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Brixton news, rumour and general chat - January 2015

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el-ahrairah said:
people with the power and wealth to do so tend to believe that they only have the same power as everyone else. it's very sad, but it leads to attitudes like elmpps, were they consider that having a class analysis, however crude, to be an actual mortal sin.
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I have been getting through Danny Dorling book Injustice

Is a a social scientist and geographer. One of the things he looks at is how inequality ( which he says is injustice) gets normalised.

I was thinking of this row here about calling people "yuppies" and Dorlings book this evening

Went to an office in the City this evening with an urgent letter. As it was getting late I went into main reception and for some reason the security guard let me in to go up the lifts to the floor the company was on. Normally at these big new swanky development you have to go into the underground labyrinth that all these big office developments have.

So I went through the massive glass ground floor reception area to the bank of express lifts. Went up to the office with glass to floor windows with great views. The two receptionists looked like models.

Said to the receptionist it was first time been up here as normally go into the underground loading bay. ( the home of post rooms, kitchen staff and delivery men with two grotty goods lifts.)

The both pulled faces at the thought of having to go to loading bay.:D

On the way out I got the third degree from the head security guard ( these big offices have loads of them) wanting to know why I was let in. ( As I was clearly an interloper who sneaked in where its not my place to be):rolleyes:

What I mean to say is that for lots of people in there working lives they are treated in a way that denigrates them. But its normalised as that just how things are. No one really looks at it that closely. The world of the city makes sure that the lower orders are seen as little as possible. But if anyone makes a comment referring to "yuppies" that’s out of order here.

I myself do not use word yuppie as it not my style here. Well most of the time. Rather do sober analysis.

edited to add. Just reminded myself of Stephan Frears excellent film "Dirty Pretty Things"

At one point the Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe the illegal immigrant working in London says that "We are the people who you do not see" of his job in hotel.
 
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SarfLondoner said:
I would rather have "todays" Brixton than old Brixton where the night time (and day) economy was a crack and heroin market, empty shops and crack houses every 10 feet, No go areas,estates where the postman had a police escort, Junkies piping crack and banging up heroin in stairwells and doorways,Muggings at knifepoint, prostitution,arguments settled with a shoot out. Dealers jumping into your car whist sat in the coldharbour lane traffic. I like a bit of nostalgia but fuck that.
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My niece and sister-out-law lived on Stockwell park estate circa 1985. Taxis refused to go into the estate. Organised crime sold keys to flats. The garages at street level were open and scary to walk by - it didn't feel good. Maybe it was it the folly of youth, but it felt normal - I worried for my young niece but never for ourselves. Living up north before they caught the Yorkshire ripper seemed much more dangerous.

I lived off the Camberwell end of Coldharbour lane in the early nineties - and used to regularly walk home from the tube without incident. The dealers near the Atlantic would all call out, but never bothered me. When a teenage girl was shot some were near the Albert - caught in the cross fire I thought, hell these idiots can't even aim - so I did re think my route home. As I often was coming home very late and often liked to go to the sort of clubs where clothes were optional (I had a nice big coat) - so I got on first name terms with many cab drivers.

In the mid nineties I could walk though Brixton without problem, but I looked quite femme, where as my dykey looking grrl and most of the gay men I knew always got aggro/ abuse. There was alot of queer bashing. I always felt safe in the Albert back then.

Yes there was a shooting at the end of my street, next door were dealing somthing, I knew there were crack dens near by, and street prostitution a few streets away - These things can happen anywhere. But on the whole I always found Brixton people to be ok. I heard of knifepoint muggings on the front line - but when I had an accident on Railton road, I had an old lady holding my hand praying for me, a man calling an ambulance and someone doing first aid, people were so kind. A complete stranger tooK my shopping and brought it to my home the next day.

Streets everywhere have always been dangerous places for women - I never felt Brixton was any worse than any where else.
 
ricbake said:
http://lambeth.gov.uk/elections-and-council/finance-and-payments/financial-information-guide

Lambeth paid £1,345,335.91 to 26 providers of Bed and breakfast during the month of December 2014
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We were offered a room in b & b for £280 a week in 2013 - so that means that that money serves 1200 rooms over the month. It would be better to support people finding good landlords who will keep rent rises to a minimum and give some security. (I'm not sure this room cost covers council tax)

Although I would rather see it spent on increasing social housing.

ETA - we moved to a two bed on the outskirts of West Norwood for £229 a week plus £61 in bills. That's £290 - that's a whole extra 4 rooms for nearly the same price.
 
