On the Ten4 blog's Why can't Birmingham do it like Manchester? post there's a great long comment from one Jean-Luc Fournier which I think needs to be aired wider afield. So I'm going to reprint a whole chunk of it without permission:
As for the Mayor. Yes, but there should be a clause saying no currently elected politician can stand and it should be a party-free vote. Part of Birmingham's image problem comes from our short-sighted politicians so they should be eradicated from the proceedings.
I should be writing this stuff on the Ten4 blog really. As should you.
In my view, the answer to the problem is simple: firstly, the West Midlands must be renamed Greater Birmingham, and Greater Birmingham must have a mayor. (Preferably not Mike Whitby or Carl Chinn.) No-one outside the UK knows what or where the West Midlands is. And the same applies to plenty within the UK too. Let Solihull and Wolverhampton et al. whine about being ’subsumed’ all that they like; the fact is, they will benefit more and be heard about more by being part of Greater Birmingham than they do by deluding themselves into thinking they’re separate from their conurbation that no-one’s ever heard of anyway.That bit about "Greater Birmingham" really resonates with me. I've been spending a bit of time at Light House in Wolverhampton and while it has a unique and special character it's really part of the Birmingham scene. And, needless to say, Birmingham is part of the Wolverhampton scene.
Having a mayor just *works*. London, Paris and Berlin all have great mayors at the moment. Ken has done much right, and much wrong - but everyone can agree he busts a gut to promote this place, and it has been a successful effort. Barcelona’s transformation is largely down to its one-time mayor, Pascall Maragual; New York’s to Rudy Giuliani, when he was in office; Athens’s to Dimitris Avramopoulos in the 1990s, and so on.
Birmingham and its mayor must then start to promote themselves properly. At the moment it pitches itself embarrassingly. Its city logo is poor and unmemorable. The 1992 one was much better. Its slogan ‘many worlds one great city’ is so yawn-inducingly common as to beggar belief that no-one realised it’s been used before by city after city after city…
So please, no more mentions of having more miles of canal than Venice. No more ridiculous claims such as “Birmingham is one of Europe’s most sophisticated cities…” (from a tourist brochure circa 1996). No more Mike Whitby seizing upon the Chamberlain Square beach or an extra daily flight to Dubai as ‘proof’ that Birmingham is a ‘global city’ and a player on the world stage. I mean, please. No more fake American tourists trying to persuade Brummies to visit their own museums either…
A simple slogan is needed, and needs to be used in all campaign literature, every single ad, brochure… anything promoting the city. Glasgow had ’smiles better’. Birmingham’s should be: ‘Birmingham is changing’. Imagine it in big letters on a poster in a London Underground station. It conveys both the desired message and the truth, for the city *is* always changing - it never stops. It is not a ridiculous claim. It cannot be laughed at - and a slogan promoting Birmingham must be scoff-proof, after all.
Finally a better understanding of design and how much a city can benefit if good design infuses every part of its being, from its corporate identity to its public transport maps to its street furniture to its buildings to its signage, and so on. Again - sorry to bang on about it and sorry that *everyone* says it - I must refer you to Barcelona, a city that ‘got’ the power of design before any other city did.
As for the Mayor. Yes, but there should be a clause saying no currently elected politician can stand and it should be a party-free vote. Part of Birmingham's image problem comes from our short-sighted politicians so they should be eradicated from the proceedings.
I should be writing this stuff on the Ten4 blog really. As should you.
10 Comments:
How about scrapping every single brochure, logo, marketing slogan and all other flushware, and instead having simple having one single line set in Courier:
Birmingham. Get real.
If we have 'an offer', people will talk about it and tell others. If we don't, no amount of glossy tat will sell it to them.
I need not tell you I'm not keen on the idea of 'Greater Birmingham', however much this may be dismissed in advance as 'whinging'.
Many years ago I was sitting in a New York restaurant at 3 p.m. In comes Mayor Ed Koch with a small entourage. He walked by our table and said "Isn't this a great city or what?"
That simple "boost" has stuck in my mind ever since. New York hasn't always had a great mayor but when it has the city seems to do so much better.
As to Greater Birmingham, why not? I am not sure exactly where Greater Manchester starts and ends (I have never even been near the place) so I am sure the people of Bolton or Salford can easily opt out when they want to. Ditto Wolverhampton!
I suspect I might be missing your point here, but - why do it in the first place, if it's a non-defined vague concept that you can just 'opt out' of? Wouldn't you just end up with a Greater Birmingham consisting of just, well, Birmingham? Greater Manchester is a Metropolitan county with defined borders, rather than a hazy idea you can opt out of.
It may seem like a cosmetic touch to many, but we Yams do not like being referred to as Brummies (most of us, anyway). It's a question of local character. I wouldn't be surprised if the name 'West Midlands' wasn't chosen partly because of this sort of thing. Call me parochial if you will, but if the price of some intangible sense of international acclaim is to homogenise and go against the grain of the little local differences that make the world interesting then I'm not convinced it's worth it.
I don't think I see the logic of 'renaming one thing that people aren't sufficiently aware of after another thing that people aren't sufficiently aware of (that was the point of the debate) will help the latter spread awareness,' either, but there are presumably practical details that are missing.
