Sunday, 26 October 2008

With CD on the streets of London

"They paused for a moment on the steps of the portico, looking at the fresh perspective of the street in the autumn morning sun’s bright rays, and then went down… They went quietly down into the roaring streets, inseparable and blessed; and as they passed along in sunshine and shade, the noisy and the eager, and the arrogant and the froward and the vain, fretted and chafed, and made their usual uproar."

The famous final words of Dickens's Little Dorrit. Not to be missed on BBC tv tonight.

 

26 Oct 2008 10:15:33

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Celebrating community activists There's a nicely uncomplicated recent article by Jamie Carpenter in Regen and Renewal about Jean Bartlett, who is an award-winning community activist on the Aylesbury estate in south London. It's reassuring to have straightforward journalism that doesn't over-emotionalise either the role of an established, committed activist or the challenging conditions in which they are trying to bring about change. Negative media coverage of the estate over the years has not helped, indeed according to Bartlett it has made residents 'ashamed of where they live'. And arguments on whether or not the council's decision to demolish the estate was justified will continue to simmer. But I've worked on an estate where regeneration - including decanting and reinstatement of residents - has been transformational. I've worked on one, like the Aylesbury, where residents voted against a stock transfer to tenant management and really struggled to adjust to that ballot outcome. And I've worked in a place where residents might well have welcomed the idea of regeneration with or without demolition and decanting, but saw no chance of any initiative coming near them. Being invisible in public policy reflects a profound level of disempowerment and exclusion. And in all this we seldom hear much about the attitudes of regeneration officials and developers - often supportive and ennabling, but also often steeped in a subtle patronising condescension which disempowers routinely. And sometimes worse: thanks to William Perrin for a disturbing example from personal experience in this recent comment. See Jacqui Karn's excellent Narratives of neglect for an insightful study of how some of this happens. It's important we continue to support and report on people like Jean Bartlett and those who work with them, because they have an uncelebrated impact on the quality of life of a lot of people.
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Hot soup I ran about fifteen miles on the trails today, sunny but cold. A marvellous light varies the trees. When I got back I put on a few layers and a hat til my temperature settles, then here's the NDN at the door - 'How was your run?' - with a jug of piping hot soup - 'Every vegetable you can think of. Have some now while it's hot'. Thanks m'dear, you all ok? How's S. Not so bad. Mind the step. Stay warm now. The NDNs are in their seventies. I sit thinking autumnal thoughts about ephemeral connections and uncomplicated acts of kindness.

Kevin Harris

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