Bilbao (4)

We had a couple of hours to spare before taking the airport bus, so I made a solo excursion, leaving June to pack (I take a bag and rarely unpack more than a minimum on short trips). I took a brisk walk down the length of the Grand Via to cross the river and take a look at the fine 19th century Ajuntamente, the town hall building, with a famous abstract iron sculpture in front of it - there are many such sculptures in the city. There's an installation piece made of piles of iron ore pellets. My favourite is by Dalvador Dali, called the Spirit of the Muse - at least it's wrought iron, and doesn't resemble a few girders just twisted into an odd shape.

The piece in front of the Ajuntamente is by Basque sculptor Jorje Otieza is called 'The Ovoid Variation of the De-occupation of the Sphere', representing, as the guide-book says, 'the artist's concern with emptiness'. That's a sphere made up of girders. On the opposite side of the river on the promenade, I found a wrought iron semi-abstract sculpture of a discus thrower, elegant and poised in action. It made for good photography in the morning light.

It struck me that the city seemed to have plenty of birds singing in the trees, but few pigeons, and no seagulls whatsoever. I found this as surprising as seeing a river empty of boat traffic. It seems as if the policy of scrupulously clean street (no cleaning machines, only people) and well organised waste and re-cycling management has paid off, leaving scavengers nothing to live off in the public realm. Added to that is the social habit of eating together, browsing food convivially - which is how tapas consumption strikes me - people just don't wander the streets feeding their faces, and te environment is so much better for it as a result.

I took the tram back to the hotel to collect my sister and our bags for the short walk to the bus terminus, where we were able to use up the last euros on our Creditrans cards for our airport journey. e gave ourselves plenty of time, not only for check-in, but also to take a proper look at Calatrava's airport, before setting off an another two stage flight, returning to Heathrow. No long walk to the connecting flight this time, as the flight was Iberia, not BA, but lots of confusion at the gate, where there was a border police passport control as well as airline passport checks with boarding cards - two airline checks were needed to weed out passengers confused by the succession of flights for London leaving from adjacent gates, late afternoon, making a total of three passport checks in twenty paces, before boarding.

We landed at terminal three and had a long walk to terminal one to find a taxi home for June and a bus to Cardiff for me. The end of another fascinating journey into another city's life at a point of social and cultural adaptation to the new knowledge based global economy, art and leisure to the fore-front. Where next I wonder?

Photos, hundreds of them, can be found here

Cleaning up Cardiff

I attended today the inaugural meeting of a City Council work group on the issue of 'Clean City'. It's one of three such groups I'm part of in connectiPost Optionson with all the preparations for the opening of the redeveloped city shopping centre for trade at the end of 2009.

I guess I've nagged enough about problems caused by litter thrown into the churchyard. Now I have an opportunity to work with others equally concerned about tacking the issue. Group members were very forthright about, not only the litter, but the dirtiness of the streets, with so much trodden in chewing gum, and pavements soiled by the deposit of so many greasy fast food wrappers. At least the new paving in Caroline Street, the heartland of Cardiff's chip shops, has shown lately that it comes up a treat after a good hot wash. Good news for those overseeing the work of re-paving the public realm, which is under way outside the Cathedral, and just about to start in St John Street.

Straight away, as far as I am concerned, there's the matter of insufficient rubbish bins in and around the church. There were two around the whole 250 yard perimeter of the church grounds. One got smashed and was then taken away without being replaced a couple of weeks ago after an evening of drunken pranks. We need at least five to encourage everyone to use them. Few can be bothered to carry their rubbish more than ten yards. The new Head of Cleansing said she'd look into it. What a nightmare of a job she has - so many people complaining! The last Head of Cleansing went off sick and didn't return.

Tidying up time (2)

A lovely crisp sunny morning. Waiting at church for a call for a rendezvous I have time to kill and the sight of rubbish in the church yard irritates me, so I get a bag, a picker and a gloves and take some bending down exercise.

