A Birmingham and Black Country thread for all things Brummie and Yam-Yam

[baldrick]

Tribune are running a series on Birmingham. The first article is by Lynsey Hanley and is here:

The Second City

To begin a Tribune series on England's Second City, Birmingham's own Lynsey Hanley asks why the city's development was so chaotic – and tended to ignore, diminish and segregate its population.

tribunemag.co.uk

She raises a number of points that have been posted here previously: the poverty, dereliction and neglect of some of the outer districts in the city, the eyesore mess of the city centre, the endless obsession with the ‘big event’, the depressing obsession behind the regular failed consumer led regeneration strategies and the fucking traffic.

But something feels off about the piece as well. It’s a bit jarring and, if I’m being honest, a bit ‘the view of a Brummie who fucked off to London as soon as they could’.....

I really liked it. The transport stuff is bang on, and I think a fair number of Birmingham's issues stem from that. It's the failure to get the basics right. It is a bit skewering, but all over the city in those neglected places she talks about, you really feel the lack of interest from the authorities in ordinary people's lives. Covid has really brought that to the fore I think. I'd have liked something more in depth on one of the aspects in the article, instead of touching briefly on many(!) issues but maybe that's coming.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Tribune are running a series on Birmingham. The first article is by Lynsey Hanley and is here:

The Second City

To begin a Tribune series on England's Second City, Birmingham's own Lynsey Hanley asks why the city's development was so chaotic – and tended to ignore, diminish and segregate its population.

tribunemag.co.uk

She raises a number of points that have been posted here previously: the poverty, dereliction and neglect of some of the outer districts in the city, the eyesore mess of the city centre, the endless obsession with the ‘big event’, the depressing obsession behind the regular failed consumer led regeneration strategies and the fucking traffic.

But something feels off about the piece as well. It’s a bit jarring and, if I’m being honest, a bit ‘the view of a Brummie who fucked off to London as soon as they could’.....

Can’t really argue with that article, she’s hit most of the major points.

So many of the cities problems would be sorted if they fix the transport issues.

 

[purenarcotic]

The transport is so true. I was so horrified when I moved up from London at how woeful it was and still is. I have joked with friends that travelling from one side of the city is seen as a ‘BIG THING’ by locals whereas in London an hour journey to somewhere just isn’t thought about in the same way, but I think a lot of it is because it’s such a fucking faff on public transport that it is a huge thing. My family in London can’t believe how many taxis we get but they don’t get that taxis are massively cheaper and easier than navigating buses that don’t turn up and train stations in the arse end of nowhere.

E2a - that reads like we taxi everywhere, we don’t, but for bigger journeys we do because half the day is taken up otherwise.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The transport is so true. I was so horrified when I moved up from London at how woeful it was and still is. I have joked with friends that travelling from one side of the city is seen as a ‘BIG THING’ by locals whereas in London an hour journey to somewhere just isn’t thought about in the same way, but I think a lot of it is because it’s such a fucking faff on public transport that it is a huge thing. My family in London can’t believe how many taxis we get but they don’t get that taxis are massively cheaper and easier than navigating buses that don’t turn up and train stations in the arse end of nowhere.

E2a - that reads like we taxi everywhere, we don’t, but for bigger journeys we do because half the day is taken up otherwise.

The cross city line is a lifesaver for me, to the point where I don’t think I’d ever live anywhere in Brum that wasn’t on its route.

 

[BCBlues]

The article is ok but I feel it would need a lot more than three in total to get to grips with whats going on or not going on.
Public transport is a big failure. It's not nice getting buses round here anymore, it's as bad as London in some parts where theres a scrum to get on, no seats and a bus that stinks like KFCs bin yet they can find 12 members of staff to pull one kid from a bus as his pass is a few days out of date.She forgot to mention that kids under 16 travel for free in London or is that not the case anymore?

 

[purenarcotic]

The cross city line is a lifesaver for me, to the point where I don’t think I’d ever live anywhere in Brum that wasn’t on its route.

There is no train station local to me, Bounville would be the closest I guess, or Five Ways, but that’s two buses or a taxi ride away. So we have to get a bus into town to either get other buses or trains to come back on ourselves. Absurd.

 

[purenarcotic]

The article is ok but I feel it would need a lot more than three in total to get to grips with whats going on or not going on.
Public transport is a big failure. It's not nice getting buses round here anymore, it's as bad as London in some parts where theres a scrum to get on, no seats and a bus that stinks like KFCs bin yet they can find 12 members of staff to pull one kid from a bus as his pass is a few days out of date.She forgot to mention that kids under 16 travel for free in London or is that not the case anymore?

