Events | 2010.02.20
You can't put a price on Bradford | Kate Wellham
Just because the city is not full of high-street chains doesn\'t mean it\'s a terrible place to live. Quite the opposite
The news that Bradford has the UK\'s second largest number of empty shops didn\'t particularly bother me. Nor did the coincidental news that the walled-off crater which was supposed to have become a Westfield shopping centre some years ago is now to be a community garden – confirmation that it will be some time before any Westfield shopping centre appears, if it does at all. In response to these stories, BBC Radio Leeds asked listeners: "Are you ashamed of Bradford?"
A few years ago, I would have said "yes", because I could think of nothing better to do with my time than hand my pocket money to chain stores for the same things the adverts told me everyone else had, and my hometown – being ill-equipped for that pastime – was a disappointment . It was full of cheap independent shops I\'d never heard of, and Alfredo\'s Italian restaurant. All I wanted was a Bella Pasta and to fit in.
Then, of course, the riots came. A tiny number of meatheads squared up to each other one day in 2001, and between them destroyed the city\'s reputation for the rest of us for years to come. Statistically as safe as anywhere, Bradford was now seen as dangerous as well as poor.
From that point on, I used to lie about where I was from when I found myself away from home. I\'d say I was from Leeds, because I couldn\'t be bothered to watch the confusion and pity flicker across people\'s faces, and then spend another half an hour telling them why they may have been misinformed. Even as I enjoyed living there, to champion Bradford seemed too big a task in the face of such negative assumptions. Yet I\'ve never taken any opportunity to leave, because I\'ve never wanted to.
What do you think happens when a place with one of the youngest populations in the country attracts little interest from investors? Does everyone stay in and watch EastEnders? No, they take matters into their own hands, start their own nights, gigs or festivals, motivated by a desire to have fun rather than make money.
Some of my favourite events, eateries and venues in the whole country are in Bradford, but with little or no advertising budget and no aspirations for world domination, is it any wonder that they\'re not more well-known? And I love the fact that so many cultures exist side by side – not holding hands under rainbows – because having a problem with it would take up so much time and energy that we\'d get nothing else done. We\'re over it. That\'s real multiculturalism.
I fail to see why, simply because a city isn\'t full of franchises, it shouldn\'t be a pleasant place to be. Which sounds like a more interesting afternoon: HMV, Subway, then Wetherspoons? Or Bombay Stores for pashminas, the Chinese supermarket for seaweed snacks, then the Polish Club for a free indie all-dayer put on by a group of music fans for a laugh?
But our local leaders are frightened and embarrassed by Bradford\'s uniqueness and unpredictability, doesn\'t know how to market it, and seeks to make it generic and "safe", with shopping centres, glass, chrome and concrete, ignoring the merits of the city and pandering to potential investors who have no interest in the city beyond what profits it might bring. And in a recession, where better to live than one of the cheapest cities, and one which needs little adaptation to cope with a lack of readies?
The recent protests about the proposed demolition of the 1930s Odeon cinema , as well as the artwork and poetry put up by Bradfordians around the Westfield site – which shouted "give it back to the people" and "green space not grey waste" long before it was designated a community park – encapsulate the creativity, community spirit and pride in our modest home that are the things I love most about Bradford and which will be its saving grace.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]/20/bradford-high-street-price
