Reader Liz Ballantyne has spotted this yarn-bombing commentary attached to the site fence at Shrub Place.
The statement – MORE SOCIAL HOUSING FEWER BLOODY STUDENTS – refers to the new development currently replacing Shrubhill House (Ref. 13/00241/FUL).
Ziggurat are creating five commercial units here and accommodation for 260 students.
Spurtle has much sympathy with those calling for more social housing close to the city centre.
Today’s undergraduates – some state-sponsored from abroad, others working jobs and still running up considerable debts to finance their studies, all anxious about future prospects in a period of economic hardship – tend to be far more hard-working and quiet-living than their predecessors of 20 or more years ago.
They bring energy, creativity and cosmopolitanism, and are valuable economic drivers at both citywide and local levels. In managed accommodation, they are often model neighbours.
So, whilst we like guerilla knitting, on this occasion we prefer the medium to the message.
Meanwhile, in a loosely related development, the mournful moon-faced man in the large spectacles who formerly adorned hoardings at Shrub Place (see foot of page, here) has reappeared in red on the footpath and cycle route below Newhaven Road. We hope he’ll be very happy in his new surroundings.
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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@theSpurtle Yellow letter on a white background, obviously no designer involved in this offering!
@theSpurtle Needle point perhaps?
@greenerleith @theSpurtle my reaction was similar, I thought I was just being over sensitive.
@papawasarodeo @greenerleith @theSpurtle I'm not anti student but there is a desperate need for local affordable housing for local folks.
@CityCycling @papawasarodeo @greenerleith @theSpurtle maybe a case of trying to fit a message into a small space: knittingtwitter....
@superfastfoods @CityCycling @papawasarodeo @greenerleith Yes, that could well have some bearing. And yet somehow found room for 'BLOODY'.
I agree with the #Knitters I'm surrounded by students, ignorant ones too! #SocialHousing @theSpurtle @greenerleith http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/guerilla-knit-misses-point …
alison wonderful @superfastfoods
@CityCycling @papawasarodeo @greenerleith @theSpurtle not students fault: student housing makes £££ for private companies, like Edinburgh_CC
@superfastfoods @papawasarodeo @greenerleith @theSpurtle is @Edinburgh_CC a private company?
++++ 18 December responses below this line +++++
@theSpurtle re Shrubhill student housing this is not going to occupied by poor students the rents are of a level only students with
@theSpurtle parents will be able to afford them plus rented out for festival rest of year locals are in despair about the way area will
@theSpurtle become after like Holyrood a deadzone with noise
@fatblackcatspaw Not aware of any such problems attending new student housing at end of Logie Green Road. Shame not affordable housing, tho.
@theSpurtle Holyrood a deadzone they have no investment in the local area being transient.. The Cockburn Society wrote a reporton the issue
@theSpurtle Newington running at 51% student pop with a large private student housing dev in Lutton Place being proposed
@theSpurtle @allytibbitt Greener Leith and Spurtlers should talk to more locals they are unhappy urban bunnies
@theSpurtle Prefer students in properly managed accommodation, and NOT in dilapidated HMOs in New Town listed buildings
@NTCleanStreets Easier to curb /outlast rogue student excesses in run-down HMO than awful owner's in same smartened property. #swing #rndbt
@theSpurtle Students better in purpose-built accommodation. OK you outlast HMOs but it's the same problems + nuisance every sodding year.
@theSpurtle At least with owner-occupiers only have to teach basics of tenement living ONCE, not Sep-May, again in Aug & repeat to infinity
@theSpurtle Lost your keys? Own buzzer on blink? Can't hear own buzz cos music so loud? Just buzz the neighbours then, happy to help at 3am
@NTCleanStreets Result of youth, dimness, selfishness NOT studenthood. Young, dim, selfish locals (& old ones) also deserve chance to settle
You should try sharing a wall or ceiling w/ student HMO, @theSpurtle, and see how fondly you regard charming youthful high jinks yr after yr
@theSpurtle Hence my view that students should be in student accomm, freeing up unsuitable tenement properties for non-transients