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Yeah, tough on the poor, tough on the causes of poor. Never mind that the posh have misappropriated every value the working class ever held.

We can only make the streets safe by having more posh, get the posh on the council estates, get rid of the council estates; let's just have hollowed out government in fancy new buildings serving the posh while the poor sit indoors, self disconnecting waiting for eviction.

The biggest transfer of wealth in history, not content with making us slaves in their service economy, not content with stealing our homes, they want our very identity. The posh usurpers consider themselves as the new working class and the poor as nothing more than barbarians.
 
Gramsci said:
Went to an office in the City this evening with an urgent letter. As it was getting late I went into main reception and for some reason the security guard let me in to go up the lifts to the floor the company was on. Normally at these big new swanky development you have to go into the underground labyrinth that all these big office developments have.

So I went through the massive glass ground floor reception area to the bank of express lifts. Went up to the office with glass to floor windows with great views. The two receptionists looked like models.

Said to the receptionist it was first time been up here as normally go into the underground loading bay. ( the home of post rooms, kitchen staff and delivery men with two grotty goods lifts.)

The both pulled faces at the thought of having to go to loading bay.:D

On the way out I got the third degree from the head security guard ( these big offices have loads of them) wanting to know why I was let in. ( As I was clearly an interloper who sneaked in where its not my place to be):rolleyes:

What I mean to say is that for lots of people in there working lives they are treated in a way that denigrates them. But its normalised as that just how things are. No one really looks at it that closely. The world of the city makes sure that the lower orders are seen as little as possible. But if anyone makes a comment referring to "yuppies" that’s out of order here.

At one point the Chiwetel Ejiofor as Okwe the illegal immigrant working in London says that "We are the people who you do not see" of his job in hotel.
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Your point about the normalization of injustice and people being denigrated in their working life is totally correct Gramsci. However this kind of complaint above is contrived and it makes real the injustice more normal in its own way, creating noise around the point by complaining about nothing.

The security guard should not have left you in there in the first place, getting the third degree on the way out is correct because you could have been anybody. That's just security doing their job, not a comment on you not being out of your place.

It's irrelevant how the receptionists and office looked - did they really both pull faces at the thought of having to go to loading bay?

Loading bays and service areas by their nature they have to be underground and labyrinthine. That's just practical. And what do you expect for the lift in a loading bay that takes in pallets and all manner of heavy goods? Carpets and low level lighting? I've worked in these places. You don't give a fuck if it's grotty, you don't want to be seen, you want things to work quickly and reliably and people to stay out of your way so you can do your job.

I also worked in New York on building sites in the early 90's. I was paid $80 a day as a laborer and the Mexicans I worked with got $40-$50. Because they were Mexican. Now that's real denigration and much worse. I have many more stories like it from my working career. Your story above just doesn't fit in.
 
Anyone know whats been going on on Electric Avenue for the past week or so? Steady stream of sewage trucks pumping from out the back of one of the butchers. Bottom half of the Market has been closed for the last few days.
 
friendofdorothy said:
My niece and sister-out-law lived on Stockwell park estate circa 1985. Taxis refused to go into the estate. Organised crime sold keys to flats. The garages at street level were open and scary to walk by - it didn't feel good. Maybe it was it the folly of youth, but it felt normal - I worried for my young niece but never for ourselves. Living up north before they caught the Yorkshire ripper seemed much more dangerous.

I lived off the Camberwell end of Coldharbour lane in the early nineties - and used to regularly walk home from the tube without incident. The dealers near the Atlantic would all call out, but never bothered me. When a teenage girl was shot some were near the Albert - caught in the cross fire I thought, hell these idiots can't even aim - so I did re think my route home. As I often was coming home very late and often liked to go to the sort of clubs where clothes were optional (I had a nice big coat) - so I got on first name terms with many cab drivers.

In the mid nineties I could walk though Brixton without problem, but I looked quite femme, where as my dykey looking grrl and most of the gay men I knew always got aggro/ abuse. There was alot of queer bashing. I always felt safe in the Albert back then.

Yes there was a shooting at the end of my street, next door were dealing somthing, I knew there were crack dens near by, and street prostitution a few streets away - These things can happen anywhere. But on the whole I always found Brixton people to be ok. I heard of knifepoint muggings on the front line - but when I had an accident on Railton road, I had an old lady holding my hand praying for me, a man calling an ambulance and someone doing first aid, people were so kind. A complete stranger tooK my shopping and brought it to my home the next day.

