After a thorough
examination of York over the past three weeks, I have learned a lot.
I have talked to many people in York, from tourists and residents to
even traders. So there is quite a range of people to examine. Plus,
seeing the local newspapers' articles confirms a lot of these
opinions. There is a a clear resistance against the Council's
actions, but there seem to also be a lot of accusations. So far, I
have yet to see any evidence of poor conduct from the Council apart
from some signage issues. That everything they have done is
according to regulations and there has been evidence of trying to
communicate their plans publicly. But as the saying goes “there is
no smoke without fire”, I will continue to delve into this more.
However, I feel it is
time for me to try discover York in my own eyes. Since, I do not
tend to examine everything when I go into York, I will always miss
out on points others will not. I have been here many years, and like
seeing close family everyday, you will not see the change. I will be
doing site surveys of all the areas and taking a closer look, keeping
in mind the different groups of users in York.
Fossgate - A Cold
welcome
At the entrance, there
is a large banner saying “The Ultimate street of local independent
businesses” To me, it looks cheap and not really that appealing.
To say it is the ultimate street and then displaying it with a cheap
flimsy banner is like the false advertising on replica goods in Hong
Kong. It doesn’t look good, and doesn’t convey the message of
‘ultimate’. The plastic flutters in the wind and difficult to
read, it’s more like a warning sign – ‘stay away’. The sign
post at the entrance doesn’t direct visitors to the street and is
actually more ornate and more in keeping with the rest of York. Take
a look at Newgate market’s bold, cast iron sign. It is so much more
interesting. The sign is important because it’s a gateway into a
new space. A gateway should make people going through it feel like
they have entered a new space, whatever that space is. Clearly,
there is not enough foot fall in this street, and the problems are
not solved by wafting a plastic banner the faces of visitors. For a
street, it’s alright, but once you start to glorify this street
with the words – ultimate, local, independent. It feels like a
desperate attempt to entice visitors. However, I have to say that
Fossgate shops are very decent, and a good place to shop.
Another issue I
encountered was that the narrow street allows parking on one side and
given it’s one-way nature, it does not give pedestrians room to
comfortable walk down it. The street as it is, without the banner,
visitors become totally oblivious to the existence of this street.
Cars dominate this street, with parked cars on one side of the road,
and narrow pavements feels like an afterthought. Walking down the
street is actually not too bad since there are not a lot of
pedestrians, but the issue is when you are a tourist, you tend to
look at everything. Visitors like to see the ‘Old York’ and the
character of York. I do not walk down Fossgate very often and for
me, it was nice to look up and see the lovely variety of architecture
showing through. Even the old battered clocked hanging high are
lovely and give a lot of character to this place. There are two on
this street, but really dwarfed by the one on Coney street. Overall,
the street is a joy to explore if there is not a lot of traffic.
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