Glasgow is battered and burnt, but an offer of £1,000 for ideas to make it better may be just what we need, says Herald columnist Mark Smith

Ask anyone in Glasgow right now for ideas on how to make the city a better place and I guess the first thing they’ll do is think of the flames on the streets and the smoke in the air and the sound of another building cracking and burning and dying, and say: protect what we have. Stop the fires. Enough.

But to try to stop it happening again – and it will happen again – and to make Glasgow a better, more beautiful and more robust place is going to take a mix of big projects with big money, such as the reconstruction of the Union Corner building, and smaller, every-day projects from the people who live here. Look at the pile of rubble on Union Street after another night of fire, but look too at the piles of rubbish on the other streets: there are volunteers out there picking it up, such as Nae Trash, and it might seem small compared to the bonfire of the city and it might seem like a losing battle, but it matters and it’s making a difference.

There’s an excellent new project as well that’s just been launched which aims to tap in to some of that desire to help and to make Glasgow better, and I thought I’d tell you about it because it’s inspired by a part of the city that some might say has been one of the worst affected of all by the decline, demolition and fire. I mean Blythswood, the New Town of Glasgow, that sweeps across Sauchiehall Street, St Vincent Street, Charing Cross, and the jewel in the crown: Blythswood........

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