Brixton news, rumour and general chat - January 2015

[SarfLondoner]

Don't think SarfLondoner is deluded or suffers from delicate sensibilities.
There where some 'no go' areas for cabs, deliveries, police. I don't think he did imply it was non stop intense

Thanks, I was describing a small part of Brixton but you know what it's like on here.Like you and editor have stated it was great place to be with lots of good things and people,i do miss a lot of those things but that is all.Part of the reason Brixton and other areas are the way they are now, is because of the way they were back then.

 

[boohoo]

I walked around the stockwell park with my niece (35yr old) last summer to look at her childhood haunts. The design of that estate was horrible - designed for men in cars. Some bits of the estate are unrecognisable from back then - it looks so much better now. Looked like they had converted some garages into homes, improved paths, entrances, access, etc.

I hate the demolishion of council homes to make way for 'the junction' private expensive flats.

Lots has changed there. As a kid we would go to the doctors there or walk through to go to Brixton or occasionally use the community centre. The doctors and community centre was rebuilt/moved years ago.
The garages were always dark and dingy and in the late 1980s there was a gang rape of two teens in the garages.

It has improved but I hate seeing all the new builds, such as those along Robsart street and old flats being removed to be replaced by private flats.

 

[SarfLondoner]

Step. Away. From the keyboard.

I knew you'd crack

It was just a flying visit Maate, A guest appearance if you like. Ta ta.

 

[ash]

I walked around the stockwell park with my niece (35yr old) last summer to look at her childhood haunts. The design of that estate was horrible - designed for men in cars. Some bits of the estate are unrecognisable from back then - it looks so much better now. Looked like they had converted some garages into homes, improved paths, entrances, access, etc.

I hate the demolishion of council homes to make way for 'the junction' private expensive flats.

I was mugged on the SPE in 1999 on the way to the day center in the middle of it. I walk through it often now to take my daughter to school or to visit her friends who live there and it does feel a lot safer in my opinion,

 

[el-ahrairah]

i've been thinking about this thread and the argument. the person who sarcastically asked if they were working class enough to live here actually had it correct in a way. but rather than an internet jury of lefties deciding who gets to live in brixton, the jury is capital, and thus the british class system.

what do you need to be allowed to live in brixton these days?

if you grew up here, your family, your friends, your geographical identity is here, does that allow you to live in brixton?

if you moved here, found a welcoming community that you contributed to and which helped to make brixton a welcoming, desirable destination, does that allow you to live here?

the supporters of gentrification, or those who benefit from it, will tell you that it neither of those things gain you citizenship, that the only qualification is your ability to spend - as if that's democratic and fair, despite your parents' class being more important to your earning ability than any other factor. and tough luck, that's life, if you complain you must be an inverse snob, a racist, self-righteous, or are laying down some sort of law about who gets to live in brixton - as if that isn't happening anyway. and if you think that's right, well, like i said to elmpp. your morals are all twisty.


and that, i guess, is the last i have to say on that for now.

 

[editor]

You are in a dream world

And I'll leave it at that, thanks.

 

[editor]

I wasnt responding to you at all. I witnessed burnt out cars too.

And burnt out scooters! We used to get a lot them around here.

 

[ash]

I was mugged on the SPE in 1999 on the way to the day center in the middle of it. I walk through it often now to take my daughter to school or to visit friends who live there and it does feel a lot safer in my opinion,

I've just remembered that the police (attending and driving round with me looking for the 'perp') we're very surprised and said so when I described him as white. Apparently they never dealt with white muggers
A lovely West Indian man called and returned my bag minus purse that he found on his doorstep!!

 

[editor]

Photos from the March For Homes - more later. Well done to everyone who came out on such a horrible day to support such an important cause.

 

[editor]

Upcoming:
New exhibition: People, Places, Trains, Walls, Faces: 30 Years of Documenting Graffiti and Street Art

 

[editor]

I've posted up a big photo feature of the today's March for Homes here: http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/01/...arch-for-homes-in-south-london-photo-feature/

 

[Mr Retro]

There are certainly no go areas now, Granville Arcade for one. We never needed security guards back in the day.

Why is Granville Arcade a no go area? You don't half talk a pile of shit without backing any of it up with things such as facts.

 

[leanderman]

i've been thinking about this thread and the argument. the person who sarcastically asked if they were working class enough to live here actually had it correct in a way. but rather than an internet jury of lefties deciding who gets to live in brixton, the jury is capital, and thus the british class system.

what do you need to be allowed to live in brixton these days?

if you grew up here, your family, your friends, your geographical identity is here, does that allow you to live in brixton?

if you moved here, found a welcoming community that you contributed to and which helped to make brixton a welcoming, desirable destination, does that allow you to live here?

the supporters of gentrification, or those who benefit from it, will tell you that it neither of those things gain you citizenship, that the only qualification is your ability to spend - as if that's democratic and fair, despite your parents' class being more important to your earning ability than any other factor. and tough luck, that's life, if you complain you must be an inverse snob, a racist, self-righteous, or are laying down some sort of law about who gets to live in brixton - as if that isn't happening anyway. and if you think that's right, well, like i said to elmpp. your morals are all twisty.


and that, i guess, is the last i have to say on that for now.

Still, plenty of people without capital live in this street. And all across Brixton.

 

[Gramsci]

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?

"Contrived" ?

So I am making "real" injustice more normal? I think not.

Well I got a lot of likes for that post.

You just didn’t get it. If you do not get it don’t insult me by saying I am complaining about nothing.

I know what I am talking about.