Streets everywhere have always been dangerous places for women - I never felt Brixton was any worse than any where else.
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So apart from the shootings,muggings and stabbings it was fine.
 
teuchter said:
Gentrifiers tend not to recognise themselves as such.
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How would a gentrifier recognise themselves? I don't know whether I'm a gentrifier or not. I've lived in Brixton for 15 years, I bought a squat and renovated it while I lived in it over a period of 8 years. In fact, I've moved home twice and both times renovated semi-derelict houses. I've used whatever facilities in Brixton have been available to me at times when I've needed them... the library, the Rec, the parks, the Ritzy, most of the supermarkets, I used to shop mainly down Electric avenue but rely more on supermarket delivery now that I have kids and much less time. I now get coffee most days in Granville Arcade, treat myself to expensive cake sometimes.

As Brixton has changed, my life has changed and my use of the facilities has changed. But does that make me a gentrifier?
 
friendofdorothy said:
My niece and sister-out-law lived on Stockwell park estate circa 1985. Taxis refused to go into the estate. Organised crime sold keys to flats. The garages at street level were open and scary to walk by - it didn't feel good. Maybe it was it the folly of youth, but it felt normal - I worried for my young niece but never for ourselves. Living up north before they caught the Yorkshire ripper seemed much more dangerous.

I lived off the Camberwell end of Coldharbour lane in the early nineties - and used to regularly walk home from the tube without incident. The dealers near the Atlantic would all call out, but never bothered me. When a teenage girl was shot some were near the Albert - caught in the cross fire I thought, hell these idiots can't even aim - so I did re think my route home. As I often was coming home very late and often liked to go to the sort of clubs where clothes were optional (I had a nice big coat) - so I got on first name terms with many cab drivers.

In the mid nineties I could walk though Brixton without problem, but I looked quite femme, where as my dykey looking grrl and most of the gay men I knew always got aggro/ abuse. There was alot of queer bashing. I always felt safe in the Albert back then.

Yes there was a shooting at the end of my street, next door were dealing somthing, I knew there were crack dens near by, and street prostitution a few streets away - These things can happen anywhere. But on the whole I always found Brixton people to be ok. I heard of knifepoint muggings on the front line - but when I had an accident on Railton road, I had an old lady holding my hand praying for me, a man calling an ambulance and someone doing first aid, people were so kind. A complete stranger tooK my shopping and brought it to my home the next day.

Streets everywhere have always been dangerous places for women - I never felt Brixton was any worse than any where else.
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One thing I will say is that people are still people and generally kind- when I was mugged walking home from the station - about 2 and a half years ago now- three cars stopped to see if I was ok, a total stranger hugged me while I cried, another total stranger called the police because my hands were shaking too much to use the phone, yet another gave up an hour of his evening to drive around with the police and see if he could identify the guys that did it- they didn't care that my suit and laptop marked me as 'a gentrifier', they just responded to another human in distress. That hasn't, IME, changed about Brixton, or many other places in the world. I've experienced random acts of kindness from all sorts of people in all sorts of situations over the years, from rich people and poor people and any situation in between. Some of the people on here vilified for being capitalist parasites have been very kind to me; some of those who address the middle classes with barely disguised hatred have likewise helped me and supported me at various times.

That's my discomfort with class based analysis- not that I don't understand and recognise there is structural inequality. It reduces people to a role, set in opposition to another role. Whereas my experience is that people are people, and we are better placed to work together to make the world a better place rather than spitting bile at people because they are 'middle class' 'working class' 'posh' or 'poor'

(Christ I sound like a hippy, apologies)
 
passivejoe said:
How would a gentrifier recognise themselves? I don't know whether I'm a gentrifier or not. I've lived in Brixton for 15 years, I bought a squat and renovated it while I lived in it over a period of 8 years. In fact, I've moved home twice and both times renovated semi-derelict houses. I've used whatever facilities in Brixton have been available to me at times when I've needed them... the library, the Rec, the parks, the Ritzy, most of the supermarkets, I used to shop mainly down Electric avenue but rely more on supermarket delivery now that I have kids and much less time. I now get coffee most days in Granville Arcade, treat myself to expensive cake sometimes.

As Brixton has changed, my life has changed and my use of the facilities has changed. But does that make me a gentrifier?
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Probably...it's hard to say for certain. But that's the point really, it's fairly straightforward to identify that a process of gentrification is taking place, more difficult to identify whether or not specific individuals are "gentrifiers". Easier just to lump them together in some kind of group like poshos or yuppies or whatever - preferably a group that you reckon doesn't include yourself, of course.
 
