more tragically, even if you're geographically not living in a particular city you will often make calls on the city's services: roads, schools, museums, parks etc; without necessarily financially contributing to them.  This is relevant to us here in Nottingham (see what I did there?) with our phenomenally tight boundaries - I've covered this previously here.  

Talking of museums, I was incredibly pleased to see that the exhibits in the fantastic Detroit Institute of Arts may have been given a reprive.  The museum is an amazing little oasis of (free) culture and stimulation in the midst of a challenging area of the world and I'd be really sad to see this particular family silver sold off even given the dire straits the city is in.  

Hard to photograph but stunning when up close and a real tribute to Detroit's industrial heritage

I'd never seen any of Claus Oldenburg's work in person before - pretty incredible

All in all, I'd say that Mike Duggan (the new, albeit emasculated) Mayor of Detroit has his work cut out...

... but some of the hope that I think he shows for the city is really well captured in a (longform) article from the middle of last year again in the FT (registration, free).  I'll let you read it yourself but will share a couple of the key points here;

"...Whole Foods, the organic supermarket chain, opened its first-ever store within Detroit’s city limits. The occasion was marked with street parties in its midtown neighbourhood. Others, including Detroit’s impoverished black majority, may feel less excitement about the arrival of an outlet some call “Whole Pay Check” because it is so expensive"

 "Students of the “new urbanism”, such as Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, which argues that cities are the best Petri dishes for new ideas and innovation, say their revival is assisted by a generational shift in US culture as well as deeper economic trends. Florida, who now lives in Toronto, just 250 miles north of Detroit (but still a million miles in terms of its vibrancy), grew up in suburban New Jersey in a second-generation Italian-American family. Like so many other immigrants, his parents fled the claustrophobia of Newark for the freedom of the suburbs. “To them the city was a ghetto – it was stifling and crowded and dangerous,” says Florida. “But to my generation, the suburbs represent a kind of poverty of living and it is the cities, rather than the suburbs, where you can breathe freely" "

"Technology is also an ally. The big out-of-town retail centres once spelt the death knell of Main Street. But the rapid shift to online retailing is now rendering many of them obsolete. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, at least a tenth of America’s remaining 1,000 enclosed malls will shut in the next seven years, mostly because of the internet. That is why people like Gilbert put so much emphasis on “place making” – creating a spectacle out of the street life that only cities can offer. It means good food, open-air events and renovated parks. Out go the discarded needles. In come the open-air chess boards. “American cities are becoming more and more European in their sensibility,” says Florida. “It is all about lifestyle.” As the new urbanists put it (somewhat annoyingly), the US urban revival is driven by the “3Ts” – technology, tolerance and talent."

Do read the whole article - it's a great piece of writing and offers a vision for the future that I find very exciting.  

Book Review: The Unfortunates

The Unfortunates by B S Johnson

I was at a gig the other week, seeing Eels at Rock City who are one of the first bands that I remember buying a record by.  I was reminiscing to my friend about the day that I still distinctly remember of going to buy the CD in Coulsdon (where I grew up) on the Monday after school - I had five one pound coins in my wallet and I know that I could get a further £5 from the cash machine outside the TSB next door to the Woolworths.  Two now defunct brand names you won't find on our high streets any more.  Thanks to my somewhat unusual method of keeping my CDs not in either alphabetical order nor chronological order of release (pace, High Fidelity) but in chronological order of purchase I know that this is the thirteenth album that I ever bought.  

Because I still love the physicality of CDs and vinyl almost as much as I love the printed word, and in a slightly-late and somewhat off-kilter tribute to Record Store Day I thought I'd do a book review of a novel that celebrates the physical form in a word of Kindles and downloads.  

The other reminiscence I've been indulging in a lot at the moment is, of course, for my trip to America.  Being back in the daily grind of WorkOne and WorkTwo (see the footnote here).  I think the best memories in some ways are for the travel rather than the arriving: in particular for the day I spent driving, flying and travelling by train in California.  

I'm currently reading and hugely enjoying a book that celebrates the physical form par-excellence, is a semi-autobiographical reminiscence and is set in Nottingham.  What's not to like!  B S Johnson wasn't ever a household name in his lifetime and certainly isn't now but appears to be having something of a renaissance  especially around this novel in particular.  

The novel's main conceit is that it can be read in any order through the chapters being entirely loose in the binding.  The first and last chapters are marked as such but the others can be shuffled and read in whatever order you desire.  

