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Brixton news, rumour and general chat - April 2015

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it;s shit but it's the market, init. the same free market that created the business that people are trying to protect now. it's the game that's shit, not really the players. you cannot really condem people for setting up wanky businesses that wanky people are stupid enough to spunk their dollar on. imo, as long as the social housing and social housing rents are looked after, then the rest is, sadly, fair game. capitalism, innit.

There is no "free market", only the loaded dice of capitalism.
 
also - has anyone asked working class people in brixton what they prefer - old or nu brixton? there seems to be a consensus on here that they hate it. but how do we know that for sure? hhmmm seems like guess work.

Most of the people on my estate are working class, and a lot of them make negative comments about nu-Brixton. Now, that's just my small estate (300-ish dwellings, the majority social-rent) in SW2, but I'm not convinced that we're unique, or even in a minority, as friends and relatives on Clapham Park and others have made similar remarks.
 
elmpp What value? You haven't explained this. Until you are able to define exactly what 'value' Brixton Buzz has then you are talking bollocks.

You just don't get it. We don't want to make money out of it. This would only compromise us as it has others. We don't want some spunking 200k twitter followers. Marketing turns everything into shite.

I personally see the only 'value' that Brixton Buzz has is that it is a platform in which to put across stories that others ignore from a completely independent standpoint. That's quite rare.

My 'work' :rolleyes: benefits from gentrification? Have you actually read some of the stuff I've been writing?

The site and twitter account has a market value
 
I get paid fuck all for what I 'create' [ha!] for Brixton Buzz. I wouldn't want it any other way.

We are a small team at Brixton Buzz. We aren't in this for the money. There is none...

What motivates me personally is the need to report stories that others are so blatantly missing. It sounds really arsey but I genuinely believe that these are important stories that need to be told in Brixton. Others can't be arsed, or they have other commercial restrictions preventing them from reporting these issues.

If editor offered me any payment for Brixton Buzz then it would seem false. I'd become a clock watcher. I'd think just 300 more words and then I've earned my wage for this story. There would be no motivation. The stories would be even more bollocks than usual.

There is so much shit spoken about 'sustainability' with websites. Your reference to the 'value' of twitter feeds is evidence of this. We aren't striving to have the largest number of followers. Twitter is just but one means in which we can use to tell people about our stories.

The only way you can sustain what you are doing is by having a passion to write these stories. The only funding that we need is the cost of hosting. I'll happily write a story first thing before work if it means getting it out there. I'd hate to be in a position where I rely upon begging to readers to fund what I am writing.

And the above is why you're a good "campaigning journalist" (in the professional, practical sense of the words) however much you deny it - you're doing it for the story; for getting a minority perspective out there, not for kudos, and not for money.
This is why "B-Buzz" wins out over "B-Blog" in terms of Brixton stories, IMO. B-Blog always have the bottom line in sight - "should I publish this story that might piss off advertisers/contacts/potential funders?", whereas B-Buzz tends to only care about the story.
 
In no way am I referring to the standard or motivations behind your work. It's noble stuff.

My point once more is that the value of the site/twitter followers/charity raising ability benefits from your work and, in other ways, from gentrification.

WHICH IS FINE. We're all a part of this. I just can't listen to the self-righteousness. Most notably recently is the case of the crowd-sourced wine merchants. A NEW business, displacing no other. Out come the comments about rich friends, inverse snobbery around wine drinking etc etc.

Please link or quote the "inverse snobbery about wine drinking".
Thanks.
 
£7.25 is still better than the minimum wage, which depressingly is still paid by countless bars and eateries in Brixton and elsewhere.

ETA: indeed, one quick search reveals for instance that the Dogstar appears to be offering the grand sum of £6.50 ph in this ad

http://www.gumtree.com/p/bar-jobs/w...-legendary-dogstar-immediate-start/1107640934
Like almost pub chains, Antic - a particularly slippery company, truth be told - pay terrible wages but I will say one thing: if you work at the Dogstar you get a working environment that is far better than most, and being more club based they do share tips. No that I'm defending their pay in any way, which is shite.
 
In no way am I referring to the standard or motivations behind your work. It's noble stuff.

My point once more is that the value of the site/twitter followers/charity raising ability benefits from your work and, in other ways, from gentrification.

WHICH IS FINE. We're all a part of this. I just can't listen to the self-righteousness. Most notably recently is the case of the crowd-sourced wine merchants. A NEW business, displacing no other. Out come the comments about rich friends, inverse snobbery around wine drinking etc etc.
Actually, this outside company absolutely is displacing a local, less well connected/funded business that may have loved to have been able to open up in this exciting "community-based" venture.
 
Most of the people on my estate are working class, and a lot of them make negative comments about nu-Brixton. Now, that's just my small estate (300-ish dwellings, the majority social-rent) in SW2, but I'm not convinced that we're unique, or even in a minority, as friends and relatives on Clapham Park and others have made similar remarks.

I hear the same around my end of Brixton/ LJ. Have tried to explain here negative comments are widespread. Its not just a few posters here and the Ed going on about it.

I get the impression there are two different worlds in Brixton and here. Some posters just do not understand what its like for a lot of people around here.
 
I'm thinking of people in the area with ideas for their own business like the restaurants, delis and bars coming in. There is an appetite for these businesses in Brixton now, like it or not. It's going to grow. Why can't locals be skilled up to provide them?

Wrong.

The appetite is from landlords. Bars and Restaurents ( licensed) can make enough cash flow to pay high rents. Its not accident that landlords want "A3" planning permission.

I was asked by a landlord last week for advice on how to get his retail shop changed to A3 planning classification as he realised he could make a lot more money out of it.

Retail shops do not have the cash flow of bars and restaurants selling alcohol.
 
I hear the same around my end of Brixton/ LJ. Have tried to explain here negative comments are widespread. Its not just a few posters here and the Ed going on about it.

I get the impression there are two different worlds in Brixton and here. Some posters just do not understand what its like for a lot of people around here.

It's worse than that, they do understand; they want more, they want it all because "enough" is a dirty word for them.
 
I was reading the Brixton Society newsletter and there was a piece by an ex Cllr on the changes in Ferndale Ward over the last 20 years. Loss of local employment, house prices unaffordable to the average person and a new thing - a food bank.

There is an increasing and imo dangerous growing divide in London between the haves and the have nots. Its storing up trouble in the future. Politicians are not dealing with it.
 
I get the impression there are two different worlds in Brixton and here. Some posters just do not understand what its like for a lot of people around here.
Absolutely. Some people are astonished why anyone could possibly find anything negative to say about a wonderful new foodie restaurant opening up - perhaps one that charges nearly a £100 for two people - and you'll dismissed as a NIMBY if you dare articulate any concerns about those who can't afford such extravagant luxuries.
 
Absolutely. Some people are astonished why anyone could possibly find anything negative to say about a wonderful new foodie restaurant opening up - perhaps one that charges nearly a £100 for two people - and you'll dismissed as a NIMBY if you dare articulate any concerns about those who can't afford such extravagant luxuries.

Shut up yer nimby git
 
Absolutely. Some people are astonished why anyone could possibly find anything negative to say about a wonderful new foodie restaurant opening up - perhaps one that charges nearly a £100 for two people - and you'll dismissed as a NIMBY if you dare articulate any concerns about those who can't afford such extravagant luxuries.

Yes, because I just spent 100 quid at cafe provencal in the market :facepalm:. Try 16 quid for two people, massive portions, BYO booze and all served up by lovely folk from the Dominican Republic who started the place on a wing and a prayer.

