Recently in Regeneration Mafia Category

Regulars will recall me writing about the Reg Ward Memorial Event remembering-the-force-of-nature-that-was-reg-ward.html and, in the interests of me remaining connected to my Docklands roots (btw I don't think any of us will ever achieve "closure" on Reg) but also as a resource to students of urban regeneration out there, I thought it was important to report on the follow-up.  Much of the inception of regeneration thought can be traced back to London Docklands (in a wholly tasteless analogy I always say it could be compared to the way that all foot and mouth disease was traced back to the same farm) and anyone studying our field would be as well to have access to the correct sources (and know which old gimmers were responsible).

The other day a few of the Docklands Lags (DLs) congregated in the Yi Ban (a rather wonderful Chinese restaurant overlooking the Royal Albert Dock) to have a sort of post mortem on the event and to pick over the entrails.  We noted sadly that the vista of the Royals was much as we had left it when the LDDC was wound up but, on the memorial evening itself, we were all agreed that it had been a great event.  The great Stuart Innes (our very own "Brown Owl") has put together a page about the event on the LDDC History website. There are video clips of the various speeches and a host of pictures of various reprobates.  One of the speeches was made by Richard Desmond (who Reg had given his big break to in the mid-eighties) and there was much muttering about this by the purists, both on the night and subsequently.  But it has to be said that Mr Desmond  made a charming speech on the occasion.  And one thing (of many) that you could say about Reg, was that he knew it took all sorts.....

I see Richard Desmond is in the news again.  One of the Docklands Lags sent me an e-mail entitled 'Our Friend Richard'  with a link to a spoof news page called 'Newsthump'.  The story is headlined 'Richard Desmond launches lottery to raise funds for Richard Desmond' and runs 'It is hoped that a new lottery that has been set up by Richard Desmond to raise money for Richard Desmond will provide Richard Desmond with enormous amounts of cash, Richard Desmond has revealed. The health lottery, which will disguise itself as a charitable venture in order to extract money from idiots, will be drawn on Saturday evenings on ITV and Channel 5. 'This will be a unique opportunity for people to give me lots of money, insisted Mr Desmond.  The launch of the game is being backed by a £20m publicity campaign and Health Lottery chief executive Martin Hall said the game would benefit everyone in Great Britain who is called Richard Desmond and owns the Daily Express.'

Probably not very fair, but made me smile anyway.  Stuart Innes' s LDDC website has an LDDC People Page.  It is a sort of Facebook for Docklands Lags (DLs) and is such a splendid resource that I am thinking of nicking the idea, lock, stock and barrel for UKR.  You got to know who to blame.

 

 

We gave evidence last night at the CLG Select Committee Inquiry into Regeneration. I say "we", but, of course, I sent in Dr Evans (now, be aware, this isn't cowardice, it is playing to strengths, which I think you'll agree is an excellent ability in any manager). The other day he (Dr Evans) was accused - by Chris Brown, no less - of being "Jackie's brain," which is downright insulting really (but probably pretty accurate). His retort was "well, I'm certainly not her body", which was nearly as rude.
 
We were pleased to be asked to appear at the Select Committee, which started two weeks ago and continues throughout June. Inevitably, differences of view are emerging. And, blimey, there are a lot of old lags in the game! Dr Evans has nobly summarised some of the main submissions from some national and other bodies for the UKR Forum Library (and if you want a copy, you'll need to join the UKR Forum so ner). It will be interesting to see how these various views play out, and how far they influence government.
 

A journalist called Kathryn Schulz has written a book about getting things wrong (Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error).

In it, she explores the well-observed phenomenon of how frequently people get things totally wrong.

An experiment, first conducted in 1902, of two actors faking a shooting in the street - subsequently oft repeated - has shown this to be an all too human, universal, condition.

Despite being eye witnesses, people remember details and "facts" that did not occur, such as seeing blood when there was none. And it would seem that folk have a preconceived notion of how things ought to be, or have been, even when cursory observation would indicate otherwise.

