Flats at Crusader Works, one of the largest surviving textile mills and new luxury property venture by Capital & Centric where one bedroom apartments are going for heady sums upwards of £189,000, are on sale again. Since the project began the MEN has released a slew of articles gushing about how the development, on Chapeltown […]
Cities are recognising the dangers of speculation and big capital: what will Manchester’s politicians do next?
With thousands of housing units being built in across wards including Deansgate, Piccadilly and Ancoats, central areas of Manchester have now become a key investment ‘hot-spot’ for profit-seeking finance that cares little for local communities. This rampant speculation, surge in international investment and links to rising rents, displacement, homelessness and destruction of heritage and culture […]
The light and dark of Manchester Day 2018
This time last week, thousands of people had descended into the streets of Manchester to celebrate Manchester Day 2018 as a parade made its way down Deansgate then onto Albert Square. At this fantastic annual event, wonderful sights and sounds could be seen and heard all around the city centre and beyond. The floats gleamed […]
The people of Manchester Day 2018
On Sunday, people from across Manchester saw the city celebrated through a day of art, music, food and fun. Manchester Day 2018 was the perfect picture of the city’s great talent, overwhelming creativity and diverse cultures. Once again Manchester stood together, crowding the city centre streets to get a glance of the loud and colourful parade. […]
Defying the council, activists rename street after Ahmed Mansoor – an Emirati human rights defender sentenced to ten years in jail
A bid by human rights activists to rename a street after Ahmed Mansoor was refused by Manchester city council. When Mansoor was jailed for ten years in the United Arab Emirates for tweeting about human rights abuses in his country, the activists decided to rename the street themselves, with an unofficial mayor doing the honours. […]
Manchester together: one year on from the arena attack
A sunny day in beautiful Manchester. The skies are blue and the sun is shining but the people are downcast and sombre. This is the saddest day that I have ever entered the city. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the bomb explosion at the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. 22 people died […]
Manchester’s first Mindful Art Centre opens in Levenshulme
Manchester’s first Mindful Art Centre is launching in Levenshulme Old Library on 27 April, 4pm-9pm. Local social enterprise The Owl and The Coconut are behind the centre, which opens with a community crowd-sourced exhibition and offers of free places on their Mindfulness and Mindful Art courses. The ‘Levy Life’ exhibition, a partnership between Levenshulme Old […]
Endemic avoidance of payments to councils by property developers revealed, while affordable housing is sacrificed for profit
A comprehensive report on the huge sums of money fuelling the housing development boom in the city centre has revealed the scale of non-payment of development funding to the council: only 8% of housing development in Manchester City Centre included in the study had any Section 106 agreement at all. The lack of money collected […]
Manchester is putting Housing First – and the results look good
This article is part of ‘The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester‘ series. Decadence, procrastination and occasional nudity. It would be tricky to explain some of our private domestic activities to an imagined third-party observer, but anarchic indulgence is for many the wholly necessary backend to the economically functional front which the aforementioned observer would probably wish […]
‘Be the change you wish to see’ – Manchester’s squatters are doing just that
The idea that ownership breeds value is essentially true. However, it is not true in the Thatcherite sense, where ownership is the means to the end of an individualistic anti-society. It is true if you develop an area which’s express purpose is to be the collective property of those who inhabit it or utilise it, […]