The power of the reminiscence and the fading or growing of memories and re-ordering of them in our minds is of course a hugely powerful force in the novel and is enhanced by the pseudo-random order of the chapters.  Some of the chapters are only a page long, others a couple of dozen.  The action centres around a football match in an unnamed Midlands city which is usually understood to be Nottingham and I enjoyed in particular trying to place some of the locations identified - or spotting how things have changed in the forty or so years since the novel's setting.  Johnson was a jobbing football journalist and so spent a lot of time bouncing around the country to different cities reporting on different games.  The merging of different cities and locations is one that has become familiar for me as the memories of my America trip start to fade a little: "But I know this city!  This green ticket-hall, the long office half-rounded at its ends, that ironic clerestory, brown glazed tiles, green below, the same, the decorative hammerbeams supporting nothing, above, of course!  I know this city!  How did I not realise when he said, Go and do City this week, that it was this city?".  The match and its reporting are mixed up with stories of Tony, the narrator's dead friend and includes flashbacks (or are they not flashbacks, I'm just reading it in the "wrong" order?) to their times together.  

(Incidentally, I like the way that 'City' = The football team from a particular city but 'city' = the conurbation itself.  I always laugh when people at work talk about football from the weekend and refer to 'City' or 'County' or 'United' and expect you know what they're talking about.  This is, of course, just an excuse to link to my favourite 'IT Crowd' episode of all time, "Are We Not Men", couple of good clips here if you've not got time for the full episode at the first link)

The non-linear narrative of The Unfortunates is all part of the experience of reading the novel but it does make for a challenging read - there are lots of moments when it isn't at all clear what is going on.  I'm naturally going to struggle to give clear page numbers or references to the quotes below, but give the book a go and you'll find them in time...

Jonathan Coe has written a very helpful introduction to the edition I have which includes the following passage: "So, what exactly was taking place on 'the inside of his skull' as Johnson went about the task of reporting his football match that Saturday afternoon?  Memories of Tony were unfolding, certainly, but not in a structured, linear way, and they were interrupted at random by the action on the pitch and his attempts to start writing his match report.  It was this randomness, this lack of structure in the way we remember things and receive imrpessions that Johnson wanted to record with absolute fidelity.  But randomness, he realised, is 'directly in conflict with the technological fact of the bound book: for the bound book imposes an order, a fixed page order, on the material'.  His solution, as always, was simple and radical: the pages of The Unfortunates should not be bound at all".  

"Always, at the start of each match, the excitement, often the only moment of excitement, that this might be the ONE match, the match in which someone betters Payne's ten goals, where Hughie Gallacher after being floored nods one in while sitting down, where the extraordinary happens, something that makes it stand out, the match one remembers and talks about for years afterwards, the rest of one's life.  The one moment, the one match.  A new beginning, is it?".  The inevitable bathos that follows this passage is no less crushing for its predictability: "But already I suspect the worst of these two sides, now as they kick off I doubt they can play well enough to make this a memorable match...".  I'm no football fan so don't know if this is an accurate representation of what it can feel like at the start of a game but I recognise the pain of anticipate as encapsulated in the John Cleese line in Clockwise, "I can cope with the despair, but it's the hope that kills me".  

"June rang on the Saturday, was it, or the Thursday before, no, quite late, we had already arranged to go, though what arrangements could we have needed to make, saying that there was no need for us to come down, on Sunday, for he had died that evening, had not recovered consciousness that morning from his sleep. but previously there has been the opposite of a relapse, three days when his mind has been virtually normal, for which she had been grateful, June, it had seemed like a miracle, though he still could not move, his mind had come back and they had talked very seriously about everything, for the first time had talked about death".  This is one of the very short chapters: that passage is the totality of that chapter.  

