"i don't think it was a serious suggestion, more a way of getting us to think about the issues."
I assumed that to be true and almost went, but decided it wasn't quite the Festival entertainment I was looking for and suspected (perhaps wrongly) that the 'thought provoking' bit wouldn't come up with many usable 'answers'.
"alleged solution of knocking down the high rise buildings that were the perceived solutions themselves in the 1950s and 1960s"
Yes - 'housing'.
At various times better housing has been seen as 'the answer' and in many senses it was/is.
Houses in Craigmillar were much better than the single-ends and tiny tenement flats that families moved from.
But I have family connections to people who weren't so keen on the shiny new settlement on the edge of the city and some moved back to the South Side as soon as they could.
Rich people seem to like tower blocks - New York, London etc. - so it's not the type of building as such - though design/build on the cheap and inadequate maintenance (spending) will limit function and longevity.
As I mentioned on another thread, Craigmillar had the population of Mussleburgh, but without as many shops and general social infrastructure that small towns develop (over time).
When it was first built there were half a dozen breweries, a creamery and pits close by.
Without easy access to employment the character of the area changed and much of it became 'hard to let' with a continuing downward spiral of inadequate maintenance resulting in the demolition of large amounts of basically sound housing units.
Today there is a mix of new housing and a lot of empty space waiting for (re-) development. Close by, more housing on green field sites.
By contrast the 'inner city' - including Tollcross, South Side, Gorgie-Dalry, parts of Leith - benefitted (mostly 70s and 80s) from grants to upgrade - adding baths and showers etc. for the first time.
The original Craigmillar Primary (building) survives due to the random consequences of an Edinburgh College of Art student painting a mural in the dining hall. He later became a highly regarded Scottish Painter and the mural became "listed" - and so did the building surrounding it.
But not the housing - even though the architect of both also produced the Police Boxes that lie unused across the city (a few are coffee kiosks).
There are a few in Morningside. One serves coffee.
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