Here Comes the Night
A report by Grassmarket Residents' Association on the impact of the Night-Time Economy on Edinburgh’s Grassmarket
– first draft. August, 2010
A community’s response to Councillor Mowat's motion addresses the issue of the 'residential impact' of the Night Time Economy.
The account is given largely in the voices of the people who stay here and who directly experience life in the Grassmarket area 24 hours a day. It has been compiled by members of the Grassmarket Residents' Association with contributions from local residents.
Download a draft copy - here (pdf format 363 Kb) (click on this link to open in a new browser window or right click and "save target as" to save a copy to your hard drive)
This is a working document and contributions would be welcome. Please send comments and contributions to contact@grassmarket.org
See below for the latest contributions:
A recent contribution to "Here Comes the Night":
I heard today that the recent GRASS report on the night time economy ( Here comes the night) is being described by council members as "anecdotal". Telling stories is well rooted in the history of human existence. Long before the written word people talked and shared their stories. So here's mine from the last week;
On my way to work I was hit by a van whilst crossing at the zebra crossing. The van knocked against my wrist and caused very little obvious damage. The shock however was longer lasting and I lost a day from my work recovering at home.
My front door has been spray painted with graffiti twice in one week. It took one Saturday afternoon to clean it and another Sunday morning to paint it.
Whilst cleaning the graffitied door I watched countless incidents of traffic doing dangerous things including a taxi crossing over the pedestrian area and onto the main road..........all by way of taking a short cut!
At about 3am I was awakened by the sounds of sawing, hammering and drilling from the property opposite mine. I could see torches in the dark doorway of the flat and somebody wearing a high visibility jacket. The police had apparently forced entry into the empty flat by removing the door and then fixing it back again to secure it. This lasted about 1 hour....
I've had a lot of attention from the police during this week, a total of 6 different officers came to my home and spent lots of time taking details. I talked to each of them about the general problems of living in the area and everyone of them listened as though hearing my story for the very first time.
If our stories are all we have to bring to the attention of the people who have the ability to make a difference to our lives then bring them on. How about sharing one of your own with the rest of us? Some of us are good listeners.