Across 110th Street on the Emerald Isle

Here's a stunning performance by Bobby Womack, with a double-header of songs - California Dreaming, and the incredible "Across 110th Street", which is as relevant today as it was the day it was written (1973).

I've always found something quite magnetic about "Across 110th Street" - it explains urban decay and what follows more accurately than any dry text is likely to, and it's an amazingly soulful song. With Womack's voice, it's even better, and this performance with just an acoustic guitar is about as good as it gets.

It's a timely song as well, and it's a warning following the insane property bubble and unhindered development that's been happening in Ireland for the last 15 years. This frenzy of development was one of the first things that struck me when I moved to Ireland in 2003 - building of shoddy housing estates, on the extreme periphery of cities, and some of the larger towns. This is exactly what happened in Scotland back in the 60s with the concrete tower blocks - which were the great new thing at the time. The problem is that the estates typically don't get finished, you can't walk to anything or anywhere, public transport is patchy, and viable and plentiful services such as schools, shops, and a proper sense of community are never developed.

Take a very poorly positioned housing estate that sprawls for miles and is walking distance to nowhere, fail to complete it, fail to put in public transport, fail to add shops, gardens, parks and community, and then throw in a price crash trapping owner-occupiers on the estate, and a recession with job losses sapping them of any money they might have remaining, and watch the inevitable outcome.

A lot of people in dream housing estates are going to find themselves across 110th street in the next few years...