What's wrong with Liverpool?

As I mentioned before I moved to Liverpool in April and now live in Kirkdale (North Liverpool). Whilst this may not be the poshest place to be, people are usually (or should that be: unusually) friendly here. Yes, prostitution and drugs are a problem here and so is the occasional murder or stabbing. The biggest problem however for everyone living here seems to be that the Liverpool Council appears to be asleep on the job.

Just one example: Liverpool is very untypical for British cities in that is has broad avenues and enormous huge circle roads with wide sidewalks. Plenty of space for creating a network of segregated bike paths through the city, similar to the bike super highways in London (of all places)! You would think!

Liverpool could have plenty of this! If the council knew what a bike is!

In fact, Liverpool has not a single mile of bike path anywhere! Bikers are practically non existent and where they dare to step out on the road they are usually met with honking horns.

It doesn't stop there though. As other councils have made huge strides towards instituting recycling collections (often against a lot of understandable opposition) the Labour Council in Liverpool has not even started establishing food collections. And recycling collections themselves are still only fortnightly.

So, when is Liverpool going to arrive in the 21st century? How long can it take for a large council like Liverpool's to catch up with the rest of the country?