As I wonder down Union Street, I look around me at the boarded-up shop frontages, the "for sale" signs on empty properties, the windows up above all falling apart, looking like the last time they saw a coat of paint was when they were built around 1900, and the plants, weeds and bushes growing out of gutters and chimney stacks.
And I ask myself "Was this really the Oil Capital of Europe"?
For the legacy that the oil industry has left Aberdeen City,with the exception of the wonderful and very welcome car park at Foresterhill Hospital, is non-existent.
Why is Aberdeen City Centre so run down? Most city centres that never had the oil industry look nicer than Aberdeen. Even Dumpdee looks better and that's ridiculous.
Why didn't the City Council ensure a legacy for the City Centre from the oil companies? Where did all the money go? Did it simply go into the pockets of those who worked for the oil companies, with most of their employees fleeing the city for a better life elsewhere when the bottom fell out of the industry in 2014? Maybe they went to Dumpdee.
It is truly shameful what Union Street looks like nowadays. The Council is making a lot of noise about how cruise ships landing at the new Nigg harbour will bring in tourists.
All I can say is that unless the Council get their act together on Union Street very quickly, these tourists will be taking away the message that Aberdeen Centre is a dump, and that message will be spread around the world when they go back home.
The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen? Those lights went out a long time ago.