I think it’s still the case. On buses at any rate and discounted on trains etc.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

There is no train station local to me, Bounville would be the closest I guess, or Five Ways, but that’s two buses or a taxi ride away. So we have to get a bus into town to either get other buses or trains to come back on ourselves. Absurd.

Are you going to be anywhere near the new stations on the camp hill line when (if!) they finally reopen?

 

[purenarcotic]

Are you going to be anywhere near the new stations on the camp hill line when (if!) they finally reopen?

Yes. Obviously that will make a difference but that does nothing for me now.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Yes. Obviously that will make a difference but that does nothing for me now.

They’re so desperately needed. One of the main reasons I never bother going to Kings Heath/Moseley is the sheer misery of getting there.

 

[baldrick]

The cross city line is a lifesaver for me, to the point where I don’t think I’d ever live anywhere in Brum that wasn’t on its route.

I have the tram, thank God. I just can't deal with buses any more. Stinky, take forever in traffic and expensive for what you get.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

They’re so desperately needed. One of the main reasons I never bother going to Kings Heath/Moseley is the sheer misery of getting there.

Its great at the moment. The 50 flies in and out of town. Normally, it’s a soul destroying experience though it has to be said. The funding is now in place for the train line, so I’m looking forward to the twice hourly, two carriage service starting in about a decade...

 

[miss direct]

Ugh, the 50. I hated that bus.

 

[BCBlues]

Ugh, the 50. I hated that bus.

And the 35.

 

[discokermit]

from that article,

"The Manchester-based Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has recommended the city base its future economy around the strengths of its ‘anchor institutions’—its universities, its hospitals, its further education institutions and its existing city council—from which to build local wealth."

so, more jobs mopping and cooking and being security guards for the working class. this is how to build local wealth. dont want to work as a cleaner or security guard in a university? fuck you. cooks maids and footmen. whenever middle class people envision a future for the working class its always a future where they are being waited on by them.

 

[purenarcotic]

Its great at the moment. The 50 flies in and out of town. Normally, it’s a soul destroying experience though it has to be said. The funding is now in place for the train line, so I’m looking forward to the twice hourly, two carriage service starting in about a decade...

Hah innit. I have been trying to walk into work instead of getting the bus in to limit social contact but I agree the 50 is now so much quicker. Although this lockdown has been much busier so there is traffic during rush hour.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Hah innit. I have been trying to walk into work instead of getting the bus in to limit social contact but I agree the 50 is now so much quicker. Although this lockdown has been much busier so there is traffic during rush hour.

I normally cycle in, but during the cold weather I jumped the buzz. Normally it takes 30-50 minutes from Kings Heath, it was doing it in 10-15. That was in December/January’s it might be back to being abysmal now.

I always laugh at the attempts to market Moseley/KH to outsiders. What other city required you to sit on a bus for near an hour to travel 2 miles to its ‘hipster’ district??!!

 

[discokermit]

i went to a party in moseley once and it was chock full of wankers. tiny flat in a nice big posh house. me and my mate ended up outside on the steps chatting to two women we knew, none of us could stand it inside.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

i went to a party in moseley once and it was chock full of wankers. tiny flat in a nice big posh house. me and my mate ended up outside on the steps chatting to two women we knew, none of us could stand it inside.

I avoid Moseley like the plague, except when I fancy a curry from Kababish. It died for me when the Jug of Ale went.

The ‘farmers market’ is particularly grating. The last time we went some French fella tried to charge my Mrs £18 for a sliver of cheese.

To be fair though discokermit everywhere is full of posh wankers when compared to Bilston....

 

[Smokeandsteam]

And the 35.

Is there a filthier and grimier bus service in Britain than the 35? In addition to the WMT policy of never, ever, cleaning the buzzes that make up the 35 fleet, the stench of weed is normally overpowering. I got stoned once sat downstairs going from town to Kings Heath. Christ knows what it was like in the hazy fog of the upstairs..

 

[Smokeandsteam]

from that article,

"The Manchester-based Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has recommended the city base its future economy around the strengths of its ‘anchor institutions’—its universities, its hospitals, its further education institutions and its existing city council—from which to build local wealth."

so, more jobs mopping and cooking and being security guards for the working class. this is how to build local wealth. dont want to work as a cleaner or security guard in a university? fuck you. cooks maids and footmen. whenever middle class people envision a future for the working class its always a future where they are being waited on by them.

