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...

Do they have lifts in rural areas, cowmad?

working gundogs get very very muddy and the gun case is safely welded to the side
(gun dosnt live there it lives in a steel case elsewhere.. not in the house tho,but we also store in a locked case when transporting in the car)
also muddy boots and coats live in the boot. also in season there will be game.

Hmmm. I grew up w/working gun dogs and hte like. Although, in my neck of the woods, people hunted in order to feed themselves, not for 'sport'.

Oddly enough, though, the people cared about hygiene and the like, and so hosed down the pack of the Land Rover or pick up truck, b/c those can be hosed down, afterwards.

why does cowmad always get a hard time on this site?

live and let live people

It's quite a simple affair. Park vehicle. Get dogs out. Turn on garden hose w/water gun attachment. Spray.

Doesn't take very long, either.

Dogs can also be washed.

Hope you're cleaning your guns properly. Or getting your lackey to. They can do nasty things like jam or misfire when not properly attended.

I mostly stuck to pistols at the firing range, though, just for fun.

Hunting is so . . . unfeminine and mucky and gross.

yes you can hose down dog at summer but not in the middle of winter.dont be so factecious expat about lackey and as i said husband shoots not me can you read?or so desperate to get the boot in posted too quick...
however i can pass your unfemine comments on to the ladies that do.stero types again expat,your beginning to sound quite biggoted(or embittered!)

now enough....i will go away from this thread cos its long ago lost its original intention..thanks to some...

bigoted and embittered. oh, yes, cowmad, that's me.

LOL!

and you were the one who was going to flounce.

feel free to share your internet experiences w/random strangers in cyberspace with all and sundry, cowmad.

you're a hoot.

what internet experiences?
what are you on about
second thoughts
go away

i thought you were leaving the thread, cowmad.

back again, i see.

not likely i'll be going away anytime soon, although it is mildly amusing how you mention that you're leaving a thread, flouncing, etc. and still come back for more.

Just to bring this back on track.

cowmad's "extra 30-40k keeps out the undesirables" is not very carefully thought through. The kind of people you'd want to "keep out" are probably not in the house-buying market anyway. What inflated prices do is keep out professional people who are looking to buy, but whose incomes don't match the house prices - even though they would have done, 10 or even 5 years ago.

To take the area fizzbuzz was referring to - 10 years ago a semi-detached house in that postcode would have been about £60,000, within reach of two youngish teachers, for example, who'd have had a combined income of about £35,000. These days, two teachers in the same place on the scale would have a combined salary of c.£50,000, and the same house would cost c.£230,000 - almost five times their income - and they'd be bidding against people prepared to pay silly money. (Those are all ballpark figures, but they are roughly right.) And teachers are not badly-paid compared, say, to nurses or creative artists or charity fundraisers.

What's the point you are trying to make Unquietdad? That's not asked in an antagonistic tone either. I'm curious.

DH is a teacher and I was a public sector worker and we probably fall into the category of people you are talking about. We have a large mortgage, and live in a basic 1960s semi in a nicish village. A 4 bed detached house feels like it will always be beyond our means. But we'd rather live here in our smaller house than live somewhere grotty for the sake of an extra bedroom.

there are very wealthy people and very poor people in this town and although there are areas where people of similar hpusehold income are together and others wheree drug addicts/petty thieves are housed in the same block of flats/predominantly asian background/polish etc and also exclusive parts there are also areas where it is a mix of hostel for single mums/bail hostel/dhss, expensive single occupancy, students, professional singles, all cheek by jowl.

I HOPE he's making the point that public sector workers aren't undesirable.

But from cowmad's previous posts, I'm thinking she doesn't share that view. Not for teachers anyway .

Is your point that you think 'professional' people will only buy a house in the known posh area so that they know they won't have to live alongside undesirables and you think they are misguided for doing so because they could buy a house in a cheaper area where they might end up with a lovely teacher as a neighbour

Well, sorry if unclear - making two points really: a) that cowmad's 30-40k comment was off-beam and b) that the areas which used to be "professional" are now beyond the reach of people who could have bought in them 5-10 years ago - even for quite modest houses - and so people are looking elsewhere.

Wondering if this will "gentrify" certain areas, although it doesn't seem to happen - the same "up and coming" areas have been up and coming for a decade here. You'd think they'd have upped and come by now.

Maybe it will take longer than 10 years?

Maybe - or it could be that there is only a certain percentage of the housing that will ever be filled by professionals, as they move on if & when they can afford to.

Although my point is partly also as summarised by Aderyn, yes!

Cowmad I fully accept your need to drive a 4X$ BUT

men and women died for my rights and i blo**y well appreciate it
I reserve the right to live where i choose
drive the car i want and need to
as long as I pay for it>....

Well if we all drive the cars that we want to because people died for that right- and it causes global warming coz we're all too unwilling to do anything- then many, many, many mroe will die

We are reliant on a car but we refuse to upgrade to one that wold be 'perfect' for environmental reasons.

I do find it a very strange take on life that the more money you have/earn the better and nicer neighbours you will be

That is the way people think, though, zipppitippitoes,and it is the way estate agents rely on them thinking. "oh, it's a nice area, worth paying an extra 20% on the house price as Tilly and Alfie won't have to mix with any dreadful rough children with ACCENTS round here."

I agree, zippiti.

I mean, the kids who killed their fellow students at Columbine came for a very nice area.

MN - or cowmad?

Mind you, haven't read the whole thread..