Is our town a shithole..

[FroggletTowers]

Or is this happening anywhere else?

I have been discussing this with friends, family and colleagues recently so won't name our town for privacy reasons, but it is a regular, large town in England, UK.
Nothing particularly special or awful about it, previously.

Since the pandemic, the entire vibe has changed. Almost unrecognisable.
Yes, we have some heavy shop closures like many towns, but the council kept it looking decent as much as it could. Some nice buildings and nature areas, etc.

What stands out most, apart from the general vandalism and dog shit is the weird accumulation of male groups hanging around boozing in public.

So far they have taken over the local park, river walks and nature reserves. They often cluster beneath bridges or across paths where people like to run, cycle walk dogs or take children, making it less safe and filling these areas with waste. Off road bikes have ruined the nature reserves, so less people visit

Sadly the authorities don't seem to be doing much about it, it is as if these people don't have to abide by laws that the rest of us have to. Some buildings adjacent to these areas have windows put through on a regular basis, even in what you'd call 'nice' areas.
Many of them cluster at river bridges and block the path for others, most are very drunk or out of generally.
It isn't unusual to see a large man passed out across the pathway, blocking anyone getting past. If you had a pram or bike it would be really uncomfortable to have to rouse a large drunk at 2pm in the afternoon. Most are local men, with a growing amount of middle eastern men. The vast majority of them are unstable.

We see less women out cycling, walking or exercising now, and this encompasses both MC and WC areas. These people seem to have just multiplied and spread across the entire borough and have taken over all public space.
We live in a decent area that is now seeming to go downhill.
It isn't unusual to see day drinkers sat alone, surrounded by cans on a quiet residential street. And they won't move to let you past.

It's really depressing.

So why would your town end up like Ballymena? The violence there is caused by thugs who always find an excuse to riot this time of year. The horrible alleged sexual assault case is just a vehicle for them.

@NeedthatFridayfeeling I think it might have something to do with all the hen and stag parties we saw roaming around blind drunk and yelling their heads off! 😂

The biggest and best light that has no idea how it’s going to stay bright and fund all the lovely bright sparkle it wants to emit.

and has a pretty shoddy set of values it wants to shine its light on

The river literally leads to the sea lol, what a random post

OP, you might as well say where you are. It's hardly 'outing' to say you live in Lincoln or Sheffield or wherever.

I realise I'm very fortunate to be in Chelsea which is fantastic, buzzing and absolutely none of what you describe. Many areas of London are the same, but even if you live in a not great part of London, you're never far from somewhere that is. When I read about towns outside of London on here, it's like a tale of two nations.

I think there’s always money pumped into London due to the need for tourism and obviously tourism helps with that bill.

It's actually in an area which is historically very poor in the North East, ironically. It's a catch 22 situation..a nice place to live will attract wealth which is what you need to make a nice place to live.

My town is a shit hole too the last two times I took my son in with me we had a (most likely) dead homeless person and the other time there was a drunk man who pissed himself we had to step around the stream the paramedics are always in for this reason I took my daughter (adult daughter) in with me Monday we were yelled at in a different languages spat towards and had people asking us for money getting pissy when we said no

The town planners put a children's play park in town with no fence around right next to a main road the druggies use it

They have knocked down buildings to put in green space we know tents will be put on it for the alleged homeless (some have flats some do not) someone has built a bed in the underpass it's set up like a flat and people have started to avoid it because it's like walking through someone's house we have plenty of services for homeless here they are refusing help

It fucking stinks

Hopefully the fact it is moving to middle class areas means something will be done about it.

@Tabitha005Yep we certainly get a lot of that, i don’t take my 8yr old to town now on a Saturday evening

The putting a bed in the underpass, pretty entitled.

A lot of the towns where you get trouble and behaviour like you've described are the ones where you've got a lot of poverty and a lot of affluent commuters on the leafy outskirts and villages, and nothing in between. People grow up, go to uni, don't come back. Or they come back years later with family until leafy outskirts new builds etc and commute to work.
That's essentially my home town now. It's in the north. Football club just promoted to premiership again.
Charities scratch the surface of the issues with food banks etc but the problems have been worsening for about 15 years since austerity, budget cuts, benefit sanctions came in.
That pattern is repeated in a lot of towns and it really is true when you look at them that Britain is broken. I have no idea how it's going to be resolved.