See this was one of the things in the article that jarred with me. The assumption that the knowledge based economy will save Birmingham and that it just hasn’t been done right by the dense Brummies.

If you look at comparable post-industrial cities - who were disproportionately reliant on metal work (like say Pittsburgh) - the knowledge economy has meant lots of cheap space for ‘creatives’ with the urban poor being moved out of the way into abandoned zones on the outskirts. The poor become the outsiders in their own cities only coming back in to do the jobs of the future: low paid, precarious ones servicing the leisure, nighttime and work economies that the the urban middle class demand.

 

[BCBlues]

It still pisses me off that the Irish Centre was moved to Kings Heath, they may have well as moved it to Kings Cross (Platform 9¾).

 

[discokermit]

gary powndland visits the black country museum,

 

[Smokeandsteam]

It still pisses me off that the Irish Centre was moved to Kings Heath, they may have well as moved it to Kings Cross (Platform 9¾).

Been dying in Digbeth for a while though. I mean m, when was the last time you went? I stopped going after they stopped the gigs, bar the odd St. Patrick’s Day

 

[BCBlues]

Been dying in Digbeth for a while though. I mean m, when was the last time you went? I stopped going after they stopped the gigs, bar the odd St. Patrick’s Day

I used it quite a bit since I moved back up here , 6/7 years ago. They used to have a Tamla Night which was good and there was the odd good Reggae night on in the big room at the back.We all met up in there for St Pat's 2019, its last one, and I used to nip in Minstrel Music for a browse.
It wasn't quite the same I agree as the halcyon days with the Old and New Bulls Heads over the road and the Barrel Organ/Dubliner.
Digbeth was a great place to skip work on a Monday for a pub crawl.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

It’s not often the Mail run an article worth discussion but this is one.

The peripheral zones of Birmingham are witness to this more and more often and the statement from the council neatly side steps its role in directly creating ‘containment areas’.

I’m not saying that there are any easy solutions to the multiplicity of issues here. There is a rapidly growing issue with people literally falling out of ‘the safety net’ and more people with drug and mental health problems that all of us who live here see every day.

But, the council should be held to account for the ‘containment strategy’ it has created and forced into an open and honest discussion with residents about how the problem can be resolved. In this context the council should agree an immediate end to the creation of any more HMOs in this district and a planned reduction in the number over the next 12 months. A higher police presence and a multi agency social service team should be set up and in the area 24/7. It’s the least the residents living there deserve. There is a similar area developing by us (although not on the scale of Stockland Green) and the attendant problems - acquisitive crime, more dealing and more anti social behaviour - are becoming more visible.

'We are in a war zone' - how street has become a hostels ghetto

A hostel every ten metres, addicts queuing up for their fix, rubbish piled high - now residents of Kings Road in Stockland Green say enough is enough

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[blossie33]

I went to Marsh Hill Girls school in Stockland Green (many years ago!) so I know the area - so very sorry for these families I don't really know what to say except I wouldn't be happy about it either.
I live in London now and of course there are the same sort of problems here in some places.

 

[cybershot]

A deserted walk from the bullring to grand central after picking up a click and collect Mother’s Day present from lush. This was yesterday (a Friday) at lunch time!

 

[blossie33]

Gosh, so quiet!
Love the photo of the reflection of the Odeon and Rotunda

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

It’s not often the Mail run an article worth discussion but this is one.

The peripheral zones of Birmingham are witness to this more and more often and the statement from the council neatly side steps its role in directly creating ‘containment areas’.

I’m not saying that there are any easy solutions to the multiplicity of issues here. There is a rapidly growing issue with people literally falling out of ‘the safety net’ and more people with drug and mental health problems that all of us who live here see every day.

But, the council should be held to account for the ‘containment strategy’ it has created and forced into an open and honest discussion with residents about how the problem can be resolved. In this context the council should agree an immediate end to the creation of any more HMOs in this district and a planned reduction in the number over the next 12 months. A higher police presence and a multi agency social service team should be set up and in the area 24/7. It’s the least the residents living there deserve. There is a similar area developing by us (although not on the scale of Stockland Green) and the attendant problems - acquisitive crime, more dealing and more anti social behaviour - are becoming more visible.

'We are in a war zone' - how street has become a hostels ghetto

A hostel every ten metres, addicts queuing up for their fix, rubbish piled high - now residents of Kings Road in Stockland Green say enough is enough

www.birminghammail.co.uk

That’s about 5 mins walk from where I live.