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??

How do people help themselves though? A series of unfortunate events pulling the rug out from under you is very difficult to bounce back from, especially if you get older.

All I've ever wanted is to live within my means and have my family and friends safe, happy and secure. I don't know one person achieving that at the moment, myself included.

I've never felt suicidal before but the last two years have made me consider it. It's only the thought of what it would do to my elderly Dad, my DS and my cat that has me hanging in and trying to survive out of spite.

So it won't be better when public money is actually spent on..... [drumroll].....the public [gasps] rather than funnelled straight into the pockets of the already lbs enemy rich? Why do you think we .pay tax if not to provide some sort of service to the population? People actually have no clue do they.

IME businesses that fit in with current lifestyles, like cafés (the Melbourne type ones) are doing very well

@MistressoftheDarkSide

Sorry to hear that.

Was supposed to be obscenely rich

Thank you @suburburban much appreciated.

I know from experience that some people can't be helped. I have come to believe that damage limitation to them and their communities is the only answer. Withdrawing all support leaves addicts desperate and likely to commit crime which is a bigger cost in every area both financially and because of the trauma it creates.

The other observation I have made is that there are industries around poverty issues that shunt public money around various outsourced private agencies rather than providing actual support. That needs looking into.

What policy is Labour proposing that will funnel money to the public an not " the rich "

Even the non dom tax that was stated as taxing the rich made how much? A rounding error

It's like the soundbite that political people like to use " we are the 6th richest country " to make us all feel richer
Since when did we use our added total wealth to say how rich we are? It's GDP per capita that counts and we are a little further down the list..

You basically just described my town as well. People who live here think it's better elsewhere, but I think in the towns and cities that relied on one main industry which is now gone, we just won the race to the bottom. Now others are following.

This really resonates with me, our small tourist town is largely okay but there is more anti-social behaviour & some independent shops & restaurants have closed recently is sad. But the nearest city has been devastated by this - it genuinely feels post-apocalyptic walking through the city centre. The saddest thing is that residents in our town rail about the cuts to local services here & resent any money being used to improve the city. Yes it's the effect of austerity but in reality it goes back further, to Thatcher's culture of no society. It saddens me that we lack compassion & care for others.

We’re the world’s 6th largest economy but this is down to London. Strip out London and we’re virtually third world. Far from London keeping us afloat, it’s been the cuckoo in the nest sucking trillions out of the rest of our economy. A service economy can’t keep a country afloat in the long run, but it can make a small section of its populace mega wealthy. That’s what the winners have continually voted for and FPTP ensured they kept winning. That’s what we’ve got. That’s Britain today.

You make some valuable points😀

I didn't say treatment. I said services that would helped them have been cut.
Primarily meaning services that in the past would have prevented so many people being neglected and left to sink or swim - and mostly sink.
Prevention is better than cure.

In our small market town, yet another coffee shop is opening and a Gails - now we will have one butchers, small understocked Sainsbury, small Morrisons/post office, medium Waitrose, but eight ! coffee shops, not counting the chocolatier and Gails, coffee takeaway from the bakers, restaurants aplenty.

What we really need is an Aldi or Lidl

This is a town which relies on visitors to boost coffers.
Towns villages or parts of cities which cater for visitors, tourists, daytrippers,
tend to be smarter, swept, flowers, prettied up, made attractive.

The removal of M&S from town centres sounds the death knell for many towns
as we saw in Grantham years ago, despite it being a small store, it seemed to
be a linchpin holding that end of town together.

We have not seen a police officer since we have lived here, which is not to say
there is not a presence occasionally.
This town is self policing, small enough to be able to do this, long time residents
with standards, parents with high behavioural expectations of their offspring, a
clean town, litterfree, low noise levels, civilised.

We do not return to our hometown, it is too depressing, distressing, for all the reasons described on the other thread, a once beautiful, happy town destroyed.

Yep - my town feels the same. I'm in the South West. Used to be lovely and still has some nice features - country park, close to the coast, good job opportunities - but the town centre is dire. Full of the dregs of society to be harsh. I wouldn't walk through it in the evening. Even walking with DH I felt nervous.

Mary Portas was responsible for many charity shops morphing into chi chi boutiques with clothes accessories books priced accordingly - extraordinary ego meets decline of the High Street due in no small part to the evolution of shopping.

I've read some studies of California that link a softer approach to crime to a rise in problems and more crime, so we probably need to be harder on crime but then invest in services as well which I can't see any party doing.

Oregon decriminalised possession of small amounts of class A drugs but it made the problem worse and they’ve changed the law back. Whether this will make any difference I don’t know.

M&S was removed from a high street near me but it was doing really well it seemed and very popular

High street still good though

Who can afford all the coffee shops. It's not something I bother with

Tbh I'm sad that I have adult kids, who are living through this shite and then possible grand kids.
What a sad legacy for future generations.

It’s probably a number of factors but rising inequality is one. In contrast to the OP, where I live is thriving financially, and the shopping areas are busy.

But overall it’s not good - young people, key workers, anyone on average wages cannot afford housing. Many who earned little but contributed a lot to community life have moved away, or been forced out as tenancies have switched to Airbnb.

It must be fifty? years ago when my mum was studying social and economic history, her tutor would speak of this, supermarkets eating small businesses,
then when they had destroyed the competition through low prices and one stop shopping, the prices would suddenly increase mightily.

How prescient

I get this argument but some shops make it hard. No stock! No range of sizes!Disinterested staff.

Just recently my son wanted some new controllers for his game console. I went into three separate shops and nothing jn stock, told me to order online. Forth shop has some reconditioned ones, perfect I thought but they wanted to charge me £5 more then a set of new ones! Just no

one of the problems with drugs is the new types that are appearing like Fentanyl ( the US is in China trying to stop the supply)

I'm really interested in this. How are the US trying to persuade China to do this?
I had no idea Fentanyl was a product from China.

I'd love a link to more info please

In response to a few replies here:

I don't think the town centres are empty. We may not frequent them but a lot of people do - the very people in my OP, the troubled and the violent. It is a very visible problem when witnessed. Most of us can likely avoid being around it, but it is there. Amazon and large supermarkets haven't made a dent in that particular cohorts activities.

I also agree with the poster from France - there is absolutely a feeling here of lawlessness, a lack of consideration for those around us.

A while ago I witnessed a large group of teens with a stolen tesco trolley outside the town's bus station. They were loud, aggressive and trying to smash the trolley into a shop window. Several police officers were just stood watching them. It was apparent that they would only act in an extreme moment. The group eventually sauntered off laughing. They weren't even warned or approached and they were over 16.

It is very clear in run down areas that the bad people are untouchable. Efforts to make the public feel safe are almost patronising. There is definitely no sense of social shame here now. The over riding message is "i do what I want'. We have become a country of spoilt, angry toddlers with no incentive to change. I think this is largely exacerbated and encouraged by the working class tabloids.

Ignore me - I googled it. There's loads of info about it.
Let's hope they succeed or it will be here next. Or perhaps if they succeed, the fentanyl producers will turn their market towards Europe 😬

@AbstractThought
Something must have happened to make people more fearful, is it the rise in violence or type of violence?
Because normally what should have happened in the situation you describe is even before the police become involved, you would expect 4, 5, 6 passers by to get together and say "hey, what the hell are you doing?"
These kids were 16 years old after all.

I think there must be a fear factor at play, but why? Somehow the anti social kids seem scarier now than eg 30 years ago. But arr they really? And if so, why is that?