Another big bang in Dundee's Hilltown

Sunday's demolition of the Hilltown's Alexander Street multis in Dundee brought the predictable gushing optimism from a city council official. The Courier's news article chuntered on about the "start of a new era"; "opportunities presented by the collapse of the four towers are too good to be ignored"; "looking to the future"; "help change perceptions of the community"; blah, blah.

And what's the betting they said suchlike when the multis were built? But the use of the c-word is always an opportunity for a bit of cynicism, and indeed the nature of the "new era" in the "community" was ably demonstrated less than twelve hours after the area's big bang with a shooting - and consequent attempted murder charge - outside a Hilltown pub.

And while I'm only a couple of minutes walk from where the multis were, the pub in question is more or less on my doorstep, which kind of underlined what I'd been thinking earlier - the new dawn will be irrelevant to some parts of the area, and to that extent it's a pity that the demolition exercise stopped where it did.

Almost twenty years ago I bought a flat in a newly renovated tenement in the area. Of course, I knew the area's reputation, there were pubs and takeaways aplenty and that sort of thing, but on the plus side I liked the flat, needed to buy something in a hurry and the price reflected the neighbourhood's reputation.

But, and without going into too much detail, the whole experience of living here for that period of time has perhaps provided some insight into how the likes of the Alexander Street multis can be almost destroyed by official indifference and the concomitant contempt of many of the area's residents, with the denouement of the whole thing and literal destruction of the blocks taking place last weekend. By the same token, while I was quite proud of my flat in our much smaller block when I moved in, these days it's simply a soul destroying embarassment.

Of course, other parts of Dundee are similarly blighted. For example, a couple of days before the Hilltown's new dawn "yet another fire" had torn through one of the city's smaller multis in the Lochee area. Yesterday an opposition councillor said: "This is the last straw for me. There is no hiding place now. It really has to be looked at."

Until the next time, perhaps. Helpfully the housing convener "urged residents to come forward with evidence" and reassuringly said that "the fire wasn't in any of the flats and one of the good things about these buildings is that fire doesn't spread in them particularly easy".

Well that's OK then. Which reminds me of something else.

I was working late on Sunday night and thus missed the shooting incident, which I only found out about when reading the relevant story in yesterday's Evening Telegraph. However, I suspect there was a reporter at my door about it because someone chapped on it early on Monday morning when I was trying to get some shut eye - having had an early morning walk up the Law Hill a couple of hours earlier to take in the new vista - which is why I didn't answer it, but it's the kind of area where if someone chaps on your door unexpectedly then you're wary about answering it anyway.

A bit presumptuous, perhaps, to assume that it was a reporter? Well it's extremely unusual to have an unexpected knock at that time of the day. And the last time it happened it was indeed a Tele reporter who had come to ask about a fire which had broken out in a flat downstairs in the early hours, with only a passer-by seeing the smoke and alerting the firies possibly averting disaster. Apparently the occupant had fallen asleep with the cooker on, but having helped the jakie in question up the stairs on a couple of occasions (when he miraculously seemed to forget the previous occasions when he'd shouted abuse at me!) due to his 'sack o' tatties' demeanour it's not difficult to work out what had happened. This occurred a mere few weeks ago.

Oh aye, and a couple of weeks later in the next street another fire necessitated the rescue of residents by firefighters. And that may well have been in the same block where a stabbing took place a few weeks previously - it was certainly the same street.

Hopefully the shiny new "desperately needed" "homes built for families" to be developed on the site of the demolished multis will indeed represent a new start for the neighbourhood - for a time at least - but even at that there's a lot more to be done in the area yet.

Indeed I've often thought about setting up a blog dedicated to the likes of the above - there would certainly be plenty of material - but with a shooting, stabbing and a couple of fires in the last few months perhaps saying nothing more is the better option!