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BusLanes said:
Looking at the demographic data, you could almost even do a single councillor ward based around NJA polling district, maybe tweaking it a little around the edges. Given that there is roughly one councillor per 3800 people I'm not convinced a single member ward would improve things too much, but there must be a few neighbourhoods based around a larger estate where having one person solely devoted to them might be advantageous.

There are a loads of single member wards elsewhere but usually in rural District Councils sitting beneath County Councils. So maybe not directly comparable to a London Borough.


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I think single member seats based around NJAs is worth a go.

Each Cllr would be more directly related to a local area and smaller number of people.

In which case it would be easier for voters to see who was decent representative on individual basis.
 
I made the mistake of walking through Windrushb Square yesterday.
What is the tarpaulin fenced off area - labelled Orbital Equipment?
Is this the much sought after Cherry Groce memorial in construction?
Or maybe the latest childrens' funfair?

Apart from that the combination of the temporary concrete ballast anti tank barriers with the ever decreasing grassed area - now frazzled and dead - made me think we should send for Jonathan Meades to make one of his portentous TV denunciations of fascist architecture.

Truly the temporary concrete blocks do call to mind German pill-boxes from Normandy - except ours are like dolls house imitation ones.
As for the grass - made me wonder is the council had watered it with paraquat by mistake.
 
Grass is pretty impossible to kill - you watch, it'll be green soon after all the rain. I'd rather the council didn't waste valuable water, time and money on watering it :)
 
Gramsci said:
I think single member seats based around NJAs is worth a go.

Each Cllr would be more directly related to a local area and smaller number of people.

In which case it would be easier for voters to see who was decent representative on individual basis.
Click to expand...
The problem with would be councillors normally work as a team so are able to share Workload and cover for each other when they are not available. Have to remember the majority of councillors have jobs/families etc to fit around and are not full time councillors. Constituents deserve the opportunity to have some sort of a choice of representative and most Party wards will try to balance the slate of councillors Between gender, race etc. What is unlikely to vary much of course is their core political Ideology they will each have Been selected by the same local party branch
 
Mural unveiled

New Brixton mural pays homage to legendary local UK Hip-hop artist Ty


New Brixton mural pays homage to legendary local hip-hop artist Ty
 
CH1 said:
..........

Truly the temporary concrete blocks do call to mind German pill-boxes from Normandy - except ours are like dolls house imitation ones.
As for the grass - made me wonder is the council had watered it with paraquat by mistake.
Click to expand...

They have a preference for cancer inducing Glyphosate...
www.lambeth.gov.uk

Community Weeding Scheme

You can nurture local biodiversity by taking a selective approach to weeding your street’s pavements.
www.lambeth.gov.uk www.lambeth.gov.uk
 
Southlondon said:
The problem with would be councillors normally work as a team so are able to share Workload and cover for each other when they are not available. Have to remember the majority of councillors have jobs/families etc to fit around and are not full time councillors. Constituents deserve the opportunity to have some sort of a choice of representative and most Party wards will try to balance the slate of councillors Between gender, race etc. What is unlikely to vary much of course is their core political Ideology they will each have Been selected by the same local party branch
Click to expand...

It is more likely that we end up with a mix of 3s and 2s for the upcoming redo of Lambeth wards. The 1s work well enough in rural district councils as far as I can tell but that may be because a lot of the, probably lesser, casework can be split between county council and district council levels.With County Councils usually dealing with education and social services.
 
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Sort of related, I went to a Making Votes Matter meetup yesterday in Brixton yesterday to see who's interested and take some photos for next week's action day. There doesn't seem to be any hard plans about say council electoral systems as they seem more interested in national elections but there's no reason why it couldn't be locally anyway. Since Scotland and Ulster/NI do STV for councils should be no real problem with London too.
 
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lunar said:
I've noticed barriers in the form of plastic poles are being placed to separate the bicycle lane from other traffic users. Tooting has them now. I think acre lane could be next. I've noticed it's getting more difficult to drive with more dedicated cycle lanes creeping up.
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just wondering why this makes it more difficult to drive? Never had any problems with this myself.
 
editor said:
Great piece about Brixton's recent history

www.brixtonbuzz.com

Gentrification, Pop Brixton, the Battle of Brixton and ‘The London Dream’

We’re delighted to be able to share, ‘The Battle of Brixton, Redux,’ a chapter from the forthcoming book, The London Dream by Chris McMillan. It’s a fascinating read, chart…
www.brixtonbuzz.com www.brixtonbuzz.com
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'
Many of those enjoying Pop Brixton probably spent their working days creating PR bullshit; the top occupations for those living close to Brixton tube station are ‘Artistic/Literary/Media’ and ‘Marketing and Associated Professions’.

