You can't put a price on Bradford

The news that Bradford has the UK's second largest number of empty shops didn't particularly bother me. Nor did the coincidental news that the walled-off crater which was supposed to have become a Westfield shopping centre some years ago is now to be a community garden – confirmation that it will be some time before any Westfield shopping centre appears, if it does at all. In response to these stories, BBC Radio Leeds asked listeners: "Are you ashamed of Bradford?"

A few years ago, I would have said "yes", because I could think of nothing better to do with my time than hand my pocket money to chain stores for the same things the adverts told me everyone else had, and my hometown – being ill-equipped for that pastime – was a disappointment . It was full of cheap independent shops I'd never heard of, and Alfredo's Italian restaurant. All I wanted was a Bella Pasta and to fit in.

Then, of course, the riots came. A tiny number of meatheads squared up to each other one day in 2001, and between them destroyed the city's reputation for the rest of us for years to come. Statistically as safe as anywhere, Bradford was now seen as dangerous as well as poor. For the full article follow link below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/20/bradford-high-street-price