Is the City of Leicester a dump?

[Wymsey]

One should never judge a homeless person by their 'cover'.

 

Each individual story is different, and it's often not necessarily their fault.

 

Am sure @Rincewind (bless him) would've agreed to an extent.

[MattFox]

13 hours ago, Lako42 said:

I think i'm in the minority that prefers town.

 

Had a great night last night around Viccy park and the uni. Really nice night, loads of people out and about playing sport, drinking, eating etc. 

 

Area around the uni is underrated, some cracking buildings.  

You’d think town was worse than downtown Johannesburg the way people go on 

 

Fosse Park is Karen central anyway 

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, Wymsey said:

One should never judge a homeless person by their 'cover'.

 

Each individual story is different, and it's often not necessarily their fault.

 

Am sure @Rincewind (bless him) would've agreed to an extent.

Not sure it's the 'homeless' that annoy people. That's a catch all word. 

 

Basically it's the skanks. Toothless women weighing 5 stone wet through walking at 100 mph alongside two fellas (who wear the same clobber if it's -10 or +35 degrees) on an absolute mission

[boots60]

4 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

Very few are. And some of those few that are have chosen that lifestyle. The rest must've either made astoundingly bad decisions in their life or be uniquely  and incredibly unlucky. 

 

Unbelievable

[MattFox]

Visit Leicester admin reading this thread?

[Zear0]

31 minutes ago, MattFox said:

Visit Leicester admin reading this thread?

Got a summary? I blocked that account in favour of Visit Fosse Park. 

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, Bert said:

It’s fairly easy to tell. Plus walking through the town a hell of a lot, you get to know the ones that are drug users.

 

Assumptions again. You don't know their story, where they've come from, what has led them to this situation. You just assume they are "the dregs of society". Walk a mile in their shoes before you judge a person.

 

I've met many rough sleepers who aren't drug users and I've met drug users who aren't rough sleepers (and they are by far the majority). People fall on hard and difficult times. Some get by, others fall by the wayside. 

 

What is your story Bert? Is your life so perfect? Do you have faults? Was there ever a possibility that circumstances could have led you down a different path?

 

Don't be holier than thou. That's not a good look.

Edited 9 May by Parafox

[lcfc278]

8 hours ago, Parafox said:

 

Assumptions again. You don't know their story, where they've come from, what has led them to this situation. You just assume they are "the dregs of society". Walk a mile in their shoes before you judge a person.

 

I've met many rough sleepers who aren't drug users and I've met drug users who aren't rough sleepers (and they are by far the majority). People fall on hard and difficult times. Some get by, others fall by the wayside. 

 

What is your story Bert? Is your life so perfect? Do you have faults? Was there ever a possibility that circumstances could have led you down a different path?

 

Don't be holier than thou. That's not a good look.

Aren't you the same guy that tars all of the traveller community because you had a bad experience once? I'm sure you also referred to Irish people in a derogatory way too. Granted you had a bad experience however I'd read your post above here and maybe think on that as well.

Edited 10 May by lcfc278

[CosbehFox]

15 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

Granby street could and should be a lovely entrance to the city. It wasnt that long ago it was. The Grand is there. San Carlo. Is that cool gay bar still going? It would'nt take much to fluff it up. 

Currently a co-operative coffee shop. Really good place/business. 

[CosbehFox]

My concern actually about M&S actually centres more on how the elder generations used it as an excuse to visit town. I have seen it with Solihull - it closing killed footfall but also hurt a little bit of society alongside it. 

[Boethius]

48 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

My concern actually about M&S actually centres more on how the elder generations used it as an excuse to visit town. I have seen it with Solihull - it closing killed footfall but also hurt a little bit of society alongside it. 

I need a new pair of spectacles. I read the above post and spent 10 minutes trying to work out how M&S closing in Solihull killed football. Like the 'elder generations' referred to by CosbehFox, I am getting too old for this.

[boots60]

20 minutes ago, Boethius said:

I need a new pair of spectacles. I read the above post and spent 10 minutes trying to work out how M&S closing in Solihull killed football. Like the 'elder generations' referred to by CosbehFox, I am getting too old for this.

