Step out of Lime Street Station and you see a tale of three cities.
On your right, the grandeur of St George's Hall encapsulates Liverpool's historic wealth and influence. The Grade I listed neoclassical building dominates the view towards William Brown Street - its Roman and Greek-inspired architecture is as elegant as it gets.
On the left are the rather anonymous modern student blocks of Skelhorne Street, one with a Tesco Express underneath, as is often the case. Between them as you walk down the stairs and head into town is Lime Street itself.
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Look beyond the garish cladding of St Johns' car park and the awkward, boxy tower of the Holiday Inn, and what stands out is the ABC Cinema. It's a building which has seen better days.
Once a wonderful example of the art deco picture houses which were so common across the country, the Grade II listed ABC now stands dilapidated, with graffiti and weeds adorning its walls. The cinema opened in 1931, but its days as a functioning venue are long gone, having last screened a film in 1998.
The closest it now gets to the glamour of the silver screen is when it's holding up a billboard for a new Netflix drama.
As a first impression of a city goes, it's not the best. Liverpool has a thriving and beautiful city centre, but as you head towards it from our main station, that could well be lost on you.
In fairness, Lime Street does have its pluses - The Vines and The Crown Hotel are handsome pubs, businesses like Liverpool Brewing Company and Momos have been great additions to town and developments on the street itself have smartened it up.
That said, 20 million people pass through Lime Street station each year and at the centre of their first glimpse of our city is an abandoned, dilapidated cinema and a 1960s shopping centre. Can we not do better than that? It feels crucial that we do.
Finding a use for the cinema - or taking a brave decision with it - should be a priority. It would be a long time coming.
Plans for the cinema, which is owned by the council, to become a music auditorium were approved in 2016. However, three years later Liverpool City Council told the ECHO a "number of options" were being considered.
The site was said crucial to the Upper Central Masterplan - a scheme covering huge parts of the city centre's development, particularly around the city's Knowledge Quarter. In July, Nick Small, councillor for City Centre North and cabinet member for Growth and Economy, told the ECHO the council is now "waiting for the right investor" to take over the ABC.
Finding a purpose for the large former cinema appears to be difficult - it is a problem seen across the city. The ABC is not the only picture house in Liverpool wasting away and searching for a new purpose.
In Wavertree, the Abbey (a childhood haunt of The Beatles) has been used as a snooker club and a supermarket since closing as a cinema. It now stands empty since Lidl pulled out of plans to take it over.
Park Road's former Gaumont Cinema has been left to ruin. Concerns remain around the city's oldest cinema - the Woolton Picture House - which has not reopened since the pandemic, a topic the ECHO has covered extensively.
It's not just cinemas - the Wellington Rooms remain in a sorry state, with the council searching for a use for that site. There are too many historic buildings across our city that are waiting for a revival - and too many new developments which have ground to a halt.
Fortunately, one significant site bucks that trend. The Littlewoods building was one of the city's finest examples of art deco architecture but it has been left empty for almost 30 years.
The building's state was worsened by a huge fire in 2018 and it now is a shell of its former self. However, work began earlier this month to turn the site into a film and TV campus. It is an ambitious project forming the heart of Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram's ambition to make Liverpool the 'Hollywood of the North'.
It has taken a frustratingly long time for work to begin at Littlewoods but it can only be a good thing. Finding an exciting new purpose for an iconic Liverpool building while retaining its architectural style should be the standard.
To be the thriving, modern city it can be, the city must be ambitious with these sites. Fortunately, it appears as if there is a plan in place to facilitate this.
The Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel, chaired by Mayor Rotheram, was created after government commissioners were installed at Liverpool Council in the wake of a damning inspection in 2021. Its findings were returned in November with three proposals to boost Liverpool's development in the next decade.
The first was titled 'rebooting Liverpool's regeneration', aiming to kickstart stalled projects and rejuvenate regeneration in the city through new partnerships. A renewed focus on regeneration is vital - certainly when the ABC is concerned. Nowhere needs new life breathing into it than that.
For me, Lime Street encapsulates the more frustrating aspects of development in Liverpool. While a formerly great building which was once the subject of grand plans lies dilapidated and stagnant, the new builds which have actually come to fruition mainly take the form of anonymous student tower blocks - offering accommodation but not much else.
While Littlewoods has taken the first step towards its Hollywood ending, the ABC hasn't made it past the adverts. Here's hoping that 'rebooting regeneration' will change that.
As people step off the train at Lime Street, Liverpool should show them both its heritage and ambition straight away - historic grandeur to your right and the gateway to a modern metropolis straight ahead.
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