The leaves are beautiful, but someone has sown styrofoam packaging beads among them, and they look so badly out of place, so artificial. Also strewn among the leaves, on the grass and in the flower beds, are cigarette butts, their packages and film wrappers, drinking straws, the lids and trays from take away cups, sugar packaging, tickets, promotional flyers, cardboard and styrofoam cups, bottles - plastic and glass, bags - paper and glass, food trays - slow and fast - sandwich wrappers, paper hand towels and tissues, shreds of newspaper, plastic cable ties once used to secure banners, even lengths of used duct tape.

This is all the regular stuff. After an outbreak of strong winds, guaranteed there'll be a broken umbrella. Twice last week I counted six cheap umbrellas broken abandoned in the street during my mile walk to church. On each occasion only one was placed in a rubbish bin.

Here's a list of the most frequently picked up branded pieces of rubbish :

Macdonalds' boxes and cups
Burger King boxes and cups
Cornish Pastie Shop bags
Costa and Café Nero cups
Cigarette packets

Then it's soft drink plastic bottles, including spring water bottles and cans which are widely sold in stores large and small. After that it's small lager bottles, often smashed, indicating the state of mind of the consumer. Wine and spirits bottles are less frequently found.

If I had 20 pence for every item I picked up, and did it several times a week for a year, I'd be able to pay for a new Apple Macbook.

Now, the Council seem reluctant to move forward on providing any new rubbish bins (and cycle racks) or introduce Street Warden scheme with powers to fine litter droppers - I reckon it'd soon pay for itself, through fines and reduced cleansing costs.

So why not introduce a standard 20p charge per item with disposable packaging, which could be refunded by those returning items to collecting points. It could give a source of income to city beggars in exchange for real socially constructive labour.

Well, I can dream. Too many of the 'Proud Capital's' citizens are beyond caring about pride and turn our streets into a midden, hardly ever challenged. I know I'm not alone in hating this civic slovenliness. But changing attitudes and getting real action requires a lot more than funding, political will or bright ideas. We're as perverse a bunch as we are sloppy.

I'm sure the exercise did me good anyway.
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Rubbish - keeping on the case

Since Friday last, a large un-emptied wheelie bin with a Council logo on the front, has stood at the north west corner of the church tower overflowing with rubbish on to the street. In fact, it was joined in that position by two bins from the Owain Glyndwr, and left there, after they were emptied and not put away in their bin store. Sunday Evening I rang the Council's 101 problem solving referral unit to report the bin, and was told it would be emptied on Monday morning.

Monday passed. Tuesday morning came. On my way to the City Centre Retail Partnership monthly meeting I took a photo of the bin to show to Steve, the operations manager, to see if he could get it cleared away on the fifth day since its arrival. He was not un-surprised at my report, as Waste Management seems to be fraught with management problems at the moment, such that the boss is on sick leave. He kindly printed out the picture, so we could get a better look at it and show it around the office. Then it occurred to me that I was about to walk into a meeting with the Council's Chief Executive Byron Davies. He's always friendly and considerate towards me, and when I saw him he came over and shook my hand and asked how things were going. I just couldn't resist showing the picture and telling the story. He calmly took out his phone and exused himself while he spoke to some poor soul in waste management. He returned after a few moments promising it would be removed straight away.

He spoke at the meeting, addressing retailers' concerns over the impact of pedestrianising St Mary Street, the inadequacy of shoppers parking and public transport issues. He announced the set up of a weekly forum of all involved in service delivery, presided over by himself, to ensure every problem was spotted and tackled, during the next two years of reconstruction and major change to the appearance and running of the city centre. When I returned to the church two hours later, the wheelie bin was still there, and it remained there all night.

When I arrived for the Wednesday Eucharist, it was still there, half emptied. And this obstructing part of the very busiest pedestrian thoroughfare of the city! Not even the city's CEO can work miracles. For all the rhetoric about partnership working, there remains a protectionist proprietorial culture in which section bosses don't always take orders willingly. You'd think they'd all want to work for the good of the city all the time not some of the time, but so often it seems this is not the case. The next couple of years will be a real challenge for the city's elected members and local government officers. Can they deliver the vision of a 'proud capital' which they proclaim? Will the world want to invest in it?