Walking from the city centre through China Town, you enter the Baltic Triangle via the refurbished Great George Square.

www.liverpool.gov.uk/News/archive/2004/september/news0865.asp

A large open space of lawn, gravel pathways, bespoke seating, and lighting. Granite slabs around the edges of the lawn area are carved with text. One section reads...
“people – what are we? We wish our lives away until we can wish no more – we wonder what life is – life is a gift and if we wish it away then we shall not get anything from it – you and I have a gift – we should use it well”

A few yards from Great George Square, away from the views of Georgian houses and apartments, and opposite the neatly kept family homes, is a derelict space. Formerly a recreation area, it is now a Brownfield site. The once pink 5-aside soccer surface looks grubby with a green film growing over it, and the goal posts are broken. Unkempt, the vegetation around the edges has become overgrown, and intermingled with litter. Stood at the opening in the fence I watched and listened to the black birds and blue tits as they darted around in front of me. I was about to enter the site to investigate what else lay within when I guy on a bike approached me.
“Don’t leave your bike there love” As the words came out of his mouth I became transfixed by his one and only tooth, bottom jaw, right in the middle. He was rugged looking, I guess in his thirties, but difficult to tell.
“If you leave your bike there they’ll av it”
He pointed at two young men on the corner of Great George Square
“They told me, even if you leave it chained up they’ll av it. Don’t leave it. They’ll av the chain off and you wont see it again. They want your bike”
“Really? Is it that bad around here?” I asked
“Oh yeh”
I thanked him, and he cycled off.
So around here is both “that bad” and “that good”.
Having been kindly warned, I didn’t venture onto the abandoned recreation ground, but non-the-less, from where I was standing, I could see that this space had a greater value for experiencing nature than Great George Square has. And to be able to appreciate the sights, the sounds, and the scents of this city wildlife habitat, all it seemed to need was cleaning-up, some lighting, some seats, and NO fence.
I cycled off past the two young guys who had been joined by the tooth man, and nodded at them politely.