IT'S all happening in Glasgow. January was jam-packed with headlines about the dear, green place and dearly needed, greener plans for the city.

In the past week or so alone, Marks and Spencer announced intentions to close its Sauchiehall Street branch, which has been on the site since 1935, causing considerable shock to shoppers who viewed the department store as a staple of what was once one of Glasgow's grandest boulevards.

It is grand no longer, poor old Sauchiehall Street, and instead is a mix of gap sites and For Sale signs, some of its most striking buildings lying empty such as the former BHS site on the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Renfield Street, which has lain empty for more than five years now.

Just across from the three-storey vacant building sits a now-vacant lot, once the site of Victoria's nightclub, before it was razed following a fire in 2018. And speaking of fires, last week also, finally, saw the publication of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service investigation into the second Glasgow School of Art blaze.

READ MORE: Buchanan Galleries could double in size but we must save the steps

Frustratingly, the SFRS said it was unable to conclusively determine the cause of the 2018 fire, which also damaged the historic B-listed O2 ABC building, a former cinema that had occupied the site since 1875.

If the proposed closure of Sauchiehall Street's M&S caused consternation, it was no stretch to imagine that news of the potential demolition of Buchanan Galleries would take a while to sink in.

Owners of the shopping mall published a 10-year plan to knock it down and rebuild a mixed use development of residential flats, retail, office space and leisure. The scheme would also see the north cutting of the railway line at Queen Street Station capped over to create a platform for a building or public space.

The Herald:

While Buchanan Galleries sits at the head of Buchanan Street, at its tail is St. Enoch Centre where huge redevelopment plans are similarly afoot and similarly aim to change the use of the mall to include flats and officers.

Glasgow City Council has said it will look at using TIF (Tax Increment Finance) financing to pay for its share in the deal to revamp the Buchanan Galleries area of the city centre.

I remember Buchanan Galleries being built back in 1998. Like teenagers before me and, hopefully, teenagers to come, we used to spend Saturdays hanging out on the steps of the Royal Concert Hall, which provided a marvellous vantage point for the slow rise from the ground of the Galleries' shiny brick and, if you'll pardon the indulgence, it really doesn't feel that long ago.

More recently, in 2012, I wrote in these pages a love song to the Concert Hall steps on the then news of their decline. The steps, those sturdy cradles of many an office worker taking a sunshine lunch break and platform for protest, were under threat of demolition to make way for... an expansion of Buchanan Galleries for which the council planned to use TIF funding.

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Using £55 million of public money, the council wanted to see the Galleries doubled in size with a shiny glass entrance tube where the steps sit. From doubled to razed – what a difference a decade makes.

Prompted by the pandemic and by events such as COP26, the past year has seen heavy criticism focused on the choices of Glasgow Life and Glasgow City Council. Who can forget Susan Aitken's comments about the city centre merely needing "gussied up"? The leader of the council won't be allowed to forget that for some time at least.

But we're at an interesting point now. The city is dealing with the very real issues of cleansing, the preservation of existing services such as the city's libraries, and what to do about dwindling footfall in the city centre, to name a tiny few.

At the same time, there are interesting, innovative plans afoot. As well as the splash headlines of building plans, there were also major developments in plans for the Glasgow Transport Strategy, which contains really interesting ideas on tackling poverty, fighting climate change and transforming neighbourhoods.

Glasgow is the city of reinvention, from heavy industry to culture. It is in the midst of transformation once more and the city centre has a vital role to play in this. Change can be anxiety inducing, especially such major change, and the instinct can be to push against it: keeps shops where they are, wax nostalgic about the benefits of concrete stairs.

Yes, we need to have faith in our elected representatives to make the right decisions and listen to the public, but I feel excited about the changes coming. We're being promised a forward-thinking, innovative city with improved infrastructure that should improve life for those who need it most.

It feels energising to be part of that change. Glasgow has reversed away from proposals due to a lack of courage – look at the George Square renovation – but we can't lose heart.

The city scape is changing and life is looking bright along the horizon.