Question CUL3
Original Document
What steps can be taken to give the city centre a livelier street scene?
Plain English Translation
What can we do to give the city centre a livelier street scene?
This is an unofficial 'plain English' version of the Big City Plan Work in Progress consultation document about how Birmingham (UK) should be developed over the next 20 years. For more information, see the About page.
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The official consultation closes at 23:59 on Friday 6th February. We closed comments on the same day at 12 noon here in order to get them to the council on time, in the format they want.
We sent a printed copy of all comments that were made before midnight on 4th Feb to the council by post (recorded delivery). We are currently processing comments made by 12 noon today (6th Feb) to email to them.
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What steps can be taken to give the city centre a livelier street scene?
What can we do to give the city centre a livelier street scene?
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Not sure what is meant by this – like Covent Garden? Buskers? Or does it mean cafe culture? I suppose the city centre needs to feel like somewhere that people will want to come to and spend time just hanging out, instead of just being funnelled into giant shops.
Something that makes Birmingham feel a bit alien to me is that there are distinct 'areas' of the city centre: there's the shopping zone that becomes wasted space once the shops close; the bar/club/restaurant zone around Broad St that has no buffers to calm it down when it gets busy; and the cultural zones around Hurst St and Eastside, which means it is difficult for spaces to open up elsewhere.
Cities with a good street scene feel more organic, there's more variety of what you'll find in an area, and importantly the 'centre' is more spread out.
Encourage more busking.
A system of buskers licenses ensuring some good quality street entertainment.