Susan Rae: Leith Walk and Hawick Riding

Comfy in Susan Rae’s tiny sitting-room, in her flat at the top of Shrubhill, with a cup of tea, I ask her “So why did you move to Edinburgh from the Borders?” I knew she’d moved here seven years ago.

An American once told me, exasperated, “When I ask why you guys always say ‘Well, four hundred years ago – ‘”

This is of course quite untrue. Sometimes, it’s five hundred years ago.

Swimming with the tide

Remember Leith Waterworld?

This was a unique facility at the foot of Leith Walk – a swimming pool with shallow areas and room to play. Edinburgh Leisure had nothing else like it. Leith Waterworld was closed in January 2012, and sold to a commercial property developer in May 2013. Nothing has been done with the site since: it’s just another greyzone area in Leith.

The decision to sell the site for a million pounds to a property developer was defended by the SNP councillor for Colinton / Fairmilehead, Richard Lewis, who is now the City culture and sport convenor, as “we had to be realistic” since a property developer will promise to develop the site as a soft-play area and generate 80 jobs [which did happen eventually…] whereas Splashback, the community campaign to re-open Leith Waterworld, was “a long punt”. (By December 2014, the main sign of that promised “substantial investment” in the area was a pile of dangerous rubbish left outside the Leith Waterworld building for over a week: the property developer, based in Glasgow, professed themselves entirely unaware of the rubbish heap.)

As I wrote in September 2012:

Leith Waterworld was a treasure: a pool designed for all children, for disabled adults, for family use. Closing it down means fewer children will be swimming regularly, learning to have confidence in the water, discovering they love to swim. It’s ironic that this should be Edinburgh’s Olympic & Paralympic memorial: closing a pool that fostered the love of swimming.

What are you staying up for?

The exit polls look depressing:

• Conservatives: 316
• Labour: 239
• SNP: 58
• LibDem: 10
• UKIP: 2
• Green: 2
• Plaid Cymru: 4

If the DUP get 10 seats, as some polls predicted, the Conservatives would be able to choose between a coalition with the LibDems or a coalition with DUP, whichever they pleased: either would get them to 326, and if so, we are screwed.

Mary Moriarty is a BEM

Well, it’s all a load of royalist imperialist hooey, of course, but once in a while the Honours List does light on someone who you think “Yeah, she deserves it!”

The Virtual Inglenook said of Mary Moriarty in 2009 that even she “only retires once”. He did not predict that Moriarty’s idea of “retirement” involved the Leith Festival (Gala Day yesterday, continues to the 20th, enjoy!)

Undecided Leith

At the beginning of October someone tweeted me a link to Yes Edinburgh North & Leith‘s first public meeting, on 3rd October in the Halls on Henderson Street.

Unlike most Yes events, this one was billed explicitly, both in the header and in the text, as for undecided voters – so, unlike with most events organised by Yes Scotland, I felt free to go along. When I got there, about five minutes before the start, I found some Yes activists who’d come anyway were leaving, and people identifying themselves as undecided were being let in on a one-for-one basis (the hall was packed). I got a seat at the front that had been vacated by a Yes voter and was sitting next to two Yes voters who weren’t budging and who didn’t know Leith votes Labour.

Blue Sky at Leith

Today’s the last day to go see the blue sky project dreamed up for Leith Walk, on display at Out of the Blue in Dalmeny Street – till 5pm today.

There’s more about the background to the project in Monday’s post, but I was really interested by their ideas. You should go look! (And come to the Open Space event on 5th June.)

They noted:

We identified 4 areas of undoubted potential:

Leith Walk Out of the Blue

Vision for Leith Walk:

Leith Walk is the longest street in Edinburgh and the one with the most character. It’s one of the most multicultural areas in Edinburgh.

The students of Edinburgh University’s Sustainable Design Master’s Programme are learning “how to design sustainable, environmentally responsive buildings and neighbourhoods” and interested in “how imaginative design solutions can make more resilient and secure communities within existing cities”.

They write:

We’re currently working on a project along Leith Walk, extending from the Playhouse to the Sea

Leith Ward – Results

The candidates on 3rd May were:

• Chas Booth: Scottish Green Party
• Irvine Wallace McMinn: Liberal Party in Scotland
• Adam McVey: Scottish National Party
• Rob Munn: Scottish National Party
• Gordon Munro: Scottish Labour Party
• Nicola Ross: Scottish Conservative and Unionist
• Marjorie Thomas: Scottish Liberal Democrats

The incumbents were Munn (SNP), Munro (Labour), Thomas (LibDem). The turnout last time was 8,391 out of 16,178. The 2012 results are all on Edinburgh Council Elections, Ward 13 – Leith.

So on 3rd May at noon I made seven predictions. How well did I do? Under the cut.

Predictions for Leith Ward

Although I’ve been campaigning for Gordon Murdie, I can’t vote for him (Though I would put him first preference if I could.) Southside/Newington is a ward where I don’t think any prediction is possible – not even by looking at what happened last time.

Whereas in my own ward (ward 13, Leith) I think I can make predictions. There are 7 candidates standing, and 3 seats. The incumbents are Munn (SNP), Munro (Labour), Thomas (LibDem).

• Chas Booth: Scottish Green Party
• Irvine Wallace McMinn: Liberal Party in Scotland
• Adam McVey: Scottish National Party
• Rob Munn: Scottish National Party
• Gordon Munro: Scottish Labour Party
• Nicola Ross: Scottish Conservative and Unionist
• Marjorie Thomas: Scottish Liberal Democrats

Turnout last time was 8,391 out of 16,178. Four candidates must be eliminated and three will get seats. What’s my predictions?

Vision for Leith Walk

Leith Walk is the longest street in Edinburgh and the one with the most character. It’s one of the most multicultural areas in Edinburgh. There are about eight supermarkets on Leith Walk and a few chain shops and franchises, and the usual array of charity shops and some ugly new pawnshops and moneylenders, but there’s also a host of local businesses, including some which are the best in Edinburgh for what they sell: Scottish scones and cake, Mexican food, Polish bread, Sicilian pastries, Bangladesh curries, Chinese markets, Italian coffee, Tattie Shaws for fruit and veg, furniture, clothes, electronics, books, art, music, excellent pubs, several cybercafes all of which provide good quality Internet, ranging from the very basic to the positively luxurious – Leith Walk is great.

And Edinburgh Council has treated it like crap.

The roads are in a state not even justified by the trams. The pavements are broken and unmended. There’s state-sponsored graffiti warning us that we’re in danger of being stabbed. It’s even difficult to cross the road.