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

I wouldn't worry about being called racist OP. It seems to be the in thing to say on here! So many of them clamoring on about it, desperate to find a thread where they can shout racist at someone! Its like kids in school desperately trying to impress the teacher! The problem is as with anything that is over used, it becomes meaningless.

Elenor Williams was being racist when she lied about being assaulted. The response to incidents can be horrifically racist.

Walsall is terrible for feeling unsafe as a woman.
I lived there for 5 years and as a 19 year old who moved from shenstone it really opened my eyes. I was followed on an almost daily basis, mugged by a group of men, spat on, the list is endless.

Why mention you're a white woman then?

All you had to say was that you found certain areas unsafe. Instead you brought race into it.

My daughter is at university in Birmingham and I don't recognise your description of the city centre from her experience. She loves the city and is having a brilliant time. She certainly isn't afraid to go out in the city centre day or night

But with all due respect you don’t live there, your daughter is new to the city and living a students life. Op I’m presuming is born and raised brummie so will notice how it’s changed

Also I note she says she’s been here 6 years so I may be jumping to conclusions that she is born and raised but the West Midlands is a big place and there are lots of areas of Birmingham. I myself am from mere green shenstone sort of area which is nice, but I’ve spent plenty of time in Birmingham itself to know it’s not a nice city

She's in her third year, and has part time work in the city centre.

I still don’t think it’s the same as being from somewhere and having generations of family from a city and it’s boroughs, that’s like me claiming to know London and all its areas in and out and how it used to be compared to present day just because I’ve lived there for a couple of years..

@missbish by that argument OP doesn't know Birmingham that well either... as she isn't from there, and has only lived there a few years and hasn't mentioned anything about local family.

OP's only been there 6 years. My daughter has been there 2 1/2 years. I hardly think "generations of experience" applies.

I expect you may know parts of London quite well after two years. The OP isn't claiming an in depth knowledge of Birmingham, she's saying as a white woman she's unsafe there.

I'm saying her perspective is skewed by her anxiety or paranoia; the young women and men I know through my daughter don't view the city that way. Crime in Birmingham is actually reducing, not increasing.

Well I can’t speak for op, but from my experience and opinion as a born and raised Brummie, the place is a shithole and it has got worse. Take a walk around sparkbrook, sparkhill, handsworth etc and tell me it’s a nice place to live

I've been reading this thread, thinking the same as you. My son was at UOB and I don't think think he and his friends ever had occassion to go near any of the more deprived areas of the city that the OP seems to have to go through regularly.

But the OP lives in Edgbaston, why would she need to walk around those areas?

See, one of the things I like about Brummies is that they don't have grand illusions about their city.

My family are from Manchester, and Mancs are full of shit about how wonderful their city is. It's as good and as bad as any other.

Whereas I moved from my naice National Park home and Brummies asked me, "Why'd you come here, it's shit?"

(IME Mancs and Londoners have a "my city is the best" attitude, Belfast and Liverpool are "we love our city and want you to love it too" and Brummies go "it's a pile of shite but it's our pile of shite").

Right okay, so pretend they don’t exist then and make out everyone here like the op is lying 🙄

Maybe you should move to 1950 🤣

Don’t get me wrong I am proud of where I come from, where my parents and grandparents come from but anyone would have to be delusional to say it’s a nice place ! Like any city it has its nicer areas, but the bad outweigh the good. Apparently you can’t speak facts without being called racist. It’s ridiculous how people are these days !

UOB really gives them a great experience, doesn't it? My best friend's son is studying medicine there as well. They all seem to live it, although both DD and friend's DS are among the few Northerners there.

The OP says she's in Edgbaston, which is near the botanical gardens. My daughter lived in Edgbaston as well, and friend's DS rented there for 3 years.

Maybe having lived in Leeds and Newcastle our kids are more accepting of urban neighbourhoods? Although the OP mentions Liverpool and Manchester.

God, it's like those insufferable people who claim Bradford doesn't feel like part of the UK. Yes, it does; just not like the Cotswolds.

@missbish no one is pretending Birmingham doesn't have rough parts or areas of high deprivation.

What many of us don't agree with is that there are "areas where white British people would be stared down" in the OPs own words.

All cities have rough parts, poor parts, wealthy parts and safer parts. Birmingham is no different.

I don't think you understand the geography and widespread deprivation of a metropolis like Birmingham. To get in and out of the city you have no choice but to go through the dodgy parts. You may live in one of the four 'safe' suburbs, but you have no choice but to venture out to attend hospital appointments and the like. Your life would be extremely limited and impossible to live within the confines of the suburb you dwell in. I'm reference to the uob it's in a very leafy, safe part of Edgbaston - students can effectively live in a bubble, with on-site doctors surgeries, libraries, shopping, hospitality on their doorstep. Coupled with on-site security patrols to help foster safety. In essence, They don't have to venture out to the gritty parts you mentioned, ordinary residents have no choice.

But op is correct

@BloomingCrocus you really don't need to. Living in Edgbaston, the QE Hospital is on the doorstep anyway, I can't really see why you'd need to go through Sparkhill regularly to get anywhere!

It's ridiculous to say there are only 4 decent suburbs - most of the north/Sutton Coldfield side is pretty decent. The south side is mixed, but fine - I lived in Northfield for years, then before that King Norton and then Rubery/Rednal - South Birmingham is a mix of deprived areas and nicer bits, but I enjoyed living there. I never drove through Sparkhill/Sparkbrook except when I decided to go for a curry in the Balti Triangle. There are deprived inner city areas like Handsworth, Nechells, Aston etc, as there are in all cities. Most people prefer not to live in the inner city if they can afford to move out - that's nothing new.

I think part of the problem now is that people are much more aware of things like stabbings, due to social media, so they feel places are more dangerous, when actually crime is going down. Cities are always going to have higher crime rates than country towns and villages, and it's understandable that lots of people will choose the 'safer' areas. But I'm not sure if this is specifically about Birmingham, or it's just someone living in a city who's now got young children (the OP would have been less aware of these issues when living in other cities as she didn't have children to worry about).

@missbish she just isn't and if you feel that way anywhere in Birmingham you are racist and paranoid. Strangers - even "foreign" not-white ones don't give a shit about you and are not staring at anyone else just because they happen to be white.