"Time!  It's after two!  I must get to the ground then, how my mind has taken off.  Now, how to get to the ground, yes, always take a taxi in a strange city, no, not that again, in any case I have not seen any taxis here, except at the station and that's a long way away, but I did see buses with boards up for the ground at the Council House square, yes, and I ought to be able to find my way back there, yes, down there, through this alley, or crack, as some would call it, a paved alleyway, wet, it must have rained while I was having lunch, slightly, or they have washed it down no, what irrelevant absurdities I find myself thinking, just, the pavement is wet, I must take appropriate care not to slip as I descend, past shoppers, still at it, this is their great day, of course, wives and daughters arm-in-arm after camiknickers, matching, no doubt, twinsets, similar gallivanting.  Radio shops, now no doubt called television shops, the half-dozen sets going, different programmes, show-jumping and swimming, those apologies for sport on television, while the only sport most people want to watch is soccer, the only real sport, the best, the pathetic ends they go to on Saturday afternoons to cover up the fact that they are not showing football".  Later in this chapter (one of the longer ones) we get to see some of the writing of the match report the narrator is filing - a further post-modern trope (writing about writing: metafiction) in this fascinating book.  

This isn't a comforting read; it's challenging in both form and content.  But it's one that I highly recommend giving a go.  

Ghost of Christmas Past

During the interregnum that inevitably features between Christmas and New Year I took the radical (for me) step of going shopping in the January sales.  As I was staying with my parents down South for a few days I had the somewhat unedifying choices of Crawley, Brighton or Croydon.  I finally decided to go to Croydon as I'd been working in store before Christmas in Crawley so didn't really fancy going back and the train down to Brighton felt like a bit of a drag.  

It was only as I got off the train at East Croydon station that I started to think about how long it was since I was last there.  I reckon it's close to a decade which was a bit sobering.  For the uninitiated  I grew up and went to school in this part of the world - so always have half an eye out for news from this unloved London Borough that I called home until I was 18.  I never really 'came home' after University - I lived for a year in York after I finished with my studies and then moved to Nottingham for work. 

Anyway, train done, I wandered down towards the town proper from the station and started to feel oddly nostalgic.  But then you know when you go back to somewhere or something that it totally familiar to you but then it turns out not to be quite the same as you remember it?  Very dislocating when you're convinced that something has moved.  For example - I often frequented (after the age of eighteen, obviously) 'The George' pub on George Street but if you'd asked me if Croydon's tram ran down that street I would have sworn that it ran on a parallel road.  As I say, very odd.  

I spent many happy hours as a teenager browsing the serendipitous racks of Beanos record store (I love the bathos of the phrase in that article, "STUFF marketplace officially closed on 30 April 2010 due to too little business") and owe my love of Elvis Costello's 'Armed Forces' and the lost genius of The Beekeepers (seriously, if you want a treat then get can a copy of 'Third Party, Fear and Theft'; it's brilliant) to that place.  So I was naturally very sad when it closed down and this meant that my CD shopping was restricted to popping into 101 Records.  They were handily enough having a half price sale so was able to make progress on my Dylan completism for relatively little money.  

I'd somehow created a further false memory for myself that Croydon was included in Owen Hatherley's smart and provocative book, 'A Guide To The New Ruins of Great Britain'.  I've just checked and it's not but you should read this book anyway anyway, not least for the chapter on Nottingham. 

 

For a much maligned placed architecturally, Croydon does have some gems of Modernism that have a real place in my heart - Apollo House and Lunar are famous for (i) being hilariously dated by their moon-landing inspired names, (ii) now housing the UK Border Agency so a key first destination for many migrants to the UK and (iii) appearing many times as filming locations for 'Peep Show'.  But whilst structurally the town was looking much the same, the changing face of the shops and rest of the streetscape was striking.  The closure of Allders has obviously hit a blow at the heart of the community and I kept expecting to find other shops that had long gone and moved away.  Sad.  

Finally, and on a more upbeat note, there are some good signs of regeneration and redevelopment happening.  An active BID (a model that works well in Nottingham too) looks to have put together some good plans and is certainly very visible.  And there are some great looking plans for East Croydon station (itself an iconic cantilevered building) that will improve its links to the rest of the town.  

Just a collection of thoughts really but hopefully a little treat for my midlands friends...

Houston Food

Just a brief post to talk about some of the amazing food that I consumed this weekend just gone.  I'm fairly sure that I've put on a lot of weight so far this trip and this weekend won't have helped.  Back into cycling and running when I get home I think!

In no particular order, we went to the following places with my capsule review alongside.  

Empire Cafe.  An excellent lunch and chance to catch up with Brad and Louise, nice shady patio too and what looked like a great strawberry flavoured soda for the kids.  

Hugo's.  Wow.  Just wow - what a great place.  A cool vibe, with a mix of couples, families and business meetings.  I had the Barbacoa which featured some of the tastiest lamb I've had in a long time and also enabled me to learn a new word - cilantro.  Oh, and the Oaxacan Rita margarita was excellent - a real smoky taste.    

