{"id":42,"date":"2010-02-16T08:48:49","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T08:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2010-02-16T08:48:49","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T08:48:49","slug":"a-simple-solution-to-the-clarence-dock-ghost-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2010\/02\/16\/a-simple-solution-to-the-clarence-dock-ghost-town\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Solution to the Clarence Dock Ghost Town?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am grateful to the very wonderful Emma Bearman<\/a> (@culturevultures<\/a>) for sending me a link to a piece \u00a0in the YEP by Rod McPhee<\/a> in which he shows just how very simple it should be for the ‘big cigars’ of Leeds to sort out the Clarence Dock Ghostown in their upcoming ‘Summit’. \u00a0Apparently, ‘we just have to give people a reason to go there’.<\/p>\n

Step 1 in the Mcphee masterplan is to significantly reduce the cost of parking in that part of town. \u00a0So the car park owner takes a financial hit. \u00a0Or the ‘costs’ are passed onto the tax payer.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Get an ‘anchor’ tenant. \u00a0 Find a ‘Harvey Nicks’ equivalent who will take up residence in the Dock and make it a ‘destination’. \u00a0Does Mr McPhee have any idea how many such developments are chasing so few ‘anchor tenants’ who have the money, the confidence and the\u00a0brand power to really animate a new development? \u00a0Anyway – wasn’t this what the Royal Armouries was meant to do? \u00a0Perhaps we could ‘persuade’ Steve Jobs to open the North’s\u00a0Premier\u00a0Apple Store?<\/p>\n

Step 3: Sort\u00a0out\u00a0the rest of the shops: \u00a0Cunning plan. \u00a0Perhaps Borders might like to open up an outlet? \u00a0Oh! Wait a minute…no….Most retailers are struggling to hang on even in places of high footfall. \u00a0Expecting\u00a0them to move into a ghost town on the hope and a prayer that it is about to spark into vibrant commercial life is, well, naive. \u00a0Some of the\u00a0early\u00a0adopters who moved into Clarence Dock from the start have since pulled out as the\u00a0enterprise\u00a0fairytale failed to materialise.<\/p>\n

Step4: Provide an entertainment complex such as a cinema or concert venue. \u00a0Smart idea that. Perhaps we could have Leeds Arena 2 please? \u00a0And put \u00a0another nail in the coffin of the few remaining independent cinemas in Leeds by bringing in another Vue or Showcase. \u00a0Yes, lets provide more playthings for the rats who are still running.<\/p>\n

Step 5: Provide more facilities for the residents in the 1100 apartments that are down there. \u00a0Give them more of what they need – on their doorstep to stop them having to trek a whole mile into town. \u00a0Crikey, we have built them their own private footbridge over the river! \u00a0Of all of the\u00a0neighbourhoods\u00a0in Leeds that don’t have access to good affordable food shops I suspect the residents of Clarence Dock would not come high on the list of priorities. \u00a0And what sense does it make to reduce footfall and spend in the City Centre just to increase it in the Dock? \u00a0This is a zero sum game in which we would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.<\/p>\n

Step 6:Stage more events – perhaps more markets to drag people in from the suburbs. \u00a0Well Mr McPhee in case you hadn’t noticed the markets have gone to the suburbs – at least the ones with cash – with popular farmers markets now established in most of Leeds leafy suburbs. \u00a0Now if we could develop a really impressive arts based market on a scale that\u00a0would\u00a0attract people from much further afield.<\/p>\n

Whatever happened to the Dark Arches market? \u00a0Oh yes – it got turned into a car park. \u00a0And soon we will have another \u00a313.6m thrown at the Dark Arches to provide the elusive residents of Granary Wharf and the not so elusive residents of City Inn a more convenient entrance to the\u00a0station\u00a0than our recently refurbished (\u00a34.6m) Neville Street provides.<\/p>\n

