It was completely pointless. You walk through some of these towns it’s nothing but rot and decay, they’re completely dead. Then you see some area boarded off by a tall, opaque fence plastered with “funded by the leveling up program” or some such. It’s like, whatever thing is being done behind these walls (you can never see it) isn’t going to fix this dead town. It’s putting lipstick on a corpse. The lifelessness of the town was like a plague too, it soon infected this construction project and it became as zombified as the town itself. There was never any sense of activity coming through the walls. You peak through the gap and see weeds, trash, graffiti, an abandoned digger and nothing else.
If there was value to be had in these towns it would happen naturally. You can’t plonk down a shopping centre and have any meaningful change.
I’ve said it before: unless the government is planning to prop up the entire economy of a town (which is something they should not do), it’s a waste of time. Basically, there is no fix. Stoke, Grimsby, Bolton, Blackpool, wherever else…. they will continue to slowly but surely rot away. The general trend is this: people who have a brain and do have things to offer in a service sector economy will move away. The ones left will be those with nothing to offer.
Because we suck at building. Its costs too much. Too many project managers. Large consultancies charge an arm and a leg to plan it. Lastly, environmental regulations and ‘green belt’ restrictions kill it.
Our town high street is dead but it’s fine. They added a 50k art piece which is literally two half rings into the ground, and built a seating area
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It was completely pointless. You walk through some of these towns it’s nothing but rot and decay, they’re completely dead. Then you see some area boarded off by a tall, opaque fence plastered with “funded by the leveling up program” or some such. It’s like, whatever thing is being done behind these walls (you can never see it) isn’t going to fix this dead town. It’s putting lipstick on a corpse. The lifelessness of the town was like a plague too, it soon infected this construction project and it became as zombified as the town itself. There was never any sense of activity coming through the walls. You peak through the gap and see weeds, trash, graffiti, an abandoned digger and nothing else.
If there was value to be had in these towns it would happen naturally. You can’t plonk down a shopping centre and have any meaningful change.
I’ve said it before: unless the government is planning to prop up the entire economy of a town (which is something they should not do), it’s a waste of time. Basically, there is no fix. Stoke, Grimsby, Bolton, Blackpool, wherever else…. they will continue to slowly but surely rot away. The general trend is this: people who have a brain and do have things to offer in a service sector economy will move away. The ones left will be those with nothing to offer.
Because we suck at building. Its costs too much. Too many project managers. Large consultancies charge an arm and a leg to plan it. Lastly, environmental regulations and ‘green belt’ restrictions kill it.
Our town high street is dead but it’s fine. They added a 50k art piece which is literally two half rings into the ground, and built a seating area