The future of Leeds

[lynxs]

LEEDS - ARE WE GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?Thursday 28th February Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre. Michael Sadler Building, University of Leeds.http://tldynamic.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap/ ... ID=193Time: 6:00 – 8:00pmFree EntryDrinks and nibblesEVERYONE WELCOMELeeds has enjoyed major economic success in recent years, becoming the fastest growing city in England and number one financial centre after London. Its universities attract thousands of students and retail is booming. All this is reflected in the changing face of the city centre. But is the price of success now too high? The well loved Corn Exchange shops are all but gone; Kirkgate Market traders await an uncertain fate; skyscrapers and over-priced flats are set to dominate the skyline with little consultation while affordable council housing is demolished;So we ask: Is Leeds going in the right direction?What does the general public think?Are there any alternatives?This event will discuss the positive and negative things that are happening to Leeds as well as proposals for change. Leeds City Council has a major role to play but it is not alone – the public must have a big say in the future of the city.Come to this Public Event where your views will be heard, debated and recorded in a public report.http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/groups/leedsdirection/For more information please contact [email protected]

[wiggy]

we may a major centre for finance and commerce,but as you say...at the expense of what? it was the soft water of leeds that allowed so many tanneries and weaving mills to be built in the area,now just about all gone and the once thriving engineering firms have all but gone.that dosn't really leave much for the ordinary people of leeds...people who earned their money by getting their hands dirty and never complained about it.all i see now is a return to the working practices that people all over the country fought to get rid of.are we to see a return of poor wages for the poor? the unions are just about null and void anyway,i realise the high finance that is attracted to leeds is bringing in big bucks....but what about tradition,whats to happen to the market,the jewel of all british markets,what about 'the whole town standeth by cloth' do we want to see a leeds full of museums of how things were,lke a giant beemish,or do we want to carry on as generations of our forefathers have done? call me a traditionalist,but i know what i'd prefere.

[Bramley4woods]

lynxs wrote: LEEDS - ARE WE GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?Thursday 28th February Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre. Michael Sadler Building, University of Leeds.http://tldynamic.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap/ ... ID=193Time: 6:00 – 8:00pmFree EntryDrinks and nibblesEVERYONE WELCOMELeeds has enjoyed major economic success in recent years, becoming the fastest growing city in England and number one financial centre after London. Its universities attract thousands of students and retail is booming. All this is reflected in the changing face of the city centre. But is the price of success now too high? The well loved Corn Exchange shops are all but gone; Kirkgate Market traders await an uncertain fate; skyscrapers and over-priced flats are set to dominate the skyline with little consultation while affordable council housing is demolished;So we ask: Is Leeds going in the right direction?What does the general public think?Are there any alternatives?{Snipped} Wouldn't we need a much clearer idea of what Great Britain as a whole is planning to be doing to sort out it's future before we try to carve out a share of it for Leeds?The country has been living on a completely unsustainable credit boom for at least 8 years. Gordon Brown sold off all the gold in the Treasury (at a time when the gold price was at its absolute lowest point) and yet has still had to keep borrowing to exist. Private borrowing of foreign money via credit cards has been encouraged (People don't understand that if they borrow £100.00 on a credit card an spend it on trainers £14.95 of it goes immediately to the Chancellor as VAT, but they have to pay it all back with interest ! ) and is at an all time high and the British people have more short term debt than all the rest of the other 27 countries of the EU put together.Sometime it will have to stop. Maybe sooner than later.I fully accept that changes are happening and they have their own momentum because too many people are making money out of putting up new buildings. Some people can even make money out of them standing empty for years. As regards the Corn Exchange shops, it loooks as if they started off with the wrong business model to begin with. Unless one was *really* hooked on flavoured condoms, tin jewellery and naughty greetings cards, and the rest, I think their passing is a tragedy the world might well recover from. In a similar vein the Leeds Food Market seems sadly to have no function as a market in it's present location. Save maybe, part of it as a convenience store for those living in flats within 150 metres or so. Naturally the Victorian Market Hall should be preserved but I wouldn't like to see it grafted onto a fake mall of Pickwickian mobile phone shops, "Dickens Digital" or "Victorias Secrets" etc. Better to close it off from the John Lewis or whatever our superiors have in line for us.By the way Leeds needs new restaurants like a hole in the head. Every week 3 restaurants open in Leeds and 3 restaurants close. Nor is that part of Leeds City Centre particularly short of places plying young adults with alcohol. They were zoned and licensed for alcoholic entertainment (the tax on spirits must be something like £6.00 / bottle, and the business rates come in handy too) and now the Council is getting all coy about binge drinking and behaviour problems.Let us just hope there will be enough borrowed money left for them to complete what they have started and the result is something decent for the future citizens of Leeds.    

[wiggy]

WHAT HE SAID!!....AND WELL SAID TOO!