By contrast, ‘Cleaning’ and ‘Other Elementary’ are the top occupations in Stockwell, one stop and 2 minutes away on the tube."

Where does someone go to get that type of info?
 
Mr paulee said:
'
Many of those enjoying Pop Brixton probably spent their working days creating PR bullshit; the top occupations for those living close to Brixton tube station are ‘Artistic/Literary/Media’ and ‘Marketing and Associated Professions’.

By contrast, ‘Cleaning’ and ‘Other Elementary’ are the top occupations in Stockwell, one stop and 2 minutes away on the tube."

Where does someone go to get that type of info?
Click to expand...
Try the Office for National Statistics. 'Other Elementary' is a term used in their Labour Market Survey. Here's a sample Labour Market Profile - Nomis - Official Labour Market Statistics

More possibilities here Nomis - Nomis - Official Labour Market Statistics
 
editor said:
Great piece about Brixton's recent history

www.brixtonbuzz.com

Gentrification, Pop Brixton, the Battle of Brixton and ‘The London Dream’

We’re delighted to be able to share, ‘The Battle of Brixton, Redux,’ a chapter from the forthcoming book, The London Dream by Chris McMillan. It’s a fascinating read, chart…
www.brixtonbuzz.com www.brixtonbuzz.com
Click to expand...
Amateurish and poorly informed. Fails to mention Spacemakers' relaunch of the Village, which was the starting gun for gentrification and the single biggest agent of change https://web.archive.org/web/20121001153718/http://spacemakers.org.uk/projects/brixton/
 
David Clapson said:
Amateurish and poorly informed. Fails to mention Spacemakers' relaunch of the Village, which was the starting gun for gentrification and the single biggest agent of change Brixton Village – Space Makers Agency
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The focus of the article was Pop Brixton, not Brixton Village, and there was an important fundamental difference in that the Village was privately owned whereas the site of Pop was council owned and given away rent-free. I agree with you that the Village was the kickstarter for the recent amplified gentrification, but Pop took that a huge step further.

The article has received a lot of feedback online, but yours is the only one that describes it as being either amateurish or poorly informed, neither of which I think is true.
 
But it was about the history of local gentrification. So it was a big mistake to focus on Pop. Spacemakers achieved 100x more gentrification than Pop. Pop would never have been dreamed up were it not for the explosion of the Village.
 
And if you're going to write about the history of social change in Brixton, it's a bit pointless if you don't explain why the rich abandoned those posh five storey family homes near Windrush Square.
 
David Clapson said:
But it was about the history of local gentrification. So it was a big mistake to focus on Pop. Spacemakers achieved 100x more gentrification than Pop. Pop would never have been dreamed up were it not for the explosion of the Village.
Click to expand...
Yes, but if the author wishes to focus on Pop - and its entirely different relationship with Lambeth and the way they directly facilitated the second major phase of recent gentrification - that's up to him! And remember, it's only one chapter of a book, so it may be that the Village was outside that scope or timescale.

If you'd like to write a piece going even further back and focusing on the Spacemakers, I'd be happy to publish that too,.


David Clapson said:
And if you're going to write about the history of social change in Brixton, it's a bit pointless if you don't explain why the rich abandoned those posh five storey family homes near Windrush Square.
Click to expand...
Except it's not an entire book about the 'history of social change in Brixton.' It seems grossly unfair to slag off the article because it doesn't cover every single contributing factor to gentrification dating back over half a century.
 
Mr paulee said:
'
Many of those enjoying Pop Brixton probably spent their working days creating PR bullshit; the top occupations for those living close to Brixton tube station are ‘Artistic/Literary/Media’ and ‘Marketing and Associated Professions’.

By contrast, ‘Cleaning’ and ‘Other Elementary’ are the top occupations in Stockwell, one stop and 2 minutes away on the tube."

Where does someone go to get that type of info?
Click to expand...

By having a look around?

Im in LJ. A few minutes from Pop. Different world in my bit of CHL.

I don't need to look up that info.It plain to see.
 
IMO and it may be dealt with in the book the London Dream is the deregulation ( Big Bang) in the City by Thatcher. Thatcher changed the economy to one based on Financial sector based in London.

This was major driver in gentrification across London/ South East. To the detriment of the old industrial North and other small towns in England.

London for better or worse became an International City.

With Brexit and the Pandemic going to see if that will last.

Could be that may see gradual decline of London.

Needs to be remembered that when I first came to London in early 80s central London had declining population.

Used to be called the "Inner City problem".

Another issue is that the remaining working class population are "surplus" to requirements.

My criticism of Pop is that its part of the fantasy that entrenched social inequality can be dealt with by encouraging people to be "entrepreunarial".

What is needed is more fundamental social change.

Pop is from the New Labour idea that embraces neo liberalism as a given. But wants to make it a bit more socially minded.
 
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