Is where you live very socio-economically polarised?

[UnquietDad]

What I mean is, are there "good" areas and "bad" areas which everyone automatically recognises in your city/town/suburb/village, or is it much of a muchness? Are there certain areas where "professional" classes wouldn't live if you paid them?

I live in one of the UK's biggest cities and it's always amazed me that somewhere can be so "ghetto-ised" in the 21st century. Even if you hate to stereotype, you can often work out which part of the city (broadly) somebody lives in just by knowing a little information about their family, work etc - often just by hearing them speak, if I'm honest. And if that sounds awfully snobbish, it's not meant to - it's just that the vast majority of the "southerners" who have come here for work, usually professionals, all clump together in the one tight corner of the city where the house prices are at their most stand-up comedy and the schools are at their most "desirable". There seems to be little attempt, or need, or desire, for social integration.

Racially, too, it's very segregated - there is a big Chinese community, almost all in one area, and a big Asian community, again almost all in one area. I was looking around the other day while waiting outside DD's school and it struck me for the first time that it is 100% white.

We often get letters in the paper about how the better-off areas are losing out because they are not eligible for extra funding, are not the Council's priority, etc. etc. These really wind me up. There was one the other day about a park needing new equipment. Yes, it's a crying shame that there is a park in one of the most sought-after areas of the city where the equipment is falling to bits, and yes, it probably isn't top of the Council's list to get it fixed. The REAL scandal is the fact that such disparities exist between diferent parts of the city in the first place - you don't see people from the better-off areas writing in to decry that, and offering to spread a bit of their wealth around. It would be nice if they expressed such concern when it came to the differences in standards of the various schools across the city, or the higher insurance paid by people in less "safe" areas. But no.

Sorry to go on a bit. I imagine this will attract views...

I live is smallish cathedral city and agree with the comment about 'certain areas'. If someone says they live in 'xxx' people think they are either scumbag scroungers or people suffering with having to put up living in close proximity to scumbag scroungers. If someone says they live over at 'y' then people tend to assume they are professional... ie: hospital consultants, lawyers, etc cluster together in that area.

Having said that... ethnicities (sp) tend to be spread around evenly here. I would think, from what I've seen, for example: there are equally as many people of Indian origin in all areas... affluent or otherwise.

Yes, themoon66, suburb names are very loaded - you can see people's expression shift when you tell them where you live. Whichever way round. Happens all the time.

yes south of the borough is well to do generally. north of the borough is less desirable in fact not desirable at all. the town as a whole is predominantly white although there are some people from different races/cultures smattered around the southern part of the borough. I would say most were doctors or other professionals although teh hospital does have a high degree of asian doctors in attendance - there are also many many eateries and most of these are owned by indians/chinese/italians.

When I tell people where I live they clutch their handbags a little closer, and ask me if the boys still see their fathers(sic)

It doesn't cross their mind that they have the same father, and he lives with us! bigotted twattishness, that's all it is. Ignore.

When i tell people what Country i live in i sometimes see their face drop,but then i dont care as i love it here and keeps the population down

Why is it, though? Is it predominantly an urban phenomenon? This city is my adopted home; I grew up in a smaller town in the South and I didn't really notice it there (but then of course I was more preoccupied with O-Levels and getting girls to talk to me than with mortgages and school catchment areas and so on). Are small/medium towns as bad?

I am in a small town, and actually I think they are worse, if anything.

crickey jampots do we live in the same town?
must be same shire tho....

Edinburgh?

HELL YES.

They do an ace job of hiding the extreme poverty that exists here.

It's truly shocking.

My city seems to do a good job of hiding some of the extreme wealth that lives here.

Whenever you speak to anyone south of the Watford gap, or hear its name on the national news, it seems a bit of a joke - as if we are still covered in smog, full of belching chimneys and populated with unemployed folk who wear flat caps, say "ey oop" all the time and keep ferrets down their trousers. Oh, and a certain over-rated bloody film from about 10 years ago didn't help.

Unquiet dad, if you are in to reading up on the subject I'd recommend The Impact of Inequality by Richard Wilkinson - should be available in paperback now.

my town is a complete mix, with some of the most expensive houses in the south. the sad thing is most of the children are bussed out to different schools away from the town so it's not great for the children's social life iykwim.

Thanks monkeytrousers - just looked this up on Amazon and it looks interesting.

here's a review by Polly Toynbee

where do you live then cowmad?

My city is very similar Unquietdad. There are areas which, if a person says they live there, they are automatically stereotyped. I'm stereotyped myself because of my accent. The more wealthy prefer to distance themselves from the city's name and say they come from the 'Moorlands' or similar. Very poor areas a stones throw from very wealthy (well for this area anyway).

We also have a large Asian population within a very specific area and in fact one my closest RC schools has maybe 75% muslim children.

A few miles away in the town where my parents now live there are hardly any faces that aren't white. Mind you if you are white and not a 'local' they can be a bit suspicious lol.

UnquietDad, yes there are 'good areas' and 'bad areas' but they are pretty mixed culturally and racially

god yes, live in 'desirable' town with areas which the property pages always refer to as the 'highly favoured south side' etc. The rest of us mere mortals live in little pockets of normality interspersed with potential 'no-go' areas. (In the paper at the weekend, high street shops in one cheap suburb are having to close early because of the 'youth gangs' taking over after dark
And to the other extreme, we were driving to see a friend in one of the most 'exclusive' areas, driving a very old battered Saab. We were stopped by police as 'concerned' residents had reported us as 'obviously not coming from this area'

Estate agents need a good slapping. They perpetuate this kind of division - referring to the "desirable school catchments" and so on. You can always tell when they are forced to advertise something in an area they don't like, as the copy reads like it was written by someone holding their nose: "established residential area" is one of their favourites.

i TOTALLY AGREE, you can hear the sneer when they say 'with sundry local amenities' (houses under £150k) as opposed to '' in close proximity to one of the town's most stylish shopping parades'' (nothing to be had for under £350k)

And they often boast school catchment areas for schools which don't 'do' catchment areas, like a faith school we have - where it doesn't matter if you've mortgaged yourself up to the hilt for the next 150 years to live next door to this fabulous school, if you're not a close personal friend of the vicar's, you ain't coming in!

Ah, our neighbourhood isn't really like this. I mean, it's quite polarised in that there are quite well off people interspersed with poor people, we have council estates (probably privatised, dunno), we have terraced houses, and we have some quite wealthy bits, but it's a question of a road apart, if that.

I don't think anyone who is well off uses the state schools here, though, so that probably is part of the explanation. I know the next borough has one very good state school, making all houses in its cachment very very expensive, and probably producing an effect like what you describe, UD.

I live in Liverpool and there are definately some areas considered more desirable than others. It has crossed over slightly though as alot of well off people are living nearer the city centre bordering Toxteth which is considered not desirable because the houses are bigger and are near to work etc. The thing with Liverpool is that in typically working class areas such as Wavetree where the majority of the houses are small terraces with no gardens, round the corner still in Wavetree there are huge Victorian houses with massive gardens where a few middle class people with families tend to live as well (my gp is one of them).

yes we have a town a mile or so to the west - very poor pockets, awful housing, lots of unemployment and crime

then a smaller town a mile to the east on the other side - uber posh, old, tory, full of wanky idiotic shops selling shite that people who have too much money buy

What's well-off though NQC? I mean, DW and I have two incomes and would call ourselves middle-class, and we own a semi in a quite-nice area - but school fees are about as within our reach as a private jet right now. There must be people like us who HAVE to use the state schools.

Liverpool is strange in the way a 'bad' area and a 'good area' can be just a road apart or the otherside of a bridge.