To feel so sad about what happened to our town?

[AbstractThought]

I wasn't born here, DH was, and I have seen it discussed on MN in the past. I am aware that many towns across the UK are in a similar situation, so this probably isn't anything special, but since most people talk about shop closures I wanted to look at it from a different angle.

In the past decade we have a ton more issues in the town than previously, often relating to homelessness and addiction, and the town centre, what's left of it, has become completely over run by these problems with groups of people fighting and street drinking. A lot of these people are in extreme difficulty, whether mental health related and/or drug issues. Crime shot through the roof, and even about 8 streets away from this it spills outwards to us in what was once a fairly quiet place to live.
We now have a constant stream of siren noise, day and night, helicopters are daily and whilst we personally haven't felt in any actual danger there is a horrible sense of decay and hopelessness. Just nipping to the closest supermarket is depressing, there are a lot of neglected animals and people having meltdowns in the streets.

It is how it changed so quickly though. I can't get my head around where it all started or why. I am aware of the contribution of politics, covid, all of that stuff, but it seems so incredibly extreme. The siren noise is the worst, it is piercing and never seems to end. This also seemed to explode around the same time as the area went downhill. Probably a mix of police and emergency vehicles. It is difficult to work or relax at home and if you are a light sleeper it can have an impact there too.

What I am wondering is if this is commonplace now, in what was once a thriving town? It is the sheer amount of troubled people which seems to have escalated the most, and I can't get my head around how this has evolved, in such a short space of time. It is like they weren't here, then suddenly appeared, it is difficult to describe it. Obviously the council can't do a great deal to help and I have no idea what the answer is. The most upsetting thing is that a lot of these people are so messed up that they can barely talk in a way that is decipherable. This includes children, and there is a growing amount of people who have barely any teeth. This is a fucking severe problem and I have no idea what will help it. We have mucked in with a few local charities but it barely scratches the surface in my opinion.
We are moving due to work relocation soon, so whilst it may not be 'our' problem after we have gone, this isn't the point. I am just so sorry that it has come to this, in likely even more places than just here. WTF happened??

No issues in this area; well, none that haven’t been knocking around forever. If anything, the town is slightly on the up, bits of the centre are being redeveloped and restored. Doesn’t seem to be appreciably more crime or homelessness than before.

These are my very superficial observations of course, may not be so sunny when you look under the surface.

The services that kept mentally unwell people from spiralling, that helped substance users recover rather than hit rock bottom, that checked up on children to make sure they were learning to talk, and that kept the teeth in our heads are now almost impossible to access. Add to that the slow cumulative effect of a hand to mouth existance that make affording enough to eat a challenge, never mind replacing clothing, and people in poverty become more unkempt. Its everywhere.

It's happening everywhere.
Globally, people are suffering.
Environmental crisis, housing crisis, cost of living crisis, mental health and addictions crisis, failing healthcare system, over burdened teachers, under funded supports for parents trying to help their kids, lack of elder care, low job security, increasing political divides, it goes on....
The knock on effect is that more people end up homeless, which then puts them at higher risk for so many other issues.

The demoralizing part is that it doesn't have to be this way, but the more down trodden we become, the harder it becomes to make a positive change.

When things change, there are knock on changes that need to happen.

Out of town shopping and Supermarkets hurt the high street.
Internet is finishing them off.

Work is in different places.

Transport has changed.

Work is different. There are not many ‘easy’ jobs left. Everything requires 100% focus, so some people simply can’t work.

A house requires two incomes.

Everything changes and sometimes places and people get left behind.

It sounds awful. It's not something that I've noticed happening here - generally nice with the odd pocket known for problems, but not to the point you wouldn't want to go to the shop etc.

OP is the teeth thing among adults? I think that’s linked to a particular drug but not sure which.

I wouldn’t describe anything as bad as what you’ve said. But the part of London I used to live in is horrible now. Stabbings are common but don’t make the news for all sorts of reasons. The smell of weed at school chucking out time is stronger than any other time.

in some ways I think London can appear better because there’s so many people and so much going on.

I live a very limited life now but I do find myself wondering if towns across the uk are seeing more of what I saw in my patch of London.

My opinion - for what it's worth and no doubt I will be shot down - is that we are too academically orientated in school, university is the "norm", we are fast moving to a cashless society, everything is on-line.

Great for some. But there is a big section of society that are not academic, struggle with having to pay bills etc. on line, just don't fit with the way society is moving. The jobs that would have been available even 30 years ago to non-academic children to give them a leg-up into work have virtually gone. My own son struggled to find a job. We support him, but other families can't or don't.

You then end up with a chunk of the population who fall through the gaps, and end up getting into trouble. The bigger the town, the bigger the problem.

But Jesus it's grim, and as a gen x person I honestly never thought I would see this in the UK. Places had rough spots, some were idyllic, but nothing like this.
It just seems so sudden. It's horrifying to contemplate so many failing services. A lot of the people I mention don't seem to be new to poverty or issues though, I think many of them are generations into it. I doubt people are losing all their teeth and speaking a barely discernible language due to the cost of living alone. I still don't understand how they just seemed to appear all at once though. Where were they before??

Yes, often quite young adults too. A girl who asked me directions recently had only one or two front teeth left in her head. And that's only a sample of one. The main town areas are the worst, although personally when not fighting amongst each other these people are pretty friendly, generally. There's just a lot of chaos and trouble surrounding them and some way out behaviour.

We are near Nottingham. All of the local streets smell of skunk now. That seemed to just appear about 5 years ago too.

Welcome to Conservative Britain

OP has something major changed in your town that might lead to this? Is the speech thing also a drug thing? I realise if you haven’t seen it before, you might not know if it’s drug related.

in terms of real life services disappearing, I was in the high street at lunchtime and thinking how dreadful it is with everything online. No chemists closer than a bus ride now. Last of the banks likely to close soon. Some expensive restaurants that are empty. I can’t see how they can survive. They are new so might have to adjust their target audience!

the town i live in while not quite as grim as yours sounds in the last two years we have empty shops Tescos, Dorothy Perkins Wilkos 3 large retails in one small town centre the market which has been there since victorian times is half empty everyone praises a certain landmark area in our town but that is full of small expensive indie shops who open up find they cant afford the rents and close within six months, when i moved here 30 years ago it was a thriving little town with lots of choices of shops that weren't vape shops or barbers

Sounds like you are describing Mansfield op!

A lot of these places have been on a slow decline for years

Not defending this govt

the last time I saw this was the end of the Brown government

before that, the end of the Major government

maybe government always does nothing at the time they expect to be kicked out?

This time I think will be harder because of technology and overpopulation- yes I said the o word. But it does seem a familiar decline. The worry this time is that recovery won’t happen in the ways we’ve seen before because of tech doing so many jobs.

also I’ve never seen such a lackadaisical approach to drug use. I don’t know how to feel about that. I thought legalisation was the right path but now I’m confused.

Sounds like my town.

I didn't grow up here, but grew up about 10 miles away in a nearby much smaller town. As a child, this was THE place to come. Loads of shops and things to do. Coming over to the big town was a real treat and adventure!

I moved back here about 13 years ago, and the town was much the same. The town centre was full of large bustling shops, and always really busy. I used to go into the centre most weekends, just to get a coffee or have a mooch.

I last went about 18 months ago, and honestly, it wasn't a nice experience. Even mid-morning on a Saturday, the town centre was pretty empty. And the people who were there were homeless people, drunks left over from the Friday night, and large groups of Eastern European men. I actually found it quite intimidating.

The large, national chains that used to line the main street have all gone. There used to be a large BHS, M&S, Woolworths, Debenhams and more. All are gone. Hell, even the town centre Tesco couldn't cling on. Now all there is are charity shops, phone shops, barbers and those random clothes shops that disappear as fast as they came.

They are making a token effort at re-generating the town centre area, but it really seems like too little, too late.

X posted with you @AbstractThought

my neighbour’s daughter is at uni there and has said stuff like this.

yes, teens all the way up to 60s with the teeth. Is it crystal meth? Teeth and gums appear black? There was a lady who used to sit next to me on the bus in London for a rant. I don’t know why they always choose me. I found her scary because of the teeth thing and incoherent ranting.

that said, the addiction recovery centre closed in lockdown and never opened again. It was based in the church so they didn’t have a choice, they couldn’t find anywhere else willing to host them.

then we get on to the broken social contract. I’m afraid it’s going to be a longer slog than the last two recoveries.

Empty shops are a feature, and the strong presence of these people is likely connected to the B&M's type stores which are all that's left. There's nothing else around for anyone else to shop in.

I am thinking that they are obviously MUCH more visible now, so hanging around places they didn't used to - local parks, woods, waterways, bus stations.

A pp mentioned drugs, but it's not always attributed to this. It is hard to describe some of it without sounding like a turd tbh. An example might be popping in to Primark and witnessing young women screaming at each other and their children. Pretty aggressive stuff. Kicking stuff around in store, young boys pulling clothes racks to bits then getting a hefty smack from stressed parent, heavy security presence and visible shoplifting. If I go back a few years, I didn't see anything like this here. It isn't just drugs and homelessness.

I only go there once a month to visit the bank, and it does appear to be getting worse each time. Last month someone was just stood, vomiting, holding onto a post in front of a cafe. Most 'regular' people are avoiding the place nowadays I suppose.

Since 2010...
Tory Austerity policies
Cutting public services to the bone
Brexit...
Nhs on its knees
Education ditto
Covid...
Tories dishing out £billions to their mates
Rishi sunak causing a housing bubble in 2020-22
Invasion of Ukraine...
Food and energy prices go up ^
Trussonomics...
Nuff said. Mad bint.

Not that difficult to understand, really 😡

Pre covid the center here was suddenly full of aggressive beggars and it put many women I know off heading in - they went to nearby town.

Then UC happened and it was tent city everywhere.

Since covid people go less and shops have closed so people go other places which have more shops- and it's now full of lots of loud shouty women having fights and drunk men.

Went to visit family recently - they kept on nearby town near then had gone downhill - but to our eyes looked lovely if little sparse on shops - but fewer empty one more charity shops. Most there use retail park nearby as has free and plentiful parking.

Economic decline caused by austerity economics, followed by Brexit, followed by Covid, followed by war and war footing in Eastern Europe, which exacerbated extant food and fuel inflation while jobs and industries were being lost. Less money in the economy means less in our own pockets and in those of the government which means further austerity, which means fewer services to help the mentally ill, and fewer police on the streets to police their behaviour when it escalates.

All caused by thick and greedy public school boys who have beguiled you and me into thinking they’re intelligent people capable of making good decisions just because they were taught at their expensive schools how to mask their idiocy and how to get places at Oxford university. They were then busy shagging their subordinates, dodging taxes, and enriching the friends who will give them jobs after the election.

Meanwhile the same Tories will tell you it’s about illegal immigrants in small boats.

The Council in a nearby town centre converted a large building into halfway house type shelter for people with drug and alcohol addictions. Some of the occupants are aggressive and frightening and their fights, dealers and mates and troubles spill out throughout the town. The town centre now feels mencing, particularly at night. That's the night time economy fucked up then. I stay away. I get these shelters are necessary but not in the town centre at the cost of losing businesses and harassing locals.

Could this have happened in your town too?

I loathe the tories, they've created a monumentally dire impact, and yet I am also aware that this is in large parts generational and has probably been growing for decades. We would have to assess historical politics too, at least back to the 70's/80's, not to mention cultural changes such as work and social media, tabloids maybe. God knows.

It’s definitely got worse over the last 10 years. My city centre is full of druggies even at lunchtime, some of them are shouting and swearing at themselves, it’s feels scary, there’s a tension in the air that wasn’t there before. Also more empty shops and groups of kids hanging around. It’s a shame, we have definitely gone backwards and it’s only getting worse

I'm elderly and disabled. I won't go to our local town now, it doesn't feel safe for all the above reasons ☹️

I agree with all replies, and it is sad to hear that it is probably, apart from some touristy and affluent areas, growing in many places.

@Twokittycats I hear you about the tension in the air, that is a perfect way to describe it. I also think there is a lack of authority attached to it, too. There is a sense of lawlessness about it, definitely. Things these people would not have dared to do a decade ago are in full tilt now.