Big city plan brings city development and jobs

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THE council’s big city plan is set to bring about 50,000 jobs. The redevelopment effort is set to be the largest, most ambitious project in the UK, spanning 800 acres of land in the city centre and five key areas based around New Street Station, Westside, the Snow Hill Dis-trict, Eastern Core Expansion and The South-ern Gateway. The new Library of Birmingham has already begun construction, the new design, by Mecanoo, who won a competition back in August 2008, will cost £193 million and re-place the current ‘concrete jungle’ like Central Library. The Library will be the largest Library in Europe, but will it bring about new opportunities and tourism to the area? Passers-by seem to think that there are enough attrac-tions within the city and that the new Library won’t necessarily boost the tourism revenue for the city. One person said: “what’s the point in building a new one? Why not just refurbish the old one?” So why go ahead with the plan?

One architect said: “This is the first time I’ve seen clear suggestions creating a fantastic, workable city. It’s fundamental to our econom-ic wellbeing as we currently fail to capture people to live in central Birmingham.” The plan will also bring redeveloped areas to Birmingham, encouraging tourism and improving the quality of business shop-ping facilities in and around the city centre. Representatives of the plan have stated that these developments will “grow the central core by 25% improving its connectivity and strengthening its authentic character and diver-sifying its economic base.” But do we need this expansion? Being the second city of the UK it is reasonable to assume that our tour-ism revenue is profitable? So what exactly will be the purpose of the plan for citizens of Birmingham? Developers of the plan seem to think that 50,000 new jobs will be created, which, if true, would significantly reduce un-employment in the city, but what jobs will be created from this plan? >> continued on page 2

Construction on the new Birmingham Library began in 2010.

16th November 2010 35p

They’re sending you back to the future!

Above: The Cineworld Cinema on Broad Street playing the film and an excited fan awaits the film. (Right)

I have to admit, when I first heard that Robert Zemeckis 1989 hit Back to the Future was go-ing back to cinemas I got excited. To see a film that you grew up watching on the big screen was an opportunity not to be missed. In the auditorium, the lights go down, the film starts and the clocks start tick-ing. If you’re a huge fan of this film, which I’m sure most of you are, then you too would be overwhelmed with excitement when The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News starts playing. But, while I would love to talk about all the little quirks of the film which I love, I must digress. The film itself has been re-re-leased to celebrate its 25th anniversary and its leap to Blu-ray. So, has the quality of the film itself benefited from the upgrade? Absolutely, the film feels as fresh and original as it did on its original release. The new high definition of the film certainly does help you notice all of the little details the film has to offer as well, such as Spielberg himself driving the truck that

Marty Catches a ride on, the CRM 114 refer-ence to Kubrick or the Clock tower clock in the opening scene where dozens of clocks all go off at once, I could go on. Of course, the humour in the film may have worn down a little if, like me, you’ve seen this film hundreds of time, but seeing it on the big screen does certainly help you get caught up in the action and enables the audience to still laugh at those same jokes; “Whoa Doc, this is heavy” “Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull?” certainly still scores a few laughs. But if the laughs aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty of action and romance to be had, of course the idea of someone time travel-ling only to make their mum fancy them is still cringe worthy, but the audience will still awe when George finally overcomes his fears and saves Lorraine. Zemeckis’s camera work still wows audiences with his slick moves and abil-ity to engross the audience in the film; a qual-

ity somewhat shamefully over looked when discussing this film in most cases. I wouldn’t be lying if I said see-ing this film is a real treat for older audiences but the truth is the film still has the ability to resonate with a younger audience, a true recommendation for anybody under the age of 12 who has yet to see this film. To summaries then, Back to the Future remains as classic as it always did, and worth seeing on the big screen this weekend, the dialogue is still sharp and the costumes and characters remain iconic. Perfect for all generations.

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