My town has really changed

[CatbellsOnTheSeashore]

In a confusing and not very pleasant way.

It was gradually changing for the worse before covid, but the pandemic seemed to accelerate it, and I am wondering if anyone else has noticed anything like this.

It became more insular whilst more populated, the population increased quite a bit over the past 5 yrs. More and more dereliction, low council maintenance and an influx of troubled people housed around the town centre, which is now a no-go zone. Areas surrounding have steadily grown worse also, as it seems to be spilling out.

What does feel really different is that there are now lots of groups of men, hanging around drinking or sat on pavements together (not begging). Drugs took over the local nature paths and canal walks so now there are large groups of people out of their heads lying on old sofas at the locks, it's really grim. Women who used to cycle and run in these areas have more or less moved elsewhere or stopped.

More and more standard sized houses in low to middle income areas are becoming HMO's, yet with poor refuse organisation and not enough parking. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are literally trails of dog shit in the streets in many areas, too, which pretty much hangs in the air and the place stinks. That, and skunk.

We live in a decent part of town but it is coming closer, and I only have that perk due to inheriting my parents bungalow. More and more people are moving out.

On a walk to Sainsbury's yesterday two guys were holding onto a sign pole hovering over a bin. As I passed by one of them vomited into the bin and then spat/gobbed an inch from my feet - he didn't notice me particularly, but it was quite sudden or I'd have given them a wide berth.
This isn't unusual now.

I know people usually blame the cost of living and covid, etc, but this was definitely on the rise before. There is far more noise pollution as more buildings go up, usually industrial, and the roads are a nightmare. Infrastructure for actual people is decreasing.
That said, I don't think most of these people were thriving before, so it isn't a sudden change. It is as if a new kind of culture is growing, that doesn't care a damn about anything. Everything is vandalised or shat on. More and more windows are broken in properties close to the town centre, and I doubt most of these people were thriving before the pandemic hit.

Is this bad luck or is anything like it happening elsewhere?
We are definitely looking to move away.

Seem to of had A generation raising their children with no manners or respect or anything.

Just the school run yesterday, 4 dog shits, two fly tips, a man smoking in the playground, another man doing those big spits in the playground, a women in a booty dressing gown in said playground. Stink of weed, two drunks arguing over a bottle of vodka near the school. A homeless man soliciting fags by the chippy.

That’s all in a tiny little area. I don’t think online shopping killed the high street, I think drunks and druggies and homeless people did. Because people stopped wanting to go to the high street because it stank and stopped being a nice trip out so they ordered online. Online saved the companies peoples behaviour killed the city centre.

So some of you think that these disparate, aggressive groups of men are the result of immigration?
If so I would love to know how that evolved.
I am open minded!

It's very sad. I do hope things improve under Labour.

What are Labour planning on doing that will improve this? Haven't they recently released a load of men from prison early?

This sort of comment annoys me so much. Sorry @Fireworknight I don't mean to pick on you though but this post is a useful one to make my point.

The point is that those aren't good shops. if they were good shops, people would use them. Things have changed. We need different types of shops and different types of town centres. And in fact, these changes have always been necessary. Just the other day, I was talking to my father about how they didn't have a fridge until the 60s or something. So his mother, who was a single mother and worked full time, did the shopping daily, on her way home from work. And yes, she stopped at the butcher and the green grocer etc. But she didn't go into the town centre to do her daily shopping - totally impractical. But then at some point, town planners decided we all need to go into town in our cars on a saturday and buy everything we need. And we probably did like doing that - certainly, my dad tells me that getting a fridge changed his mother's life. So we built that up. But now it's changed again - we don't need to go to a physical shop at all, and we certainly don't want to be spending our Saturday mornings buying toilet paper and mince. And ironically, for many of us, a return to how my grandmother did it would be good - the option to pop in and see what looks good and is local and all the rest. But between the train station and my house I've got a bunch of tanning salons, an off license and (in recent years) a co-op, so that's out.

So what do we go into town cetnres for now? It's far more about entertainment. Browsing perhaps, having coffee or lunch. Taking the kids. The experience needs to be good. But town centres are shit about thinking about this. Ours, for example, has expensive and inconvenient parking. They've never got on top of managing the roads so very few people access more than whatever bit is closest to where they do park - I mean, to cross the road from the bit of the high street with our shopping mall to the bit of the high street with other shops you literally have to take your life into your own hands. People die there at least once a year. But they never bloody change anything.

I watched a fascinating video about a town in france that has made these fundemtnal changes. I think King Charles' towns are based on similar premises - ie, to figure out what we actually need TODAY.

Has Charlie Veitch been?

His videos are interesting.

Wealthy areas were generally free if this kind of thing- but now people in vans are camping around green parks and leaving human excrement everywhere.

