alevans
24-05-2006, 07:57
Mods, if this has already been posted feel free to pull it, as I expect you wil.
Al
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Topic - "Sheffo - best city in the world"? (Guardian article)
by - Marc C on - 07:49 Wed
James Graham
Wednesday May 24, 2006
The Guardian
The humble fanzine, with its crude DIY cut-and-paste design, was a form of expression that blossomed in the punk era, a publishing phenomenon that enabled spotty teenagers to hold forth about their favourite bands and football clubs . . . and, now, regeneration.
At the launch of Sheffield's five-year strategic plan last October, a 23-year-old former civil servant, who goes under the pseudonym Tom Common, could be seen handing out leaflets. They looked like something to do with an established political campaign. But it was a manifesto, a call to arms for a more radical approach to Sheffield's regeneration. Common was distributing his alternative strategic plan, which exhorted the city's leaders to make bold, brave decisions to turn it into the greenest city in the north, celebrate the modern architecture, and make more of its cultural heritage.
"Sheffield isn't a big city or a high-rise city in the same way that Manchester or Birmingham are," it read. "We don't need to ape those other cities. We have enough heritage and culture and ideas to forge our own identity. It's all here in front of us. If you want a city strategy, all you need to do is open your eyes."
The city's official plan listed "five big ambitions", which included the desire to make the city "exciting and magnetic", to have an economy that "matches the best cities in Europe" and to "re-establish excellence in its public transport". These ambitions were underpinned by 12 features that Sheffield First Partnership, the quango charged with spearheading the changes, believes define a successful city, including "low crime", "great place to grow up", and a "vibrant city centre".
Common complains: "It's supposed to be a vision for the city, but it doesn't have any understanding of why Sheffield is different. Everything they said can be applied to any city in the world."
Common's manifesto offered a taste of his fanzine, Go, which is billed as being about "Sheffo - the best city in the world". Reasons for such adoration include "bus drivers and butchers who call you love and duck", "The Peaks: you're the f*cking DUDE man", and the city's vibrant music scene, from The Human League in the 1980s and Pulp in the 1990s to today's Arctic Monkeys. "It's friendly, green, creative and, above all, different," Common says of the city.
Go has been going for nearly two years, with each of the free 20-page editions - nine to date - taking a different theme. One celebrated all the reasons why Sheffield is different from other cities; another was titled Park Hill v City Living, and called for the iconic flats on the hill by the station to be celebrated as "Sheffield's Guggenheim, its Baltic, its Tate Modern", while lambasting the tedious boxy designs of many city-centre flats.
Each edition is low-tech in the classic 1980s pop fanzine style, adorned with black and white photocopied pictures, cut-and-paste layout, and lots of old typewriter print. The words are direct, brash and confrontational. "It seemed like an appropriate format," Common says. "Low-fi and scruffy, like the city. We don't want the city to stay scruffy, but we do want it to keep its integrity."
The publication began as a reaction to the banal messages coming out of the city council. "We started it to simply say that Sheffield was an amazing place, because no one else really was," says Common, who puts the fanzine together with two friends, who also use pseudonyms - Tom Hydro and Roy Disco.
"The council's literature was just trying to be the next Leeds, Manchester . . . The plans were empty and had no soul. It needs something on its own scale, an appropriate development rather than generic plate glass. It's worth more than that."
"Who needs ****y bars and Harvey Nichols? They can frig off," says Hydro in issue two. "The stark concrete and brick facades glow with a simplicity that makes my spirits lift."
So has this endeavour led to any results? "We've had lots of contact with people at the council, particularly the planning department, but also with Anne Gosse, director of culture," Common says. "We believe there are a lot of bigwigs who are aware of us, but have to show outward loyalty to the council." Common thinks these "bigwigs" are starting to listen to Go's ideas, and are more aware of brewing discontent. "We would like to change people's perception of the city," he says. "Most people in the city think it's fantastic, but those over the hills, they haven't got a clue. It's a fantastic secret, but the city seems to have a bit of a crisis of self-confidence. It needs to shout about itself."
However, Sir Robert Kerslake, chief executive of the city council, deputy chair of Sheffield First and board member of the new Creative Sheffield, defends the regeneration plans. "Overall, the feedback we've had has been very positive," he says. "There's a lot of ambitious stuff happening, particularly in the public realm. If you look at what we've created in the Peace Gardens and around the station, I don't think anybody could say that's not ambitious. I disagree with his [Common's] analysis."
