You have, finally, travelled further than the extreme south west of England. What a revelation. Making for a brilliant, erudite & compelling product. Thanks for your efforts & time, in sharing your views, literal and littoral.
@@PedestrianDiversions Of course, I was addressing your ‘YT persona’, rather than assessing your ‘no doubt’ multifaceted life before or after. Even, ‘up’ or ‘down’; be that Durdham, Clifton or even Downend. Love your work; keep it up.
Welcome back! I was getting worried but now I understand the absence. Must have taken a quite a while to get to Valencia by bus. (But he still can't make it out to Chipping Sodbury...)
@@PedestrianDiversions Hatters (tragically sometimes "mad") in Winterbourne and Sodbury (well there must have been in Sodbury since there is a Hatters' Lane). Yate is interesting as a planned New Town development in the sixties, complete with pedestrianised shopping centre and "modern" sculpture. If you do think of exploring the topic of Valencia more then you might be interested in "Sails and Winds" by Michael Eaude. I read it in preparation for a visit and it was illuminating. Thanks for all the articles - do keep them coming even if they are all from Somerset or Spain - and Merry Christmas!
As the one who moved to Valencia and accidentally rented my first apartment just about 230m from the Turia park, I may undoubtedly say that it happened to become one of the most important reasons that made me fall in love with Valencia. Living next to this park is such a blessing - there's a 5 km-long jogging lane with the km signs marking every 100 m; there are dog walking cages and agility training courses, there is a million yoga, boxing, calistenics, gymnastics, etc. classes going on there everyday; there are so many thematic meetups of a hundred various subjects; sports groups for kids on 5 stadiums for different types of sports, and a tremendous walking and chilling spaces that we wholeheartedly loved. The only downside of the park is "culture diversity bringers" - illegal immigrants from Africa and Middle East... they steal bikes and e-scooters, drag telephones and jewelry from people, and also (it's an unpopular thing to say out loud) sexually harass and even rape ladies walking there alone in the evenings... But overall - OH YES, TURIA PARK IS JUST FABULOUS!
Superb as always. I love your videos even if they aren’t about Bristol. I no longer live in Bristol having moved away in the early 80s. Nevertheless, I am proud to be a Bristolian. However, I have noted that in the past 40 odd years management of the city appears to have been lamentable I am saddened by this.
Fantastic video as always. Thanks for the hard work that must have gone into it. I have very fond memories of a free Bjork concert outside the Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias when I studied in Valencia in the early 2000s. People climbed up the tree-like bridge supports to sit in the cradles for a better view and I was impressed that the lovely pond area had no discarded beer cups or drunk people in it in after the concert, in contrast to my expectations of what it would have looked like were it England. Loved the whole Turia area.
There’s a disused waterway, an old meander of the Meuse, in Liege 🇧🇪. It WAS converted in to an urban roadway, but now they’re adding a tram! Apparently, the 60s road project was used as an excuse to close the city’s extensive tram system, with the promise of a metro to replace them. The metro never arrived…
Brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable. As usual your humour is on point and drier than the Turia out of rainy season. I was hoping you would mention how successful the river move has been in its original purpose, but when you dropped the bomb that it had never been tested, I must admit to being disappointed. Seeing floods flow dynamically down ancient Ramblas is really rather satisfying. Equally concerning is the apparent loss of the famous Valencian Orange. Still, I am sure global warming will have a part to play in the future. So I cannot wait for your extended season on the death of the Mekong - 5 Countries, 13 dams and the slow demise of one of the worlds great rivers. Please don't actually visit SE Asia, you won't be allowed back in one piece. But in depth analyses like yours are treasures. Thanks.
The southern plan was not an imposition of the Franco regime. On the contrary, the local authorities were the ones who wanted an ambitious project. Franco's government wanted to invest as little as possible. The mayor put pressure on the government and even criticized Franco publicly on this issue. In the end the government was forced to invest in the most ambitious plan in order not to be exposed, but in return the mayor was forced to resign and the government made the city pay dearly for it. The diversion has remained a dry channel because there are reservoirs upstream that prevent water from reaching the river except in times of heavy rains that usually occur mainly in autumn-winter. There have been demands for the new southern channel to be a river in practice and to flow into the sea and allow an ecological flow to carry the necessary sediment to prevent erosion of the beaches south of the city. The southern plan not only served to protect the city from the risk of floods that have been occurring for centuries, but also served to make a ring road that prevented a lot of traffic through the urban area of the city, especially transport of goods to and from the port. If we add to this the urban park that crosses the city, the quality of life took a huge leap. In general, the benefits outweigh the harms. 19:32 Yes there have been even heavier rains in times after 1957. For example in 1982 and 1986. The work therefore seems to have been successful in preventing flooding.
Spectacular City, although in my memory it was a lot busier and too hot to walk about ... looks like you had the perfect opportunity to explore. Well done, great video. 👏😀
It was very busy... Oxford-Street-the-week-before-Christmas busy at times. But I tend to be squeamish sticking camera in people's faces so I end up with footage that looks quieter than it generally is/was. Not too hot in Nov
yes the big roads along the sides are a bit unfortunate. I suppose the riverbed elevation change means the park would never flow seamlessly into the city but they do feel like a big barrier to it in places
Great video, again. We were in Valencia for October half term for a short break and found out about the river removal during. An interesting story and a great feature for people of the city to now enjoy. We hired bikes and it's very strange to cycle under the dry bridges....we did wonder how such a scheme would play out in London. I wonder if it will all be worth it when proper rainfall gives it its first test...let's hope it works and prevents a flood as planned. Thanks for your work...however far afield you go. Cheers
About the new riverbed. We have suffered of 70 years of fear for a new flooding, so it seems it was a taboo to do anything with the diverted riverbed in case there was a new episode. Now it is being redacted a renaturalization project and big things are going to happen there
Funny you should mention London, there have been plans to drain the Thames and turn it into a park for a while now, same reason as here, to stop flooding. Whilst unlikely it would be rather interesting to see what it'd be like, wouldn't be the first time London removed a river, they've done it before with others
If you fancy another Spanish urbanist project to look into, I'd investigate the Ciudad Lineal (Linear City) in Madrid. I think you'd find it really interesting! I've got a couple of sources with me here in Bristol on it but youd have to learn some Spanish lol
I did start duolingo during covid but then I tried some on a spanish lass and she said I sounded mexican, so I gave up and resolved to find spanish spanish classes instead and never got round to it... sounds interesting, cheers for the heads up
The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias buildings are a bit of a disaster. These relate to over spend, poor design and constructional issues. Oh and do not forget the corruption scandal. For many years the facilities were underused. Maybe that is still the case. I am sorry i cannot add links as it can mean that comments are added to Spam. All part of the White Elephants of Spain.
underused could well be true. it's perhaps telling that I went there to look at them but I never actually paid to go inside them... anyway more on that next year perhaps