Is Solihull far away enough from Birmingham?

[Hatebirmingham]

I live in Edgbaston and HATE Birmingham. I’ve been here for 6 years and I think it’s bloody awful. It’s run down, unsafe to the point where I could list multiple areas where I barely feel safe driving through, never mind getting out of the car and there are so many areas that don’t even feel like you’re in the UK. I see teens around and would be throughly depressed for these to be the children that my own would attend school with - lots seem to be wannabe ‘gangsters’, rude, intimidating etc. I find the vast majority of Birmingham incredibly depressing.

We can’t leave the West Midlands unfortunately.

I was wondering if Solihull may be a better fit for us. My oldest DC is starting school next year so we still have time to move without interrupting education. My question is - is Solihull (particularly Dorridge/Knowle) far enough away from Birmingham to not be affected by Birmingham’s ‘issues’?

IABU: Solihull is still too close to Birmingham
IANBU: Solihull is much better than Birmingham

That is based on the amount of penalty points drivers have. There are lots of terrible drivers that never get caught by the police and if they speed where there are no cameras they will have no points.

My neighbour was disqualified from driving for 6 months back in December. He has been driving almost every day since then. You never really see a police car on the roads so as long as he sticks to the speed limit and does not go through an ANPR he is unlikely to get caught

So did that area ever imrove or has it always been poverty stricken and filthy?

What about Coventry? Smaller, less crime, cheaper. Some nice parts, some grim parts.

Why are you so desperate to call others racist? You seem quite hung up on it.

Who did I call racist? Can you quote it?

Sparkbrook is not 'quintessentially English' 🤣

Move back to one then

I don’t know anybody in real life who would say that they love Birmingham

Me! I do.
Such a vibrant, 'young' City, with people from all over the World choosing to settle here, including a very high % of the students that come to the University then choose to stay once they graduate.
It is such a green City - has won all sorts of awards and has literally hundreds of beautiful parks, Country Parks, Nature Reserves and green spaces.
I am relatively old and grey but feel very comfortable all over the City - yes, including the City Centre and Sparkhill and Sparkbrook.
I have 3 adult dc who all chose to return to the City having chosen to do their degrees at Universities across the Country, but then realised that Birmingham had so much more to offer. (So that is 3 more). So many of their friends have done the same - tasted life elsewhere then chosen Birmingham as their long term home. None of my dc feel un safe, let alone uncomfortable in any parts of the City.

YABVVVU, but I can't vote that as your opening post attached a different meaning to the question.

She specifically made the point that she felt unsafe as a white woman – the clear assumption being that non-white people are why she feels unsafe. Why mention her race at all if race is not an issue?

MN should take the thread down. It's racist in tone and meaning.

Well all of the back to backs were knocked down (Summer Lane Ozzy Osbournes childhood home) then the estates were built & people moved out.
The inner cities Handsworth, Aston, Sparkhill, Balsall Heath had a huge influx of migrants from the commonwealth. And the poverty never really changed although people had work in the cities manufacturing base, many bought homes if they could & moved on, but a lot stayed.
For instance the Stratford Rd/Hall Green was once a huge Irish community, then South Asian, now more recent immigrants from the African continent - in a such a big city, populations have probably always been in flux, and people with little means/education to start with finding it impossible to make the leap out of poverty, so yeah nothing much changes.

Unsafe as a white woman from everyone, including white males I should imagine.

Slight aside - has this thread been moved? Don't think it was originally in the Property and DIY section..I don't think I even knew there was a Property and DIY section, never mind going to post on it 😁

You can visit the last remaining back to backs.
National Trust - Birmingham Back to Backs https://share.google/9dPs4RtN7GjL4B4ht

She could've said that when pushed, but instead she doubled down bringing up areas where no whites live as being unsafe.

If it quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, walks like a duck etc etc.

😆 I have - I can walk to them in about 10 minutes.

I haven't yet but I want to.

That is really interesting thank you. I have never been into Birmingham itself, just used the airport once. Some friends I made from dog walking retired in Devon and said they were glad to escape, I thought they were exaggerating! I guess it's like any big city there will be good and bad parts.

@CaptainMyCaptain -they're choclate box hovis lovely. Where i grew up in Lozells - there was an old Welsh man who had a tiny little workshop, long after we moved i found out he was one of the last makers of hand blown milk glass!

I was going to say that!

Lots of people accusing others of racism on here. It's a little bit of a concern that the top twenty least racist countries in the world (the UK included) are filling up with those from the most racist countries in the world.

I live in Birmingham, not actually all that far from Sparkhill (which has no meaningful effect on my every day life so I’m not sure why it’s bothering an Edgbaston resident so much) and I love it! Everywhere has good and bad areas - including Solihull. I’d walk round Sparkhill after dark any day of the week before Chelmsley Wood.

I lived in Edgbaston for about 4 years. It does have some lovely parts (Cannon Hill park), but as a young female there were definitely some areas I didn't feel very safe. I also lived in a house next to what was obviously a drug dealer as my room looked on to their fire escape. One notable occasion was a friend came to visit in the middle of the afternoon and whilst waiting for me in a car, witnessed a guy trying to run over another guy and then got out with a machete... I don't live in Birmingham anymore but I did enjoy living there, and I met some lovely people.

Why on Earth are you suggesting that my lived experience of a city makes me racist?

I have repeatedly said that I do not have issues with people of different cultures or skin colours to myself. I have many friends of different races and religions to myself. However I do have an issue with finding there to be a vast number of people in this city who happen to be disrespectful and deliberately intimidating to white women, and are anti-social in society as a whole.

This is NOT racist.

A lot of these posters would definitely have been telling thr grooming gangs victims thay they were being racist