We are too overpopulated, Hostels full of loitering men and dangerous “ cash for crash “ scooter and moped drivers are now in this area.

I never go into the city centre now.

It has nothing to offer.

Safer to buy online.

Sounds like here!
Perhaps we are less likely to admit that it's a cultural shift that is now becoming generational, and many of the usual excuses for it don't seem to fit. There's definitely a sense of entitlement to it, too.

I'd say the lack of funding from the government probably had a lot to do with it

Northern town have cheap housing stock and are used to move significant groups of immigrants to . Hence the younger male population you describe.

the person would need a bank account to pay for the Netflix . And an address to register the bank account

You’re just refusing to acknowledge the obvious reason - uncontrolled mass immigration of mostly single young men. The reason there are fewer women is because the majority of uncontrolled immigrants are men in the 20-40 age range.

Obviously not all immigrants fall in this category, but more than ever we are having men come from third world countries on their own, illegally with no trace of who they are or evidence of if they have a criminal background.

At least 90% of these are local lads. The accent is what you might call a give away.

Many homeless people have such things - they don't come out of the womb homeless you know. Many also have families who love them but don't know what else to do becuase the reality is that they can't have them in their own homes. And those families may well pay for a device, and data, as a way to ensure that at least in an emergency they can call for help or so that they (the family) can try to maintain contact.

Surely someone of no fixed abode can't have things like mobile phone contracts!?

Well we are certainly a heavily populated country for whatever reason, but I still doubt the entitled anti social issues are a sudden response to that. Some of these (native) people can't read, the problems are pretty complex - and on the rise.

We moved to the outskirts of a seaside town ten years ago. It was never a favoured spot, but four miles in the opposite direction is a very pleasant city, so that’s where we went for retail.

About eight years ago, shops in the city began to close and Covid exacerbated that, so now what’s left is charity and coffee shops, pretty much. We didn’t go to the seaside town a great deal, except for walks on the seafront, but when we have had to more recently for various reasons, I’ve been alarmed and appalled in equal measure. I’ve never been anywhere where so much smoking, vaping, spitting and aggression goes on. The town is filthy, the train station is a no go area full of drunks, theft from vehicles and houses is rife.

When we moved, there were country walks, green spaces, play parks for children and a pleasant environment. Now, there’s anti social behaviour, youths destroying property in the green spaces, car theft, an exponential increase in dogs and the concomitant problems of waste and untrained dogs and the once quiet street has become a rat run as an alternative to the main road.

I began to hate living there, though the house was everything we’d wanted. We’ve just moved.

It’s a non contract contract. You pick the package and as long as you top
up every month by the deadline you are good to go. No address needed buy
the sim for £1 in Iceland

I hadn’t been to our city centre for a while,I went the other week,I won’t be going back,I just kept saying to myself how grim the place was,there is one toy shop left,no decent stores apart from tracksuit shops,no home where shops,depressing really and yes a lot of people just hanging around getting drunk or asleep on the pavement,they house the migrants or immigrants all around the city centre and the area around it.

Of course they can. As I said earlier - could have been i place before they became homeless, or paid for by someone else.

Oh ok

Few years after moving here our town went like this - the tent cities got to extreme numbers though covid seem to improve that - shop fled as we had loud aggressive men in town centers.

It has recently started to turn round - more events being put on to increase footfall and there an initiative to get more patrolling police though local shops claim not to see that and I still wouldn't want to be in town after dark. Before that point though many shops were lost hugely impacting on footfall - council part owns shopping center and I think they got stung for rent loss.

Also there many more children related things opening up - I think commuter families have moved to area - schools are now full - as surrounding cities house prices have gone up and up.

The suburb we in okay it never went down hill - the town center seems to be on the rise as it hit council coffers and started not to be worth going in at all - there are other area but money been spent and after years of neglect someone in power noticed - have to see it long term it has any effect.

Also in a Northern town and I concur. The dog shit, the broken glass, the puke, the rubbish, the flytipping, the rage and the lack of action against any of it plus the pretending it isn't there - fingers in ears la la la and polishing a turd from the local council.

A friend teaches English to migrants and says many are very angry.

M. pox is also spreading in the overcrowded houses of multiple occupation.
It’s not what they were expecting when sold a dream of a generous U.K. with free education free healthcare free housing.
Yet no government is willing or able to stem the flow of migrants.
No wonder services are creaking at the seams.

Sorry but I don't know any family that would knowingly 'allow' a relative to live on the street... yet like them to be contactable to make sure they're safe. They either give a shit or they don't!

It’s the cycle of poor parenting, with the shift that we now keep to ourselves.

Before any parent or adult would tell you off for bad behaviour in the street. Now we pretend we can’t see it because that child might have a knife, the child’s parent might scream in your face and spit at you if you go and knock and let them know.