A plan to replace the railway to Cardiff Bay with a tramline could see many more links from Bute Street to Lloyd George Avenue as well as a stronger sense of community in Butetown.
A new park would be created running along the tramline using some of the space currently taken up by the railway, and part of the road on Lloyd George Avenue.
Currently, a huge wall and railway separates the working class community of Butetown from the more wealthy apartments on Atlantic Wharf.
Read more: Read all our latest Cardiff stories here
The wall has previously been referred to as the 'Berlin Wall', with many residents on the Bute Street side of the wall feeling ignored by the council and developers after the regeneration of Cardiff Bay and Atlantic Wharf.
The tram forms a key part of the Cardiff Crossrail project, which could run from Creigaiu in the northwest, through Plasdŵr, to the south of Cardiff Central, down to the Bay, and then east to Splott and Tremorfa.
The park surrounding the tramline along Bute Street and Lloyd George Avenue would be modelled on the High Line park in New York - a narrow, mile-and-half long park along the west side of Manhattan - and the similar Promenade plantée in Paris.
With the potential plan to knock the wall down, questions have been raised about whether this may create a stronger sense of community in Butetown.
These plans are at the early stage and are reliant on securing funding.
The levelling up fund totals £4.8 billion, but many other councils are also vying for that money.
The council's Atlantic Wharf masterplan, which will see a 15,000-capacity events arena, food and leisure centre and hotel being built in the area could also potentially benefit other parts of Butetown if the wall is knocked down.
Keith Murrell is the creative director of the Butetown Arts and Culture Association and runs the yearly Butetown carnival.
Keith said: "The wall has existed as long as Butetown has and was just a feature of geography.
"More than any kind of barrier, I think the wall would also be seen as a reassuring boundary and statement of place.
"The 'them and us' dynamic first came about as a result of the regeneration of the Atlantic Wharf area. It's obvious there was a clear disparity in what happened there.
"I think it is fair to say the boundary wall was cynically employed to shield the newer developments from the community - and Lloyd George Avenue became far more divisive than the wall has ever been.
"Since then, we've had generations growing up hearing and repeating the frustrated complaints about the failings of the past."
Keith says the idea of bringing communities together is "definitely worthwhile" but points out the newer communities on Dumballs Road "have been no more successful at integrating, even without a wall or railway line".
He said: "There's certainly no doubt that other parts of the Bay infrastructure were placed 'away' from the community deliberately. A few years ago, Cardiff Uni freshers packs even advised students to avoid the area.
"The idea of bringing people together - within the community and for visitors - is an important issue. I actually believe that until real community spirit and values are restored and respected in Butetown, the whole city is poorer for it.
"I like the ideas for the wall but I still think more needs to be invested in the community itself.
"There could be more improvement around the environment such as lighting and preventing fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.
"There could be more promotion of the positive stories in the media. Most importantly, there is a lack of agency in the community. Everything is being done for us by various service providers when community is also about doing it with and for each other.
"Young people are isolated from the rest of the community and connect more with these service providers than their neighbours and elders. Similar could be said about the promotion of different ethnic communities in Butetown. Over the years, this has drained away the community spirit and values."
Yasmine Gulzar, 51, has lived in Butetown all her life, on different sides of the wall. She was born on Alice Street but now lives on Lloyd George Avenue.
Yasmine said: "The wall separates us. I remember a conversation with my mum when I was really young, there was always talk of getting rid of it - but it never really happened.
"I was looking at it the other day and had always thought the train track was a lot higher - but it's not. Without the wall, the track is kind of level for most of it."
Yasmine, who was brought up by the teachings of Betty Campbell, says she would be a hypocrite if she didn't want the wall to be knocked down - although she "isn't sure what the consequences would be".
Yasmine said: "This side of the wall is more expensive, with the council tax and everything. If they knock it down, would it all become just as expensive?
"I like change. In my kind of world where there is all unicorns and rainbows, there would be a park in the middle and everyone can live happily ever after. But it doesn't really happen like that - not straight away anyway."
Yasmine says she's never really seen a division between communities in Butetown.
She said: "There's a lot of Somalis, Arabs and white families living near me, happily. It's basically like paradise living in Atlantic Wharf - we have everything here.
"We're a stone's throw away from town, we're close to the parks and the Red Dragon Centre. Even if I was on the other side of the wall, I would still feel like that.
"I'm all about community so I kind of see what I want to see. Wherever I go in Butetown, everyone's really kind, whether they're black, white, poor, rich. We've never really had a problem here."
Yasmine says it's more about the person than the community.
She said: "If you went into Butetown, with the sense that you belong, then you would. If you go there looking to argue, that's what you will definitely get.
"I don't like the wall but I don't want there to be large changes if it does get knocked down.
"It's already quite expensive around Cardiff and if we become a giant community then the rent in the poorer parts of Butetown will go up and many people would be in a position where they would have to move out, which is quite sad."
It was council leader Huw Thomas who described the plans about the wall in a meeting of the economy and culture scrutiny committee, on Monday, June 14.
He said: “[We would] take a chunk of the road space from Lloyd George Avenue and the current land designated as railway land, recognising that for a tram-train solution you won’t need that width of land allocated just for the railway.
“[We could] create an urban park within that space, creating better through-links from that area into Butetown, and punching holes in the wall along Bute Street.”
Cardiff council is bidding for £50 million from the UK Government’s levelling up fund for the project. Other funding sources would be needed as it could cost at least £100 million in total.
Details of the tramline and park project were revealed in June as part of the bid.
Councillor Saeed Ebrahim said: "I think we got to look at the master plan as a whole and what we would like to see the outcome.
"I did put in the mix looking at the wall as it stands and see what we could do in terms of removing parts of the wall or all of the wall.
"Everything comes down to cost and nothing's ever straight forward.
"I do welcome many aspects of the Atlantic Wharf masterplan because I think it will create so many low end and high end jobs for local people, which was something that was never taken up before.
"I welcome any sort of movement within the wall to open up the ward as one and for Butetown to not feel like there are pockets here and pockets there.
"I think it's a good idea to join private and social housing so it doesn't feel like it's us and them."
However Cllr Saeed warns that despite the discussions being there, there isn't a definite plan.
Cllr Saeed said: "I grew up in Butetown and know the amount of disappointment people have had over the years. My motto is when something is ready to be served to the community, then I tell that story.
"There have been loads of positive things happening in Butetown.
"These past years, the community has became a lot more safer, there's been a lot more engagement, reduction in people taking drugs.
"People say parts of Butetown are deprived. I think people can be deprived in different ways and enriched in other ways. We are very very rich as a community.
"I think the knocking down of the wall is a welcoming way forward - but we're not there yet."
Since June, the council have said there have been no updates.
To get the latest CardiffOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free, click here.
