I'm living in an area that recently got Big Local funding (£1m over 10 years) and might soon start working in another one, so its really interesting to be able to compare a professional view of people-led-change with a personal one. More on this later, but for now, here's what a successful kirkstall in leeds might look like (according to the kirkstall vision). See what you think..
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The morning sun filters through the triple-glazed windows of Abi’s live/work building as she drinks her organic Kirkstall Apple Juice and sets her biometric wrist band to confirm she is about to start her daily jog. Out of the door she crosses Kirkstall Boulevard, taking care not to get in the way of the family who are cycling to school along one of the many designated green cyclo-paths that run through the area and into the city centre. Heading for her usual route, a 3 kilometre physio-track through the beautiful and verdant Kirkstall Valley Park, she passes the communal veggie gardens, reminding herself to pick a handful of free herbs on the way home.
Twenty minutes later she is at her compumodule, checking her Lifebook Page and starting the morning’s study session via a supraspeed web link connecting her with the local UniCollege in Abbey Grange. Today’s
edutraining session includes a videolink conference with partner courses in Wakefield, Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
Having learnt all about bio-sensitive river regeneration techniques, she takes a short walk past the Eco-leisure Pod to the Kirkstall Korner Kafe, where she meets her friend Sanjit for lunch, dining on trout caught earlier that day in the River Aire. After lunch Abi goes to the Burley Community Hub, where she is a part-time volunteer helping active older people such as John, who she helps use the latest computer software that enables him to keep in touch with his son, a mining technician on Moonbase Ten.
After a couple of hours at The Hub, she gets back on her Biocycle and rides home through the tree-lined streets full of children playing and young people having fun doing their gardening and community sports activities in the inter-linked pocket parks. She stops off at the Abbey Grounds, under which the former A65 road had been sunk some twenty years ago, to check on the site for her stall at the next bi-monthly Kirkstall Festival. This is the event where she and her friend Bernie, a fellow member of The Kirkstall Development Trust, sell the flowers they grow on their green roofs for charity. Abi then calls at the Ecomarket in the Kirkstall District Centre for her weekly shop. Her choice of seasonal food, nearly half of which has been produced in the Kirkstall Valley, is captured on her hand-held scanner, to be packed and delivered later by the store. They also collect her recycling at the same time.
An elderly neighbour has told her of the days when people actually went in ‘their own cars’ to the supermarket! Abi can also scarcely believe parents even used to drive their kids to school. After dinner Abi decides to go out into the city centre, but not before listening to the daily report from her l at’s energy monitor which tells her how much electricity her apartment block has generated and sold to the Kirkstall Regional Grid today. She thought of walking into the centre, as this has long since become a very pleasant thing to do. She decides to catch the Sola Train from Kirkstall Station, after popping in to the converted St Anne’s Mill Centre for Creativity just in case her mate Katie wants to come along for a drink. After a good evening out, she catches one of the all-nite Trolley Buses home.
Abi loves living in Kirkstall. She moved here five years ago from Sheffield, having seen the place on the national news when it won a prestigious Euro Award for the most improved, sustainable and visionary neighbourhood in the country. That’s why she doesn’t mind when her friends call her by her new nickname and is proud to occasionally be known as ‘Kirkstall Abi'..
So is it helpful to have a different life visioned, or will it turn people off with its twee vision of a possible reality..?
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