It's gotten like this on the town next to me (not the same as yours as there is no river bridge) Every day there are men in the town centre and park drunk or on drugs. There are people having mental health breakdowns wondering around shouting strange things. This has been since covid too and we've also had a lot of shop/pub/restaurant closures. I do think it must be linked, the lockdowns effecting mental health and leading to job losses.

Yes, very common in lots of towns these days and it's getting worse. I don't go into our closest "Big" town anymore as there's a awful "vibe" about the place, with far too many small groups of men hanging around looking very sinister, then small gangs of teens causing trouble on e-bikes/e-scooters, etc, and litter/dog shit everywhere. I'm getting more and more stuff ordered online for home delivery and have already moved dentists and opticians as they were both on the "High Street" which no longer feels safe, so I've changed to different places on the outskirts.

Its the same where I live, it dived downhill during covid and never recovered. Its really depressing. Groups of teenagers arsing around causing trouble, police are seemingly afraid of them. They pick especially on delivery cyclists who are trying to earn honest money, unlike them who will never earn their own money during their lifetimes.

Our town was a shithole but in the past year or so we've had a ton of immigration into the local area mostly from Asia and Africa. I guess cause it is cheap to live here. Since that happened the place is perking up a bit. Immigrants are opening new businesses shops and restaurants. We now have fresh grocery store in town selling more exotic items, the options for fruit and veg has even increased in the local supermarkets. Some of the new restaurants are really top notch. It reminds me a bit of when I lived in South London as a student years ago.

They became like that when people no longer had to sign on for their dole. I remember it well as there was a large exodus to Torquay.
Money appears in bank account, buy drugs and drink, lounge around all day. Back then there weren't the current rules of having to look for a job. They find ways around that anyway.

That is how Torquay and many other coastal towns, turned from being lovely places to visit, to drunks falling around and needles in the sand.

Sounds like Stirling

I live in a seaside town and, believe me, there are some very nice river walks here. Rivers do lead to the sea, after all...

In my area which has the same social issues, there are far, far too many HMOs. Most of these HMOs are designated for males who are out of prison, addicts or otherwise deprived. Some HMOs are not but are more likely to house single men (or men whose on/off partners live with children in houses or flats).
This partly explains why a significant number of mostly men congregate out of doors. The rooms they ‘live’ in are like boxes with a shower in the corner. And to add another layer of depression, it costs almost the same amount to live in one of these shoe boxes sharing a kitchen and garden with dysfunctional people, as it costed to rent an entire house on the same street only a few years ago. Everyone is priced out of decent living conditions, even working families. Life is dreary and hopeless for so many now and if my circumstances were like that, I’d probably turn to drink and drugs and take to hanging round the city centre!

Race days are grim. Went to Chester in the morning for wedding dress appointments. People all dressed up for the races. We shopped, stopped for lunch, then more appointments. Finally found the dress. When we finally emerged I couldn't believe the state of the race goers, women of all ages stumbling drunk, a punch up going on between a group of men. Clothes ruined, drunks passed out. Haven't been back since.

Made worse by "Problem" people being bussed in from other areas, such as newly released prisoners. The old boarding houses were no longer needed so councils thought it would be good to "encourage" people to come and live in them once converted to bed-sits, etc. Trouble was there was no additional police or council resources put in place to deal with the almost inevitable crime and anti-social behaviour, made worse by these run down seaside resorts not having much in the way of employment opportunities. A classic case of how NOT to re-populate a run down area!

Yes I can imagine.
Thinking about it now, the occasions where I decided to travel by train ( on a race day) were as equally scary!

Expect it to get worse now pitching a tent to live in has been legalised. Try that on College Green, bet it's still illegal there.
So tents on Park Lane now that can stay. Gave them an inch and plastic structures will be next followed by wooden. How long before they claim the land and build a house on it?
Far fetched?

Sounds like the town we live in! It was a wonderful place to be raised in, but is grim now. We are hoping to move next year to a quieter village nearby.
Whereabouts are you? We live in West Sussex.