House of Pies.  This was a welcome addition to the afternoon when flagging from a full day (with a two-year-old) at the Museum of Natural Science.  I can personally vouch for the Apple and the Texas Pecan Fudge looked suitably artery filling...


Rudy's BBQ.  This place was an excellent Saturday night choice - real rib-sticking stuff but unpretentious and laid-back.  You order at the counter and get a kind of plastic crate to load your meat up into - we had a mix of moist brisket (to die for!), ribs and sausage.  Plus the sides were excellent too.  You lay your own table with butcher's paper and get stuck in - highly recommended!

Finally, we went for a brilliant brunch at a Mexican place and I had the best virgin Bloody Mary I've ever had - if only I could remember the name of the place!  My Huevos Rancheros was phenomenal - perhaps second only to 'Kiosk' at the end of my road in Nottingham, as discussed here - but then I would say that wouldn't I!)

I knew that Houston had a rep for good food but I hadn't realised quite how great it was going to be - no wonder they eat out the most of all Americans!

The other surprising thing about Houston was how green it was.  We went for a walk in Hermann Park but even outside this the streets were very green and leafy - a function of the kind of neighbourhood I was in I suppose but even so.  

Land of 10,000 Lakes and Sub-Zero Temperatures

A quick update on my first day-and-a-half in Minneapolis.  (As an aside, of there's one things I'm going to learn from this trip it's how to spell the names of various places I've always struggled with - witness my Connecticut, Cincinnati and Massachusetts skills...!)

I'm going to stop going on about the weather soon, but let's just say I went from t-shirt weather in Chicago (25C) to wearing four layers and a hat and gloves (6C) in the space of three days.   Brr.  

My Servas host picked me up from the station late Saturday afternoon and give me a little tour of St Paul and the surrounding area - and filled me in on the differences and the rivalry between the 'Twin Cities' of St Paul and Minneapolis.  

On Sunday we did a tour of a cave system in St Paul that used to be where the Chicago gangsters would hide out - apparently the local police had a deal that they could take refuge in the city as long as they didn't commit any crimes within the city limits!  The inside of the cave system reminded me of The Trip in Nottingham which was slightly odd but it was a very interesting tour.  We then went to see one of the thousands of lakes in Minnesota - Lake of the Isles - which was great to walk around on a crisp Autumn day, lots of people out on their bikes and walking dogs. 

Frustratingly a lot of the museums etc that I want to see in the Twin Cities are closed on a Monday so I planned out my own schedule based around staying indoors as much as possible - Lilian you'll be pleased to hear that I'm planning to maximise the tram system and also the Skyway! 

Chicago

What a place - I've absolutely fallen in love with Chicago.  

From the moment that I stepped off the (efficient, clean, fast) 'L' public transport system at Damen Avenue in Bucktown I knew that I would enjoy my time here.  There was a buzz about the place that was tangible - shops, bars, restaurants, boutique shops, oh, and, people (unlike in Detroit!) going about their everyday lives.  I was made very welcome by my Servas host, Jeff and we went out and had a few beers in the local pubs.  Jeff is a 'Quant' at a hedge fund, but that didn't mean that he was loaded he was quick to point out!  It was nice to talk to him about the places that he had travelled to around the world.  

As I had a really early start and important meetings I obviously drank far too much so wasn't in tip-top form for my 6.30 start the following day.  When will I learn eh?  Stupidly enough I had to travel almost all the way back to O'Hare Airport as I was due to attend the Illinois AFL-CIO (like the TUC in the UK) annual convention which was at one of the airport hotels.  Luckily it was an easy ride on the 'L'.  I freaked out the team from the UFCW who had arranged my attendance by insisting on walking from the station to the hotel.  It was a total of half a mile so I told them that I thought I'd be ok...

The convention was really interesting - lots of great speakers including Senator Dick Durbin.  I was made out to be some kind of visiting celebrity which was amusing.  I also went along to one of the workshops on GOTV ahead of the elections here in November.  I was interested to see if there were similarities or differences this side of the Atlantic.  There were a couple of interesting tips that I might be able to use in either our Parliamentary or Local elections in 2015 but the most striking thing was the similarities - including the perennial problem of what to do with the big band of volunteers who only turn up on election day itself ask what they can do to help - the reaction from activists from both the UK and the USA was, "be here 6 weeks ago when there was real work to be done"...

I was then lucky to be taken out to lunch to Gibson's which is something of a Chicago institution and also to meet Jon Karmel a local union right lawyer.  It was great to talk to Jon about the history of the labour movement in the US and also the development of Chicago.  Linked to my discoveries in Detroit re corruption, Jon's take was that although there have been question marks over the conduct and probity of the various members of the Daley family who have been Chicago leaders, the overwhelming focus has been on delivery of projects and initiatives - yes there might have been some greasing of some palms somewhere but fundamentally the public improvement works actually happened on the ground.  Certainly the city is night and day vs Detroit so something has gone right along the way! 

I did a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon but I was keen to get back to Jeff's place in time for the first Presidential debate.  I'm sure that people who are interested have watched the highlights already, but I was hugely disappointed with Obama's performance.  Hesitant, stumbling and willing to let Romney walk all over him.  As I said here this could be the turning point of the election and I don't think I'm alone in that analysis.  The second debate is on 16th October and the President is going to have seriously up his game.  

Thursday was a day totally dedicated to sightseeing so I covered a lot of ground.  First thing I went on an architectural boat tour as recommended by my good friends Dan and Josie - it was absolutely brilliant!  So much history and development in this city and the guide was excellent at drawing it all together.  Just a couple of photos below, including one of my all time favourite buildings, Marina City, not least because it features on the great album, 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' by local band Wilco.  

I also popped over to see Millennium Park and the outdoor art installation by Anish Kapoor (of Sky Mirror outside Nottingham Playhouse fame of course) - Cloud Gate.  (It's know by everyone as 'the bean').  A great atmosphere of fun and jokes, just one shot here - you have to spot where I am reflected! 

I've barely covered a fraction of what I did today - as I said, it's a brilliant city. 

Tomorrow (Friday) I go to the Walgreen's offices in Deerfield to meet with the team there - looking forward to that! 

Final Thoughts on Detroit

I'm writing this in Chicago airport: I was freakishly bumped to an earlier flight (vs my rubbish experience leaving Cincinnati) so I've got a couple of hours to kill.  I thought I'd jot down my final thoughts on Detroit - it's a place of contradictions and variety and I'm sure that I barely scratched the surface.  But hopefully I'm seen a bit more than just the 'usual' downtown areas.  (I don't know when I'll get a chance to post this so some of the timings might be off!). 

 

I went downtown for the morning the other day - mainly to post some stuff home (both from where I massively overpacked but also from things I've been given or bought along the way.  Top tip to scholars doing this trip in future years is to take less stuff that you think you'll need).  I took the opportuninty to wander around the city centre area.  As per my previouspost the overwhelming impression is one of emptiness - it's clean and feels safe and has all the infrastructure (roads, buildings etc) of a much larger and busier city than it is now but there's simply no-one around!

I stumbled across one of Detroit's 'Urban Gardens' - this one was sponsored by Compuware, one of the local employers and I spoke with the people seconded from the company to staff the garden.  One of them was a long term resident and told me that 15-20 years ago it was even quieter than now - he could have laid down in the road beside us for 15 minutes and nothing would have happened - no-one would be there to either tell him to get up or in his words, "no-one would even be around to try to take my wallet". 

They also filled me in about a couple of names that have consistently come up in coversation - Matty Moroun and Phil Cooley.  The former is a local landowner (he owns Michigan Central Station and also the bridge and tunnel over to Canada - more on him later) and the latter a local businessman and self-promoter.  Both divide opinions, shall we say...  I ate dinner that night at one of Cooley's restaurants - Slows BBQ.  The food was ok, not as great as I'd been led to believe but the place was totally packed to he's obviously doing something right. 

Talking of food, and being a huge Man vs Food fan I couldn't go to Detroit without sampling the delights of a Coney Hot Dog - some info on the backstory here.  I plumped for what's supposed to be the more 'authentic' of the two rival restaurants and can confirm that it was qutie an experience - the mixture of mince, chilli, hotdog and raw onions will stay with me for quite some time...  I shied away from one of Adam's volume challenges on this ocassion - another chance will present itself I'm sure. 

