Opinion: Opinion – Be Bold, Birmingham!

Filed under: Be Bold, Birmingham / Opinions

Copyright Birmingham Mail

The 2022 Commonwealth Games were fantastic; the atmosphere around the city (and region) was amazing, the sport was enjoyable, the transport network worked brilliantly. If there was one mis-step, however, it was the marketing strapline “Be Bold, Be Birmingham”.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great concept. The problem is that Birmingham hasn’t been bold in a long time. As I made clear in my review of the Birmingham Transport Summit, if that plan is delivered, that will truly be bold. But two years ago? No, sorry.

I have been using the phrase Be Bold, Birmingham since then, to make it clear that the council need to take bold action, not just talk about it. As I don’t like to just criticise from the sidelines, I plan to write a series of articles outlining some bold ideas I’d love to see implemented. As ever, consider these conversation starters. I don’t imagine that everything I propose is the best solution, there may be good reasons why an idea isn’t feasible. But I refuse to buy the negative view that this city is unchangeable.

We can choose to live in a better city!

Paul Manzotti

Worrying about my wife's daily cycle commute and the health of my born-and-bred-in-a-city children, I may have become slightly obsessed with creating a network of protected cycle lanes in Birmingham! Which includes LTNs.

In my defence, they can solve so many problems our country suffers from currently.