Is our town a shithole..

I live in a city in NZ about the size of a town in the UK, and its worse here too. There was a couple of homeless people before the pandemic and were generally kept to themselves. Now the homeless people are clearly mentally unwell and have increased considerably.

The town centre has lost a lot of major retailers, and the shops can't be leased. The govt, had to switch to cost saving after all the borrowing in the Pandemic so government job losses were huge and its unable to support the local economy. Huge amounts of people are moving to Australia its all a bit depressing.

We live near a large northern city and I wouldn't say the city centre has changed drastically recently, although it's always been a mixed bag- still lots of homeless people and more and more closed shops but like others have said I think sadly that's a broader theme. I have also noticed more men drinking cans in the streets during the day though now you mention this. In the city centre rather than elsewhere I'd say.

The most concerning issue we seem to have at the moment is antisocial driving/use of the roads. The city we're near has a problem specifically with gangs of young males in balaclavas on motorised scooters absolutely terrorising the streets/committing crime. It's grim and definitely a newer development, even in the suburbs where we are. Police don't seem to be able to do anything about this.

We're on a new build estate and a few of the lads on scooters unfortunately live on the next street down from us in housing bought by the local authority. And before people jump on me, no it's not a dig at those living in social housing- just a fact that these people are in the social housing on our new build estate, and they cause nothing but trouble. I point this out to highlight the fact that the demographic in our area is very mixed due to it being a new estate- most are homeowners and in professional occupations and have young families and the contrast is very stark. Most of the other people in the local authority owned homes are perfectly pleasant folk who do not wreak havoc on the roads in balaclavas.

I lived very close to the center of a large town, near a college, university and park and it became awful, significantly during Covid. Parks and college areas overrun early evening by large groups and yes it was non UK nationals, can't lie. My DS got threatened with a knife and it scared the living daylights out of him and his friends. Police took it seriously but in the end, nothing done. Drugs were exchanged openly in the pathway to the junior school - there was no CCTV. The council wouldn't fund one. Police did patrols but only after an incident was reported.
I moved further out of town and the area couldn't be more different. No gangs/groups, no drunks, safely walk along the river without incident. Totally different vibe. Would never live close to a town center again, the perks of walking everywhere - shops, cinema, leisure facilities, restaurants etc is not worth it against feeling safe.

Khan's having a sulk now that money's being earmarked for the red wall.
Says London is being neglected.

@latetothefisting ???
where do you think rivers run to?
It's not like a town can only have a seaside OR a river.

😆😆

Homeless people dont care if house prices are high or low

Fascinating! I think what has also made things worse in my local area is poor town planning. We have a beautiful river in the town but literally no way of walking by it, or having lunch with a view of it. Everything is built up from the town, where it's ugly - because the river used to flood back in the 1940s before flood defences were put in. But the town planning never moved on!

Towns like Bristol / Birmingham have built up around their waterways and while they are not perfect, they have a real draw for people.

I think that's a simplification. And pretending that they treat all their staff badly is odd. I know people who work for Amazon and love it. I've even tried to apply for jobs there myself.

Yes they have a lot of minimum wage jobs. But that's set by the Government and is why they make profits. Of course they will always use minimum wage jobs for unskilled work - just like everyone else.

Are they more evil than, say, local care providers who are providing nursing/personal care for minimum wage? Why is one evil and one saintly?

Yeah, my in laws are from here. Dh moved to London 20 years ago and met me. We had to move back here 5 years ago as we were finally priced of renting in London or anywhere close and had no hope of buying anywhere but here.

It’s very different to how dh remembers it. It’s all barber shops, shit charity shops and vape shops. Poundland is still hanging on for dear life, as well as a shitty branch of shoezone.

Dudley high street really isn’t a pleasant place to go, it’s a shame as I’m less than a ten min walk away.

???
where do you think rivers run to?
It's not like a town can only have a seaside OR a river.

OP I wonder if a lot of it is because so many pubs have closed down over the last few years, plus the increased cost of a pint in those that remain. There've always been those without much going for them, for lack of a better word, but previously they could sit in the pub and nurse a pint for a few hours. Now if a pint is over a fiver, even if you only have 1 a day, that's £35 a week, which if you're only getting £92 JSA is a lot. Drugs could work out cheaper and give a much stronger high/better escape.

Plus the cost of housing - again previously such people might not have been living the life of luxury but could at least be in a flat of their own. Now they might only be able to afford a tiny room in a shared house with loud housemates, so getting out and wandering the streets is preferable.

👍🏻 😊

And I lied about the bridge...

I'm dreading tent pitching. We're a Welsh tourist area but also a lot of farming. The thought of being overrun with wild camping and the mess they make, never mind scaring the animals, leaving rubbish they might ingest. Before the police would ask them to pack up and go 🙈

It was most certainly said with sarcasm.

Shithole town here too. Barber shops on nearly every street (some with 3/4), drug addicts, and yes, a massive influx of immigrants the town isn’t big enough to house. Many spend their day hanging around the town centre with not much to do.
Plenty of feral homegrown youths too, it’s idyllic here.

And I have a bridge I can sell you.....

That's a good way to put it. 🙂

Diversity is our strength.

The whole country has been carpet bombed with diversity

I though those were 'posh' places ? What went wrong ?!

The EU has great safety standards.
Farage May be saying it’s going to be fab but we all know he’s a liar, right?

A lot of these individuals will be unemployed, at the lower end of the educational spectrum and not have much of a support network.

Services funded by councils and charities are having their budgets slashed so there's nowhere for them to go or things for them to do. And they probably don't know how to get motivated because they don't come from those kind of backgrounds.

We need factories or some kind of new industry to employ people so they can grow some kind of self worth.

Boston is full of Polish people who are pretty well-behaved.

Round me the groups of men clustering in alleyways and parks etc are generally E European tradespeople who work hard and live cheaply in (often unlicensed and unregulated) HMOs. They have no social spaces in their homes as every room is turned into a two- bed bedroom or even dormitory style.

They are not bad men, but it creates a certain vibe.

And it is true that asylum seekers get housed concentrated in specific areas where the gvt can commission big underused cheap hotels.

If anyone watched the horrific BBC documentary about Assad’s jails and treatment of dissenters the other night you might understand why so many Syrian refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are prepared to come and live in converted office blocks 4 to a room, with no immediate prospects than stay in Syria.

For example.

But, the neglect of our high streets, the move to Internet shopping, hardly helps.

We also have a massive immigrant hotel in the town. So if it was them. I’d see them