Liverpool, a city crying out for a purpose

Spotted in Liverpool

What a total shithole Liverpool is. I went there on the train today to fix something that had gone wrong at Chris’ Dad’s as yet unused new office there and the place hasn’t changed at all since I last went, which has to be three months at least.

There’s still a sky full of cranes from any number of building sites, each one of which has imposed some sort of temporary road closure in its environs, which would normally be acceptable except all the different construction companies don’t appear to communicate with each other regarding their road closures and temporary one way systems and so it’s actually possible to get trapped in a one way system from which there is no escape, if you’re in a car. Even pedestrians come up against sealed off streets with no alternative route presented, and I know the particular area of the city in which this office is reasonably well; heaven help a visitor to the city. The roads and pavements that are open are all wet and filthy with building site muck.

Yes, I know that all these building sites will eventually make Liverpool a better place and that it’s in the middle of a transition period at the moment, but I do have ask to ask to what end? Liverpool, far from being the globally important shipping hub that it used to be, is just another boring British city, trying desperately to catch up with its trailblazing Mancunian neighbour, but it’s just too late to the party if you ask me. Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield are the same, they’re all building sites too at the moment, keen to compete with Manchester, but it’s all a little trite now. Manchester’s done it; it’s rebuilt, revitalised and it’s fabulous. Why bother with anywhere else? I love it here. Were it not for the fact that I have family in Surrey I probably wouldn’t ever leave the city, holidays notwithstanding.

The Liverpool locals haven’t changed either, but then I didn’t expect anything else. They still seem to actually go out of their way to get in mine. I don’t know what it is about Liverpudlians, they just seem to have this knack of getting in my way more than locals in any other city in the country.