Yes, fiction and real-life seem to have merged - On Market Street you can buy T shirts bearing the words "Free Deirdre", but in the back window of a car on Upper Brook Street, I saw a poster saying "Hang Diedre Racheed" (and no apologies for the spelling). And in "City Central", starring Paul Nicholls, it was a bit like "Prime Suspect 5" revisited, with gritty urban crime and domestic violence in a familiar setting. Mancunians will have enjoyed playing "Spot the Location", with Castlefield, Corporation Street and Piccadilly instantly recognisable. Will Manchester get like New York, with camera crews on every street corner?

While crime in New York has fallen sharply, here it never seems to be out of the news. On Whitworth Street on Saturday night, 27 year old Nick Centi, a bank worker, was stabbed to death after trying to intervene in an argument. It's the fifth murder to have taken place on the city's streets recently, and the third on Whitworth Street. The incident happened outside Deansgate (formerly Knott Mill) station. One suggestion to alleviate trouble is to stagger club closing times. Most close around 2am, causing thousands of people to spill out onto the streets - causing "flashpoints".

Police in Longsight have a new building - let's hope the modern working environment - looks like a cross between a Norwegian farmhouse and a Mormon chapel to me - will help them to catch more criminals.

And Strangeways prison, renamed HMP Manchester, has been praised in a report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. The facility has been extensively renovated, and now holds just over a thousand prisoners, down from 1600 at the time of the riot and roof occupation which I remember witnessing eight years ago (from the outside, I hasten to add!)

Nicholas Burton, from New Mills, has been found guilty of murdering Rachel McGrath in Bramhall, Stockport, last year (see 1997 Newsletter weeks 18 and 19). The jury at Liverpool Crown Court took less than an hour to reach their decision. He was also convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment and threats to kill. Burton claimed he had been insane at the time of the murder, but the jury rejected this. So 11 months after the crime, the killer will go to jail, and life will probably mean life - the judge has said he is considering three concurrent life sentences.

Crime was again in the news on Friday, when the Home Secretary Jack Straw came to the Langworthy estate, the area known as Salford's most notorious crime black spot. He walked through the streets, and met Salford council leader Bill Hinds. As reported in Friday's Evening News, Mr Straw said: "I have been shocked by what I've seen". But he said that new legislation would enable the police and council to take tougher action against juvenile crime and anti-social tenants.

Tragedy struck at Humphrey Park station on Tuesday when Paul Gilbody, aged 12, was killed by an express train. Paul was a pupil at Lostock High School in Stretford. Many children play on railway lines around Manchester, apparently heedless to the danger. Two weeks ago, teenager Matthew Clancy narrowly missed being killed by a train at Werneth Station Oldham. A campaign has been launched to urge youngsters to keep away from railway lines.

Zero tolerance is a recently US-imported buzz word, used to refer to the technique of stopping crime from escalating by nipping it in the bud. It has also been used by Manchester City Council for their Zero Tolerance of Violence against Women campaign. A large letter Z appears in posters, notices, on the side of refuse trucks and even in the middle of the M56/A560 motorway roundabout in Wythenshawe.

But at Wright Robinson Sports College, Abbey Lane, Gorton, the term has taken on a whole new meaning - zero tolerance of dark blue shoes, nonregulation jewellery, or anything else that contravenes the school's strict dress code. As reported in Friday's Evening News, Headmaster Nevill Beischer says the uniform makes all 1500 pupils equal, and he wears it himself too. But some parents have objected to their children being sent out of classes for wearing dark blue shoes instead of black ones.

How do all those schoolkids in America and all over Europe manage without a school uniform? And I'm not sure how wearing a school cap and short trousers helped me in my personal adolescent development. As for girls uniforms, as seen in schools round Manchester these days, it seems to be a universal "Which girl has the shortest skirt" competition. After five years in the Middle East, it's quite a shock!

At a ceremony in the Town Hall on Friday, three awards were given by the Civic Society for good urban design. The Trinity footbridge (also known as the Calatrava Bridge) was singled out for the Renaissance Award, the office development at 201 Deansgate won the Victorian Award for Civic Pride, and Angela Campbell opticians of King Street was given the Shop Front Award.

It's been a bit of a gloomy newsletter this week, but to cheer us all up, we can look forward to a musical feast coming our way later this week in the voluptuous shape of Baby, Posh, Mel C, Ginger and Mel B, alias the Spice Girls, who are giving sell-out concerts at the Nynex Arena. Three of the group are from the North, and Victoria Spice is engaged to David Beckham so they assure Manchester fans the concert will be like coming home. Unfortunately I won't be attending - too busy with Eyewitness in Manchester.

Waiting for good weather to take some nice promotional style photos for Eyewitness in Manchester has been a frustrating business. All week it's been leaden clouds and rain, then on Friday afternoon, the sun came out for a while. On Saturday more rain, and on Sunday intermittent downpours, and thunder too. The April showers are set to continue, with continuing cold winds from the north. The daffodils are starting to wither now, and the only decent daffodil shot I got was this one of the Whitworth Art Gallery. Here's hoping for a sunny Easter weekend.

• With a Northern Ireland peace settlement "tantalisingly close", a UK-bound car loaded with explosives is intercepted by Irish police at Dun Laoghaire.
• Child killer Sidney Cooke spent his first night out of prison in a police cell in London
• Earth Summit won the Grand National