Nick Maiale’s Post

Here’s your invaluable guide to Oxford this June. #Oxford #Oxfordshire #TheOxfordMagazine

An excellent article in the Guardian about the brutal cuts to the arts in Birmingham. This quote from it is perfect: "The impact of the cuts on the city’s cultural sector might seem trivial when vital health and social services are being cut and council taxes being raised. But nothing, in my opinion, could be more emblematic of the way that Britain currently devalues life: when we only focus on our most basic needs, dismissing leisure, art, literature and culture as something decadent and middle-class, we do ourselves an injustice, and risk dismissing the long tradition of working-class and lower-middle-class cultural production, and participation in the artistic life of the country. These are not decadent luxuries, but vital resources that promote social cohesion, morale and personal wellbeing. Ironically, engagement with civic life only creates happier workforces, whose productivity can then be used to better fund local services. In this respect, a well-functioning arts sector is one that works symbiotically with the local economy: both rely on the other"

San Francisco

In case you haven’t heard, Nashville is a great place to be!  Read Arthur Perlen’s article about how Nashville became the new ‘It’ city:  https://lnkd.in/gp5QH2X6  #nashville #tennessee #realestate #commercialrealestate #cre #property #investment

Chicago

Just finished reading ‘Manchester Unspun: pop, property and power in the original modern city’ by Andrew Spinoza. I would highly recommend it. Very well written, interspersed with some great insight and anecdotes on the major characters operating in the city, many born outside the city, including the author. Excellent read for anyone interested in how the city of Manchester came from the first modern industrial city, where the Industrial Revolution was born, through the decline of the 60s and 70s and then to the renaissance of the city built on its unique musical and sporting scene and history, how some of those musical and sporting characters became major forces in property development in the city, how the city government was far sighted, at sometimes controversial, at playing the national government funding game and opening the city to the world again. The redevelopment of the city now has a life of its own, with towers and developments springing up across the city, a city which at least based on pre-pandemic figures was the fastest growing city in Europe. ‘The original modern city’ is ultimately a marketing slogan based on the ‘original modern’ design theme of Peter Saville, who designed the iconic early record sleeves of Factory Records, who were behind bands such as Joy Division and New Order, and who effectively funded the Hacienda, which some argue was the basis for the cultural and economic renaissance of the city. To quote Peter Saville from the book: ’It is not the most beautiful or has the best climate, but it has addressed the challenge of the world in the modern era and that is the essence of Manchester.’ The book even includes a page on a trade mark dispute, so I stuck to my general rule of only posting on Manchester and a very little bit of IP 😀 Buy the book below and it can be found in all good bookstores:

Things to do in London this weekend. Can't decide what to do this weekend as we approach October? Check out this list below to learn more and have the best weekend in London yet!