M&S closing in Solihull killed footfall

 

Losing to Bromley seriously damaged football

[Bert]

11 hours ago, Parafox said:

 

Assumptions again. You don't know their story, where they've come from, what has led them to this situation. You just assume they are "the dregs of society". Walk a mile in their shoes before you judge a person.

 

I've met many rough sleepers who aren't drug users and I've met drug users who aren't rough sleepers (and they are by far the majority). People fall on hard and difficult times. Some get by, others fall by the wayside. 

 

What is your story Bert? Is your life so perfect? Do you have faults? Was there ever a possibility that circumstances could have led you down a different path?

 

Don't be holier than thou. That's not a good look.

Far from perfect, far from holier than thou. I judge on what I see with my own eyes. Everyone has a choice whether to take drugs or not take drugs.
 

Lived on an estate for 27 years, with many friends or people I knew that have lead themselves down the wrong path, I just chose not to go down that path. 
 

 

[Finnegan]

On 01/04/2024 at 18:38, Chrysalis said:

On the City Centre, its one of the worst City Centre's I have seen.

 

You really can't have travelled much.

 

I see a lot of Bradford since I've moved up here, also had a few visits over the last year to Wigan, Preston, Blackpool, Barnsley, et all. That's without talking about anywhere in Wales.

 

There are many, many worse city & town centres than Leicester. We're not just talking boarded up shops, we're talking considerable urban decay, majorly run down buildings everywhere that are both hugely dated and disgustingly dirty, in a state of considerable disrepair. There's a massive, massive lack of money and investment both publicly and privately going in to maintaining and improving so many spaces all across the country.

 

Leicester's nothing like that, it's just got too big a city centre for it's needs now that the world had shifted and a lot of lower and middle cost retail has moved online. Streets like Church Gate, Charles Street and Gallowtree Gate that used to be fairly thriving shopping streets now have a lot of empty lots or lots taken up by extremely cheap vape, takeaway and tat shops and that's just something that's happening all across the UK to former "high streets" because the retail sector is mostly online these days.

 

The areas of Leicester that are pretty nice, stretching sort of across the "top" of town from High Cross right up to New Walk are all predominantly service-sector. Bars, restaurants, cafes, etc. But Leicester's got a limited need for these because the surrounding catchment area isn't overly densely populated and it's also got "hotspots" dragged out from the main centre, like Melton Road / Golden Mile. 

 

There isn't really an obvious fix for that until the population of Leicester and Leicestershire naturally grows up to a point where there's a big enough demand for service and entertainment sectors to fill those now dead spaces across the city. 

 

Living in Leeds I've been blown away by how much is on offer in the city centre and how thriving the place is but it's easy to lose perspective of the fact that it's catchment area and volume of people coming in to Leeds for shopping and leisure is massive compared to Leicester, its not just Leeds and it's metropolitan area alone, people come from Bradford, from Wakefield, etc, all in to Leeds for their weekends - Leicester will probably never have that.

[westernpark]

36 minutes ago, Bert said:

Far from perfect, far from holier than thou. I judge on what I see with my own eyes. Everyone has a choice whether to take drugs or not take drugs.
 

Lived on an estate for 27 years, with many friends or people I knew that have lead themselves down the wrong path, I just chose not to go down that path. 
 

 

Of course taking drugs is a choice but addiction is a disease. Whether that be gambling, alcohol or drug addiction, it is effectively the product of a mental illness. Leicester has many fantastic services, like Turning Point, Dear Albert, Number 5 that help people attempt to turn their lives around. Unfortunately, there are always people who fall through the cracks of these services, probably those that we are all familiar with in Leicester.

[Babylon]

2 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

My concern actually about M&S actually centres more on how the elder generations used it as an excuse to visit town. I have seen it with Solihull - it closing killed footfall but also hurt a little bit of society alongside it. 

Town used to be filled with the older generation back in then day, BHS, C&A, M&S (they love an acronym), Debenhams, even using the market. Can't imagine them wanting to go there any more, I feel uneasy wandering around the clock tower area, so god knows what they might feel like. 

 

[izzymuzzet]

Have done a fair bit of volunteering with homeless charities over the years.

