[woodhousen]

ok guys, got this idea from another thread i saw in here.

Right, had a look around and i was wondering what our sister cities are.....and i have to say i was a little supprised

Chicago (USA)
Frankfurt (Germany)
Johannasburg (South Africa)
Leipzig (Germany)
Lyon (France)
Milan (Italy)

just wondering what you all think. is there any point in havng sister/partner cities and if so what?

we only have direct air routes to 3 of our 6 partner cities so what si the point??

discuss....

 

[Guest]

The point is Mr Whitby has attracted many architects form Chicago to a skyscraper conference has he not?

 

[brumthom]

when we were at school my friend went on a german exchange to frankfurt because it was our twin. theres also the german markets - they're from frankfurt (and very welcome they are too, my cupboard is stashed with their fancy beer glasses).

are there business links between the cities or trading incentives?

 

[woodhousen]

well brumthom,

i did a very similar thing with a youth group i used to help. birmingham paid part fo the cost for our group to go on a water sporting holiday in brixham with a youth group from Leipzig....out of that i have a great friend in leipzig who i visit on a yearly absis

i just totally forget the fact the the reason we met up in the first place was because we were partner cities

chicago is proving useful....whitby is trying to re-lauch air services to chicago andf also invites quite a few ppl over.... but wehat about Johan?

btw, wen i this conference meant to be?

 

[Guest]

This June

 

[CargoHold]

I lived in a small town in Holland that was twinned with the moon, because like the moon it had no atmosphere

 

[woodhousen]

i get it lol

 

[brumthom]

what i dont get is the point of twinning really tiny places together. take halesowen. its twinned with a place called le blanc mesnil in france. kinda cute tho. bet its nicer than halesowen

 

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Frankfurt does bring us the German market every xmas. Mmm, they bring nice beer with them also.

 

[Martin G]

Brum could of course do with getting some of Frankfurt's towers eh?

 

[Victorian]

ok guys, got this idea from another thread i saw in here.

Right, had a look around and i was wondering what our sister cities are.....and i have to say i was a little supprised

Chicago (USA)
Frankfurt (Germany)
Johannasburg (South Africa)
Leipzig (Germany)
Lyon (France)
Milan (Italy)

I think Birmingham used to be twinned with Zaparozhe in the former Soviet Union as well. Now that it is a Ukrainian city, the twinning has probably lapsed.

 

[MJH]

I reckon we should twin with Hong Kong or Shanghai before someone else nabs them!

 

[Biosonic]

We're twinned with Kiev also.

 

[blackcountryboy]

I went to Cyprus at Easter and apparently (according to the sign as you enter the city) Birmingham is also twinned with Limassol, one of the island's main resorts.

 

[morestoreysplease]

Why were you surprised Woody? They're all known facts.
We used to have an airlink with Chicago - American Airlines - until shortly after 9/11 when they pulled the plug.
I thought we had twins in places like Romania and Bulgaria and aren't we also twinned with a Chinese city too?

 

[woodhousen]

but whats the point is what i am asking........ would the world collapse into war if we didnt partner ourselves with these cities?

 

[pauliewalnuts]

but whats the point is what i am asking........ would the world collapse into war if we didnt partner ourselves with these cities?

No, but there are a lot of links and exchanges that go on which don't get a lot of publicity, especially at youth level.

The cities also share info on things like social issues - I recall when I lived in Milan, i read something about the comune (council) sending a delegation over to Birmingham to look at how the city had been so successful in terms of racial integration (Milan is currently changing massively - there has been over the last decade an enormous influx of immigrants in the city, Senegalese, Albanians, Moroccans, and they didnt have the first clue how to react).

I've also just been googling around some Italian sites to find stuff that happened between Brum and Milan as twin cities, and there is plenty of stuff - mostly it seems they've been quite taken with what happened with the Bullring, and BCC have sent people over there to talk to their opposite numbers about inner city regeneration.

I think part of the whole twinning thing is a prestige thing as well, to be honest, second cities pairing with other second cities and so on.

 

[kebabmonster]

Leipzig and Frankfurt/Main are two principle trade-fair/exhibition towns. Could be twinned with Brum, as Brum has the UK's principle exhibition centre?

Leipzig and Frankfurt are nowhere near as big as Brum though.

 

[pauliewalnuts]

Leipzig and Frankfurt/Main are two principle trade-fair/exhibition towns. Could be twinned with Brum, as Brum has the UK's principle exhibition centre?

Leipzig and Frankfurt are nowhere near as big as Brum though.

Milan is also italy's major exhibition venue.

 

[hammerb24]

Isn't Smethwick twinned with Amritsar ?