Hi Pete,
Love the Blog; sadly, although a Brummie and firmly of the belief that this is the best city in England, we'll never overtake Manchester. Why?
Because, in the Public imagination,Manchester has two things we lack completely, an internationally famous football team (Man Utd.) and Coronation Street.
Villa and Crossroads will never cut it. Brum is better in every meaningful way, but in the media obsessed culture we live in...
Russ: I see where you're coming from but you're actually a great example of this. You're not from Birmingham but I consider you to be part of the Birmingham landscape. Similarly your insistence that venues like Wulfrun be considered as part of the live music makeup by Brummies.
The point is Birmingham and the Black Country are more tied up that we like to think - people do move across them, especially in Arts circles - and recognizing that fact can only be a good thing.
I've never been a fan of the West Mids concept as it brings in too much from outside the cities but having some kind of central overseeing vision for the urban conurbation from Cov to Wolves, if only for the Arts, could be really exciting.
As for homogonising, Birmingham already has a vastly disparate number of locations which hate each other and a distinct North-South divide.
Think of it along the lines of the EU. (Yes I think the EU is a good thing!)
Perculier: You're missing my point, somewhat understandably given the history of this debate.
This ISN'T about Birmingham being better than Manchester. There's enough room for both of them to be great. The point is Manchester has succeeded in (for want of a better word) branding itself on the world stage. What can be learn from that?
Whatever Birmingham does it will be different to Manchester - they are very different places. But some of the techniques they used could be useful to us.
(I like to think of them as dogs. Manchester is a rottweiler that's loyal but'll bite your ass if you look at it wrong. Birmingham is a St Bernard that looks all dozy but still has a bite and will be there for you if you get lost up a mountain or something.)
Sorry Pete, I think we've got our wires crossed (As you noted, probably due to the history of the debate); I wasn't arguing whether Birmingham or Manchester was the better city as I don't care in anything other than subjective terms: I was born in Brum and get tired of it being slagged off by ignorant media hacks with outmoded perceptions: I've lived in a number of cities here and abroad and all have their good and bad points, but Birmingham is my personal favourite.
My point was that Manchester hasn't become an international city (or rather perceived as such) due to branding per se, but because it has two huge international 'brands': Birmingham has no equivalents, and while the city suffers with an inferiority complex, copying ideas from other cities (E.G. the walk of stars: LOL!), it probably never will.
A 'Greater Birmingham' concept with all that it entails may help, but to really put the city on the map let's create a cultural environment that generates world famous architecture, art, music, sports etc. and then celebrate them, rather than ignore or deride them, an area where we can learn from our friends in the North.
'Madchester' and the Hacienda etc. was a relatively short lived musical phenomenon, producing a handful of artists who crashed and burned for the most part, but which the city celebrates. Birmingham has given the world Heavy Metal, a form of mainstream music which, love it or hate it, has been around for forty years and produced internationally high profile acts like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and influenced the music scene world-wide. Yet Brum as a city does little or nothing to credit this fact or celebrate it.
If Manchester had given birth to such a phenomenon musically, there would be a lot more than a Brass paving stone with Ossie's name on, with probably a museum, guided tours, and a whole industry attached. Birmingham should be proud of it's genuine historical and cultural achievements, publicising it's global impact in manufacturing, the arts, politics, etc. and cease trying to copy ideas from elsewhere.
I thought a few years back with the Hancock statue, we were starting to get things right, but sadly this new-found pride soon petered out.
Wires sufficiently uncrossed!
I see where you're coming from now, especially with the music stuff.
Actually, might I refer folk to the Sheffield thing I posted on CiB?
http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=429
(Back to the 'Greater Birmingham' tingaling)
I agree - and as you correctly point out - I'm a consistant advocate of Black Country & Birmingham alliance. I disagree with nothing in the bit of your mor recent post directed to me (apart from you not being a fan of the West Mids concept because it brings in too much from outside of the cities, whereupon I don't really understand what you're getting at).
Some sort of county-wide overseeing body for arts purposes would be a good thing, I think (as long as it sees itself as a "co-ordinating" rather than "leading" body - that's a different debate, though). Put that under the control of the mayoral office by all means if you think it would help.
Our original correspondant, however, seems to think that a pre-requisite of this (or an aid to the publicising of this) would be re-naming the damn county. Again, I'll say that although some of us might think this is purely a cosmetic point, others amongst us really (really really) don't. I furthermore fail to see how it's supposed to help (as per my original post).
Off topic: I chuckled at your last post on The Stirrer's boards, and to a fairly arge extent agree. I did make one post myself on there, which was completely ignored. I know find myself suspended dor attempting to change the email account I'm registered with (I'm not joking).
Ye Gods, I haven't half lost the ability to spell/type these days.
To return my final paragraph to a degree of comprehensibility -
Off topic: I chuckled at your last post on The Stirrer's boards, and to a fairly large extent agree. I did make one post myself on there, which was completely ignored. I now find myself suspended for attempting to change the email account I'm registered with (I'm not joking).
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