Around £130m has been spent on the Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries and the Winter Garden, which frame the commercial development of St Paul's Place. So far it has attracted the kind of blue-chip clients the council was after - the insurer Standard Life and the law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.
Go tackled this flagship redevelopment in its very first issue, praising the creation of the Peace and Winter Gardens - "What regeneration means when it's well done" - but it took a demolition ball to the council's other plans. Common listed his grievances. The hotel will obscure the Winter Garden, he wrote, while St Paul's Place was reminiscent of the "bland, instantly decaying office blocks of the 1970s."
He praised the council's bravery for building next to the town hall, and acknowledged the need to keep private investors on side. But he added: "This is Sheffield city centre. It is the best opportunity Sheffield will have to cast off its ugly image, to build something today, something that will compare with the cathedral, the library, the Victorian centre of the city, and which will complement the Winter Garden. People want something beautiful.
"Why have the council okayed something that doesn't meet this criteria? . . . These buildings are dull, ugly and a waste." The plans exhibit "architectural poverty" rather than the grandiose posturing of landmark buildings in other cities, such as Manchester's Urbis.
Eighteen months later, he is no less vehement. "There are some people with big ideas doing fantastic things - see Urban Splash in Manchester," he says. "But for the most part, especially in Sheffield, it's just small-minded people with no ambition. Everything seems to end up mediocre."
But Bill Kirk, chief executive of urban regeneration firm Sheffield One, insists that cutting-edge designers and property developers such as Urban Splash are signed up to revamp the Park Hill estate.
Common and his colleagues have come up with one big idea that might just leap from Go's pages and become a reality. They want to use the disused cooling towers by the M1 at Meadowhall as super-scale, public art - as Sheffield's version of the Angel of the North. The idea was entered in Channel 4's Big Art Project competition and has made the final six from thousands of entries. Common wants to turn a remnant of the old Sheffield into a new symbol. "Sheffield is the first city in the north of England, and these towers stand as a gateway . . . for those coming home or going away. Basically, a big public work of art here would mean something to half the country. That's quite a big audience. It's the best idea Sheffield has ever had."
Al
Please use the Report Abuse page to complain about a message.
Topic - "Sheffo - best city in the world"? (Guardian article)
by - Marc C on - 07:49 Wed
James Graham
Wednesday May 24, 2006
The Guardian
The humble fanzine, with its crude DIY cut-and-paste design, was a form of expression that blossomed in the punk era, a publishing phenomenon that enabled spotty teenagers to hold forth about their favourite bands and football clubs . . . and, now, regeneration.
At the launch of Sheffield's five-year strategic plan last October, a 23-year-old former civil servant, who goes under the pseudonym Tom Common, could be seen handing out leaflets. They looked like something to do with an established political campaign. But it was a manifesto, a call to arms for a more radical approach to Sheffield's regeneration. Common was distributing his alternative strategic plan, which exhorted the city's leaders to make bold, brave decisions to turn it into the greenest city in the north, celebrate the modern architecture, and make more of its cultural heritage.
"Sheffield isn't a big city or a high-rise city in the same way that Manchester or Birmingham are," it read. "We don't need to ape those other cities. We have enough heritage and culture and ideas to forge our own identity. It's all here in front of us. If you want a city strategy, all you need to do is open your eyes."
The city's official plan listed "five big ambitions", which included the desire to make the city "exciting and magnetic", to have an economy that "matches the best cities in Europe" and to "re-establish excellence in its public transport". These ambitions were underpinned by 12 features that Sheffield First Partnership, the quango charged with spearheading the changes, believes define a successful city, including "low crime", "great place to grow up", and a "vibrant city centre".
Common complains: "It's supposed to be a vision for the city, but it doesn't have any understanding of why Sheffield is different. Everything they said can be applied to any city in the world."
Common's manifesto offered a taste of his fanzine, Go, which is billed as being about "Sheffo - the best city in the world". Reasons for such adoration include "bus drivers and butchers who call you love and duck", "The Peaks: you're the f*cking DUDE man", and the city's vibrant music scene, from The Human League in the 1980s and Pulp in the 1990s to today's Arctic Monkeys. "It's friendly, green, creative and, above all, different," Common says of the city.
