Showing posts with label Govanhill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Govanhill. Show all posts

Thursday 12 June 2014

It's Our City, Let Us Shape It.


 

      All you good people who turned up last Monday for "These Streets Were Made For Walking" Perhaps you could all come together again for another matter of abuse in our city. The Accord Centre in the East End of our city, WAS, a day centre for more than 100 kids with learning difficulties, a place of fun and learning and a chance of respite for parents and carers. Our caring city council decided to demolish it to create a temporary bus park for the "Games". The families were promised a new centre, to date, nothing.

 
   
     The families and friends of those kids have been fighting a lone battle to get something to replace the centre that the council demolished, all to no avail. Perhaps if the thousands that turned up that Monday in Govanhill, threw their might behind those struggling kids and their families, the council might listen. This is a community matter that demands support from across our city, these are vulnerable kids, they and their families are being abused. Mass protests could change the picture, and end this abuse. It's our city, let's shape it the way we want it.
        Grace Harrigan is an East End resident for whom the Games have not been a blessing. In early 2011, she learnt that the Accord – a day centre used by her son and 120 other adults with learning disabilities – was to be demolished. It was, to quote a clinical letter from a council official, “located in the area designated for the Games”, with their plot lined up to become a coach park. Unsurprisingly, knocking down a disability centre for the sake of a temporary parking facility, for an 11-day event, proved controversial. Carers at the centre found themselves thrown into a high profile campaign and even Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, mindful of an approaching election, waded in to remind Glasgow’s Council not to risk jeopardising the “reputation and integrity” of the Games.
Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday 10 June 2014

All Of Glasgow Is Our City.


      It was great to see such a magnificent turnout at Monday night's walk through Govanhill. A community issue and a massive response from across the city. To be able to safely walk through any district in Glasgow at any time of day or night is a given, and must not be jeopardised by a handful of mental freaks. The only thought of disappointment that crosses my mind is that Glasgow has a limitless number of community issues, some jeopardise the life and safety of children, others the health and welfare of families, some the well being of the elderly and the vulnerable, but we can't get the same mass response to these issues as we got with this particular matter.

Photo: Well done to the thousands who turned out in Govanhill tonight and Amanda & Ashley who pulled the event together. Earlier this week they told us: "We do not want our area to be tarnished as ‘unsafe’ or as a no-go area. We want to inspire confidence in the people, to have the knowledge that the support of the community is out there, and most importantly, we want safety on our streets."
More here: http://athousandflowers.net/2014/06/08/these-streets-were-made-for-walking/
   
    I would like to ask all those who turned up at Govanhill on Monday night to come together on all those other issues that blight lives in our city. For example, in Springburn, we have 52% of children living in poverty, the highest of any district in Scotland, why? As far as I'm aware, Springburn also has the highest number of request for care orders for children. There are other districts in Glasgow not that far behind Springburn. How does this blight and destroy the lives of these children as they grow into adulthood? What kind of adults will they become?


     Like I said, wonderful to see such a mass of people take to the streets on this issue of safety on our streets, but where are they on all those other issues?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk