A GUIDE TO THE POTHOLES OF EDINBURGH
Since Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995, the city council has worked hard to protect and in many cases restore a historic atmosphere to the city. To the delight of tourists and urban historians, it’s had some wonderful succeses. The Statutory Notice System of building repairs has produced an authentically eighteenth-century feeling of corruption and decline: parts of the city now feel as decadent as the Naples of the eighteenth century Grand Tour.
This may not be entirely true. But it makes 2 serious points about contemporary cities in the developed world: why is it so hard for them to do infrastructure? And is the heritage industry really a problem rather than a solution?
