Towns & Cities that are F----d.

Bill Walker said:
Just watched another one.. East St Louis... they can't even afford to demolish the Spivey building. It's intriguing that the US is by far the most powerful superpower on Earth, it has the mega expensive NASA, it has given over 80 billion in aid to Ukraine and yet this town can't afford to demolish a 12 storey building. So there it stands !!

The Spivey Building
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You don't half pick em! Since you're obviously on a roll with this, check out Memphis.
When you travel a bit in America (and do I need to say that I bow to the massively superior wisdom of people on here who live there), what you wake up to is that there is serious poverty. A rich country, but not rich for everyone.
A few years back, drove from Athens, Georgia down to Savannah. It feels like a longish drive to a European. It was a nice drive, but I was fascinated by the little rural villages we drove through. I'm not saying they were shanty towns, but some of them looked as if — if a big bad wolf were to huff and puff — it would simply blow them away.
 
I once passed through " Wankie " in Zimbabwe on my way from Harare to Victoria Falls.
They've changed the name of the town to Harange now mind,which i think is a bit wank tbh !
 
I do wonder how some of the places mentioned compare to say similar sized towns and cities in Japan or South Korea. Is it purely an issue with western societies or does it percist in places like Japan which are culturally very different but still have capitalist values.
 
Part of the problem is that we are going through a period of immense change with inadequate resources to ameliorate the problems caused.

For example, most people agree that the 'High Street' is in a bad way. However, in my view, the 'High Street' has had its day, and propping it up is rather like subsidising stagecoaches. People have voted with their feet and clearly prefer the internet and/or out-of-town shopping centres like the ghastly Trafford Centre.

The effect is to rip the heart out of most small towns and make them look like tips. All that is left is cafes and charity shops, nothing really useful to day-to-day life. No one has yet invented the butterfly that will, one day, emerge from this chrysalis. Meanwhile, we are left with a shit tip.
 
BrianW said:
Part of the problem is that we are going through a period of immense change with inadequate resources to ameliorate the problems caused.

For example, most people agree that the 'High Street' is in a bad way. However, in my view, the 'High Street' has had its day, and propping it up is rather like subsidising stagecoaches. People have voted with their feet and clearly prefer the internet and/or out-of-town shopping centres like the ghastly Trafford Centre.

The effect is to rip the heart out of most small towns and make them look like tips. All that is left is cafes and charity shops, nothing really useful to day-to-day life. No one has yet invented the butterfly that will, one day, emerge from this chrysalis. Meanwhile, we are left with a shit tip.
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Its not just small towns that were already struggling due to loss of major employers. Even places like York, which you would have thought should be pretty prosperous due to the number of international tourist visiting is really suffering. Lots of closed down shops, small bakeries and cafes that thrived prior to covid, are now gone.
Even with out of town shopping centres, Meadowhall for instance still has lots of unlet premises since the big department stores left.
Personally I think there is still a market for the high street, but the only way it can continue is by exploiting the thing online shopping can't, which is a more personalised (human) service at a premium price, similar to how clothes shops used to be in the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately that only works in areas where people have decent levels of disposable income.
 
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Kompany Car said:
Its not just small towns that were already struggling due to loss of major employers. Even places like York, which you would have thought should be pretty prosperous due to the number of international tourist visiting is really suffering. Lots of closed down shops, small bakeries and cafes that thrived prior to covid, are now gone.
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Yes was bit disappointed in York this year seems to be attracting the stag and hen parties now
 
I travelled round cornwall earlier this year and pretty much all the seaside towns seemed very afluent and great places to live or visit, anywhere without a beach or something to bring the tourists were very run down and looked like they have serious drug problems and lack of jobs for the local people
 
maccieblue said:
In fairness there are quite a few nice ones, Whitby, Lytham, Robin hoods bay, Whitstable, Tenby, Aberystwyth, alright I'm struggling after them
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Moved to Whitley Bay two years ago.
It is definitely "on the up" with a great selection of smaller traders, places to eat and drink.
It had a bad time after it's destination for "Stag/Hen do's" was stopped by the local constabulary.
But, there's loads of building work and it seems to be prospering.
This may be due to it's closeness to a major city (Newcastle) ?
 
