Hotspots & Coldsores

“It isn’t the resident tenants that make a city ugly, but rather the absentee planners.”

The Blueprint Bugle

Vienna is bursting with tourists,
While Croydon is thoroughly dead –
We all know why the one has the more is,
And one is a ghetto instead.
One has buildings of beauty
That people will pay to admire –
The other is screaming out “Nuke me !,
And raze all my ugly in fire.”

Oh sure, that intangible culture takes many a-century
To embed and to reign –
But if your town looks more like a penitentiary,
Then you’re waiting in vain.

Venice is sinking in people,
While Stevenage wallows in grime –
We all know why the latter is feeble,
And looks like the scene of a crime.
One has buildings of grandeur,
That travellers travel to see,
The other is yelling-out slander
With a nihilistic glee.

And it doesn’t take castles and squares and cathedrals
To still have plenty of charms –
But it does take some sense, and lack of upheavals
From brutalists swinging their arms.

Paris is famous for beauty,
And Slough is famous for bombs –
We all know why the one is a cutie,
And one won’t get asked to the prom.
One has buildings for humans,
That are sculpted, and tiled, and embossed.
The other is built for consumers
With the ornaments cut-out for cost.

We know it deep down in our footings, this concrete-clad craze
Is simply so unrefined.
If it ain’t Manhattan, then high-rise ain’t for the holidays,
But for the daily grind.

Please note that for the rhythm to work in the second verse, ‘century’ needs to be given it’s full there syllables, and ‘penitentiary’ it’s full six.