Is Glasgow a safe place to live?

[GoodnessGraciousMeh]

My DD has recently moved to Glasgow for a job. She is shocked at how rough it seems, and there is a programme on iplayer which is on later tonight on player about Glasgow which was filmed recently. It's really shocking. She is living alone in a not particularly nice area and I am really worried. For people who have experience of Glasgow, please tell me your thoughts.

The city centre is a shambles with the George Square redevelopment,litter,bike lanes, anti car measures , lack of investment under the SNP
But I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than any other major city

My elderly Uncle has lived in Glasgow for at least 13 years with his second wife (fairly central I think) & has been safe so far… mind you he is pickled in whiskey so wouldn’t notice not being safe. His second wife seems like a sensible person

I wouldn't describe anywhere in London as "very dangerous".

Yes. I lived around there when I was a student - that was '78-83. (I had a year abroad in between.)

Glasgow is an amazing city and I love living here. I never feel particularly unsafe but I wouldn’t personally live in the east end if I had a choice.

I think the West End of Glasgow is lovely for Glasgow. But it's not even as nice as some of the more average parts of London. I was really surprised that this supposed "fancy" area has a dirty main shopping street with an Iceland and betting shops. More like Seven Sisters than Chelsea!

It sure was but the gangs were fighting each other and most folk just got on with life, you could shop and enjoy most of the pubs, wander round the town just enjoying the day go by, try that these days and you would be asking for trouble. Glaswegians are the best folk in the world and never once have i ever felt unsafe there not even in the 80s. Last time i was there to meet a friend for lunch i had a bloody awful experience. Thankfully i have a mouth on me.

Amazing what an irresponsible media determined to dramatically overstate issues for the sake of engagement can do for someone's perception of a place eh?

See you Jimmy

I'm from Shettleston. Honestly it's fine. There are some questionable characters around but isn't there in all city's.

Glasgow has gone downhill so much recently, sad to see

Completely agree with this

Don't be so dramatic - "very dangerous" 😂😂😂

What happened?

Oh I know all about the razor gangs back in the day but the point is, it wasn’t open out in the main areas of the public. It was confined to certain areas. Today, these criminals have no fear as they know the police are not around and nothing will happen to them. If they do get caught, they’ll get some form of community service or a small time in jail/out on early release.

It’s not a race to the bottom - just because we had gangs back in the day, doesn’t mean we need to import more. Time, money and resources would be better spent cleaning up our own back yard rather than importing 000s of unskilled, uneducated men with nothing to do all day, have lived a completely different cultural existence which doesn’t translate into Scottish culture. Genuinely - have you recently been around the Macdonalds at the four corners or St Enoch’s? If yes, no you have eyes!!! Do you actually want to see people dealing drugs in the street and fighting each other? The rivalry between “tribes” from sub-Saharan Africa has simply been relocated to Glasgow. I work near the four corners and we constantly get the police in asking if we’ve “seen anything” after attacks/rapes but it’s rarely reported in the press. A woman was raped down the lane next to us two weeks ago by a migrant and it’s not been reported.

How anyone cannot see this beggars belief. Glasgow city centre is reflective of this now on a daily basis. It’s tragic.

Like any major city it’s got genteel bits and rougher bits. Great city, most people are salt of the earth types, but it can be quite “gritty” and has an undertone of religious /football tension that I’ve not encountered anywhere else.

The razor gangs and street fighting was always out in the open as far back as the twenties and thirties , for goodness sake! Do some actual research please.

Well I’d hope we’d move on instead of going backwards.

I genuinely don’t get the argument that because we’ve got “home-grown” gangs, rapists and thieves, it’s ok to bring in many more. These are men that actually promote FGM in young girls FFS! I see them every day, grooming young, vulnerable girls around St Enoch’s - and just because local men also groom kids, doesn’t somehow make it ok.

People might want to take a look at this thread. Men from cultures where women don’t matter pose a greater risk.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5567621-article-on-the-threat-to-uk-women-from-afghan-

We always say we've got bams in Aberdeen but there's a different class of bams in Glasgow.

Over the past few years I've definitely noticed groups of men hanging around the city centre who I doubt are locals.

