Am I too posh for Cambridge?

[BeAmberWasp]

Leave my house and my odds of being harassed by a male seem to be almost 100%. Chances of passing someone stinking of weed/human shit/body odor are also 100%. Chances of being sworn at by a vagrant: 100%. Chances of having my bike stolen 0% because it's worthless and has 5 locks on it but if there was one less lock it would be 100%. There is no sense of community here. Everyone seem to be extremely rude to each other and there's a stabbing every week.

I am trying so hard to be less judgemental and stuck up but I don't have the fight in me anymore.

What the hell am I paying SO much MONEY for?

Can someone recommend somewhere better that isn't too far. What is Norwich like? Ely? Seems to have lower crime. Is moving to Southwold my only hope? I can't do this anymore. Cambridge is sold as a salubrious area but is extremely uncivilised.

I doubt you're too posh. It's your expectations that are too high.

Cambridge is a city of extremes. Extreme wealth & academia. Poverty. There is a lot of homelessness / street sleepers.

If you live in a dodgy area (aka NOT posh) you're going to come across rough characters. You need to move to a million pound house. I think you'll find the living conditions there are a bit better.

Ely is just as dodgy. And Norwich also has dodgy areas. Search up The Larkman estate.

Southwold IS posh. As is Holt.

I was in Rutland recently, Oakham. A very pleasant place. Small towns can be boring to live in but by and large, less social problems. All cities suffer with similar issues, sadly.

Try any of the villages just outside the city centre.

Come to Peterborough OP. At least you’ll expect it to be dodgy and it’s much cheaper 😁

Try Grimsby. Same stuff much cheaper.

Do you need to live by a train station? If not how about one of the villages nearer Suffolk. Burwell, Bottisham and Swaffham Prior are nice, they have lots of cute villages near them. The other side of Cambridge has always been rough.
Every single bike I’ve ever owned from being a child has got stolen in Cambridge and the crime is horrific due to drugs.

Many apologies if this is a genuine thread - but I have sometimes wondered whether posts like this (that have a massively negative tone about either a place, or a school or whatever), may actually be intended to influence others, perhaps during that period when parents / young people may be considering where to apply for uni, and where reducing competition (from other applicants) might be a benefit??

I may well be completely wrong - and imagining conspiracies in every corner, so please do forgive me if so!

In terms of areas, especially in urban contexts, graffiti is a huge element that has a massive psychological effect on how people perceive safety and behaviour in an area - so the quicker that graffiti can be got rid of, the better - either by the council, or through voluntary groups :)

As for the rest, I can’t really comment, but all towns and cities have areas with more issues than others….

Well, it depends. The places I’ve lived in Cambridge have not been like that at all, apart from the bike theft which is universal, but there are plenty of places which are.

Maybe check your area on https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/ and see if there are other parts of Cambridge or the other areas you mention where the demographics better suit your wishes.

I live in Cambridge and have not encountered any of the issues the OP has seen, apart from a person begging outside Marks and Spencer's food store. They were not harassing anyone.
I live in Chesterton, just on the north side of the river but still very much part of Cambridge. I am often in the centre of the city too.
(My anecdotal, er, evidence is just as valid as theirs.)

God that’s so depressing to read. I’ve always thought of Cambridge as one of the few really nice, civilised towns in the U.K. Christ, is there ANYWHERE you can live in peace? Is there ANYWHERE on this planet you can escape vicious, foul-mannered, anti-social little scumbags? I’ve spent my whole life in fear of people like that. I was scared of them at school, saw a male friend beaten up by them when I was teenager, lived in fear of them in digs at university, and now have to avoid them when I walk my dogs. It all goes wrong at the start. Vicious, ignorant, abusive people with a history of neglect should be stopped from having children. But we just allow these cycles of violence and anti-social behaviour to continue generation after generation.

I live about thirty minutes from Cambridge and visit multiple times a year. I’ve never experienced any issues.

Yes, loads of places are free of people like that. I doubt there are actually many in Cambridge. I grew up in Sussex and there weren’t many people like that there (certainly none in my school), and I now live in London and don’t cross paths with anyone like that despite working in a hospital in a deprived borough.

Where do you live @BeAmberWasp ? If you live in Arbury then maybe, but otherwise Cambridge is generally a good place to live. Bear in mind it is a big city which has grown hugely over the past 20years or so, with a large international population, 2 universities as surrounds by very rural areas, so it is going to be a massive melting pot with lots of variation.

Ely is much more parochial but has quite a lot of poverty and problems in areas, as do most places. Norwich is something else entirely. Sounds like what you really want is a village, maybe try the swaffhams, Wicken or haddenham, but you’ll be trading in a lot of other advantages.

Wondering if one is ‘too posh’ for anywhere or anything is usually a sign that one definitely isn’t!

Depends if you went to a prestigious boarding school or not

Quite a general post. It really depends where you are living and what you are doing. It’s a city so not immune to any antisocial behaviour just because it has lovely colleges and a river.

I live in a village in the e mids. 30 min commute to Leicester or Nottingham, where I work. Experienced 0 crime and v v little anti social behaviour

Plus, live surrounded by lakes and beautiful countryside

What the heck? My husband is from Shelford and it's really pleasant there. Our DD is due to start at Cambridge in October subject to Alevel results next week. We live in the North West and Cambridge always seems lovely when we visit. Which area are you living in?

I live in Cambridge and I don't recognise OP's description of it at all!

😀

Every city has its issues. Cambridge is town and gown city. Poverty vs extreme wealth. You will get beggars, homelessness , drugs in areas of the city centre but overall it’s a lovely city. Never felt unsafe and I used to cycle home late at night. Ely is also lovely but quite dull. Not sure about Norwich.