Costly overhaul
Ken Livingstone unveiled his new transport investment programme on October 12th. Among its trumpeted projects are air-conditioned tube trains, a new road bridge over the River Thames and an enhanced cycling network. Costing £10 billion ($18 billion), the massive overhaul aims to reverse decades of under-investment.
For Londoners, the most immediate (and painful) change will be a series of above-inflation rises in tube and bus fares, beginning next January. This is despite repeated promises from the mayor that any future hikes would be “pegged to no more than the rate of inflation”, and it comes after a substantial fare increase at the beginning of 2004. Many of the transport projects Londoners are being asked to fund are years away from completion, and some worry that costs will run way over-budget.
Photo-op finish
With the deadline for the final submission of London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games a month away, flag-waving crowds thronged the West End on October 18th to watch a parade of Britain's Olympic and Paralympic medallists. The procession finished in Trafalgar Square, where the BBC interviewed some of the winners and giant television screens replayed highlights from the Athens games. The bid's organisers hope that the event answers criticism that London lacks the necessary “passion” to host the 30th Olympiad.
Meanwhile, work on finalising London's blueprint for hosting the games continues apace. In late September, the mayor rubber-stamped the plan for the main Olympic site in east London (it now requires governmental approval), and on October 4th gave the green light to a £3.5 billion regeneration project on abandoned land around Stratford station, which could provide much of the athletes' accommodation. According to the plan, most of the estimated £2.4 billion cost of staging the games will be met by the National Lottery, with another £550m raised from the capital's taxpayers. The judges of the International Olympic Committee will pick the host city—from London, Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow—in July 2005.
Lights out
A city-wide ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants drew closer on October 13th. London's boroughs voted unanimously to submit a private bill to parliament barring smoking in enclosed public places. The Association of London Government had intended to make the anti-smoking provisions part of a larger bill aimed at improving local areas. But given the “strength of feeling around this issue”, the ALG has decided the ban will constitute a separate piece of legislation, to be submitted to parliament in November.
In the meantime, the mayor is clamping down on discarded butts, matches and cigarette packaging, which together apparently account for 2,700 tonnes of litter each year. Workers at Mr Livingstone's City Hall headquarters have been issued with heat-resistant “Stubbi” cigarette pouches, into which they are expected to deposit the offending butts. The mayor has also written to 300 firms telling them to stop their smoking staff from littering, and he is planning to introduce a £50 on-the-spot fine for offenders.
In a pickle
London's innovative “erotic gherkin” skyscraper may bask in critical and popular acclaim, but 30 St Mary Axe—as it's officially known—is struggling to attract tenants. Six months after opening, almost half of the gherkin's 40 floors remain unoccupied; Swiss Re, its owner and anchor tenant, is thought to be losing £35,000 a day in rental income. Unable to find a lone tenant to fill the rest of the space, the reinsurance company is now courting smaller firms such as hedge funds in the hope they'll be lured by the building's iconic status. This was further enhanced when the gherkin scooped Britain's top architectural award, the Stirling Prize, on October 16th.
Whether 30 St Mary Axe's teething problems put a brake on high-rise building elsewhere in the capital remains to be seen. The mayor gave his enthusiastic backing to another skyscraper, 122 Leadenhall Street, in late September. Planning approval for the wedge-shaped building, which if built will be the city's tallest, is expected in a matter of weeks. Some wit has already dubbed it the “cheese grater”.
The anti-Midas
The news that the prime minister, Tony Blair, and his wife, Cherie, had bought a £3.6m house in central London was met with puzzlement in early October. In part, this was because Mr Blair had just announced his intention to serve a third term (the Blairs had said they would let the property until he retired from politics). But the situation and timing of the purchase also bewildered some property-watchers. Located in Connaught Square, a short walk from Marble Arch, the five-bedroom Georgian townhouse offers relatively little privacy and is surrounded by busy and polluted arterial roads. The closest shopping area is the rather shabby Edgware Road, home to a large Muslim population that's unlikely to greet the prime minister with open arms.
The Blairs have also bought at a time when London's residential property market is wobbling. Recent surveys have shown house prices falling across the capital; annual house-price inflation is lagging well behind the national trend. Indeed, some have suggested that the couple have a reverse Midas touch: the Blairs' Islington house, which they sold for £615,000 in 1997, has since almost tripled in value to £1.69m.
Mostly unruffled
The latest Breeding Bird Survey has revealed mixed fortunes for the capital's feathered inhabitants. The blue tit, chaffinch, great tit, greenfinch, robin, woodpigeon and wren all increased in numbers in London between 1994 and 2002, and fared better than in the surrounding regions. But the starling, thrush, blackbird and sparrow have all declined, with the latter's population plummeting by 70% in London over the same period. Why the “cockney sparrer” has declined so fast remains a mystery, and is the focus of an investigation by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Meanwhile, the London Assembly was shocked to learn that the mayor has spent £106,000 on reducing the number of pigeons in Trafalgar Square, and another £30,000 studying their welfare. Thanks to the energetic work of four hungry American-bred hawks named Stripey, Squirt, Nelson and Nathan, just 150 of the 4,500 birds remain.