The sectarian stuff is totally alien to us too.

compar to truly dangerous places in the world is nowhere in the U.K.that is dangerous. Obviously there’s safe and less safe perceptions and hot spots for eg knife crime but overall Glasgow is no different to other cities of a similar size, you’ll get some wrong ‘uns. Of course you worry as a parent, that’s our job once dc have fledged! (And picking up the pieces of their lives). My dd lives in a place you most likely would say is rough but she says it’s friendly and unlike my leafy area, it’s busy at night that makes it safe.

FIL lives in Glasgow and my MIL lives in London so we go to both cities as visitors a lot. I am always blown away by how nice London is, it seems so clean and welcoming. Glasgow on the other hand...I l like the west end but the city centre is a bit of a dump. It doesn't feel unsafe, just a bit grotty.

Razor gangs decades ago, violence is not new! Sectarianism is in their DNA! Used to love Glasgow (nearest city) not so much now…west End is nice though.

Get a grip, that area around St Enochs and even the four corners area of Argyle Street where the mcdonalds and pizza hut used to face each other has always been dodgy. Constantly junkies hanging around there in the 90s. I was assaulted there back in 2002 by a male and female junky in broad daylight and it took my friend screaming for help at a bunch of foreign european guys to split the fight up and protect me. Glasgow is not some quiet naice town that has suddenly been disrupted, it's just that the face of the gangs is looking more diverse now! Before it was all white gangs, now it's more of a mix.

No-one is importing gangs, some people are coming in either as individuals or with families and unfortunately a minority are getting caught up in criminal activity. The same as no-one born in scotland is deliberately raising gang members, but unfortunately some are involved in crime. When you think of it really it's not surprising what's happening. I said this would happen back in 2000 when they began arriving - considering the areas they are placed in asylum seekers they are being exposed to high poverty, high crime, low employment glasgow sub-culture that we all know has existed for a long time.

I know of middle class refugee or immigrant families that move to rough areas in the UK that were fine back in their home countries, but started struggling with their children due to the environment they were placed in. Back in the day African and Carribean families used to send their teens back to their countries if they were getting caught up in the wrong crowd here in London.

And not sure why you need to bring "sub-saharan' tribes into it? Glasgow has an aggressive gang culture centred around areas with each area having it's own young team. I remember in my town there were at least ten young teams, I'll never forget summer 2005 seeing 2 older teen guys jump out a car swinging machetes at my local park looking for the two main gang leaders in my area . Not to mention the sectarianism that literally led to deaths and weekly violence.

If anything the glasgow young teams are more tribal. These gangs you are talking about - many are from different countries in the same gang - it's about drugs and toxic masculinity. Same as with the white glasgow gangs. Your prejudice is showing because you can understand the phenomena of the many white Glasgow gangs without referring to 'clans' or 'tribes' but yet when it involves Black men you are quick to say tribes.

Exactly it was literally the murder capital of europe when I was growing up there in the 90s and early noughties. They only recently managed to address the long issue of stabbing more recently and bring the figures down post 2010 and it was hailed as a success and all that- but even then the rate is probably still quite high compared to a lot of other cities. It seems the only concern for some is that now some of the violent men are non-white whereas before it was almost of all white gangs and a few pakistani gangs in south side.

Not sure why it matters the race when it's coming from everyone? Violence is violence.

In the 90s white young men were slashing and stabbing each other all over the place. I remember my cousin randomly got slashed in the face for absolute no good reason and he wasn't even about that life - he was a recent uni graduate and then worked as a manager in one of the towns main restaurant. He claimed for compensations and used it to get some good cosmetic surgery thankfully.

I used to work for the criminal injuries compensation fund and a disproportionate amount of the claims were from glasgow with people claiming compo for being assaulted. i used to get a bus through alexandra parade on my way back from school and there'd be teens throwing rocks at the windows.

Someone upthread has quoted the sex crime figures for glasgow is very high compared to london, if that's the case do people really think it's the small minority of non-white people responsible for that?

I know a lot of people love glasgow but for me it's always been a city that made me feel on edge. Yes it's a lot of fun, great restaurants and the people are friendly but i always felt something was about to go off. Last time I was there I took a bus to visit my family member and within minutes of me getting on one man at the back was screaming down the front asking what this random man in the front 'was looking at'. My anxiety was sky-high but everyone just started chuckling and saying 'here we go again' this kind of behaviour is so normalised. Many a fight is started in glasgow by 'what are you looking at?!'