Why students and regeneration don’t mix!

So here is a video shot by students from Goldsmiths university in south London about why it would be great to come and live in new cross and study there. I know its an advert but its so blind-sighted! New Cross, sits next to New Cross Gate, which is one of the poorest communities and like other areas of London which have large student populations, there is no acknowledgement of it. Students live next door to families and eat in the same restaurant and go to the same post offices, banks and sweet shops, but how many local residents go to the student run cafes or bars?

Why is it that when students market the area to outsiders they never mention the marketability of local people and community groups. There is a certain incubation approach by Goldsmiths and its students when it comes to improving the area. Its dangerous, dividing and perhaps the communities there should do more to challenge their approach.  Anyway here are a few comments I made earlier:

It might be beautifully shot, but most of it is filmed in Deptford and not New Cross!!! Furthermore it’s so misconceiving to believe that New Cross ends at Cafe Crema! Where is the Sainsbury’s and its massive car park? ,Post office? , Community groups? , Community centres? Ethnic minorities?  It’s interesting what people say in the video:  Take for example the guy who says that

‘The people that live here reflect the businesses that are here’

This is true, but why aren’t they in the video? I don’t see the mix of people that anyone in this video is referring too?

I think the whole video can be summed up really well when the lady at the end says:

’ It feels like the local people are aware of the university and quite proud of it’

 …but can the same be said about the students and Goldsmiths in general and how aware they are of the community that lives around them???

If this is to show what new cross is all about then for me it just highlights the blindness that many of the students at Goldsmiths have about where exactly new cross is and what else happens here.

Mindmixer aims to bring community participation on a whole new level and as a community engagement in local planning enthusiast, this could be a great new way to get people involved. Yes we already have online communities and local forums, but I think this is different. As the article states ‘its like sharing a FB like button’ to planning policy initiatives online. The results so far look have shown some success too from improving transport policy, creating a city budget and getting ideas on policy.

Achieving this through civic incentives like free bus travel, ideas being publicly displayed etc, sound so exciting. I am definitely thinking of watching this closely and following it up in some way.