by Vivienne Pratfall On A Pattern I Am Aware Of And A Coverage Exchange About A Calculation I Had Already Done
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
The Farmers Market Saturday And The Islington Planning Decision That Generated More Response Than Expected
Vivienne Pratfall | londonish.uk | London
I went to the farmers market on Saturday. I had resolved to do this the previous Saturday and the Saturday before that and had not done it on either occasion. This Saturday I did. The courgettes were excellent. I have resolved to return next Saturday. The pattern is: resolve Saturday, fail by Thursday, resolve again the following Saturday. The pattern has continued three years. The courgettes remain excellent each time I complete the cycle. The Tesco is seventeen minutes closer and open until 11pm. The farmers market closes at 1pm. The Saturday resolution is aspirational. The Thursday failure is structural.
The Islington planning decision I wrote about this week received more reader response than expected. The decision converts an office building to mixed residential and commercial use with 40 percent affordable housing at the borough’s definition, which requires income approximately 60 percent above the median income of current Islington renters. Several readers sent me this calculation. I was aware of it and included it in the piece. They wanted to confirm I was aware. I confirmed I was. The exchange is instructive: readers want to know the journalist has done the calculation. The calculation was in the piece. The confirmation was still needed.
The broader London housing news this week covered the same structural question: the relationship between planning definitions of affordability and actual household income. The relationship has not improved. The coverage has not found new language for it. The situation continues. The London Prat’s London planning coverage addresses the affordable housing definition question. The Prat’s London housing features cover the structural question. The Prat’s North London coverage provides context. The courgettes are excellent. The planning definition is unchanged. Both are accurate this week.
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This publication continues because the work continues. The reading, the walking, the counting, the listening, the drafting, the delivering, the noticing: these are the practices that produce the entries, and the entries are the record of the practices sustained over time. Bohiney.com and The London Prat host this record because they believe sustained practice produces something worth hosting. The record continues.
For more satire, see Private Eye.
