@crowriver - I met some New Zealand acquaintance (friends of my sister's) in the National Portrait gallery when they came to Edinburgh. They were staying in London Road, and they DROVE in - parked at the King James Centre. I more or less gawped at them and said, you drove? about 5 times. They were the kind of NZers who had never walked, cycled or used public transport.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Holiday Flats Edinburgh's Ruin"
(541 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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"parked at the King James Centre"
Is that a bible study centre or is it the rebrand of the St James Centre? :-)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver - and what you say about independent travelling is true. In the 70's and 80s it was more adventurous types who would use public transport and find a fleapit hotel. Then the Lonely Planet guided the less adventurous. Now it's a huge swathe who are travelling that way with hostels and airbnbs everywhere.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver - a mistake I constantly make.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Rosie, well there is a back story to why the Vermont visitors were not driving. The father apparently gets terrible vertigo on high bridges, and cannot drive over them. So he was expressing relief that the public transport was so good. I suppose if the Queensferry Crossing was the height of the Kincardine bridge they'd probably have hired a car. But I'm glad they didn't.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Rosie, it would certainly give a different tint to nipping into John Lewis!
Posted 5 years ago # -
"the Lonely Planet guided the less adventurous".
Back in the day (the 1990s) it was the Rough Guide. Was certainly my bible as a twenty-something trying to get to European destinations on as little as possible...
Now with Googol maps, TripAdvisor, etc. there are no secret undiscovered places and the popular destinations suffer from excessive tourism.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"... and the popular destinations suffer from excessive tourism."
That's pretty much why we stopped going to Skye. The change over the last 15 years of us going pretty much every year is absolutely astounding. We know it well enough to know the places we can go without seeing too many others while out on a walk (including one walk which has pools to match, and in some cases surpass, the Fairy Pools, where we've never seen another soul, as it involves a few miles of boggy walk, but then allows you wild swimming opportunities undisturbed, whereas the Fairy Pools walk is now a continuous stream of people, with calls for a toilet block and expanded car park). It's as much 'getting' anywhere on the single track roads with people who have no concept of how to drive on them, and finding verges and passing palces full of cars - so much for being in the wilds.
Next year returning to the Uists and Harris instead, while we can, before they likely get similarly over-run when someone decides the road through the Outers should be rebranded as the Hebridean 200 or some such.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is that King John or King Louis?
Posted 5 years ago # -
“before they likely get similarly over-run when someone decides the road through the Outers should be rebranded as the Hebridean 200 or some such.”
Posted 5 years ago # -
Edinburgh has been named alongside Amsterdam, Rome, Venice and Barcelona as one of the world's worst hotspots for "overtourism".
The Scottish capital has been cited alongside the Taj Mahal, in India, the Peruvian citadel of Machu Picchu, Dubrovnik, in Croatia, and Iceland as famous destinations "that can no longer cope with their own popularity."
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also, beware of what you wish for. San Francisco transformed to unaffordability by techie firms. I've thought good to get high-tech industries in central Edinburgh, to diversify from finance and tourism, and because the people who work for them are likely to be cycling and walking types, however the techie firms haven't been cotributing to the city, and the local government haven't been controlling the planning.
Also if your city becomes overly expensive your struggling creatives can't find anywhere to live and work. Not to mention ending like Venice where locals doing ordinary jobs live miles away from the city centre.
"That hearing was one of several pivotal moments in recent San Francisco history when public officials could have used the city’s legislative or regulatory powers to force the tech industry to contribute more to public services, but chose not to. Such inflection points (which also include a controversial 2011 tax break for Twitter and a failed attempt at a “tech tax” in 2016) highlight the complicated relationship between the city government and an industry that has brought untold wealth and jobs, but has arguably failed to pay its fair share – while treating the city as a petri dish for disruptive innovations (think Uber, Airbnb and self-driving cars) by ignoring regulations."
Our local govt bods wouldn't be immune to giving an easy ride to big glamorous sounding companies.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jul/01/san-francisco-big-tech-workers-industryPosted 5 years ago # -
In the EEN article Russell Imrie asks to make the city Cycling Friendly. He does have a lot of jargon, doesn't like air Bnb obvs and points out problem of building hotels to meet high season demand that then sit empty for four months. (He isnHotels Spokesperson)
In other EEN news the Grey Horse Pub of Balerno voted 1st of 45 Edinburgh and Lothian pubs by the good beer guide. (Parameters we're number of changing beers, quality of the beer and having a barmaid called Sheena)
In other survey news in the Scotsman 8 of the 10 healthiest places in the UK are in Scotland with the village Diarmid and I grew up in at number 2 (parameters must be a village really in middle of nowhere to get air pollution down but must have a GP surgery and very good transport links). Number 3 in the UK is Fauldhouse which is basically not healthy but is in middle of nowhere with clean air, a GP surgery and good transport links. Also likely to have a barmaid called Sheena tho the real Sheena lives in Uphall.
Posted 5 years ago # -
In the EEN article Russell Imrie asks to make the city Cycling Friendly.
To save anyone else some confusion, this is not the same Russell Imrie who is the cabinet member with responsibility for transport at Midlothian Council.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Was about to mention that!
(So confusing)
Posted 5 years ago # -
For a brief moment I thought he must've seen the light.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“
'Overtourism is killing Big Sur': activists raise banner in California vacation spot
“
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/09/big-sur-banner-bixby-bridge-tourism
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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Hard-hitting article in the EN by the Cockburn Association.
"Apart from the director of the National Galleries, the other eleven members are from Scottish or local tourism and marketing bodies, including Scottish Enterprise, VisitScotland, Edinburgh Airport, and industry organisation the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group. Though its built and natural environment is Edinburgh’s major attraction, there is no official from Edinburgh’s planning department on the SIG, nor any representation of the conservation or community bodies in the city.
Effectively the industry is in charge of making policy for the city, with planning and citizens consigned to near irrelevance. The city council is there as a corporate entity to help tourist businesses to realise their dreams."
Posted 5 years ago # -
Think it needs to have the preceding paragraph, to avoid the assumption that it is merely a tourism/business body -
“
Its members include Edinburgh council leader Adam McVey and councillor Donald Wilson, convenor of the Culture and Communities Committee. Then there are three senior officials – the chief executive, Andrew Kerr; Paul Lawrence, director of place; and Jim Galloway, from economic development.
“
Cliff Hague was a planner so his “there is no official from Edinburgh’s planning department” is special pleading optimism.
‘We’ all know that CEC planners do not always oversea great results - obviously they are subject to political and commercial ‘realities’.
However the general thrust that the whole ‘enable tourism’ climate - and its effect on Edinburgh - needs reviewing and assumptions/policies changed is valid and may cause a small pause for thought amongst anyone responsible for the good of the city (especially those directly involved).
Posted 5 years ago # -
Just like Montmartre the artists are being priced out, darling!
Posted 5 years ago # -
59,000 acts at festival. Cull (i mean a humane cull obviously) might be ok?
Mrs Garto had one helluva tricky time getting back to stix last night
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago # -
Currently AirBnB-ers eating on the picnic table on our green. Their accommodation is in the neighbouring green & they seem to be treating all the greens as one giant park ( which, to be fair, the kids do, but hey, they *are* kids )
Hmmm
Posted 5 years ago # -
First world problem that one @Neddie?
Posted 5 years ago #
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