CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04206540/officers
Craig Murray has been doing some digging.
Mrs LB and I have had no apology or compensation for being woken up by @followthecow overnight Santa zip wire stunt preps. One week of street noise. No paperwork on that project to our tenement block which is mainly residents (yes an anomaly these days!).
We have had info showing the current events.
https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1211266593226973184?s=19
I'm curious would it be better if "Edward Andrew Ashenhurst Bartram and Charles Browne Martin Wood, both of London" were of Edinburgh?
Pressure waves from the stacks on Castle Street powerful enough to cause involuntary airway pulsings.
I'm confused. Is the problem that these chaps have too many names? Went to too posh a school? Come from London?
Clearly we need an arbiter on such matters, who can judge correct name length, requisite school poshness and acceptable places to live - may I suggest the title Commissar.
Maybe, maybe not.
The problem is the extent to which CEC thinks the whole ‘winter festival’ is ‘good for the city’ and (if it is) the inability to persuade the significant minority that it is of benefit - ’on balance’.
Previously the event was run by an Edinburgh company which created the whole thing - not without controversies.
From link -
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Councillor Richard Lewis, Edinburgh's festivals and events champion, said: "The appointment of these contracts is confirmation for the city that despite the financial pressures facing the council, these important events will continue to operate for the benefit of the people of Edinburgh and our many thousands of visitors.
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I’m sure CEC believes this (especially after reading consultants’ reports saying so - eg: “£39.2m under the latest economic impact survey” and “Including the cost of these free events, the overall value of the community benefit was £546,210”).
It’s highly debatable how much Edinburgh needs the ‘international profile’.
Perhaps it needs it more than ever as being a small part of a small country adjacent to (and also part of) a country in the process of making work and visitor permits more complicated.
Perhaps perfect time for a rethink about a lot of previous assumptions, which, even if true, may no longer be in future.
Assume the current level of tourism IS ‘good for the City’ (on any simple or more nuanced criteria anyone chooses to consider) is ‘must make sure it continues’ a rational or desirable policy for the future?
Lot of tourists about at the moment and in the run up to now and maybe into the bleak winter in jan-feb?
Previously Edinburgh pretty quiet in the winter
So perhaps pubs, restaurants, shops and hotels doing more business?
THe same complaints about the Fringe in the summer are now voiced in the winter.
THe woman across the road from Laidback Towers won her battle with the tattoo grandstand constructors.
I was up town yesterday, May Morris Exhibition in my old INfirmaty St baths, bike co-op, malt whisky society=y. All grand.
I've watched Edinburgh City's descent into overpriced theme park in the same fashion as other european capitals before it
The difference is crucial though. Edinburgh is a fraction of the size of either Berlin or Prague
Even now I can sojourn in either of those great cities, at no great expense, and easily avoid the commercial panto, due to the sheer size of these metro areas
That's nigh on impossible in Edinburgh, commercial interests have strangled the limited space on offer and left no room for grass roots culture to breathe
Was it inevitable ?
@steveo, Morningsider - Craig Murray is a conspiracy nut and a vehement Scottish nationalist. I can't see being listed in Companies House as London based makes the situation any worse than it is. It's the control by the Council that matters. Commercial companies will commerce where they can.
As often on said on other threads, this is happening in all attractive European cities. Dubrovnik and Venice are the worst sufferers. I feel it's time to resurrect John Knox, close all places of entertainment and have 3 compulsory sermons on the Sabbath.
@bax - san - nNeu Reekie? Leith Depot? Clinging on? Or come to Balerno Village Screen in the new year. Free entry, free wine, free choc ices. Donation only.
I am also proposing A Salon up the Waverley Bar in the New Year. Unusually for me the Oulipo constraint being placed on involvement is listening. YOu do get to talk but only for 5 mins on your topic, then you need to listen.
We also have a right laff when Land Of Cakes play Henry’s Cellar Bar - costs 5 pounds. We dance ourselves towards Nirvana. THe best time was when THe Cakes were supported. By Paul Vickers and The Leg. (Well Paul was absent as he had a bad leg)
As with my Vegan yoghurt in the 1980s90s I am growing my own CULTURE fae soya yoghurt out of Safeway’s Brand Soya Milk I have left to curdle viciously in the Fridge.
Welcome to the US 80s 90s
Bih-dim-dim-di-dim?
haha aye gembo
culture is for bacteria
like 50s, 1890s
No beer
No cigarettes
Spikes, gin, cigarettes
Whisky
Like cones of silence
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Barcelona three times population of Edinburgh. But only twice as many tourists.
Amsterdam twice population of Edinburgh. But four and a half times as many tourists.
Both cities' authorities are doing something about overtourism, AirBnB, etc. Edinburgh authorities just seem to want more, more, more?
Cui bono?
@crowriver - I think Amsterdam felt itself over-touristed before Edinburgh did. I understand that the airbnb is regulated - 3 months max for renting out a property. However I would guess that this is going to become a vote-winning issue, any party which promises to clamp down on over-tourism.
10 plastic `Johnnie Walker Figurines have replaced the nativity on the mound and the Xmas tree is long gone.
In bettter news Young Gembo and I just watched Sanjuro by Akira Kurosawa. I feel it is as good as Yojimbo.
THe Chamberlain’s wife tells TOshiro Mifune that he is an unsheathed sword - too quick to rise to temper, too passionate, too keen to draw blood. She says the best sword remains in its scabbard. The chamberlain’s wife also releases the hostage but he declines to leave, rather passes comment (nod to the Greek Chorus) then when they glower at him he voluntarily returns to the cupboard he was tied up in.
