To think London is in a major decline?

[Phannyphart]

I’ve lived in London (zone 2) for 10+ years. It’s always been pretty ‘real’ here but since the end of covid really everywhere just seems so, so awful.
Dog shit everywhere, spit everywhere, council owned parks closed and locked, people littering more than ever before. Get on a bus and it’s just people screaming in to a FaceTime on top volume, people blasting TikTok. Kids being stabbed in broad daylight, people shooting up heroin near the nearby primary school. The area has a lot going for it but it really seems wherever I go there is an awful decline.
Has anybody feeling the same actually moved out? Do you regret it?

Not sure what you expect OP in a country with massive inequality which has got worse.

Local councils can’t afford to do the basic maintenance they did because their main source of funding was cut. Unless you live in Westminster which has loads of money and one of the rare ones.

There is also a hidden parasite which is taking wealth out of the country. I noticed you dropping in a comment about assimilation. It’s not that. But it’s the rise in money and wealth being tied up in mortgages and investment funds. Money has to be used to service that, leaving less money for other things. Take an example:
House prices have massively shot up. Now, you may not know this, but the same has happened for retail and commercial property. Not many companies own outright, they too have to borrow. So it’s cheaper for them to move online.
Similarly for councils. They’ve had to borrow via PFIs.
As more has to be spent on servicing debt = less money for wages and other things. Plus, profit has to be made!
So yes, things are screwed but, as ever, like in Roman Empire, it’s the Uber rich doing the screwing. And just like in Rome, they’ll fall eventually.

Peckham has been desirable for at least last 14 years. I tried to buy there when I moved to SE London and still couldn’t afford it then.

Got to wonder about a London Borough in which 84% are happy to live in an area controlled by a corrupt Mayor. I do not believe this survey.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/tower-hamlets-council-lutfur-rahman-john-biggs-department-for-levelling-up-housing-and-communities-birmingham-city-council-b2500793.html

Interesting still no-one blaming Farage or racist rioters.

I just hate London and people are rude. It’s just one massive trample to get anywhere and the noise the crowds. I don’t like it at all. Tbf my only experience of London before this was coming down for the olympics when it had its best face on. I imagine if I lived there I would get accustomed the noise and crowds in exchange for public transportation that works and the facilities

I’m in SW London also (SW3) and I’ve never felt unsafe anywhere. I love London. I have friends in various parts of SW (Battersea, Wimbledon, Clapham Common, Balham) and in the main they’re all great places to live with great transport, lots of open space and plenty of busy bars, restaurants and cafes. It’s a great city.

I feel the same OP. I'm in SW London ( zone 2). I don't feel safe coming back home at night ( had an incident when a male was following me till my doorstep and I was literally saved by a female neighbour), my secondary school son and his friends are at constant risk. He personally was stopped three times on his way back home from school by masked youth gangs since he was 12 and asked for money / phone. Every single day my neighbours post on Nextdoor about attempted robberies, stolen cars. The crime is massively up and I feel it will get much worse.

We have parent patrols near our school now to protect children. It wasn't like that before.

Reporting and recording of crime has also improved massively in the last 20 years.

I went to Whitechapel the other day, I hadn't been for over 20 years and it was vastly improved in terms of infrastructure.

I live in North London and actually like my area, since an elderly man near us died the volume of dog poo on the pavement decreased exponentially. Amazing the impact just one person can make. The general rise in dog poo on pavements is due to increased dog ownership during Covid, it's probably relatively few individuals who don't pick it up but is more noticeable.

Drug use is crazy, it's everywhere and with it comes gangs muggings etc. At my local tube station the staff say the issue is much worse than in the past. I never noticed how many dealers there were before and while I don't feel unsafe, I'm concerned for my DC.

Mugging has increased because stealing a phone with bank details etc saved on it is easy and very lucrative you can access thousands of pounds in minutes often.

Also drugs are a global issue, in both the rich and poor countries. Synthetic drugs are super cheap and lethal. We need to tackle this issue globally as a priority.

Retail is depressed on the high street with online shopping, I think we need to rethink high streets to make them useful again maybe not with shops but destination experience shops.

Technology has changed our world more than anything else in the last couple of hundred years, particularly the smartphone, but we need structures in place to change how we live now, it's still early days so fingers crossed 🤞

oh no !
where were you in Edinburgh?
I am not far from the city and while Princes St is definitely nowhere near as lovely as it used to be , I always feel safe .

This! Spot on.

I live in the North West. It’s cheaper for me to get a flight and hotel to Spain or Dublin than it is to go to London!

I think the Meadows Walk in the university quarter in Edinburgh is one of the loveliest in the world.

Where on earth do you live? I’ve never heard of anything like this and have friends and colleagues all over the city.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/380963/london-crime-rate/

HERE ARE STATISTICS

Have you actually spent much time in London? It's unclear from your post. If you've only been as a tourist and spent your time in places like Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Madame Tussaud's then I can see why you'd think it's a horrible crowded dirty place.
I've lived in London my whole life and I've never been mugged nor do I feel unsafe walking around at night. I think a lot of people who talk London down don't actually know it.

Completely echo this. My first time in London last year and loved it. Was also surprised how friendly it is for a big city. Was in the underground and needed time to figure out what I was doing so had to stand still for a few seconds and the wave of people that flowed past was quite a shock, and a few would bump into me and apologise when it was me who was in the way.

I'm a history buff and the place is teeming with history. The blue plaque scheme (which I believe started in the late 19th century) was a great idea as you get to see the location of where famous people lived and historic events happened.

Use wikipedia a lot and the London article is one of my favourites. Such a great city. If you go to the policing and crime section and press the link to other major cities around the world you also see how much safer London is by comparison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

Again...just because things got better doesn't mean it also doesn't feel dodgy. Here East Dulwich https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/24755349.east-dulwich-named-one-uks-burglary-hotspots/. Dulwich village and Herne Hill have parent patrols - kids got mugged lots for their phones. Yes, it's now a relatively gentified area at the same time as people feel insecure.

Yes, 100%. I grew up in Ealing ‘Queen of the Suburbs’ but for the last 20 years have visited yearly to see family. The difference is shocking. People doing drugs in the bushes in the parks, people sleeping rough, everyone smoking cannabis everywhere without concern, litter everywhere, shops boarded up etc. I honestly don’t know why it’s gone this way. Some locals say the council is at fault, others say it’s because houses have been made into flats (so there’s more people all on lower incomes? Not sure), and of course blame is always thrown at ‘non-Brits’. It seems to me that there are more wealthy people living here (but not shopping here) and more rock-bottom poor drug/homeless/no work people, but fewer middle or working class. Why though? Dunno. It’s a mystery to me.

Blame Brexit!

14 years of tory government has ruined the whole country. The voting public are at a new level of stupid these days.
Just imagine if reform got in. It would be like trumpland. Finished.

lived there since 1990. It goes up and down but its on a down at the moment. Too much stabbing robbing and those bikes and scooters on the pavements are lethal.

Its happening in Clapham and Dulwich areas. You must be lucky if it didn’t affect your friends and family.

East Dulwich is quite different to Dulwich. On another note I drove through there yesterday and it's one of the few places I have seen lately that has a really nice and thriving high street.