Only one year ago, all our cities belonged to them.
Privatised streets, retail destinations, sexy, wipe-clean bars for thirty somethings. Laminated pavements, neon-blue uplighters, cheap city centre apartments in red brick and blue glass.
They were trying to make all our cities the same. To 'develop' them into the same, cloned, synthetic weekend mini-break. Why not have a coffee? Why not catch a show? Shop til you drop. A thrilling mix of high street stores and independent boutiques. Just places to consume, that's all. And they nearly pulled it off, too.
A happy circle of regeneration specialists, slapping each other on the back and telling each other how edgy they were, how sexy. How urban. You and me, we weren't invited. Our ideas didn't matter, couldn't be heard over the sexy, vocal House.
That was then. Now it's not so certain. Now, the money's gone. In only one year, the bubble has burst. No-one is crowing anymore about being the fastest growing city (outside of London). No-one is measuring success in retail-square-feet or the number of faceless, tragic, crap office blocks squeezed along the river banks. The party is over. The logic is broken. The city as a luxury-wank-fantasy is dead.
Now it's our turn. This is a chance to rethink our cities. To start asking questions. How can we use those old factories for something other than luxury flats? Could we use that dead land to grow food? Could we turn that little space into a park, an outdoor cinema? What will become of all these Woolworths? Can our cities produce stuff, instead of just consuming it? How can we celebrate what makes them different? How can we make them ours again?
This isn't some utopian thing, urban dreaming, high on traffic fumes and the smell of hot tarmac. This is about what's already happening, in other places, people like you and me doing it themselves. This is about inspiration and information, a catalogue of good ideas. We can take our cities apart, brick by brick, idea by idea. We can put them back together a different way. We can rebuild them. We have the technology.
Only a year ago, this seemed impossible. It seemed like the wheels were in motion, the die was cast. But now, suddenly, it's all there for the taking. Now we can look them straight in the eye, the footballers, the footballers' wives, the bankers, the property speculators, the Local Authorities, and we can say:
All your cities belong to us.
