No room for doom
As our non-existent summer draws to a close we can feel the increasingly cold urges of September pressing our flesh. During July and August I haven't been the only person in our office to have looked out at our rain-lashed city, shaken my head and reached for a brolly.
The doom and gloom doesn't stop there either. Our beloved Lambananas are going, going and nearly gone; we've been told to move "darn Sarf" and abandon our "struggling" city by supposed intellectuals; the credit crunch continues to squeeze us all; Liverpool aren't playing well (N.B. but still winning)... and Everton can't even seem to lure Sunday league amateurs to Goodison Park.
To top it all off we've just been voted 246th in a study of Britain's happiest towns, although this needs to be taken with a huge pinch of salt, seeing as it was conducted by the University of Manchester, who coincidentally finished second.
Maybe as a city we don't realise how far we've come in the past few years, never mind just in 2008. By working on the Liverpool City Central Business Improvement District (BID) re-election campaign, I have been given a timely reminder as to how much our city centre has improved in 3 short years.
They have helped consistently improve, and maintain the upkeep of, areas such as Church Street and Whitechapel, as well as one of our best new assets, the Metquarter.
Whilst working on projects for another client, Objective One, I've been given a further insight into exactly how we've turned things around so quickly and convincingly.
Thanks to EU funding we've had St George's Hall and
other local gems restored to their former glory, plus the fantastic
sight of the Tall Ships riding the Mersey waves, not to mention the
extraordinary Hard Day's Night
Hotel based on our 4 most famous sons (...and that includes the
blasphemous Ringo). The list really does go on and on.
Ask yourselves which other city can look forward to the addition of further retailing delights to their new billion-pound shopping centre? But more importantly, we should ask ourselves which body parts we would have given just a few years ago to be reinstated as such a vibrant, buzzing city.
So let's forget the think tanks, the lack of summer and the crunching of credit, and instead look forward to enjoying the rest of our reign as Capital of Culture. Despite the pessimism that's enveloping the nation, we Liverpudlians have a lot to enjoy and look forward to.
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