An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Locals reacted with scepticism, alarm and irritation to a briefing on why Leith Street will be closed for 44 weeks from September and how temporary diversions will cope (see Breaking news, 28.2.17.)
The occasion was a meeting of the New Town & Broughton Community Council (NTBCC).
Many locals have noticed the mysterious disappearance of parking meters over recent weeks.
Only the plastic-wrapped stumps remain, offering puzzlement to those in search of a ticket and no end of fun to dogs who enjoy a challenge.
‘Have they been disembolished?’ one reader asks hopefully.
HENRY JABBOUR AT THE UNION GALLERY
Like many others locally, we’ve missed the Union Gallery since its removal from Broughton Street to larger premises on Drumsheugh Place.
A visit to the West End on Friday showed that Union’s owner Alison Auldjo has lost none of her knack for finding and nurturing great new talent, most recently that of Henry Jabbour.
LOCALS GET THE LAST WORD
Forrest’s Croall Place extravaganza provokes mixed reactions among Spurtle team members.
Some regard it as a colourful and attractive addition to the neighbourhood, which always cheers them up on their way to work.
Others see only a ginormous eyesore that is too big, too bright, and too distracting. It would, say the latter, be better off viewed through sunglasses from the back row of a cinema.
Spurtle has been studying heavily redacted emails which shed light on Edinburgh Council's struggle to find performance and events spaces in the city-central New Town.
The hock it is.
Whatever the usually authoritative Villeneuve Wines A-board on Broughton Street may say to the contrary, we’re not convinced.
Ceno, from the Greek kenos for empty, sillica, from the Latin silex for flint or quartz, and phobia, from the Greek phobos for phobia, appear nowhere together in any combination in the entire Oxford English Dictionary.
In fact, insofar as cenosillicaphobia has any existence at all as a word, it appears to be only in online articles discussing its non-existence.
A stroll about Old Calton Burying Ground has set us thinking.
What had Abraham Lincoln to say in troubled times?
We offer five quotations below, unedited and out of context.
Draw your own conclusions.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
The problem with HGVs parking on McDonald Place appears to be no better in 2017 than it was in 2016.
Despite repeated appeals to Council officials, and the intervention of Leith Walk Councillor Nick Gardner, lorries continue to occupy the street and disturb locals as they wait to get into the Batleys yard.
The throb, noise and pollution of idling engines, and the obstruction of private property continue to inconvenience neighbours who simply want a little peace.
David Sterratt writes: In partnership with Edinburgh Interfaith Association, Drummond Community High School hosted Holocaust Memorial Day: an Evening of Remembrance, on Wednesday 25 January 2017. An audience of hundreds – from all faiths and none – attended.
44 WEEKS FOR ‘ESSENTIAL UTILITY WORKS’
TH Real Estate – developer of the new St James Quarter – aims to partially shut Leith Street to most traffic for up to 44 weeks between the 2017 and 2018 Edinburgh Festivals.
The Edinburgh International Festival 2017 ends on 28 August this year, and the next one begins on 3 August 2018. That leaves a total window of 48 weeks and two days.
Perry statement
THRE Director of Development Martin Perry told Spurtle: