Not seeing the positives in the changes to the area I’m from

[Cricklely]

So,
I grew up just out of the central area of a city. It was a nice area, big park, small touristy area, then houses. There was some social housing, busy high street with useful shops etc. Good schools.
We moved when I was about 17, now 44.
DH and I moved back to the city last year having lived abroad. By chance we became friends with someone who lives in the area I grew up. Initially I thought they didn’t seem the type to live there, they are creatives but making good money.
We went over for lunch not long ago and after DH and I strolled around the area. It’s changed so much.
The high street is now filled with overly priced independent shops and coffee shops. There are only a handful of chain stores (M&S, Co-op, Boots, Sainsbury’s local and Tesco express). Everything else is independent and a Quick Look in a few overpriced, there are cocktail bars where pubs used to be etc.
The main through road now has a bus lane and cycle lanes which has made traffic awful quite frankly.
There must have been some investment into the high street as it’s all nicely painted and hanging baskets of flowers but it’s not useful. I couldn’t afford to shop there with any frequency.
The schools seem to have gone progressive, no uniform, teachers first names, child led etc. not a traditional education by any means.
House prices have shot up faster than most other parts of the city etc.
I got chatting to some old friends, apparently it now attracts those on 6+ figure incomes, especially the “Champagne Socialist”.
I had a look and the schools have very few pupils qualifying for free schools meals now (less than 10% closer to 5%), so what’s happened to the social housing?
They had to leave as they weren’t just priced out of buying a house/renting one. But with the closer big supermarket being an M&S, terrible traffic thanks to bus and cycle lanes and lots of other amenities gone (banks, clothes shops etc.) it no longer fit their lifestyle.
Our friends who now live there are the definition of champagne socialist, make ridiculous amounts each year, go on several expensive holidays and everything else but very left wing. They think it’s a positive, but of course they do, it now suits their life?!
AIBU to think these are necessarily positive changes?

I don't think the changes themselves are inherently positive or negative. It sounds like texbook gentrification. Areas tend to mold into the characteristics of the people living there so the changes obviously suit the general demographic of the area.

I get it though, it's never nice to see an area you have a connection with change beyond recognition. Gentrification doesn't suit everyone and people end up being priced out of areas they have deep roots in. It's happening in so many parts of Glasgow and people on the lower end of working class are being pushed further and further away from the city. I'm lucky that my area is close to the city centre and has great transport links everywhere. The fact it's on the main route towards Ibrox Stadium makes it pretty gentrification proof. I shat myself when an artisan coffee shop opened up around the corner 5 years ago but it never went beyond that 🤣.

I have to say, I do love to see areas full of independent shops, cafes and restaurants. I just can't afford to live in them.

Yeah gentrification has lots of problems. This can't be a new phoneom to you though?

I think while people doing well are partly responsible (and I wish I was doing that well!) they will have been priced out if other areas. So I think really it's our economic and social system which is a problem and you should be looking to blame, if you are blaming. Rather than being bitter at your friends. And it does sound a bit like you are, with your use of phrase champagne socialist.

What are you looking for them to do or change to make them proper socialists? What do you think that looks like? I genuinely wonder as I feel we are all lacking power to change our political system.

YABU

It might not seem like a positive change to you, but clearly it's popular with the people who live there. Places change, surely you weren't expecting it to have the same shops as 30 years ago? A high street with thriving independent shops, bus and bike lanes and nice cafes sounds lovely to me, but everyone's different.

Lefties are allowed holiday as well you know 🙄

if you loved the town before and it was so in keeping with you and your lifestyle, why did you move away?

no area stays the same. Ever. You sound very bitter op

I know what you mean. I remember being in a shop many years ago and a woman was complaining to the shop keeper thst the area was going to the dogs because the “useful” shops were closing and coffee shops taking their place. I think the alternative is the useful shops close and nothing takes their place though.

I am a socialist and I LOVE champagne. Misses point of thread

Why do so many people on Mumsnet spend time with 'friends' they clearly dislike?

Your friends don’t sound like socialists?! I think you just mean they are well off and also liberal. No problem with that is there?

also, not sure what your problem is with schools being progressive.

maybe just don’t visit there again, I don’t think it’s good for your mental health.

You sound a bit jealous you can’t afford to live there.

It’s just gentrification, pros & cons. Can certainly change the feel of an area.

It sounds nice. Where is it?

Champagne for everyone @PonyPatter44 I’m sure Marx said that! 😂

I think the op thinks only people living in penuary are allowed to want a better quality of life for everyone 🤷‍♀️

Sounds good to me. !! What's the issue? I'm left of centre and like nice areas, holidays and wine. Just means I would like plenty of others to like and afford them too

Champagne socialists are very 1990s, OP. We're the liberal metropolitan elite now.

The liberal metropolitan elite wokerati you mean!

I don't want to be a liberal metropolitan elite, though - I don't like the food. I was HAPPY as a champagne socialist!

I hate the term champagne socialist. The idea that you can’t be truly left leaning and have a high income is ridiculous. Not everyone with a high income is interested in a small government society with a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” attitude.

“Our friends who now live there are the definition of champagne socialist, make ridiculous amounts each year, go on several expensive holidays and everything else but very left wing”

Presumably they have to hand over almost half the amount they earn in tax?
People cycling and paying tax and going on camping holidays and the odd holiday to Reims in their electric vehicle/on the train are not the problem! People like that are the norm in Scandinavian countries, hence why their societies function better. Kids there don’t wear uniform either. Dressing kids up like mini City workers when many adults don’t even do it is old fashioned. If the schools can be run and be successful like that, lucky them! Wish our local schools could get away with that.

And what is wrong with local small businesses thriving?

Champagne is a form of local craft specific to an area of France. What is the problem?

High streets are dying because shopping habits have shifted to primarily online, and so many chain retailers have gone out of business. The alternative to the sort of shops you seem to dislike is streets lined with empty retail units, which then become wastelands which attract antisocial behaviour, and investment in town centres ends completely. The regeneration of our high streets must happen through diversification and fundamental changes to what they offer, or they will die completely. You have to give people a reason still to visit high streets - leisure and mixed use, bringing empty upper floors back into use as homes so that there are people coming and going in the day and in the evening, are tried and tested measures to regenerate town centres. Providing sustainable transport options through making buses and bikes easier and quicker than private cars increases the success of high streets, rather than diminishing it.

You are feeling nostalgic for your childhood, and probably have a rose tinted view of how things were then, when you were happy in that place. But times change and the building blocks of sustainable places are no longer the things which worked when you were young.

I think you need to urgently find out if the buses are aiming for zero emissions! Like in many European cities and London.

“In central London, all double-deck buses will be hybrid by 2019 and all single-deck buses will emit zero exhaust emissions by 2020. By 2037 at the latest, all 9,200 buses across London will be zero emission.”

“I don't want to be a liberal metropolitan elite, though - I don't like the food. I was HAPPY as a champagne socialist!”

Does a champagne socialist eat? If so, what?!

I think Roy Keane would tell you that they eat prawn sandwiches, wouldn't he?

I suspect most people find the changes to their childhood life hard to accept - so you are blinkered, and I understand that.

But you should also consider why you spending time with people you clearly don’t like.

And it’s perfectly possible to earn well and be left leaning without being a twat, by the way.

I suspect most people find the changes to their childhood life hard to accept - so you are blinkered, and I understand that.

But you should also consider why you spending time with people you clearly don’t like.

And it’s perfectly possible to earn well and be left leaning without being a twat, by the way.