On Wednesday, Barack Obama arrived at The Blythswood. Wearing a bomber jacket embroidered with the number 44, the former US President looked like he had been plucked out of a natural wine bar in the south side and dropped at the steps of the 5-star hotel. A very Glasgow look.

Later that evening, Obama hosted a conversation event for more than 12,000 people at the Hydro, where he told the crowd that he thinks “we can be better”. The we, I believe, was humanity.

Unsurprisingly, accounts across social media circulated an AI-generated image of Obama holding a traffic cone over his head, supposedly at the event. If Obama had walked on stage wearing a traffic cone, it would hardly be a surprise. After all, it was just last week that the Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, stood in front of a gigantic inflatable traffic cone in an effort to seduce the Tartan Army to return to her city for their very own Tartan Week next spring.

Now, I understand that a traffic cone is a harmless way for people to show their affection for Glasgow. But as it becomes an internationally recognisable emblem of the city’s irreverence, it increasingly reminds me of the distance between the Glasgow we celebrate and the city I endure on a daily basis. More and more, I find the cone stripped of its metaphor, its meaning changed from cheekiness to a symbol of an exhausting state of incompletion.

The cone used to celebrate Glasgow’s resilience, humour and stubbornness. Now, when outsiders wave it around as a symbol of the city, I have to wonder if they are mocking the state of the city centre. It no longer feels like an expression of Glaswegian-ness, but of the circumstances straining........

© Herald Scotland