LIVERPOOL, an admirable city in every respect, plans to sell off 20 derelict houses, in a bid to regenerate a downtrodden inner city neighbourhood. Buyers must demonstrate that they’re willing and able to renovate the properties. Demolition is a no-go. “Coronation Street” anybody?
<PHOTO – Mercury Press and Media>
<The Mayor of London, BORIS JOHNSON, with CBC’s PETER MANSBRIDGE, July 26/2012>
BORIS JOHNSON, popular as a rock star, has been shepherding LONDON’s Olympic spectacular for the last two years. Now it’s showtime! Previously a Member of Parliament and Editor-in-Chief of Spectator Magazine, BORIS, 48, recently began a second term as the capital’s mayor. He’s educated, exuberant, knows how to handle the media, and is obviously in love with his city.
Quotations from Mayor JOHNSON:
* “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
* “My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.”
* “In 1904, 20 per cent of journeys were made by bicycle in London. I want to see a figure like that again. If you can’t turn the clock back to 1904, what’s the point of being a Conservative?”
* “I have got a city to run and that’s exactly the point! The government of London will carry on irrespective of the temporary difficulties in providing a national government. Thank you. “
<The Mayor’s new book: “it’s a flawed, but a gripping read” – the Londonist>
LONDON, England’s bike-riding mayor, BORIS JOHNSON, is pushing hard to make his city bike-friendly. The English capital, with a much heavier traffic load than TORONTO on much narrower streets, appears to be a safer place for cyclists. The huge bike box, blue cycling lanes and pothole-free pavement on Millbank, near Lambeth Bridge, makes one weep with envy. Well done Boris and London!
The Olympic City, LONDON, is all spit and polish these days. But in the East End, muralists and street artists still ply their trade. As in TORONTO’s Rush Lane and Ossington neighbourhoods, their work is both stylish and spectacular.
MANCHESTER’s boom was brought on by textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. It earned the nickname ‘Cottonopolis’ and became the world’s first industrialized city, and the Empire’s principal factory town. In the city centre, Victorian-era office buildings still dominate many streets.
Laurence S. Lowry painted the industrial districts of Manchester and Lancashire. A gallery and theatre in the Salford Quays area celebrates his urban landscape paintings, inhabited by “matchstick men” in smoking environments.
Salford was a principal dockyard of the Manchester Ship Canal (which is just as important as it sounds). A major factory town and inland port, the City of Salford is now part of Greater Manchester. The Quays have been redeveloped with bridges, the northern branch of the Imperial War Museum, BBC Sport Headquarters, the Lowry Theatre and Gallery Complex, and condominium apartment buildings. Salford Quays is reachable by electric tram from Central Manchester.
Manchester is a major cultural and sports centre – but to Canadians it’s best known for “Coronation Street”, the original and now longest running soap opera on British television. The series began in 1960 and continues to this day.
<PICTURED ABOVE – Ena Sharples, Martha Longhurst and Minnie Caldwell at the Rover’s Return Pub>
