At the Architects' Website, Amanda Baillieu:
As London mayor Boris Johnson observed this week, no one actually knows what Mipim stands for. Amid his rather shambolic efforts to talk up London, Johnson was perhaps not far off when he quipped that the acronym must refer to Multitudes of Investors Prepared to Invest Megabucks.
I've looked into this. It took a while. The answer appears to be that Mipim stands for Marché International des Professionnels d'Immobilier. Anyway, this marche has been happening in Cannes. While there, Boris has offered foreign businesses free office space for a year while Simon Milton has promised GLA reftrofitting, the LDA's Peter Bishop has announced the sell off of £2 billion worth of land in east London, and Steve Norris has talked about our honest politicians and low taxes. Plenty of activity. Even so, Baillieu is not impressed:
Take that much discussed subject, public space. Less than two years ago we were told that London would need to spend £300 million to improve its public spaces — equivalent to widening 15 miles of M1 motorway but, most people would agree, bringing a lot more pleasure. Fast forward to this week and the sum has been reduced to £200,000, to be shared between 33 boroughs.
It's the lack-of-vision thing, again. Now read on.