I was due that afternoon back at the offices of the UFCW where their Secretary-Treasurer had promised me that he would show me the political offices of the local Democratic Party.  For a political nerd like me this was obviously very exciting, not least because I'd be able to look at lots of maps of different Congressional Districts...  The office was very much like all the Labour Party committee rooms I've been in: slightly messy, lots of junk-food, assorted literature and posters along with a hardcore of activists phone-banking and stuffing envelopes.  Probably the best part of the visit, apart from the collecting of much literature and bumper stickers (yes, I've got one for you Rory!) was when my host, Rick, took me on a short drive to some of the local neighbourhoods. 

I'd already learned that Detroit's not all decay and disorder and there are some pretty acceptable places but where Rick took me was totally unexpected.  Firstly for Nottingham readers the district of the City rejoices in the name of 'Sherwood Forest' and especially for Jane and Brian if they're reading this it is usually just know as 'Sherwood' and is one of the more desirable places to live in the City.  Some things are the same the world over, eh...

As you can see from the photo below the properties in this neighbourhood are pretty desirable - 5+ bedrooms and lots of big gardens.  Rick told me that places here would typically sell for $150,000 - and an equivalent place outside the stigma of the city's boundaries (but less than a mile away geographically) would be around $400,000!  (This compares with the place I was staying where a three bedroom Victorian semi-detached would set you back about $30,000...). 

I picked up in the campaign office an attack leaflet critisising 'Mad Moron' (sic).  Although it wasn't explained, I assume this was directed at Matt Moroun (as above).  As well as consistently delaying redevelopment proposals for the Michigan Central Station Mr Moran is also the monopoly owner of the bridge and tunnel to and from Canada and also of all the Duty Free Shopping concessions.  When I was given a sample ballot (it's 4 pages) for the upcoming November election I was surprised to see a Referendum (called a 'Proposal' here) essentially designed to make it much more difficult for an additional international crossing to be created.  When I was in the UFCW offices I got the team to explain this.  Essentially it looks like Mr Moran has used his considerable personal wealth to get onto the ballot (and hopes to pass) a proposal to protect his monopoly on the international crossing business.  The fact that the Canadian government would have paid the costs of a proposed new bridge and it would bring additional revenue and business through Detroit doesn't seem to be a factor in his thinking.  An interesting local political dynamic. 

On my last day in Detroit I planned a quick visit to the Henry Ford complex out in Dearborn.  This comprises of several museums and exhibitions but the main focus for me was the Rouge Factory Tour - a chance to go round the actual Ford factory that's currently making the F150 Truck.  The Dearborn complex is vast - a whole town dedicated to Ford and all things car related.  It used to be much bigger and was on a significant decline until the mid-naughties when the current leader of the company, Bill Ford made a bold investment to tranform the plant into a green oriented and future facing operation - investing around $2bn in the site and its future.  The actual tour of the factory was incredible - you walk along a kind of gantry where you can see the trucks being made, production line station by production line station.  Some of the workers acknowledged our presence and gave us a little wave - some others just carried on doing the same repetitive work (as part of a 4 day, 10 hours a day work-week).  There was a real pride in the quality of the work and the combination of sophisticated robots and real people was interesting to see.  I also liked the fact that at various stations the sophisticated manufacturing process was reduced to a bloke picking up a lump of plastic and banging it into place with his fist - percussive maintenance is always a winner!

My final thoughts on Detroit: what I originally read about on my pre-trip research as a concept of 'Planned Shrinkage' came up time and time again here in even the most casual of conversations with people - "the city's too big we need to downside"; "the city needs to grow its tax base we're too big"; "we can't keep the city this size".  All of the people I met were passionate and committed advocates for the City and they all knew that it made sense to shrink and try to grow back.  This wasn't at all what I expect to find so glad to have had my assumptions challenged. 

Queen of the Mid(West)lands

The Nottinghamians amongst people reading this will know that Nottingham is sometimes called 'The Queen of the Midlands'.  I learnt today that Cincinnati (finally cracked how to spell it!) is known as 'The Queen City'.  Tenuous nomenclature links aside, the cities are similar in population size (c. 300,000) but not a lot else - it's been a really interesting day or so exploring the city and drawing comparisons. 

I arrived late afternoon yesterday and popped out to the Oktoberfest.  I was intrigued to see what the American version of the German beerfest would look like.  It was a great show - a reasonable variety of beers, lots of food and a real family atmosphere.  The ratio of food and entertainment to beer was skewed to food rather than beer - and I'm not sure that Nottingham CAMRA would approve of Bud Light and Miller being included in a beer festival. I sampled a number of the local brews - including some from Samuel Adams, Great Lakes and Magic Hat.  As per my post here on beers, it was good to see some of the craft brewers in America getting out there and encouraging people to try their products - but the number of people still sticking to their traditional low-taste volume brews was a bit disappointing. 