Kompany Car said:
I do wonder how some of the places mentioned compare to say similar sized towns and cities in Japan or South Korea. Is it purely an issue with western societies or does it percist in places like Japan which are culturally very different but still have capitalist values.
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Lived in Japan for three years. They're not exactly dumps. That feeling of a town being a dump comes specifically, I think, from its having had its day — the Industrial Revolution — and simply having been beached. People have got nothing to do except hang around. Depression hangs in the air.
Obviously, Japan never went through that. Or rather, its industrial revolution was much more recent, and was not based on heavy industry, by and large. It has virtually no natural resources, so it couldn't depend on mining them out of the ground until they were exhausted.
No, you don't see dumps. You do see quite a lot of soulless towns, though. And since we're on this: let me express a conclusion I've come to very clearly. I've travelled widely on every continent except Antarctica. Loved them all, always something wonderful to take from them. My heart's probably closest to Africa, for reasons I can't really explain or it would take too long to explain.
But nobody does cities. We, in Europe, do beautiful cities and towns. I could mention literally hundreds of exquisite villages I've seen — Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, and yes, England, Scotland, Wales, too. We have magnificent cities and towns: Bruges, Venice, Seville, Prague, Stockholm, Oxford, Bergen… I could on and on and on. And I'm not even going to get into Rome and Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.
South America has Buenos Aires. A fine city, modelled, not coincidentally, on Europe. Santiago de Chile was ok. La Paz was ok. Rio, I grant, is magnificent (although I have never, anywhere, felt such a palpable sense of danger, including during the day). Ok, there are a handful. In Canada, Toronto's ok. Montreal has a good feel to it, and I liked it very much, but I wouldn't describe it as magnificent. Vancouver's a magnificent city, mainly because of the natural setting, in my opinion. Ok, there are a handful. Same for China. But in Europe (and the UK, if the UK is still part of Europe, not for me to say) we are spoilt for choice. For some reason, Europe put a lot of effort over the centuries into the building of cities and towns.
That is why I could not imagine myself living anywhere other than Europe.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Lived in Japan for three years. They're not exactly dumps. That feeling of a town being a dump comes specifically, I think, from its having had its day — the Industrial Revolution — and simply having been beached. People have got nothing to do except hang around. Depression hangs in the air.
Obviously, Japan never went through that. Or rather, its industrial revolution was much more recent, and was not based on heavy industry, by and large. It has virtually no natural resources, so it couldn't depend on mining them out of the ground until they were exhausted.
No, you don't see dumps. You do see quite a lot of soulless towns, though. And since we're on this: let me express a conclusion I've come to very clearly. I've travelled widely on every continent except Antarctica. Loved them all, always something wonderful to take from them. My heart's probably closest to Africa, for reasons I can't really explain or it would take too long to explain.
But nobody does cities. We, in Europe, do beautiful cities and towns. I could mention literally hundreds of exquisite villages I've seen — Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, and yes, England, Scotland, Wales, too. We have magnificent cities and towns: Bruges, Venice, Seville, Prague, Stockholm, Oxford, Bergen… I could on and on and on. And I'm not even going to get into Rome and Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.
South America has Buenos Aires. A fine city, modelled, not coincidentally, on Europe. Santiago de Chile was ok. La Paz was ok. Rio, I grant, is magnificent (although I have never, anywhere, felt such a palpable sense of danger, including during the day). Ok, there are a handful. In Canada, Toronto's ok. Montreal has a good feel to it, and I liked it very much, but I wouldn't describe it as magnificent. Vancouver's a magnificent city, mainly because of the natural setting, in my opinion. Ok, there are a handful. Same for China. But in Europe (and the UK, if the UK is still part of Europe, not for me to say) we are spoilt for choice. For some reason, Europe put a lot of effort over the centuries into the building of cities and towns.
That is why I could not imagine myself living anywhere other than Europe.
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As someone that has never been to Africa, I'm intrigued to know your reasoning and I mean that in a genuine sense
 
Platt Lane 59 said:
Moved to Whitley Bay two years ago.
It is definitely "on the up" with a great selection of smaller traders, places to eat and drink.
It had a bad time after it's destination for "Stag/Hen do's" was stopped by the local constabulary.
But, there's loads of building work and it seems to be prospering.
This may be due to it's closeness to a major city (Newcastle) ?
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Enjoyed Robin Hood's Bay. There's a pub there (or was) that does a decent pint, and lobster at an affordable price. Since lobster is among my favourite foods, I headed over there with friend. Good drive across the dales, too, although August felt like November, basically, up there.
 
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