Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, October 5th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Birmingham Irish Club, Birmingham Irish Heritage Group, connaught bar, digbeth business association, digbeth landlords association, Digbeth Residents Association, Ikon Eastside
The first week of the month is a busy one for the active Digbeth citizen. All the community meetings seem to happen during the evenings of that week. Here’s the week for the community-minded:
Monday – the first Monday of the month is always the Digbeth and Highgate Residents’ Association meeting at 7pm, invariably at the Paragon Hotel. Go along to discuss local issues with fellow residents, police and housing officers.
Tuesday – on the first Tuesday of each month the local landlords get together to talk about things concerning them, what’s coming up, plan-out future big events and the like. However, this Tuesday they’re meeting a little later than planned so as not to miss out on the Digbeth: Past, Present & Future discussion at Ikon Eastside from 6.30pm.
Wednesday – at 8pm on the first Wednesday of each month the Birmingham Irish Heritage Group meet for events about Irish heritage and culture in the Connaught Bar. I’ve been to a few and always found them to be incredibly interesting and informative. I always go away having learnt something completely new and unexpected, these nights are a real hidden gem. Everyone is welcome. This Wednesday is their Annual General Meeting, where you can get a taste of the year to come and take part in a raffle prize draw.
There’s also a Digbeth Business Association who meet monthly to talk about common issues, but I’m not sure when. I don’t think it’s in the first week of the month, which kind of scuppers my theory really. Ah well.
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Written by Nicky Getgood on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bennie gray, big city plan, Custard Factory, digbeth business association, horton project, jonathan bore, made, organiceastide, rescue geography, richard tregrouse, south birmingham college
So Bennie Gray’s been in the paper saying Birmingham needs a few more Custard Factories. George Ferguson, who spoke at the Organic Eastside seminar held by MADE* and Digbeth Business Association in South Birmingham College last night, would heartilly agree. He feels that creative hubs are part of a pattern that make up ‘complex cities’.
George’s philosophy of looking beyond architecture in regeneration, planing change and bringing the best out of places rather than rebuilding, went down a storm.
He had a very interesting take on the credit crunch, that it may actually be a blessing in disguise. It’ll stop the building of blinkered, one-use projects in their tracks for a start. It could instead leave room for ’slow architecture’ of more flexible, mixed-use buildings, which develop organically over time, adapting to economic and environmental change as they grow.
George later said that we need to ‘identify the maniacs’ who’ll make exciting places by sympathetically utilising their environments rather than flattening and rebuilding them. Bennie Gray is one such maniac, and Birmingham is blessed to have him.
Jonathan Bore’s less popular presentation of the Big City Plan wasn’t exactly new information – expand the concrete collar in building a bigger and better city centre. Some felt he had too many questions (for which he’s had the time to find answers) rather than solutions and others felt the means being used to achieve the goal were questionable, with talk of areas such as Highgate undergoing ’social cleansing’.
Other highlights were the Rescue Geography presentation, Richard Trengrouse’s Digbeth wisdom and the presence of the men behind the planned Horton Project opposite Selfridges – a ‘city within a city’ that will transform Digbeth Cold Storage and surrounding buildings. Let’s hope they move those bus stops, which are as restrictive as that concrete collar, whilst they’re at it.
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