Monday morning brought a slight hangover and also a meeting at Proctor & Gamble.  The buildings the company occupies really dominate the city centre as you can see in the below photo. 

I had arranged to meet FD Wilder, P&G's Vice President for Global Market Strategy and Planning.  I was a little nervous going in to visit someone so senior in such a huge organisation but FD was highly engaging and very generous with his time.  A really interesting discussion about how P&G's 'promote from within' culture both supports and can hinder their push for innovation and creative thinking plus some great details on how P&G engage with their host city.  

On the latter point FD was able to talk to me about how the company deliberately invested in downtown Cincinnati as an act of enlightened self-interest: back in the early 2000s the city was not in a great place, including some horrendous sounding riots and a significant level of white-flight to the suburbs.  This was causing recruitment problems for P&G as ambitious young graduates were not willing to move to the city.  I can confirm that just over 10 years later the city centre feels a million miles away from the events described above - I felt very safe and saw a variety of races and backgrounds mingling together. 

FD also gave me some really interesting perspective on both the Boots/Walgreens merger and also the global retail market (P&G see that there are 24m stores worldwide that sell products in categories they participate in; 6m of them they have a presence in but only c. 200,000 are part of a chain - the rest are 'mon-and-pop' independents, often in the developing world). Oh, and that Google have a model of a dinosaur at their Silicon Valley HQ - to remind everyone that works there that even the most innovative company can become obsolete if you don't guard against it. 

I came out of the offices to some welcome Midwestern sun (it had been very cold first thing) and decided to walk up from the city-centre to Mount Adams - the suburb of the city that overlooks the main city and hosts a number of artists and other creative types in some very desirable housing.  The climb was certainly a stiff one but the view was absolutely worth it, as were the couple of pints of Hop Bomber beer from Rivertown Brewery I had at the City View Tavern in Mt Adams. 

Just to be clear that I've not spent the whole time drinking, I also went over to the Cincinnati Reds stadium - the Great American Ballpark to pick up my ticket for the baseball game I'm going to see tomorrow evening.  Might have one or two pints at the game of course...

Tri-State Area

When I was in Norwalk, CT with the Boots team this week the people I were speaking to all kept referring to 'the City'.  I was confused by what they meant so in the end I asked.  Turns out they were referring to New York.  Geographically I guess that makes sense as it's only 50miles and an hour by train to get there but I hadn't really clocked that residents/workers in this area would look to New York as their major city.  It makes loads more sense when you look at it on the map.  I mentioned this at another meeting I was in today and this then led to a discussion of the 'Tri-State Area' - ie NY, CT and NJ - and how most of these areas look to New York as their centre.  An interesting summary of this here.  Again, makes loads of sense when you think about it but it reminded me of my blog on the boundaries of Nottingham and how boundaries influence policy and peoples' perceptions of where they live.  I guess I'm grasping at something close to a 'travel-to-work' area which is used a fair bit in the UK.  

This all became very relevent for me today (Friday) as I needed to go back into New York from where I am staying in rural Connecticut for a meeting.  This involved a pretty early start and a drive to New Haven, CT (45mins) to catch the train (90mins+) into New York's Grand Central Terminal.  From the people I've spoken to this isn't an unusual commute and the fact that the Dunkin' Donuts (love!) concession was open from 4am at New Haven station probably confirms this!  

Somewhat bleary eyed I made it to Vanderbilt Avenue, just next to Grand Central for a meeting at the New York offices of British America Business.  This is a non-profit organisation designed to foster positive business relations for UK companies operating in the US (and vice-versa for the UK offices on Brook Street in London).  The meeting was really interesting - it's an organisation I've not heard of before but they were able to engage with me about the sort of challenges that UK businesses face when setting up in the US and also had some interesting context on what New York in particular is doing to attract start-up technology companies (trying to lure them away from Silicon Valley is a big challenge!).  

A good discussion but then I had to get back on the train back to New Haven and then drive back to where I'm staying.  Tiring - don't think I could do that every day!

The saving grace was again the hugely warm welcome from my Servas hosts and the view below from the balcony of their very comfortable house.