I've just had to endure the latest in a long line of moans about city living, this time specifically referring to the ISIS development at Granary Wharf which is striving to become more family friendly.

A worthy aspiration, you might think.

But quite a few cynics (you know the usual office/pub sages who can make the wildest statements without ever having to back their views up or act on them?) have pooh-poohed the notion that they're doing it for the kids.

Playgrounds

Now, maybe they're right. Maybe they won't achieve this. Maybe building playgrounds between apartment blocks and creating roof top gardens that kids can also play in won't be enough to transform the centre of Leeds city into some suburbanesque paradise – but at least they're giving it a go.

And that's important, because one of the legitimate criticisms that's levelled at city living is that it has become too exclusive, shutting out anyone who isn't a twenty or thirty-something single professional.

So, can't we let developers at least try and rise to the challenge? Not dismiss their efforts out of hand?

Another bugbear has been the exclusion of the very young from the plush new apartment complexes. Until now.

Two of the biggest towers in Leeds will soon reach completion offering modern student accommodation in the heart of Leeds. But when one of these developments was first proposed on Woodhouse Lane a local councillor argued that their construction would create a ghetto.

Nuts.

Presumably students should have to perpetually endure living in damp, dilapidated terraces with flea-ridden carpets and reinforced steel doors (anyone who's been to university will know what I'm talking about).

But no more. Now they can, for a while at least, enjoy the same amenities and atmosphere of the city centre that all the lawyers, doctors and advertising gurus currently occupy down on the waterfront.

Wonderful

That's wonderful, not a ghetto.

But perhaps the most unbelievable chagrin has come with new proposals to construct a key workers' village just on the edge of the city centre.

In short this aims to create roughly 800 apartments – with their own on-site facilities – which will only be given to people whose income is within a strict band, currently the suggested figure is somewhere between £14,000 and £23,000.

What this aims to do is tackle a long-standing problem which has seen thousands of people unable to buy or let properties in all but the more down-at-heel parts of Leeds. We're not just talking nurses and teachers, also all the call centre staff and shop assistants who keep the local economy ticking over.

What this village could do is not only break through the financial impasse but also offer the chance to live within walking distance of the heart of the city.

But yet again, a vocal minority are reluctant to give the scheme the go-ahead, citing worries about the number of people who would live there. (A strange concern in the centre of a city which already has a 700,000-plus population).

It's about time those in power developed a clearer vision about what kind of city we want Leeds to be and, crucially, make some kind of commitment.

Do we want an existence which is forever divided into rich, super-rich and poor – north, south and centre? Or are we going to grab at every opportunity we can to integrate and evolve?

I'm not suggesting we simply roll over every time a developer comes up with a scheme, what I am saying is let's work with them and give them the chance to prove themselves.

There's a growing suspicion that far from trying to safeguard the long-term sustainability of city living there's a Luddite few who're battling it on the back of a self-satisfying whim. If we can't reason with them perhaps we should just ignore them.


All hands on decks

YOU know you're getting old when you experience, perhaps for the first time in your life, the cyclical nature of fashion.

In the Noughties I've already witnessed the return of countless 1980s men's classics – waistcoats, cardigans, pointy shoes, skinny jeans, turn ups, neckwear, checked shirts etc etc.

But now the most unlikely of reprises has started showing itself on the coolest streets of Leeds: deck shoes. That's right, that rather odd, preppy style of footwear usually favoured by your dad.

However I've increasingly spotted one or two members of the local fashionati sporting them as part of some dapper style-statement combos.

At the moment they are not, please note, to be worn with a nice pair of chinos and a blue chambray shirt – but give it a year or two and they'll no doubt be de rigeur as well.


News from the planet Man

WHILE many women heralded the publication of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus as a refreshing dose of common sense, one of my female
friends this week discovered why an equal number of ladies loathe it.

After having the audacity to offer her current squeeze some advice on a couple of seemingly uncontroversial subjects, the sensitive (but slightly absurd) soul bought her a copy of John Gray's famous book.

The point her other half was making was that having a member of the fairer sex give him the benefit of her wisdom upset the male-female dynamic whereby he was supposed to be perpetually alpha and she appropriately vacant.

So upon opening the book – notably written by a man – she discovered he'd also marked the relevant chapter explaining why a woman should always make her fella feel like a protective knight in shining armour.

Mars or not, no wonder women think men are from another planet.