There is a grace to admitting that you are wrong about anything. And such grace certainly seems to be denied to anyone in public life.

In such pursuits of knowledge as pharmaceutical research, say, or road safety design, we make allowances for human error, devising systems to allow for it.

But in public life we treat all mistakes as shameful and deride those who change their minds as "u-turners" or inconsistent. It has to be unhealthy to deny the possibility of learning from our mistakes. Perhaps the deterrent is the serious dollop of humility required.

One of the great things about becoming EG Regeneration blogger is the way it allows me to keep up with old friends.

I really was thrilled to hear from Brian Jenner (of Paddington days) again the other day. I had indeed forgotten that he had called for the erection of a bronze statue of me on the forecourt of Paddington Station.

However, he was also reported as kindly suggesting that "such was your appetite for an urban regeneration challenge, they should send you to Baghdad". 

It was very very funny then and it's nice to be reminded now, Brian, very nice indeed. And, btw, my mother thought the statue idea was an excellent one.

We've also gone international!  Wonderful to hear from my old mate Lee Swan (rather more grandly known as "Ashleigh Swan" on occasion).

I am now at a strange point in my life of finding myself an eminence grise in the regeneration sector. Anyone who knows me will attest that this is not something I'm terrifically comfortable with, having got a life-long self-image of being an "urban guerrilla" banging on the door of the mainstream property sector. After all, I started my adult life with a bubble perm, Doctor Martins, red dungarees and a badge saying "wearing badges is not enough" and, frankly, I am still that rather absurd girlie underneath.

So I found it very odd indeed when that venerable old man of the sea, Howard Day (fag hanging out of his mouth of course) said incredulously (this was while we were doing Paddington, he was with Railtrack at the time but he does get about; he's the only person I know who has worked for both Godfrey Bradman and Stuart Lipton not - I hasten to add - at the same time) "Blimey Jack, you're becoming establishment". And although I didn't believe him at the time, I guess I really am now. After all, I chair the trade federation (hurrah!) and I'm Head of Regeneration for CB Richard Ellis, biggest real estate consultancy in the world (so ner) so I guess I'd better wake up and smell the hummus.

And it's rather nice being an eminence grise, of course. Students write to me to ask me for careers advice. Bless. What would I know? I hugely enjoy lecturing the APCs (the "Assessment of Professional Competence" cohort - or, in English, the graduate trainees) in CBRE. I lurve lurve lurve the CBRE APCs, they are the brightest and most sassy group of young people you could care to meet. Completely energising and stimulating to be around. Graduate recruitment is something that CBRE do brilliantly well - it's taken a bit of battering in recent times of course but I have no doubt they'll be back out in the colleges before long.

Was invited out to lunch with Peter Brett Associates (PBA) at Mosimann's, which was a rare treat as I'd never been there before. I have always had a soft spot for the Brett boys - they're a user-friendly bunch and they like a bit of knockabout humour - which is just as well really. I am always very rude to the lads - it's tradition really - and they never care; they're unoffendable really.

After we'd got over the preliminaries of me saying that I "couldn't possibly eat lunch in a dump like that" and "why-oh-why after three decades was I still slumming it with boring transport engineers" etc etc, we settled down to a real working lunch on energy and ecology. This was far from a pure jolly-up (although it was very jolly too of course) but was a real opportunity to listen, learn and debate some issues facing the future of the regeneration sector.

We received two very different technical presentations - one on energy production and one on biodiversity - and then had a fascinating round table discussion. I found I learnt A Lot from the presentations, the most exciting idea being that corporates' property portfolios can be treated as single cross-subsidising entities in terms of production of energy for the National Grid. Given the shake-up that we're going to see in among the FTSE 500 corporates' use of real estate, this is a major contribution to thinking. And - says she, a tad hubristically - to the future of the planet.