To just be so, so fed up of where I live:(

[GenuineRocks]

It wasn't so bad previously but really changed over the past 6 years or so. I grew up on a farm in on the edge of town and it felt like such a different world. Moved away after uni and only came back to assist when our parents were ill, and managed to get stuck here after.

It feels awful to see what was once a decent place go so much downhill. I don't even recognise the people, it is like another world, just so angry and loud and quite violent. What was once my closest town centre has become a drug infested hell hole, and the crime rate is climbing rapidly.

But what is most depressing is the vibe, everywhere outdoors is miserable, and I am not exaggerating. Constant sirens (only in the past few yrs) and police. Extremely loud, aggressive sounding vehicles, shouting and screaming in public, litter and shit everywhere.

I used to blame government for this kind of thing, policy, etc. But I don't know now. I see a growing culture of entitlement and selfishness all around. Maybe it's just this place? Of course the town centre died, like many have, but the trouble and violence that is visible is quite new here. It isn't all poverty, in fact it is a high rent area, and yet people really don't care.

I feel so depressed about this, yet know it is pointless. Life goes on and it isn't worth worrying about. Live and let live. But until we move, it has affected me to some extent, and even our own street has changed in the past few yrs.
It's like an alien place, that I don't recognise.
I long to be out of it, but reading some other posts I see this is common in many places.

I suppose it just got too much this past month, we have a new business opened in the street that revs all day, and how someone thought this was ok to go ahead I have no idea. Most of the original neighbours moved, and there is so much pet neglect , dog shit and litter here it feels hopeless.

Just fed up.

Andy's Man Club run them in the town nearest to where I live. Apparently they're well attended - providing a space to discuss mental health etc is surely a good thing.

In my city, a high class department store turned into Top Shop, and now has homeless tents in the abandoned foyer. I walked past yesterday and felt it sums up how I feel

Sadly, I have to agree with the op. We're rural, on a farm. Our local village is lovely, but the average age of population is 65.
I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but the village is well kept.
However, our local town is awful. Just so run down, dirty and public amenities are disrespected terribly.
We have a bypass roundabout near us and a McDonald's opened a while ago. Since then, our road neighbouring hedges are full of discarded litter. The saddest thing I see is happy meal boxes.
So it's just another generation being taught that it's OK to lob your rubbish out of the car window.

We've also noticed a huge influx of irresponsible visiting dog walkers. They don't stick to footpaths, don't clear up after themselves, are verbally aggressive to the point I'm frightened to challenge them whilst walking their dogs off lead through sheep fields.
After generations of our land being pretty much free to roam, we are considering fencing the footpaths for the safety of the animals. People don't understand the consequences of dog shit entering the food chain, the damage it can do to unborn lambs and calfs. It goes without saying how awful the impact of dogs chasing livestock is.

I would never want to take away the beauty of the land to some of the wonderful walkers we have coming through. In fact, over the years, I have planted wildflowers, a bluebell wood, free to forage trees and hedges to make it lovely for them- but having lost nearly a dozen lovely chickens to a loose dog, who broke through a gate, recently, I think we might have to. The man with the dog didn't even apologise. Just hit his dog and walked off.
People drive up, throw their dogs out of the car, let them run wild in the field until they've had a crap, call them back and drive off. Usually leaving a bunch of McDonald's rubbish in their wake.

Is never been like this. I agree, the current generation always thinks the next is worse...but this is my generation and they make me so sad.

I mean for balance my local area, while not without it's issues and some shops shutting, seems to have stayed the same over the last 5 years. Some towns have it worse than others and these declines can feel very rapid.

I'd imagine it's getting men together for bacon roll and cuppa, to reduce social isolation and boost well-being

It’s both, whether it’s an even split I’m not sure.

No, it doesn't.

@LunaNorth you are so right. Everything you've said is so true.

OP, I had a similar issue in the block of flats I lived in until recently. I owned an ex council flat in an unremarkable (not particularly rough) part of London. Occupants in the estate were a mix of private and council. When I moved in there were a few "characters" but mostly it was a lovely place to live. Kids played out, people chatted to each other, no issues with anti social behaviour.
All that totally changed since the pandemic. We've had people pissing in the stairwell and lift, smoking weed in the common areas, police cars constantly arriving on the estate at all hours, horrendous noise levels from upstairs neighbours. Also gobby teenagers who would never hold a door open for me if I was struggling with a pram and shopping, and a homeless person who temporarily made a home in the stairwell of our block. Litter everywhere. I was planning to move anyway as my family had outgrown the flat but then had a nightmare trying to sell. In the end I took a loss and sold the flat cheap as I didn't want my son to grow up in that environment for a moment longer and it was beginning to seriously impact my DHs mental health.
Something HAS happened in the UK in the last five years. The social contract has broken down and previously decent areas are going to shit.