Little photo feature:
precarious-garage-raeburn-street-sw2-1.jpg


The precarious garage of Raeburn Street, Brixton
 
teuchter said:
Probably...it's hard to say for certain. But that's the point really, it's fairly straightforward to identify that a process of gentrification is taking place, more difficult to identify whether or not specific individuals are "gentrifiers". Easier just to lump them together in some kind of group like poshos or yuppies or whatever - preferably a group that you reckon doesn't include yourself, of course.
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Ah, you mean like lumping them all together to make a statement like, 'Gentrifiers tend not to recognise themselves as such'?
 
editor said:
I don't think anyone is claiming things couldn't be grim at times, but it was nowhere near as bad as some claim.
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I think it depends where you were living and your situation. There is a huge difference to what is going on in the street outside my parents in the late 70s, early 80s to how it is now. But we had it easier than those living in the rough estates.
 
boohoo said:
I think it depends where you were living and your situation. There is a huge difference to what is going on in the street outside my parents in the late 70s, early 80s to how it is now. But we had it easier than those living in the rough estates.
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Of course it will be different for different people, but I can only say that of course it was grim at times, but it was never the kind of lawless hellhole described by some - and I was living in (ahem) 'London's most dangerous street' in what was seen as one of the roughest estates in Lambeth. I never want those times to come back again of course, but I refuse to accept the oft peddled notion that Brixton is uniformly 'better' now. We've gained and lost a lot.
 
editor said:
I don't think anyone is claiming things couldn't be grim at times, but it was nowhere near as bad as some claim.
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It was grim full stop from the late eighties and all the way through the nineties. How bad is bad? Shootings,stabbings,prostitution,kidnapping,robbery, Can you get any worse than that? Ask an ex resident of Clifton mansions what is was like in there courtyard at 4 am in the morning.
 
SarfLondoner said:
It was grim full stop from the late eighties and all the way through the nineties. How bad is bad? Shootings,stabbings,prostitution,kidnapping,robbery, Can you get any worse than that? Ask an ex resident of Clifton mansions what is was like in there courtyard at 4 am in the morning.
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We'll have to agree to disagree. I'm afraid. And what percentage of people living in Brixton do you think were shot, stabbed or kidnapped? These things happened but they were hardly the everyday norm for the vast majority of residents.
 
teuchter said:
Probably...it's hard to say for certain. But that's the point really, it's fairly straightforward to identify that a process of gentrification is taking place, more difficult to identify whether or not specific individuals are "gentrifiers". Easier just to lump them together in some kind of group like poshos or yuppies or whatever - preferably a group that you reckon doesn't include yourself, of course.
Click to expand...

I hope that I'm a gentrifier. I want to make the block that I live in more beautiful, more desirable, better to live in. I'd like the people who live here to feel like it's not the sort of place where you write something on the wall of the lift. I'd also like that process to go on everywhere in Brixton and Streatham.

I've lived around here for 30 years, from a squat in Clapham North to a big house near Herne Hill and lots of other places in-between. The only improvement I've ever seen in any area has been driven by people who've moved in from outside. The locals and the council are never able or willing to make things better.
 
It was an open drugs market where the dealers had little or no regard for the law,They openly dealt drugs to anyone that wanted them.From the Ritzy to Dogstar 24/7 they controlled that patch often laughing at the old bill as they drove by.It went on for over a decade and if that's not lawlessness i don't know what is.
 
editor I do see an improvement. Much of the social housing has improved so that conditions aren't as bad. The Stockwell Park Estate was hugely improved as a place to live by the hard work of some of the residences. There are still problems that need to be address and the new issues of people being pushed out of the area, communities broken up and the removal of businesses serving local needs to be replaced with spaces which are serving a few.

My childhood in Brixton and Stockwell saw violent crime after dark, dereliction and poverty - it doesn't mean that these things don't exist now but I do believe it isn't as bad as it was.
 
editor said:
We'll have to agree to disagree. I'm afraid. And what percentage of people living in Brixton do you think were shot, stabbed or kidnapped? These things happened but they were hardly the everyday norm for the vast majority of residents.
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You are in a dream world, Now you are asking for stats:facepalm:.Who said the people shot or stabbed lived in Brixton? Brixton was a known open drugs market where people from all around London travelled to for there gear. Did it have to happen everyday for it to be an issue? Do you deny that there wasn't a million pound plus drugs trade in operation?
 
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