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As Steve Greeen rightly pointed out the City is a major financial powerhouse which is very important to the British economy. But it is deeply naive to think the City stands or falls on redeveloping Shoreditch. The City has decided to go into competition with Canary Wharf, an area specifically designed to house large numbers of skyscrapers. It is the success of Canary Wharf that the City fears, not its own failure. After the birth of Shoreditch, like a phoenix from the slums, developers see an opportunity to cash in - big style. There was no talk of redevelopment when the area was still considered to be down at heel. While it is all too easy to brand people who campaign against skyscrapers as stuck in the past blindly holding on to values and a world vision long deceased in this case it is merely lazy thinking, falling back, unquestioningly, onto stereotypes. Mr Green fails to look at the real picture. Uniquely Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hoxton are residential areas neighbouring one of the major financial hubs of the world. To build a wall of tower blocks on top of them would destroy the area and blight families' lives. Shoreditch is not a tall building zone - it is a home zone. Campaigners could be branded as nimbies, but they are nimbies for a very good reason. A towering wall of glass half a mile long will ruin lives with its light pollution and long shadows and, as I'm sure Mr Green will appreciate, the development will destroy an area that is becoming as increasingly important economically for the country as the City. How much money does Mr Green think artists and media companies of Shoreditch bring to our economy? Millions, is the answer. Destroy the unique character of the area and they will move out badly damaging the economic structure of Tower Hamlets and Hackney. But the fight is also for something far more important a the bottom line. It is a fight to maintain a valauble quality of life. Skyscrapers are marvellous and can be a positive addition to our cities - if they are in the right place. These are not. To say build to the sky otherwise Britain will fall is an act of willful blindness.

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