Comments on: Introduction to the Big City Plan http://bigcitytalk.org.uk/231/introduction-to-the-big-city-plan/ A Place To Talk About Birmingham's Big City Plan Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:04:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Julia Gilbert http://bigcitytalk.org.uk/231/introduction-to-the-big-city-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-127 Julia Gilbert Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:39:32 +0000 http://bigcity.paradisecircus.com/?p=231#comment-127 I'd just like to make a general comment that I feel Birmingham shouldn't be too 'proud' to take inspiration from other cities around the world. I find the competition between fellow UK cities London and Manchester a bit unhealthy. Sometimes I hear comments like "we're not copying what X city is doing", but why reinvent the wheel? If something is working well in another city, we should seriously think about whether it could work in Birmingham too. Why not cherry pick all the best bits from other great cities around the world? If we come up with something even better, all well and good, but we shouldn't reject a good idea just because someone else got there first, there are always ways we can adapt things to make them 'our own'.<br><br>I'd also like to recommend a couple of blogs that I'd hope that anyone involved in making plans for the future of the city would read on a regular basis. The first is <a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/" rel="nofollow">Inhabitat</a> which describes itself as "devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future" and the second is <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/" rel="nofollow">Treehugger</a> "dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream". Others may have more recommendations. I'd just like to make a general comment that I feel Birmingham shouldn't be too 'proud' to take inspiration from other cities around the world. I find the competition between fellow UK cities London and Manchester a bit unhealthy. Sometimes I hear comments like “we're not copying what X city is doing”, but why reinvent the wheel? If something is working well in another city, we should seriously think about whether it could work in Birmingham too. Why not cherry pick all the best bits from other great cities around the world? If we come up with something even better, all well and good, but we shouldn't reject a good idea just because someone else got there first, there are always ways we can adapt things to make them 'our own'.

I'd also like to recommend a couple of blogs that I'd hope that anyone involved in making plans for the future of the city would read on a regular basis. The first is Inhabitat which describes itself as “devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future” and the second is Treehugger “dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream”. Others may have more recommendations.

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