Manchester

we need to monetise our urban decay somehow!

We should be creating a hostile environment for hollywood cunts bothering homeless people.

Samir's in Stretford is so fkn good. He had a restaurant in Syria and he's been open a few months on Chester Road now in the place that Sip Club had previously been putting on pop-up restaurants in. Everything is much cheaper and better than it needs to be but the mutabal in particular is glorious & the nutty kebabs are really rich and delicious. They cld do with some more business, strongly recommend it

Thanks for the suggestion!

My favourite Ethiopian in Manchester, the Blue Nile Cafe in Stretford sadly closed a couple months ago. Haven't really explored anything else in the area yet.

yeah it's so sad, the woman that ran it was a total sweetheart, said she loved having the restaurant but seemed to undercharge us every time and was always struggling with the bills. habesha is still good tho!

Yeah - Tiggy is amazing, she's pretty much the reason I went hiking in Ethiopia last September which was my favourite ever holiday.

Habesha is v good but the injera leaves a lot to be desired. Also when I was in the other week it seemed like they had stopped doing the raw kitfo!
The Eritrean on Port Street is pretty great, as is Merhaba - though I never find myself in Rusholme.

very nice! whereabouts did you hike? went to ethiopia a few years back, got hooked on doro wat in particular and had a similarly amazing time, we had planned to go hiking in the simien mountains but then decided to go to axum instead and can't say I regret it but wld love to go again if circs permit.

For me it was all about the gomen tibs! Ah, I wanted to visit the monuments up at Axum and the Danakil Depression but couldn't fit them into my itinerary! Next time!

I spent a couple days in Addis for the new year celebrations, and H from here suggested Fendika which was a great way to experience the music. Then flew up to Lalibela which was actually my favourite bit. The churches are something else with a bit of beautiful hiking/hospitality in the surrounding area, and I even ended up as guest at a fab two day wedding. From there I went on to Bahir Dir and the Simien mountains/Ras Dashen for a further 5 days of hiking. Just unbelievably beautiful up there - though I basically had to reteach myself to breathe every morning ha.

that sounds suitably incredible. likewise we had a great time in addis, in large part due to H, then went to bahir dar, gondar, axum and lalibela. lalibela exceeded my very high expectations and was intense to go round again first thing in the morning when no one was around. couldn't really get over how gorgeous the landscape was. we were there at the same time of year as well and everything was fantastically green, meskel flowers in bloom, lightning storms over lake tana in the evening... yeah, next time

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/21/welcome-to-manc-hattan-how-the-city-sold-its-soul-for-luxury-skyscrapers

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/developer-behind-city-centre-flats-17099872

everyone knows it and is still shrugging

28 affordable homes. Fuck me

"Posters have already appeared announcing the birth of “Manc-hattan”. But the truth is we are a long way from that uplifting skyline. This is more like something you’d see on the outer ring road of a third-tier Chinese city."

empty concrete/glass monoliths, Giggsy, Neville and Fred Done running roughshod over a corrupt planning dept - what a fucking dystopian shitshow! Hasn't Burnham got anything to say about this?

did shaun ryder die for nothing

I've Northside Towers is ready to break ground!

heard

This is a knock-on effect of austerity, right? Massively reduced central government funding -> councils desperately need to increase their tax base -> developers have them over a barrel? This is without me knowing anything about the ideological bent of individual Manchester councillors obviously.

Leaving aside ongoing gentrification + the effects of the BBC in Manchester, the people most in need get fucked twice, once with slashed government support and again with rising housing costs and consequent displacement.

yes that's otm. the mayor's role is v vague and weak atm hence him getting ppl to sign his campaign for 18 new powers and this is currently outside of his purview. owen hatherley reckons we need a haringey style coup, idk how that worked in practical terms and ppl in haringey still seem pissed off about corporate regeneration schemes and social cleansing. the council are inexplicably feeble at enforcing social housing quotas on developers, I think they have the worst record in the country, and I doubt the entirety of the property boom can be put down to this slackness, but without reversing the cuts I'm not sure how much could be improved

It mentions one of the projects couldn't get planning permission previously because of its height and now an even taller version has been green-lighted, it all comes down to reduced central gov funding, be nice if they'd admit this rather than barely credible speak of "robust assessment"

I'm looking forward to a really measured and thoughtful counter piece in the Graun by Giggsy on this.

the bbc is ofc in salford, which from the little I know seems like a better council despite being poorer and having had I think the worst cuts in percentage terms of any council

The BBC's in Salford but I guess a lot of the people who work there live in Manchester and these developments are there to service that demand?

the ppl I know who work round media city live in trafford or salford, which is more suburban. I'm sure there are plenty in the city centre but part of the problem with the new developments is they're not v family friendly (neither is the city centre) and I'd imagine it's only a fraction of the overall demand and a lot of the developments are happening over the other side of town, are aimed at rich foreign students etc.

some very small scale local property developer fuckery that pissed me off in recent years is a row of beautiful cottages that were built in the 1650's and would have only required minor refurbs to make them good, that were bulldozed down, and the space they inhabited has sat empty/become part of some developers land collection ever since. An early 1800's derelict building with a handsome (but broken and stopped for years) clock-tower recently demolished and the ugly ass wooden/breeze block flats construction they are putting in its place would have caused Nairn to have a stroke.

Free ticket to see Earth at Gorilla tonight if anyone wants it - won it in a competition and one of my pals has dropped out

Ten years on, @owenhatherley considers again Manchesters 'New Ruins' and asks, what is the legacy of the Leese leadership?https://t.co/VQBhxqaDDX

— Greater Manchester Housing Action (@gmhousingaction) June 4, 2020

some juicy stuff in there. I think development has been increasing, there's so much still going up, & I wonder how much it'll be impacted by the current shitshow and whether it will all get finished. there have been a few aborted projects that were left barely started for years before getting demolished, you'd think shit like the big circle square development on the site of the old bbc on oxford road is too far along to meet the same fate but who knows

Thinking of making a rolling list of (good) places that are closing down, it's depressing af. So far I've heard about: Lunya, Nexus, Deaf Institute, Gorilla

Sad about Nexus.

Know it's London but just saw a tweet by Cafe To who are hiring out their venue as rehearsal space to stay afloat :-(

Apparently ~90% of music venues are looking like the might close

That's really sickening.

(That should be *Oto, above)

Coincidentally, 90% of live music I've seen in the last 5 years has been at Cafe Oto.

Mariam Rezaei + Odie Ji Ghast at the Peer House - 28th April 2022

Some pals have formed a DIY collective to get more experimental/Avant-garde music gigs to Manchester. Should be a fun first event.