Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

New Pavements so Good you Could Eat your Dinner off them

Walking home this evening I was struck by how nice Harringay's new pavements look; more airport terminal than high street.

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Permalink Reply by Penguin on February 7, 2014 at 7:15

They can spend millions on new paving but they can't even remove the satellite dishes that make green lanes look such a state.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 7, 2014 at 8:57

Nor can we stop, it seems, people coming out of restaurants with take aways and then emptying most of them over the pavements. The corner of my street, with new paving slabs, is a favourite area for people who eat what they want in their cars and simply throw the rest out of the window before driving off.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 7, 2014 at 9:28

Which, Ruth, helpfully confirms ethnographic observations made a couple of years ago by Professor Elizabeth Ixer in her ground-breaking research study "The Harringay Litterer".

That major addition to the litter-ature on this topic contained a key footnote on "the car diner".

Sadly it was ignored in the traditional closed world of Haringey policy-makers where such fresh observations and new-fangled ideas are regarded with deep suspicion as likely to disturb the established disorder.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 15, 2014 at 9:32

Thérèse, of course they should. But not just restaurants and not just businesses which get public money to do up their shop fronts. All of them!

It's because if they have any real understanding of their business interests (as well as doing the right thing) business owners, their staff and the associations of traders grasp that they are part of the local community and this is one way to show this.

The arguments are presented neatly in this video on YouTube from Business In The Community. (BITC)

Of course, the greediest may do this cynically. And be more concerned about parking their profits in Bermuda. Marx didn't get everything wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 7, 2014 at 8:48

Whose responsibility is it to accumulate small contributions to achieve a large project - first to make it happen and then to maintain and even improve it?

The council? The government? The community? The traders? Them? Us? Other people? The rich? The poor? Landlords? My neighbours? Some magical unnamed powers?

In her examination of Tottenham's court records in the 14th and 15th centuries, local historian Christine Protz found that a frequent cause of disputes was flooding. Often due to people not maintaining ditches.

I recently came across a classification system of traditional folk tales known as the Aarne-Thompson system. (Updated to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system.) It traces the hundreds of variations of the Stone Soup tale across Europe and in the Americas. Sometimes it's a cautionary story about beggars and conmen. Sometimes a fable about co-operative effort, where people working together each "doing their bit", are far more than the sum of their parts.

Read the Wikipedia article on Stone Soup and you'll realise that food banks are a recent example. While the term "Rock Soup" was used by U.S. General Paton in wartime Italy to disguise attacks as reconnaissance missions. In much the same way as Tory initiatives for demolition and social cleansing in Tottenham are justified by Cllrs Claire Kober and Alan Strickland as "mixed communities" and "regeneration".

Who keeps publicly-owned pavements clean and maintained in Knightsbridge? Who contributes and who benefits? And is their relative contribution and benefit fair and reasonable?

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on February 7, 2014 at 9:27

Since Knightsbridge is full of the world's rich, who never walk anywhere (and don't even live in their 50 million pound homes most of the time), I don't think we need to worry too much about their pavements. Soon we ordinary people will need a special pass to even go into the area. As for responsibility for things in Haringey, that lies with Haringey Council (elected by the people, representing society). And all they care about is persuading more yuppies to move in to drive up property values.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on February 7, 2014 at 11:34

Christopher, yes, Haringey Council does have responsibility. And currently it's a tragedy that what passes for political leadership here is drifting, incompetent, and incapable of learning. Also that some staff seem to prefer explaining for example, why they "don't expect an enormous amount of learning" from a vital review (at 5:27). Or send standard form replies explaining why they can't solve a problem, instead of taking a fresh look at what the problem might be.

But - and it's an enormous but - at the same time and separate from these failings, you really can't make soup from stones. Having massive brutal cuts from central government really does restrict available choices at a time of rapidly increasing demands.

As I understand it, the improvements - or if you prefer - the works on Green Lanes are a locally developed, but externally funded initiative. Which appears to be very positive. But you're plainly right that thought was and is needed about how to stop new pavements, pocket parks etc quickly being covered in new layers of crud, litter, extending shop displays; and with cracks and puddles.

As for the shopping list of desirable things mentioned in this thread, I'd identify the available main budget allocation and then have a serious local discussion on priorities. Personally, I'd rank cracked pavements and potholes higher than satellite dishes. But the decision isn't mine; and shouldn't be the sole prerogative of senior bureaucrats, "cabinet" nonentities and Dear Leaders.

I'd strongly favour a participatory budgeting approach. Which in turn would mean opening the books in a more understandable format. With real consultation. Which isn't the cruel fraud now being perpetrated in North Tottenham. (Would you like a better "retail offer", improved transport links, houses with gardens, a cinema, a new swimming pool? Great! Then you're completely in favour of what we've already decided for you.)

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fowler on February 7, 2014 at 8:53

The new paving slabs (for the very few weeks they remain new-looking, before getting cracked and stained) only emphasise the disgraceful state of the road (Green Lanes) itself, which is really beginning to look like something from the Third World. In the recent heavy rain, the poor drainage along Green Lanes has been highlighted clearly. I've lost count of the number of times I have been splashed with water from huge puddles by vehicles ploughing through them. Also, re the comment above about satellite dishes polluting the visual environment, when is something to be done about all the estate agent signs (which are just basically advertising for the agencies)? Oh, and as for the "pocket park(s)", I'll believe in an improvement (especially the St Ann's Road corner) when we actually see some trees or other greenery. Nothing but paving slabs at the moment.

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Permalink Reply by ant on February 7, 2014 at 9:45

From the 9th Dec GLSG minutes -

Subject to confirmation from Tony Kennedy, it was hoped that the carriageway of Green Lanes would be re-surfaced in the financial year 2014/15, to cover the area within the scheme boundaries (i.e. Falkland Road to Bridge)