Grow up. You're making yourself look foolish. And that diverse group - oh dear. Busy slurping overpriced drinks in the oh so working class Ritzy while trying to recruit 'graphic designers and media types' to their cause to oust, er graphic designers and media types from their holy environs. Pathetic.

reclaim-brixton-2-1.jpg
 
Yes, because I just spent 100 quid at cafe provencal in the market :facepalm:. Try 16 quid for two people, massive portions, BYO booze and all served up by lovely folk from the Dominican Republic who started the place on a wing and a prayer.
Why on earth do you think it's all about you?

:facepalm:
 
Busy slurping overpriced drinks in the oh so working class Ritzy while trying to recruit 'graphic designers and media types' to their cause to oust, er graphic designers and media types from their holy environs. Pathetic.

reclaim-brixton-2-1.jpg

Actually that's Market House. The owners are quite embedded in Brixton and have been for donkeys years. They own the Satay Bar too. The drinks are not especially overpriced. Pretty much standard pub prices for London.

A 'graphic designer' is not necessarily a high paid proffesional working for some swanky advertising company. Lots of people are graphic designers through sheer hard work, self taught, doing it on the lamb....like not all musicians are millionaire rock stars.

I make a few quid out of graphic design, small change, outside of my day job, don't make me part of some media elite...I do a lot of work for free for bands and clubs and charities...I found something I liked to do, people liked what I did and I used it to get me places I wanted to go....like gigs and clubs and events...it's not a massive idea to grasp to just be good at something and do it for a reason other than just cash.

I'm not sure what a 'media type' is so I can't speak on their behalf....but I'm sure, like most gigs in life, be it actor, artist, musician, there are many many tiers in which people will operate, and being media savvy don't make you a guru any more than busking outside Lidl makes you a rock god. Don't mean you skills are less valuable to someone who needs them for something....erm...other than just making cash!

Why does where people meet matter! (imagine if it was the Ritzy, that foul place where the workers stood up for themselves, fought their corner and achieved fair pay for a days works, and thus would seem apt to launch another movement that sought to defend the rights of people who feel trodden on and pushed down.....oh lord, shock, horror....how much is the coffee!!!) Or how a photograph might spell something other than your own idea about diversity in your own head...(Do you know the race, nationality, sexuality, class, colour, religion of everyone in that photo? Can you tell if that is really a diverse crowd or not just from looking at it? I can't)

I dunno....this whole debate/thread/chain of conversation seems to have lost its way completely and become little more than a really dull game of darts. A bunch of blunt pricks flying around scoring cheap points.
 
Yes, because I just spent 100 quid at cafe provencal in the market :facepalm:. Try 16 quid for two people, massive portions, BYO booze and all served up by lovely folk from the Dominican Republic who started the place on a wing and a prayer.

Grow up. You're making yourself look foolish. And that diverse group - oh dear. Busy slurping overpriced drinks in the oh so working class Ritzy while trying to recruit 'graphic designers and media types' to their cause to oust, er graphic designers and media types from their holy environs. Pathetic.

reclaim-brixton-2-1.jpg

I know you're somewhat egocentric, but this isn't about you and what you just ate, gabi.
 
I've been watching the work going on next door to brixton wholefoods for the last few weeks - they've opened today. Expensive menswear and coffee. Shades of Williamsburg.

The florist at about 65 Atlantic road is about to move to new premises in Brixton - she didn't say where.
 
I passed that shop this morning and had to stop myself walking in because it looked so clean and spacious and inviting. Fortunately I had already had coffee so managed to resist.
 
I hope to cheer everyone up now with some photos from Easter Monday's Kids Fun Stuff event at the St Matthews Tenants Hall. Jointly organized by the Tenants and Residents Association and the Bar and Social Club, the St Matthews kids were treated to easter bonnet decorating, egg painting with some special shiny paints our Treasurer procured (off the internet I might add), an egg hunt in the gardens which lasted all of 3 minutes and reminded me of a plague of locusts, all washed down with hot dogs and chips. The photos are by permission of said Treasurer, Ewa Neal, who also happens to be an excellent freelance photographer.
 
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