If you build it they will come: Renew Newcastle [04.11.2009]
*During my first ever trip to Newcastle earlier this year I was amazed, like the majority of first-time visitors, by the number of vacant buildings throughout the main streets of the city. It was a veritable ghost town.
Delving a little deeper I realised this was not strictly the case. Scattered throughout the stretches of unused real estate, hidden within the shells of heritage structures, were exciting little shops, cafes and galleries; earnest realisations of creative endeavours. I was at once thrilled and thoroughly confused. How could these tiny, left-of-centre ventures afford such prime commercial spaces? And if they could afford it, why couldn’t anyone else?
What I had yet to realise was that these weren’t feats of squatting or happy coincidences in a freak local economy. These small businesses were bright tiny flowers in the harsh soils of a garden lovingly planted and tended by Renew Newcastle.* - Useless Lines Blog.
