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?

What? that you don't look at people on public transport!

It’s all relative. I went to Kettering the other week. This is a town which is quite structurally pretty. But there is nothing there really, the high street is nothing. The library was a portakabin. A lot of takeaways. Money in short supply

London is a rich place and overcrowded. But there is clearly money available.

https://trustforlondon.org.uk/data/gentrification-across-london/

I live down south but revisited my old family home in the North a few weeks ago. The decline in the area was startling!
I think it’s happening everywhere. ☹️

Tbf, drug related issues are worse in other parts of the uk

I guess I’m lucky not to have experienced this in my area (clapham junction / clapham common). Still a very nice place to live IMHO.

It's not happening where i live in my part of the midlands,
yes to the decline of the high street -empty shops etc but your description of London is not how we are living .
I have no desire to visit London again ,i like my relatively trouble free life .
If it's as bad as the media makes out that is very sad ,i think Sadiq Khan and the government now and previous have a lot to answer for and i'm sorry to see the downfall of our once great capital.

I go there reasonably often as I have family who live there. Never feel scared as they are live in reasonable areas. As many have already pointed out London is massive and different areas are exactly that. The Mail and its ilk is keen to promote the idea that London is a no go hell hole ruled over by Kahn whose sole mission is to destroy it. I have been going there for decades, for work, for gigs, to shop and to stay with my family. Apart from the time I was threated on the Tube by a member of the National Front, (I had been to a huge Anti-Nazi League demo and was wearing a badge) I have never had an problems. Meanwhile in the medium sized city that I live in I have been burgled three times and been seriously sexually assaulted by a stranger on my way home from work. I could use these horrible experiences as "proof" that I live in a city that is heading towards anarchy. I went to town today and the city centre looks dreadful, the most distressing thing I saw was about 10 homeless people in a tent city pitched in the doorway of what used to be a large department store. We have lost Debenhams, it stands there semi-derelict now, Currys is gone and boarded up and House of Fraser is closing down, All there seem to be is chicken shop, nail bar, another chicken shop, a chain coffee shop, another nail bar, a charity shop, then a vape shop, then yet another chicken shop.

@bombastix curious to know which parts of central London are pristine

@CraftyNavySeal also curious to know what's "futuristic" about Stratford.

genuine questions - no agenda here.

It wasn't just about being on public transport though, it was about being out and about in London in general.

Foreign money laundering fronts and charity shops are the only retail outlets that can afford to stay on the high street.

Our town is bustling and full of wonderful shops. That’s because the local community support the independent shops here, and not Jeff Bezo’s slush fund.

People read the mail and buy into. I grew up in London Zone 3 and have moved to just outside London.
London has never been more safer!

Sensational news sells

I was in a coffee shop near Victoria station in the middle of the day recently when a young woman ran in, very distressed. It turned out she'd been followed and harrassed by a young man who was behaving really strangely and wouldn't leave her alone. She didn't know him.

The young man came up to the shop doorway and staff stopped him from entering. He walked off then kept coming back, pressing his face against the window looking for her. He seemed very disturbed, either manic/psychotic or under the effect of drugs. Twitchy and agitated. He eventually wandered off and some people in the shop accompanied the girl to the station so she could get home safely.

It's great that you personally were not frightened of the strange and intimidating people you've encountered, but it's clearly not the same for everyone. And these people do occasionally flip and commit horrific acts of violence on people around them, simply because they are very unwell. But that's no consolation to the people they attack.

It must have been very frightening for the young lady but it's also a story about how lovely the staff were and the kindness of strangers who came to her aid.

I think sadly there will always be unwell people or those who choose crime but there are also a lot more people who care and are willing to offer help. Now if only we could get decent funding for our police force and infrastructure. Gambling is an awful blight in many high streets and destroys lives/families, time to tax the profits of the Gambling industry.

It's the same everywhere. I hate going into Leicester city centre - have to as signing on and attended a few job fairs.

Leicester city centre is a dump! The cyclist food couriers that almost run over, homeless begging for change, shops etc boarded up, the smell of cannabis, shed loads of takeaway places

The same goes with many suburbs - fly tipping (even though residents in Leicester get free collections of bulky stuff every 2 months), run down properties, loads of money laundering 'businesses', every other retail unit is an eating establishment - usually with a takeaway element.

Sounds like Birmingham.