There's an old Wenglish word 'Shabby'. Stop right there, its not Wenglish, that word is used everywhere. Well it's used a lot in Wales! It's going to take a lot more than the old Pierhead Clock to turn St Mary Street from shabby to chic! Now I am not suggesting gentrification and I am not writing this wearing the hat of the Grangetown Temperance Movement but the irony is that the area around Wood St to the station taking in the 'Western Fail' building used to be called Temperance town. There is a heavy drinking culture in Cardiff and we saw that manifest itself last Saturday on the Wales march for Gaza when the protestors had beer thrown over them. I would suggest that had less to do with Zionism and more to do with the man from Caerphilly but why is this area, concentrated, with outside areas to drink alcohol? The flip flop wearers outside walkabout were the first to sense a threat to their manhood when they heard the chant. 'Free Free Palestine'! The intense drinking culture in the Capital City of Wales is to do with money and St Mary St, the boulevard of concrete, chewing gum, puke and piss is suffering because of it. A man in Manchester when he heard that I came from Cardiff said that when he visited back in 2003 that coming out at Cardiff Central station "was like coming out into the arsehole of the world". When Simple Minds played the old Arms Park back in the 80s when they stayed at the Marriot or the Holiday Inn as it was then called said that when they came out from the hotel and looked down towards the Docks and Bute Street that they had never seen anywhere so rough and these guys are from Glasgow. When the buses used to trundle down St Mary's Street before pedestrianisation, there was a lot of noise and pollution but it was alive and vibrant. The stall holders of Cardiff Indoor Market didn't want it concreted over! Its easy enough to moan Shark Fisherman, you are neither a Landscape Architect or Civil Engineer, no I am a writer with Bipolar Disorder with plenty of time on my hands and the impression that Cardiff Central Bus Station and St Mary Street gives is one of pure shabbiness guy. If I as a resident notice it so much what do visitors think? Let's have trees in St Mary Street. Pull up the pavement blocks and plant a boulevard of trees either side. Don't worry about what the drinkers and pissheads will do to the trees. Let's try it as an experiment. Let's 'Greenify' it rather than 'Gentrify' it. Let's try and put a bit of temperance back in temperance town.
now that sounds like a brilliant idea - get lobbying! :)
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