Go has been going for nearly two years, with each of the free 20-page editions - nine to date - taking a different theme. One celebrated all the reasons why Sheffield is different from other cities; another was titled Park Hill v City Living, and called for the iconic flats on the hill by the station to be celebrated as "Sheffield's Guggenheim, its Baltic, its Tate Modern", while lambasting the tedious boxy designs of many city-centre flats.
Each edition is low-tech in the classic 1980s pop fanzine style, adorned with black and white photocopied pictures, cut-and-paste layout, and lots of old typewriter print. The words are direct, brash and confrontational. "It seemed like an appropriate format," Common says. "Low-fi and scruffy, like the city. We don't want the city to stay scruffy, but we do want it to keep its integrity."
The publication began as a reaction to the banal messages coming out of the city council. "We started it to simply say that Sheffield was an amazing place, because no one else really was," says Common, who puts the fanzine together with two friends, who also use pseudonyms - Tom Hydro and Roy Disco.
"The council's literature was just trying to be the next Leeds, Manchester . . . The plans were empty and had no soul. It needs something on its own scale, an appropriate development rather than generic plate glass. It's worth more than that."
"Who needs ****y bars and Harvey Nichols? They can frig off," says Hydro in issue two. "The stark concrete and brick facades glow with a simplicity that makes my spirits lift."
So has this endeavour led to any results? "We've had lots of contact with people at the council, particularly the planning department, but also with Anne Gosse, director of culture," Common says. "We believe there are a lot of bigwigs who are aware of us, but have to show outward loyalty to the council." Common thinks these "bigwigs" are starting to listen to Go's ideas, and are more aware of brewing discontent. "We would like to change people's perception of the city," he says. "Most people in the city think it's fantastic, but those over the hills, they haven't got a clue. It's a fantastic secret, but the city seems to have a bit of a crisis of self-confidence. It needs to shout about itself."
However, Sir Robert Kerslake, chief executive of the city council, deputy chair of Sheffield First and board member of the new Creative Sheffield, defends the regeneration plans. "Overall, the feedback we've had has been very positive," he says. "There's a lot of ambitious stuff happening, particularly in the public realm. If you look at what we've created in the Peace Gardens and around the station, I don't think anybody could say that's not ambitious. I disagree with his [Common's] analysis."
Around £130m has been spent on the Peace Gardens, Millennium Galleries and the Winter Garden, which frame the commercial development of St Paul's Place. So far it has attracted the kind of blue-chip clients the council was after - the insurer Standard Life and the law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.
Go tackled this flagship redevelopment in its very first issue, praising the creation of the Peace and Winter Gardens - "What regeneration means when it's well done" - but it took a demolition ball to the council's other plans. Common listed his grievances. The hotel will obscure the Winter Garden, he wrote, while St Paul's Place was reminiscent of the "bland, instantly decaying office blocks of the 1970s."
He praised the council's bravery for building next to the town hall, and acknowledged the need to keep private investors on side. But he added: "This is Sheffield city centre. It is the best opportunity Sheffield will have to cast off its ugly image, to build something today, something that will compare with the cathedral, the library, the Victorian centre of the city, and which will complement the Winter Garden. People want something beautiful.
"Why have the council okayed something that doesn't meet this criteria? . . . These buildings are dull, ugly and a waste." The plans exhibit "architectural poverty" rather than the grandiose posturing of landmark buildings in other cities, such as Manchester's Urbis.
Eighteen months later, he is no less vehement. "There are some people with big ideas doing fantastic things - see Urban Splash in Manchester," he says. "But for the most part, especially in Sheffield, it's just small-minded people with no ambition. Everything seems to end up mediocre."
But Bill Kirk, chief executive of urban regeneration firm Sheffield One, insists that cutting-edge designers and property developers such as Urban Splash are signed up to revamp the Park Hill estate.
Common and his colleagues have come up with one big idea that might just leap from Go's pages and become a reality. They want to use the disused cooling towers by the M1 at Meadowhall as super-scale, public art - as Sheffield's version of the Angel of the North. The idea was entered in Channel 4's Big Art Project competition and has made the final six from thousands of entries. Common wants to turn a remnant of the old Sheffield into a new symbol. "Sheffield is the first city in the north of England, and these towers stand as a gateway . . . for those coming home or going away. Basically, a big public work of art here would mean something to half the country. That's quite a big audience. It's the best idea Sheffield has ever had."