The city has been such a mess for so long that most people have found viable alternatives to Bradford, and even when/if the new shopping centre is built I can't see those people coming back to the city centre.



I live in Thackley and its actually not that much more difficult to get to Leeds City Centre than it is to get to Bradford City Centre. I can be in Leeds in less than 15 mins (train), less than 30mins (bus) and less than 20mins (car)... thats pretty comparabale with the time to get to Bradford with the added advantage of actually not having to go to Bradford!! Hence I chose to work/socialise/shop in Leeds.

You get the clear impression that for decades, the Council has simply not employed people who are up to the job of moving a City into the 21c. The Odsal debacles are just one example, if a prominent one, of that.



Sure we have a recession now, but is there anywhere else in the world where the local authority would get away with flattening half the city centre and then leaving it like that for a decade, which it looks like being?



That they have pretty much got away with it probably illustrates that most of the ground-down residents don't actually give a fsck any more and prefer to simply shake their heads with a wry grin, as I do.

[url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/4176200.Council__must_do_better__as_star_rating_falls/I'm amazed they managed to get 2 stars[/url.



The very final death knell for Bradford was once the powers that be decided Bradford was no longer a city in its own right for regeneration and funding purposes and is in fact part of "Leeds City Region".



Groups like Yorkshire Forward have little interest in improving things in Bradford, their track record shows this, i.e. we can't have the Odeon building being used for something useful like a mid-range concert venue - that scuppers plans for a similar one down the road in Leeds, so we'll (plan) another generic office block instead.

I'm busy spending Yorkshire Forward's millions like there's no tomorrow in Leeds right now. We couldn't get a bean in Bradford.

Indeed. I left Bradford in 1998, and it has declined considerably since. The centre of Liverpool by contrast has been transformed in the last year or so (although I note several shops in the new development have started closing

). Even the metropolis that is Exeter has had a relatively large facelift and new shopping area in the last few years.



It seems that as Bradford has missed the boat for regeneration on the back of the last economic boom - it may be some time before further large scale regeneration happens.

The little matter of the funding freed up (and other interest) by its being designated European Capital of Culture had more than a bit to do with that.



Maybe those Bradfordians on here who derided their Council's bid for that status as a waste of money or a joke may care to reflect on that? The whole point of the Bradford bid was precisely to get hands on more funding.



Leeds' rise and eclipsing of the rest of West Yorkshire started with it being designated a Development Area in the 1980s. The current scandal of treating the rest of West Yorkshire as mere outlying areas of Leeds has merely been yet more nails in the coffin.

Interesting thread: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=246487

Interesting thread: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=246487

In fact that whole forum is a mine of information: www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=447

In fact that whole forum is a mine of information: www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=447

5 years today since the work started. Happy birthday.

And another 5 years before it opens, in the current climate.



And that's optimistic.

Sadly yes!



Bradford as a city centre is at the moment as dead as a dodo. I had the dubious pleasure of a night out in the town centre a few weeks back. Most of the pubs up near the west end were half full to empty, nobody seems to go out in town anymore. Barring the Pictureville and the odd curry house there is nothing there. I was struck with how dead the place was, why anyone would buy an apartment or stay in a hotel there is beyond me.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7949077.stmPick your favourite.[/url

That's the entire vocabulary of a lot of people I work with

It's not all doom and gloom. Max is opening his new Gasworks club this Friday with Terrorvision as the opening night act. Hopefully he'll attract some decent bands as the Rios move to Leeds appears to be running aground. He deserves support in trying to inject some nightlife into the West End at least.