Lamin Touray interviews Dr Erinma Bell, a Rusholme-born Nigerian who was the first woman to have a statue of herself on display in Manchester Town Hall as a tribute to her work of reducing gun and gang crime in Manchester.
Can Greater Manchester’s planning committees keep up with the pace of advertisement technology?
Local councils are being overruled by central government on decisions regarding planning applications for LED billboards in public spaces. Check out the accepted and rejected digital billboards in your area on The Meteor’s interactive map.
Bolton recruit: the story of anti-racist activist Ramila Patel
The story of Ramila Patel, Bolton raised trade union and anti-racist activist who was recruited to work undercover for the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa in the 1980s.
Co-living: a new housing model in a broken system
After several months of rejection huge co-living developments are now coming to Manchester. Is it a new form of community living or another extractive product in the city’s ongoing property boom?
With strong links to the city’s financialised student housing sector, is this the type of housing we should be building during Covid-19 and the ongoing housing crisis?
GM Savers network: steering communities safely through the Covid-19 storm
Community-led groups making up the GM Savers Network describe how they and their members are working together to get through the Covid-19 crisis.
‘We’re a community of ghosts’ – older renters in Hulme speak out
The number of people over the age of 55 living in rented accommodation is increasing. The Meteor visits Hopton Court, a social housing block in Hulme, and speaks with older renters about the challenges and uncertainty they face.
Urgent need to prioritise anti-racism in Greater Manchester schools
Report highlights racism in Manchester schools with problems of lack of teacher racial literacy, a too ‘white and narrow’ curriculum, institutionally racist police in vulnerable schools and outdated school policies.
Mutual aid groups have been a lifeline to many – should they continue post-pandemic?
The pandemic lockdown saw communities banding together to provide support for the vulnerable, filling the gaps to support left by a slow to act state. Mutual aiders describe the challenges they face providing help during the Covid-19 crisis.
Curious kakapos and violin plots: my data expedition discoveries
Maddy McCormack took a first dive into a data expedition organised by Open Data Manchester.
She discovered that violin plots are not generally created by scheming orchestra members and that you should always question the data, be very thoughtful about power dynamics and keep in mind who the information can hurt and why.
Social housing companies extracting huge shareholder payouts from housing benefits paid to vulnerable tenants
Thirteen registered providers of social housing are using this financialised lease-based model in Greater Manchester. Five have regulatory judgements against them. Wigan is the borough with the highest amount of this type of housing which is fueling substantial dividend payments to shareholders, all derived from public money paid to house people with disabilities. Social housing […]