Err yes sparty. Noted. Suggest a PM to admin. Just dont call him a Walker or you might not get your way.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So what's left for Senator Cohen now that his waterfront masterplan is deemed unbuildable. Caught high and dry on the tide of economic change. He has said he will not stand again and with the sinking of the underpass and the building of the architecturally inept fiancial concrete maze about as likely as a millenium town park in the near future he has seemingly done what all frustrated politicians do when their visions are in tatters - devoid of purpose they faff about busying themselves with minor details that are best left at officer level.
I stood behind Cohen in the queue to get a JEP from the old lady outside BHS on the day his north of town masterplan was unveiled. He was a bursting his buttons telling the poor disinterested woman about how it was 'his' materplan. Over and over and over. And as the queue lengthened and people started looking at their watches and coughing loudly he seemed totally unaware of quite what a prat he was making of himself.
Senator Cohen in my view your tenure as planning minister has been nothing short of a gigantic pampering of your ego. It would seem that despite much hot air very little of any note has been acheived and this latest episode shows that when it comes down to it you just cant help yourself. You played to the gallery during your election campaign providing an unsophisticated public with a range of cultural projects that you claimed as your own. Of course the many people who actually did the work knew differently but the wider electorate fell for it - seeing you as an all round good egg. They were, in my opinion, very wrong. Hoardings on buildings are not in themselves interesting, engraved stone pavings are not sculpture and an ugly toad on a granite stick is definately not good public art. Live8 -well that was just a giant piss up ending in drunken brawl and 'boots on boys' for the old bill.
Your obsession with master-planning, the total and utter devotion to all things Hopkins, the Harcourt fiasco, the unfinshed Island site, the posturing on a national gallery and then a national park, the blantant ignoring of advice from the Islands most respected chartered surveyors, the portlet carbuncle, the ongoing plemont inertia, and now this petty meddling tell me that you are way out of your depth and your remaining time is probably best served undoing the expensive and messy legacy you have created so that somebody truly creative and passionate about architecture and design can work with local suppliers to provide solutions that are economically realistic, aesthetically in keeping and most importantly sustainable.
People did not make a line in the sand for you but their message was very clear. So give it up man. You'll feel all the better for it.
Some quotes to help you on your way;
Big egos are big sheilds for lots of empty space - Diana Black; 20th Century american writer.
The smaller the mind the greater the conceit - Aesop (greek fabulist) 6th Century BC
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be concious of none - Thomas Carlyle, 1879, Scottish Historian
and finally my favourite;
Egotism is the anathestic that dulls the pain of stupidity - Frank Leahy, 20th Century american football coach.
Maybe you could mention the last one to Senator Ozouf or just text him it on your blackberry during a states sitting?