 

The difference between being homeless and not being homeless in my experience has very little to do with the choices made, but with having a support network when those choices are poor ones or they lead to bad outcomes. I made some pretty poor decisions as a teenager/young adult. The reason I didn't end up being turfed out my home and having to couchsurf with friends is that my parents loved me and I always had a safe space to go back to, no matter what stupid things I'd done.

 

Pretty much every young homeless person I worked with in the hostels I've volunteered in came from homes where parents were either straight up abusive or just didn't care. Sometimes drugs were involved early on but often substance abuse came much later, when they became long-term homeless.

[Paninistickers]

5 hours ago, Babylon said:

Town used to be filled with the older generation back in then day, BHS, C&A, M&S (they love an acronym), Debenhams, even using the market. Can't imagine them wanting to go there any more, I feel uneasy wandering around the clock tower area, so god knows what they might feel like. 

 

Woolies and Littlewoods too!

[FoxesDeb]

It's pretty disheartening to see some of the responses here, some people must lead pretty perfect and sheltered lives if they can't see that some people end up in less than satisfactory places through no choice of their own.

 

Whatever happened to empathy, and there but for the grace of God go I?

 

It's not surprising that UK society is in the place it is if nobody really gives a shit about anyone else 

[leicsmac]

18 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

It's pretty disheartening to see some of the responses here, some people must lead pretty perfect and sheltered lives if they can't see that some people end up in less than satisfactory places through no choice of their own.

 

Whatever happened to empathy, and there but for the grace of God go I?

 

It's not surprising that UK society is in the place it is if nobody really gives a shit about anyone else 

"Rugged individualism", and a different kind of the Lords grace, viz. "Prosperity gospel" and the "Just World" fallacy, as cultural imports, is what happened.

 

And the places where it's more prevalent prove that it leads nowhere good.

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, westernpark said:

Of course taking drugs is a choice but addiction is a disease. Whether that be gambling, alcohol or drug addiction, it is effectively the product of a mental illness. Leicester has many fantastic services, like Turning Point, Dear Albert, Number 5 that help people attempt to turn their lives around. Unfortunately, there are always people who fall through the cracks of these services, probably those that we are all familiar with in Leicester.

 

I agree. And pretty much no-one chooses to become homeless. For many it's circumstantial; mental health issues in particular, broken relationships, abuse, familial emotional or physical neglect, failed businesses leading to the loss of one's home. The reasons are often complex.

For so many, living on the street is so awful that sadly, self medicate with drugs and alcohol to blot out the horrors of their circumstances and that is likely to be their lives until they die.

 

 

 

Edited 10 May by Parafox

[Parafox]

9 hours ago, lcfc278 said:

Aren't you the same guy that tars all of the traveller community because you had a bad experience once? I'm sure you also referred to Irish people in a derogatory way too. Granted you had a bad experience however I'd read your post above here and maybe think on that as well.

 

I am, and let me assure you it was more than one bad experience. 

 

I can also assure you that I have never referred to the Irish people in a derogatory way. 

 

I only commented following personal encounters that I had with travellers (none of which have been pleasant),. In the same way I have commented on those rough sleepers/street dwellers that I have had personal encounters with. I have never generalised.

Edited 10 May by Parafox

[westernpark]

Nice to hear Alex Hylton on radio Leicester bigging up the city and offering a bit of sensible perspective, to the issues that people have with the city centre. I agree with him, pound to pound, we are the best city in the UK. You can listen to his interview about 2hours 14 minutes into the Ady Dayman breakfast show, on bbc sounds.

[boots60]

12 minutes ago, westernpark said:

Nice to hear Alex Hylton on radio Leicester bigging up the city and offering a bit of sensible perspective, to the issues that people have with the city centre. I agree with him, pound to pound, we are the best city in the UK. You can listen to his interview about 2hours 14 minutes into the Ady Dayman breakfast show, on bbc sounds.

is this the same Ady Dayman who refers to Leicester City as "The Tricky Blues"?

[westernpark]

Just now, boots60 said:

is this the same Ady Dayman who refers to Leicester City as "The Tricky Blues"?

Couldn’t care less about Ady Dayman, I don’t think he was presenting despite it being his show.