02/11/06

Brilliant sunshine, blue sky, not a cloud in sight, but bitterly cold.

It’s time to explore the city centre –
The city centre seems to be loosely defined by a series of connected roads that circumference a space containing the main shopping centre, the major museums and galleries, China Town, and what appears to be a business quarter – lots of people wearing suits. You instinctively feel when you have entered the ‘centre'; empirically it has a different atmosphere and different physicality.
A city’s centre is a place where all citizens belong. You don’t feel like you are entering someone’s territory. 6 weeks of cycling and this is the first time that I have felt I have given right to be in a place – although I still feel ‘out of place’. It’s the first day in 6 weeks that I’ve been surrounded by people. I’m sure I must stick out, with the bike and the cone and the clip board, yet no-one acknowledges me.
City centres are very people populated, vibrant, busy, bustling places. But there’s not much space for curiosity or idle conversations on the busy city streets. How we move around a city differs greatly from the way in which we move around other urban settings. We weave amongst one another, rarely making eye contact. We go into the city to shop, to work, to meet friends, to drink, to dine, etc.
I think we have many specific requirements of a city centre, and I don’t think experiencing wildlife is necessarily one of them. I’ve never gone into a city for this reason. The kind of nature I welcome in a city centre comes in the landscaped package of clean and relaxing city park, short grass, a few trees perhaps, and maybe a few flowers. A place to sit and eat sandwiches bought from an expensive deli, a moment of tranquillity to people watch whist sipping cappuccino. When I am in a city I want “Sex in the City” not “Nature Watch”. I am Carrie, not Oddie – usually…
I don’t think I’ve ever before gone into a city to do something other than a city centric ‘activity’. Entering the throngs to evaluate wildlife is a first.
(Having said that, I have been on one of David Hayley’s “Walk on the Wildside” events, walking the canal networks of Manchester’s city centre. But most of this network is subterranean, underused by people, and lacking that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ city aesthetic.)