Sick City Centres

You've probably got used to my non-scientific observations by now but it is my contention that city centres are sick. You've heard of sick building syndrome? I'm sure that there is sick city centre syndrome. I am familiar now with the city centres of Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester. I've been to Birmingham and I'm familiar with Bristol. Where is the exact centre of a city centre? Of course no two days are the same in a city centre. I went to the same destination two days on the trot, yesterday and today. The weather was nicer today and I took a different route. It was earlier and there were less people. If there are a lot of people, a critical mass, I start to shut down. My energies detect their energies and I start to sag.
Today I laughed out loud when I heard an aged busker, older than me even, try out "I am the Walrus" looooooooong pause as I continued walking and then "I am the Egg Man" What made it funnier was the broad Cardiff accent. I realise today that I have a soft spot for the city even though I slag it off something rotten. A friend from North Wales asked me recently which was the better city centre Liverpool or Manchester and I said  "Manchester" by a shade but all that there are in city centres are shops. Where are the Green areas? The last green area in the centre of Cardiff has been taken by the Admiral Insurance building. You cannot hug concrete in the same way that you can hug a tree. Liverpool and Manchester ooze with character as does Bristol but then there are the SHOPS! Shops don't add character. One Primark or Top Man is very much like the next one. Directions Sir? Certainly, turn left at Paddy Power, right by McDonalds, passed KFC, down by Burger King, left by Bet Fred, down then to Starbucks and you'll see the Church of the latter day retailer down there on the right. Even our smaller towns have been dumbed down. Shallowness, artificiality, the lowest common denominator. Booze, Piss and Chips. 
When I lived and worked in London, I would take Psycho-geographical tours most weekends. There are areas of great character in London but the city is so busy that there is very little peace and tranquility and if I asked you where is the Spiritual Centre of London? What would you say? I could never find it or feel it, perhaps the closest was Brick Lane but you might reply what do you mean by spiritual? Do Dublin and Edinburgh have spiritual city centres? What about Glasgow? 
What are Cities and City Centres for? Trade, to make money, to provide employment, entertainment, restaurants? It must be my age or the way I dress but I am starting to feel like an outsider, walking through the fair. I watch behind my sunglasses! I prefer it when the sun's out because I then have an excuse to wear my specs to observe the human creature in all its glory and ignominy. Everyone's happier when the sun's out but we now have the four months of winter and the long nights before us so it might have been the last gasp of relief that I was sensing today. The young appear to the untrained eye to accept reality as it is and to take all around them for granted but I still feel that this is an alien landscape and that I am just visiting. Dai Mutant is awaiting the call to his home planet.