25 years service as a Councillor

Seven years as Bridge ward City Councillor; on top of 18 years serving Mapperley Division and ward, that makes 25 years in total.

There should be award, or a medal, or a grand thank you!  Hey, what about an OBE?
Well, not really.  The role is a vocation and we should expect little else.

And there’s the experiences and stories to recount!  And I do recount them.  And I notice people getting more and more bored as I tell, them.

Ah, but what about all the casework and achievements!
Again, it’s what’s expected, and it’s kinda hard to say what is it that you have achieved, without the help of anyone else, especially when you have co-Councillors and work with others.

Ronald Reagan once said achieving in politics and using politics to achieve isn’t difficult, the challenge was in making the achievements something that you alone was responsible for.
There are times when a particular outlook and resolve as an individual can make a difference for the good, but even then it draws upon widely held values and others’ capabilities.

Enough.  Let’s focus instead on what there is to do, take pleasure in ward events like today’s, note that I picked up 5 requests today and say thanks to those who demonstrated for REMAIN today.

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Dirty tricks on voter registration

The current senator for North Dakota who is up for re-election was elected 6 years ago by under 3,000 votes.  She is a Democrat party member.  She was supported in large numbers by native Americans; around 10,000 of them.

(See report by Vox; also their photo (AFP/Getty).)
Electoral Registration is more political in the United States of America, and Republican Party supporters changed electoral registrations rules to say a voter cannot give a postal box address.  Many native Americans in particular North Dakota counties only have postal box addresses.  And so, a measure was introduced to target and cut out a particular group of people.  Ethnically targeted.
Georgia also is state where people are being cut out from the register.  Requiring precision in the way names and addresses are submitted in a way that excludes more. black people.  Here the officer controlling registration is also the Republican candidate for the Senate.

Even in casting postal votes in Britain, officers can take the view that signatures can be sufficiently similar, even if the master signature is written say ‘Michael Edwards’, when the signature is written say ‘M.M.Edwards’.

Mike Leigh, in a broadcast interview after the premiere of the movie Peterloo, said if people from then were here now, they’d be appalled that not all working people register, and that not all working people vote.

Register to vote.  Use the vote.

Columbus

Shot in Columbus, Indiana. Viewed on Columbus Day.  And I had no idea.

Columbus is a very good film.  You’ll no doubt find the story slow.  And perhaps less entertaining than you’d hope.
But you gotta go see.
Great acting. Great ethos. Great shots. Great architecture and interior design.  Drawing on extraordinary hallmarks of other great directors.
(r:9.5.; s:4, e:4, t:7 (out of 5).)
So much so, I’ve broken my already broken rating system, but in a new way. 7 out of 5 for the technical aspects.
–
The core of the story is a high school (check) graduate who is mature beyond her years because of her love for her mother and the support she’s given to help the mother through a drug-addiction.  She loves cooking for her mum, her home city and loves its specialist architecture.  She’s bright but is choosing to stay home to help her Mum rather than break out.  Catalyst for the breaking out from this life is the son of an architect,  who’s come to the city cos his father has fallen seriously hill.  And they develop a bond cos they can talk with each other beyond her joy in telling stories of the local buildings. And with all the potential for “drama”, not one argument, not one strop.  Such an antidote to soap operas and many films.
–
Now, I didn’t know about Columbus, Indiana (population 44,000).  That it’s home to many exemplary modernist buildings cos of the vision of a wealthy couple and the husband who managed a successful local engine manufacturing company.
So beautiful buildings were commissioned, from the fifties on.
Now, the controversy – cos The Guardian in reviewing the film describes the beautiful buildings as brutalist.  With my limited knowledge of architecture drawn from membership of the planning committee, I don’t think they are brutal.  Not least cos of the massive space often available to these buildings – something Nottingham doesn’t have room for; nor does modern British capitalism (e.g. Station Street).
Yet the weaknesses of the buildings restarting to come through, even in the film; the weathering showing the buildings often don’t know how to manage the rain.
So architects and planners should also go see this film, if only to take in the success and the failings.

 

Bridge ward monthly report 84

TO BE WRITTEN UP.

Main effort has been making reviewing progress made in the ward (see mid-month graphic).
New development prompted debate at planning committee.  A conservation area for the Old Meadows was considered.  Astonishment that a builder decided to build a new house on Glapton Road without permission.
Hoodwinked brightened the city centre for 3 months.
Frank starred at the ward walk.
BT concede on their phone boxes in Bridgeway Centre.
Oh, and Brexit and Trump, again.
The Kavanaugh hearings were extraordinary – and even if the supreme justice candidate is appointed without deserving it, violence against young women has been given another hearing.
Trump was laughed at by the world, but the Republicans have been losing ground for some week now  and the mid-term elections could

Ward walk – September 2018

Meet Frank.
Frank is hosteling at Nicola Heaton’s.
Frank is on his best behaviour.
Frank even obeys orders. “Sit!”
Frank joined the ward walk today.
Frank didn’t understand all that was required of him.
“Frank – put those 2 top layers of bricks back on the side to a car pool!”
Not a twitch of a response.
–
Toured Middle Furlong Gardens & Mews, Causeway Mews, Barra Mews and Meredith Close.

Home Office Windrush advice surgery in The Meadows

Held at the Queens Walk Community Centre.
Many hundreds in Nottingham has already been discussing concerns with the Home Office.

City centre public spaces protection order survey

Consultation finishes in early October.