Its hard to work out if its the environment or your ( possibly) low mood. I don't love it where I live. Nobody wants community, they want to be in their houses or in their cars or in an expensive gym.
Connection is fragile, no wonder so many peope are lonely.
Dog shit is quite unbelievable and profoudly unpleasant.

Wow, what a sad post. How nice of you to make it lovely for people too.

Apparently, it's mental health support. Which is really good.

Good, that's a good thing. Nowt much for older women though.

This. If anything it's improved.

I live in Europe and came back for the first time in 5 years or so in 2023 to visit my parents and I was shocked by litter and shop closures and everything being so badly run down. It makes no sense. They live in a large commuter town with plenty of cash and yet the town centre looks disgusting now. Going there with my (EU national) partner on my next visit I had to pre-warn him as I felt so embarrassed.

I wonder if WFH has been a factor in the decline of my parents town because it was turning into a bit of a commuter dormitory 10 years ago.

I agree, the social contact is being eroded.
So many factors, but it's not good because once it's gone it's very hard to get it back.

Women tend to have more social networks and friendships than men. That's why more formal things are set up for men eg "men's sheds" where men do DIY, but the purpose is really more about getting men together to reduce social isolation and boost emotional wellbeing / mental health

I am in a SE UK village, fairly near a popular sea side town. A relative lives there in a listed building, every evening and night when she walks her dog, she sees violence, drunks,last night it was a very smartly dressed hen do, outside a quite expensive restaurant. Couples drunk having physical toes. She gets people using her open plan front garden as a toilet,cars being damaged. Local kids between 12/16, smashing up the shopping mall in broad daylight. There is a McDonald's very near me yet we find their wrappers in our garden, they've obviously been thrown out of the car. I saw some people who had shopped in Sainsbury's I was just going in, womans door was open,a Sainsbury's bag fell out, I thought she had dropped some shopping, rushed over, picked up the bag, knocked on the window, said she had dropped her shopping.she said "er no", closed the window, the man drove off! The bag was full of rubbish,there were large bins very near her. Kids leave our village shop on the way home from school, dumping the sweet/food/drink wrappers. My younger neighbors don't remove it from their own gardens, can't be bothered. DH litter picks weekly,we have both worked volunteering for our local council for about 8 years now. Time is no excuse,we both worked long hours with long commutes. When my DKs were at primary school and I walked to collect them, I was had friends we walked home together, they would meet their kids from school hand over the snacks,kids would open,eat throw down the rubbish. I have my dgks to stay ,gd will pickup bits when we're out with the dogs and put in the bin. That's how they've been brought up, and my DKs some are on various benefits,a couple reg disabled, they don't have much money, but they are polite, respectful, and keep their areas tidy. I have lived in both private and social housing,we kept the places neat tidy, even when the neighbours didn't. You can tell where the younger ones live here, the older ones who can't manage their gardens themselves have a couple of big companies who cut all the lawns together.

There ISN'T a McDonald's near me!

The swift decline of towns and cities in recent years has been breathtaking. Mix in austerity, Covid, selfishness and a general lack of care and you have a recipe for huge decline. Vape shops, nail bars, barbers and takeaways are the death knell of town centres, they attract undesirables who at one time would have stayed on their own patch but instead loiter in town centres and high streets which puts people off visiting and shopping and just becomes a vicious cycle of decay.

I don't disagree with you on some things, but I grew up in a working class area in the 1960s and antisocial behaviour was very much in the minority. I went to school with children who didn't have decent clothes or shoes, but we all knew how to behave. It's the breakdown of families imo.

To be fair, it’s not just the UK - I was shocked at the state of Belgium when I went through there recently. Amsterdam was grim in some ways as well. The rest of the NL was pristine, mind you!

I overheard three very naice female middle class uni students discussing this the other week. Quite openly laughing about ‘free range wees’ on nights out, and one of them admitting that the odd ‘wild poo’ happens.

If they were medical students then there really is no hope for the rest of us.

Their mothers are probably on Mumsnet 😂

This . We went to the Wyre Forest on Friday. The amount of dog shit everywhere was horrendous. There are signs everywhere asking people to ' please clean up after your dog'. There are bins all around. People aren't even doing the stick and flick. The paths were covered in it.