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 haven't read the whole thread either....I think if you live in town rather than edges of it is more mixed

I live very close to a town centre. It's a pretty mixed area - nutters and normal people, living side by side .

snap expat

in fact in the same house

or, if you're in Edinburgh, often packed on top of each other like sardines in a tin due to space contraints .

Just another different point, did you know that in France, when you apply for a job, you don't need to include your address on the CV; too many qualified people from "undesirable areas" weren't even getting interviews. It's a new law, not sure if it applies to all companies or just larger ones. Interesting.

My dd has just left a school that was populated by a huge number of very suntanned 4x4 drivers with very large mortgages (if you want to classify people according to cars and mortgages). The school is situated in a very prosperous area with houses costing huge sums (ie, a 3 bed semi for £375k which is a lot for the midlands). However, some of the parents were truly awful and the behaviour of some of the children was shocking. One boy called the teacher a f c - and he was only 8. I later saw a group of brown 4x4 drivers laughing about it with the children standing next to them!!

The headteacher retired in desperation I think! You can't judge people by their income.

This is really dependent on where you live. There is a huge difference between avoiding crack dens for the sake of your children and avoiding areas that are merely unfashionable.

Where I live you can't really segregate yourself from social problems, we are all very mixed. On our road are hostels, flats along with millionaire mansions.

And the difference between what a public sector professional couple could buy 10 years ago and has moved from what would now be seen as a millionaire mansion to barely affording a flat above a shop! So I guess this is a positive thing for society, but not so sure about the public sector worker?

The rich 4x4 drivers in my road are drug dealers. A 4x4 lexus or BMW or landrover, the bigger the better, is de rigeur amongst S London drug dealers.
But with blacked out windows - and neon lights underneath the wheel arches rather than mud.

If only you could choose your neighbours based solely on their values.

I think whats changed is that we choose our neighbourhoods and are much more mobile - in our parents and previous generations you didn't 'choose' your neighbourhood you were born lived and died in the same area - particularly the working class. Now we have fragmented as a society everyone is suspicious of each other and paranoia is rife we are afraid of our own teenage children ffs! I am not saying it was all Hovis and respect in the good old days or that we should bring back hanging and national service far from it maybe i am just blethering

I agree polarisation is sad but have to admit we jumped ship from rough bit of London when ds was tiny - moved to middle-class commuter belt with good schools.

Thing is, I really liked our immediate neighbourhood (old-fashioned working class community with kids playing out) but the parents walking their families to school past my kitchen window were constantly effing and blinding. And I didn't want ds's first word to be 'c*nt'.

Then someone rode up in a motorbike, walked into the house opposite mine and shot a man in the head. Which made the decision easy.