Butetown

Can Butetown - the Cardiff Docks - be regenerated through digital inclusion ? Just beginning to think about this with David Barrie. Together we met community leader Keith Murell – a fantastic Somali-Norwegian social entrepreneur who heads up Communities First. Where physical connection has failed, what about virtual communication ?

Butetown has certainly had its guts and soul clobbered by speculative Barratt developments that will never in a million years create any social wellbeing. Gated piles of boxy one-bed flats stacked in viewless blocks. I think no Victorian tenement comes close to Century Quay for its ability to blight and disfunctionalise the inhabitants. Socially responsible development only please !

I think the ray here might be that this community, while alienated from Wales, is very plugged in to the rest of the World. No one in Cardiff listens to them, but plenty of people in Somalia do.

But this will be a process of patience, gradualism, and modest aims. Plan to start with a few community websites.