Am I too posh for Cambridge?

I live about thirty minutes from Cambridge and visit multiple times a year. I’ve never experienced any issues.

God that’s so depressing to read. I’ve always thought of Cambridge as one of the few really nice, civilised towns in the U.K. Christ, is there ANYWHERE you can live in peace? Is there ANYWHERE on this planet you can escape vicious, foul-mannered, anti-social little scumbags? I’ve spent my whole life in fear of people like that. I was scared of them at school, saw a male friend beaten up by them when I was teenager, lived in fear of them in digs at university, and now have to avoid them when I walk my dogs. It all goes wrong at the start. Vicious, ignorant, abusive people with a history of neglect should be stopped from having children. But we just allow these cycles of violence and anti-social behaviour to continue generation after generation.

I live in Cambridge and have not encountered any of the issues the OP has seen, apart from a person begging outside Marks and Spencer's food store. They were not harassing anyone.
I live in Chesterton, just on the north side of the river but still very much part of Cambridge. I am often in the centre of the city too.
(My anecdotal, er, evidence is just as valid as theirs.)

Maybe check your area on https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/ and see if there are other parts of Cambridge or the other areas you mention where the demographics better suit your wishes.

Well, it depends. The places I’ve lived in Cambridge have not been like that at all, apart from the bike theft which is universal, but there are plenty of places which are.

Many apologies if this is a genuine thread - but I have sometimes wondered whether posts like this (that have a massively negative tone about either a place, or a school or whatever), may actually be intended to influence others, perhaps during that period when parents / young people may be considering where to apply for uni, and where reducing competition (from other applicants) might be a benefit??

I may well be completely wrong - and imagining conspiracies in every corner, so please do forgive me if so!

In terms of areas, especially in urban contexts, graffiti is a huge element that has a massive psychological effect on how people perceive safety and behaviour in an area - so the quicker that graffiti can be got rid of, the better - either by the council, or through voluntary groups :)

As for the rest, I can’t really comment, but all towns and cities have areas with more issues than others….

Do you need to live by a train station? If not how about one of the villages nearer Suffolk. Burwell, Bottisham and Swaffham Prior are nice, they have lots of cute villages near them. The other side of Cambridge has always been rough.
Every single bike I’ve ever owned from being a child has got stolen in Cambridge and the crime is horrific due to drugs.

Try Grimsby. Same stuff much cheaper.

Come to Peterborough OP. At least you’ll expect it to be dodgy and it’s much cheaper 😁

Try any of the villages just outside the city centre.

I was in Rutland recently, Oakham. A very pleasant place. Small towns can be boring to live in but by and large, less social problems. All cities suffer with similar issues, sadly.

Ely is just as dodgy. And Norwich also has dodgy areas. Search up The Larkman estate.

Southwold IS posh. As is Holt.

I doubt you're too posh. It's your expectations that are too high.

Cambridge is a city of extremes. Extreme wealth & academia. Poverty. There is a lot of homelessness / street sleepers.

If you live in a dodgy area (aka NOT posh) you're going to come across rough characters. You need to move to a million pound house. I think you'll find the living conditions there are a bit better.