A city redefined: public views on Birmingham's evolution

National World - LocalTV

Today, we hear what people think about Birmingham's transformation over the years. As Dr Steve McCabe has recently reflected on his experiences growing up here, highlighting both the nostalgia of lost architecture and the energy brought by new developments and a younger, diverse population.

Transcript

00:00so yeah I feel like there's a lot of heritage and history involved in

00:03Birmingham and obviously it's involved into a modern place but I feel it's good

00:07to keep the aspect of the heritage around still so we can't get too modern

00:12does it make sense because I think it will spoil it well it's as strange we

00:16only come down we live in Tamworth which is what an hour away yeah yeah it's a

00:25bit daunting when you first come in for them being in for two years and we're

00:28not knowing where we're going we used to work in the center of Birmingham just

00:32just on Broad Street where we met 50 odd years ago yeah and we used to go down

00:37the canals before they were all modernized and they look lovely now but

00:42they were derelict when we first were here it has improved and it's brought a

00:46lot of trade to the town and it's lovely if you know where you're going yeah I

00:52mean modern Birmingham's great I mean the only sad thing at the minute it's

00:55just a lack of shops that you walk around the ballroom in places and there's

00:58so many vacant places now where in the past everywhere was open the activity

01:04and the Christmas markets and things bringing all the people in there's loads

01:08of events and things going on all the time so that is really positive it has

01:13brought loads of opportunities for local people local business and there's more

01:19opportunities to explore there's new shops and especially now there's since

01:27probably a few a couple of days a decade ago the German market is here

01:32attracting local probably foreign investors into Birmingham I can see

01:40there's business is blooming as well we've got the new train station which is

01:46amazing and basically I think new Birmingham is the way forward I know the

01:53old old Bullring was amazing historical but new Birmingham is the new way

01:58forward

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