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

The QE recently brought my FIL (an old, white, racist) back from the brink of death over a number of weeks despite him bitching and moaning and making complaints about the non-white nurses. He gone back to live in Solihull now.

Because the way things are now, you can't say that. That's why.

There's nothing wrong with it. But then don't complain when the areas have more brown people because all the white people left.

@nomas but isn’t this denial and the racism’s line exactly why grooming gangs got away with it for so long? The OP isn’t saying all ethnic minorities are bad but she is recounting a specific experience where she was harassed and treated inappropriately.

What do you think is going to happen? Will the sky cave in?

Why can’t she say that? What will happen? Will she be sent to jail? Have her tongue cut out? Be deported?

How exactly can she “not say that”?

I have but I don’t think that is relevant here. We're talking about Birmingham.

That is all well and good but it makes zero sense to move to Solihull due to one bad experience at QE (which of course is unacceptable but is not indicative of the behaviour of an entire race/group of people), because people who live in Solihull are often treated in QE anyway.

@angelos02 Ethnic minorites - especially immigrant populations tend to be poorer, so they move to areas they are able to afford. So there tends to be population clusters that pop up. It really isn't that hard to understand.

Sparkhill used to be a predominantly Irish area when there was a large Irish migration to the city. Because the area has always been low cost, and lots of migrant populations don't have a lot of money. It has pretty much always been an "immigrant" area it's just where the immigrants have come from that has changed.

Not really, it’s not that deep, just seems a bit pointless to even comment since you obviously don't believe anything the OP says and you don’t want to offer any helpful suggestions either. What are you gonna do, argue all day?

Denial of what? No one has told OP it didn't happen. She has started a thread asking for opinions on an area and then failed to engage with any of those posts and instead spent all her time attacking a minority.

I make this same argument constantly.

I do not get people who complain about “ethnic-minority ghettos” but simultaneously want to only live in areas that are ethnic minority free.

Make it make sense?!!

I think people are objecting to ‘it’s not safe for white British’ and ‘it doesn’t feel like the uk’ - op’s words.

This is a good point actually.

If it's pointless, why are you keeping on at me like a dog with a bone? Talk about arguing all day, give it a rest.

Exactly! I have experienced harassment many times in Birmingham. On a train, at a train station, mostly in medical settings (waiting areas). I’ve also been stared at by whole groups of males in Nechells (visited a cashpoint here before knowing exactly how awful this area is) and Ladywood. I’ve been followed through the town centre. Yet people here would say I’m making it all up 😂.

Exactly!

Why don't just move, why do they need to do a flounce?!

OP you are getting such a hard time here. I have moved out of Birmingham for those reasons. It isnt safe, car thefts, stabbings, grooming gangs (my nephew was groomed and he lived in a "white area" and was by the typical grooming gangs you hear of. I went to buy a house in Sheldon, and it fell through and thank god it did. Was told by my friend that drugs was rife on the road, prostitute lived on the corner and cars were stolen. This was 4 years ago. And its only got worse.

Anyone saying that its fine is lying or maybe have come from worse places? . I cannot think of any nice areas now. I moved about 30 minutes away from bham between bham and Leicester and the difference is amazing. People don't have back gates! They leave their bikes out front. Everyone is so nice. All my family who live across bham are now looking to move out. My Gran was robbed twice on a known high street. I was followed home from a train station. The list is endless of my bad experiences. My car was stripped.

I still work in Birmingham and love my job there. But God I wouldnt bring my kids up there or move back there. So different from 20 years ago.

Solihull just isn't far enough away.

Most of our extended family moved north after dniece was sexually assaulted, and the school tried to say they didn't need to punish the 'boy' (who looked late 20's) because it was due to a 'cultural misunderstanding'.

Raising the dc in a village so safe the children can play out and people still leave their doors unlocked has been heavenly. And it's only a short ride to a lovely university city, so plenty of education and employment opportunities.

It's not about race, there are people of every colour here, most importantly we all share the same british culture.

OP I don't think Solihull is far away enough. It's probably better but not by enough.

I love Birmingham but I would ideally leave for many of the same reasons (if I wasn't tied here).

😂

Wow, you dropped your faux chill 'it's not that deep' persona pretty quickly!

What happened?

Knowle is lovely. As is Solihull generally but it's still in the Birmingham area (i describe it as south of Birmingham).

@Hatebirmingham - I live in/near one of the areas you mentioned. I get it I really do. Birmingham really is in decline. The poverty is grinding & unrelenting.
I kind of have a love/hate relationship with my area - it was always poor but the last 10 or so years have been brutal. And it shows - the roads are littered & everywhere is filthy & people look poor.
However, if i could gather my neighbours & plonk us all somewhere lovely - i would, genuinely good people, just poor & ground down.

The city centre feels unsafe after dark & drug consumption is out of control & the police/council don't seem to have a plan.
Drug dealing, unsafe driving & frankly selfish behaviour drives me crazy in my postcode, but a woman I work with recently had to move from her North Bham address with her disabled child because local youths made her life a living hell - now that shit would just not fly here.

The elderly welsh lady who lives opposite does her shopping at Lidl on Moseley Rd shouts into the mosque on the way home & they get a coupleof young lads to carry her shopping home😆. Might they be the same lads driving Audi's at 70 mph to get to the next deal at 10.pm later that night? Possibly - like I say love/ hate.

Anyway good luck with the search.