Will google but I think the plot was lifted for Shane (though could be other way round).
Is the other way round, should have known that. Shane earlier and based on the novel by Jack Schaeffer. My somewhat tipsy English mast was making me read that aloud in 1978 as err no one else in the class could read (Johnstone High). I suggested I was maybe in the wrong class. He just shrugged.
have to stick up for Craig Murray
there aren't many public figures keeping up the struggle for Julian Assange
Craig, John Pilger and Roger Waters
“
Hotel industry chiefs have also warned that complaints about the city’s Christmas and Hogmanay events are running the risk of Edinburgh being seen as an “anti-tourist” city around the world.
However Mr McVey said there there were “enormously diverging views” about the benefits of the events, which are said to be worth more than £150 million to the city. He admitted he had no idea how much profit was generated from the events by Underbelly.
He admitted there was no prospect of reaching “consensus” over what form they should take - but insisted future organisers of the festivities would have to reflect the city’s “changing aspirations.”
“
@bax san - Jon P my fave, then rogers waters. Craig i am not familiar with
Even Amsterdam's over-tourism pales in comparison to York, if the figures are to be believed.
Population of around 200,000 versus 6.9 million visitors per year. That's 34.5 tourists for every resident!
we were in York at the start of December. stayed in a hotel, not airbnb. definitely busy, but welcoming. streets had a great vibe. my impression was that most of the visitors were from other parts of yorkshire. felt more like a regional hub attracting people for their christmas shopping.
was back a week later for work and spotted several shops we would have visited but didn't; the roads were so crowded we didn't even see them.
Suppose it depends on the definition of tourism. York is so low on list for international visitors it barely registers, whereas Edinburgh second biggest destination after London. But most visitors in York and Edinburgh are "domestic tourists" from UK. Maybe just a far larger proportion of visitors to York.
Presume many of the visitors to Edinburgh's Xmas markets and Hogmanay events are "regional" ie. from nearby areas of Scotland: Lothians, Fife, Borders etc. Less than 20% from city itself and only a fifth or so are international visitors. Similar story for the Fringe, with added rUK influx, many from south east England/London.
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In its consultation response to Edinburgh City Council’s Tourism Strategy 2030, The Cockburn Association said continual tourism growth should not be the “overriding objective” for the council.
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Alternative to fireworks??
https://twitter.com/aliestripling/status/1212509551104274434
For some reason I find charging people for the loony dook more distasteful that the street party.
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“Tourism is an important topic of conversation for our city right now and we’re working positively with partners and stakeholders on a new 10 year plan to enhance Edinburgh’s management of the impacts of high visitor footfall. Residents’ feedback will be absolutely central to this plan.”
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How many of the residents are renting flats as Air BnB? Not many?
Cllr Arthur's fairly measured take on it.
https://drscottarthur.scot/2019/12/31/the-council-needs-to-understand-what-edinburgh-wants-to-gain-from-its-visitor-economy/
@acsimpson - I do sympathise but isn't it a question of numbers? These things can be victims of their own success (like the canal towpath).
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Originally organised by locals and starting from the Moorings pub (now the Inchcolm), factors such as increased crowds, safety issues and popularity necessitated a different handling. As a consequence, the events 2009 onwards were professionally handled by event managers Unique Events. Being the organisers of the Edinburgh Hogmanay Festival, they included the Loony Dook into the latter from 2011. In the same year a registration fee was introduced to cover the cost of organisation and stewarding. The fee of originally £6 was raised to £10 in 2016. The proceeds of which benefit RNLI Queensferry and local charities.
“
I remember the torch light procession being pretty casual when i went about 10 years ago. Find someone with candles, give them a donation and off you go. This year a friend said it was buy a ticket, queue for ages to get a candle and queue ages to get it lit.
The Loony Dook could be the final straw, bad optics to be charging people to jump in the sea. Probably good news for the Porty Loony Dook though, until UB find a way it can be monetised
I've seen Wardie Bay mentioned as an alternative.
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The City Fathers and Mothers are to blame, not the avarice of private companies. City councils (and this is not just Edinburgh) have no other model in their heads: growth, growth and more growth.
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https://www.thenational.scot/news/18138100.edinburgh-bought-sold-hogmanay-gold/
I don’t think that is 100% accurate as in the latest round of cuts the development company responsible for marketing edinburgh had most of its money that the council gives it withdrawn.
I suppose I better read the whole article. It better not be gibberish.
Some if it was good. Doughnut city is worth considering. However a lot of it was a bit agitprop. Venice is considering becoming a gated city. But Underbelly gates are bad.
Also misses a chance for a slightly more subtle analysis. As with many schemes the council runs e.g. the bike to work scheme. They run with one provider then they are obliged over time to put the scheme out to tender. The Underbelly version is about the same as the previous tender - Gates for residents, German market etc.
Many tourists appear to arrive by train, often with North of England accents.
I avoid German markets and prefer full festival shows to fringe stuff. My favourite time is probably still after the festival in the summer and before the students arrive back. But i like the winter and you can avoid the tourists and the whole winter underbelly by going to queen street (malt whisky society for example) or dovecote at Infirmary street. So basically about two streets are busy. You can of course go down leith to the Shore bar or out to GMA.
As for Mark Ronson and Marc Almond. I like them but prefer to grow my own culture.
I like Edinburgh. I like to stroll around the city centre. Excellent walks and pubs etc. After a couple of hours it starts to feel like Disneyland. THE CASTLE, THE NEW TOWN, HOLYROOD ETC. Nothing to do with tourism.
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