Step 7: Improve the road signs and make it easier for people to get there. \u00a0Hm! \u00a0If there is something there worth visiting the SATNAV and smartphone generation are going to find it Rod. \u00a0Inadequate signage might be a symptom of sloppy planning – but we are hardly dealing with root causes here.<\/p>\n

Step 8: Cater for the office workers. \u00a0(A point of correction Rod, I don’t think there is a Starbucks there any more. \u00a0It wasn’t profitable.) \u00a0There is so much office real estate in Leeds chasing relatively few office workers. \u00a0We\u00a0can\u00a0try to make the place even ‘happier and shinier’ to attract those happy shiny people – but there are simply too many such developments in the City chasing too few employers. \u00a0And if\u00a0Clarence\u00a0Dock did become THE office destination of choice in Leeds – it would be to the detriment of other Leeds sites. \u00a0Unless of course we do (usually very expensive) deals\u00a0to lure a large employer from out of the region. \u00a0But such inward investment rarely sticks. \u00a0This strategy fuelled growth through the nineties and the early noughties as we lured in financial services, call\u00a0centres\u00a0and the associated industries (including the euphemistically titled Gentlemans’ Clubs) but now that times are tough we can expect many of those to move on to pastures cheaper.<\/p>\n

Rod says that sorting out Clarence Dock is\u00a0hardly\u00a0breaking the enigma code. \u00a0And following a recipe that says ‘throw money at it’ \u00a0is indeed\u00a0hardly\u00a0rocket science. We could do the same thing with Holbeck Urban Village, Temple Works, Tower Works, Granary Wharf, \u00a0The Gateway, Wellington Place, Trinity, Velocitude, Lateral, The Mint and Raptor (OK some of those don’t actually exist – but you get my point!). \u00a0And Mr McPhee, despite \u00a3200bn of quantitative easing, there is still little or no money to throw at\u00a0developments\u00a0that cannot wash their face. \u00a0Nor will there be any time soon.<\/p>\n

But just suppose for one moment that Mr McPhee got his way. \u00a0 The big cigars decide to sell off some more of the\u00a0family\u00a0silver to throw good money after bad….The idiot proof answer to rebooting the Leeds economy is adopted…<\/p>\n

More office work\/more retail\/more entertainment\/more consumption? \u00a0 \u00a0A continued expansion of the rat race. \u00a0We are\u00a0hardly\u00a0looking at the yellow brick road to sustainability are we? \u00a0Nor are we looking at any\u00a0realistic\u00a0strategy\u00a0for narrowing the gap in\u00a0this\u00a0city between the haves and have nots. \u00a0Instead we build a monetary vacuum cleaner to suck up as much money as possible from the Leeds economy and\u00a0return\u00a0it to institutional shareholders and investors based elsewhere. \u00a0Anyone still got a real appetite for ‘Business as Usual’?<\/p>\n

So what is my alternative? \u00a0What would I do?<\/p>\n

Well, I for one would do more, much more to encourage and develop enterprising people like Emma, whose work with Culture Vultures<\/a> is done on a shoestring but makes a significant contribution to the cultural and economic wellbeing of the city. \u00a0And Emma is not a rare beast. \u00a0A\u00a0magical\u00a0entrepreneur. \u00a0She is just a (relatively) normal citizen – doing her bit, following her mojo. \u00a0There are thousands of people in the city doing remarkable projects, distinctive, creative and imaginative.<\/p>\n

Let’s not subsidise the success of the ‘The Man’ in the big commercial (if only they were) developments. \u00a0Let’s invest in the many thousands of \u00a0wonderful residents in the city who are\u00a0actively\u00a0working to make things better.<\/p>\n

Here is how.<\/a> And here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this does\u00a0approximate\u00a0rocket science. \u00a0It is the enigma code. \u00a0But man HAS been to the Moon. \u00a0The Enigma Code was cracked. With care, passion, commitment and a tremendous sense of urgency.<\/p>\n

It is not a quick, debt driven, electorally popular fix.<\/p>\n

But it might just work.<\/p>\n