The Piccadilly Gardens Problem

[Blue Smarties]

When are the council going to do something about this? For all the good things happening to the city, this place is getting an alarming reputation. Not only is it ugly (what's the craic with the concrete wall?), it seems to be a hotbed for crime and unwelcome activity. In fact, it's the fifth worst crime hotspot in the country.

I spent yesterday in Liverpool and returned to Manchester in the evening, which resulted in me walking through the city via Piccadilly Gardens around 21:00*. For all the shit people like to fling at Liverpool for its 'reputation of crime', if I was a tourist and didn't know either city, I would have thought Manchester was the city harnessing the 'cars on breezeblock' jokes. When I walked through Piccadilly last night it was swarmed with teenage scallies loitering, being loud, aggressive, and just not doing the place any favours in general. There were police officers camped out on each side of the gardens ffs. It's not the first time I've seen it like this, so it doesn't appear to be a one off.

There's so many good things happening to this city and yet we have a real problem right in the heart of it. We shouldn't allow these groups to loiter, it's so unattractive. Shit hole behaviour, not the behaviour you'd expect from one of the central locations of a thriving city.

*Yes I have walked through the centre of Liverpool after 21:00, no big groups of scallies hanging around the areas which are deemed to be central hotspots of the city.

 

[malg]

They fucked up when it stopped being 'gardens'. Whoever signed off on the plans to make it more concrete than green was, and is, a fucking moron.

 

[BrianW]

I would suggest:

1. Demolish that hideous wall, using volunteer labour if necessary.
2. Turn the 'gardens' back into an actual garden instead of a mass of concrete.
3. Play classical music through loudspeakers 24/7/365. Scrotes can't abide classical music and would soon find somewhere else to gather.
4. Put anyone misbehaving in the area in the stocks, and allow people to hurl rotten vegetables at them for a charge of £1 a go.

Only the last proposal would require legislation.

 

[mcfcinprague]

I went into the centre for the first time in many years about a month ago. I walked down from Piccadilly station through the "gardens" and on to the Arndale etc.

I just thought "what a fucking dump this place is"

Why would anybody want to be a tourist in a shit hole like this?

To make things worse my Czech wife was with me on her first ever visit, she wasn't impressed at all!

 

[CTID1988]

For most visitors to Manchester it will be one of the first places they see, so why leave it as it is?! It's a shithole.

On a side note, has anybody noticed the amount of homeless people in town these days? Easily quadrupled from a couple of years ago. Any reason for it? I heard a shelter was closed down so they've nowhere to go

 

[tom]

They fucked up when it stopped being 'gardens'. Whoever signed off on the plans to make it more concrete than green was, and is, a fucking moron.

Yes
And they could improve things by demolishing that new office block what an eyesore!

 

[IanBishopsHaircut]

You're bang on OP..the place is a disgrace..you think about all the redevelopment money ploughed into the City..the ripping up of all the fucking roads..yet one of Manchester's focal points resembles East Berlin circa 1980..it's shocking

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Get rid of those fountains too, it will always be a centre for hoodlums getting together with it being a transport hub round all 4 sides of it. The drug dealing is rife round there and very brazen.

It's a shame who over designed the gardens fucked it up so badly with the Berlin Wall and the office block which should have never been aloud to go up.

For this one mistake in the city we do have Albert square, the northern quarter, Castlefield and Spinningfields which make our city unique.

 

[MCFCTrick]

It does need a complete overhaul .... which takes time and money. But the scrote/druggie problem can be rectified immediately ....

 

[ancoats]

They fucked up when it stopped being 'gardens'. Whoever signed off on the plans to make it more concrete than green was, and is, a fucking moron.

it would never happen in London and like you said morons turn it back into the gardens