 

[Gramsci]

Good to see Cressingham Gardens at demo yesterday:

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

Cressingham Gardens gets a mention in this article in The Guardian.
Thousands gather in London to protest against lack of affordable housing

http://gu.com/p/45ckp

 

[Nanker Phelge]

the supporters of gentrification, or those who benefit from it, will tell you that it neither of those things gain you citizenship, that the only qualification is your ability to spend - as if that's democratic and fair, despite your parents' class being more important to your earning ability than any other factor. and tough luck, that's life, if you complain you must be an inverse snob, a racist, self-righteous, or are laying down some sort of law about who gets to live in brixton - as if that isn't happening anyway. and if you think that's right, well, like i said to elmpp. your morals are all twisty.


and that, i guess, is the last i have to say on that for now.

I think real citizenship come with time and effort. Money won't buy you a place among people who care and matter.

I am seeing in Tulse Hill that the 'new people' with 'money' are struggling to be a part of things. They are the ones all gathering together and forming committees and building faux communities, but they are lost in connecting to any 'locals' and so go about an odd kind of social cleansing. They are not excluding the 'locals' and the long term residents of the area, they just build new things for themselves that 'those people' can not afford or do not know how to be a part of. The once marginalised middle classes of Tulse Hill, who ran from the Station to their homes every night, are now propping up the refurbed bars and eating from the fancy plates of wood, while the people who kept the area, while no one cared, get shoved towards the cheap seat, the next borough, the shit pub up the road that has yet to be taken over, turned over, re-cushioned for the cosy and needy nuclear families that are turning real long term, evolved, communities into fractured and disparate hives.

The gentrifiers don't really feel part of anything, they are just in transition, awaiting the next place or point in their lives, they don't connect fully with an area of make it a part of their future. They don't commit.

That lack of commitment is the thing that angers me the most. While they take and take and throw a few pennies back, they leave the origins of an area in tatters, and rarely do those origins (people, traditions, places etcs) ever return or recover from having been bent and shaped to fit the needs of a group of people who were only ever motivated by being in the 'right place' while it was up an coming, without ever really being interested in any positive change and progress in that area unless it's connected to a value that benefits them directly (economically, socially, reputationally etc.)

It's the fake bollocks of pretending to be a part of an area that stinks.

 

[elmpp]

And the previous settlers did so based on what criteria? Affordabily (often squatting) socially and word of mouth. Same thing

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Not really.

I came Brixton because the first day I ever visited it felt like a place I could be a part of. I never tried to bend it to suit me. I felt suited to it.

I never tried to make it something for me, I came to be a part of what was already here.

The only thing I wanted to see improved was the state of the police cells at Brixton nick. They were a bit shit, but they did refurb them and it was possible to get a half decent kip eventually...

 

[Mr Retro]

"Contrived" ?

So I am making "real" injustice more normal? I think not.

Well I got a lot of likes for that post.

You just didn’t get it. If you do not get it don’t insult me by saying I am complaining about nothing.

I know what I am talking about.

Address the points in my reply. You are complaining about nothing in your post. By doing so you create noise around real issues and make them easier to ignore.

 

[oryx]

Nanker, what you have said in your last but one post describes very well what is happening in my area. The bit about faux communities especially rings true.

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

I think real citizenship come with time and effort. Money won't buy you a place among people who care and matter.

I am seeing in Tulse Hill that the 'new people' with 'money' are struggling to be a part of things. They are the ones all gathering together and forming committees and building faux communities, but they are lost in connecting to any 'locals' and so go about an odd kind of social cleansing. They are not excluding the 'locals' and the long term residents of the area, they just build new things for themselves that 'those people' can not afford or do not know how to be a part of. The once marginalised middle classes of Tulse Hill, who ran from the Station to their homes every night, are now propping up the refurbed bars and eating from the fancy plates of wood, while the people who kept the area, while no one cared, get shoved towards the cheap seat, the next borough, the shit pub up the road that has yet to be taken over, turned over, re-cushioned for the cosy and needy nuclear families that are turning real long term, evolved, communities into fractured and disparate hives.

The gentrifiers don't really feel part of anything, they are just in transition, awaiting the next place or point in their lives, they don't connect fully with an area of make it a part of their future. They don't commit.

That lack of commitment is the thing that angers me the most. While they take and take and throw a few pennies back, they leave the origins of an area in tatters, and rarely do those origins (people, traditions, places etcs) ever return or recover from having been bent and shaped to fit the needs of a group of people who were only ever motivated by being in the 'right place' while it was up an coming, without ever really being interested in any positive change and progress in that area unless it's connected to a value that benefits them directly (economically, socially, reputationally etc.)

It's the fake bollocks of pretending to be a part of an area that stinks.

That's a fantastic post. Essentially the gentrifiers are vampires but without any of the sexy stuff.

 

[elmpp]

That's a fantastic post. Essentially the gentrifiers are vampires but without any of the sexy stuff.

U got sexy sewn up

 

[Gramsci]

Address the points in my reply. You are complaining about nothing in your post. By doing so you create noise around real issues and make them easier to ignore.

You have not read my post properly.

You do not understand it so there is no point carrying this on.

 

[Mr Retro]

You have not read my post properly.

You do not understand it so there is no point carrying this on.

Yes I have, yes I do. But let's leave it if you prefer.

 

[el-ahrairah]

Still, plenty of people without capital live in this street. And all across Brixton.

at the moment, yes - though their numbers are receding. does this mean that you disagree with my assessment?

 

[editor]

Nanker, what you have said in your last but one post describes very well what is happening in my area. The bit about faux communities especially rings true.

The trend for developers to rename areas as "Villages" is very much a case in point.

 

[editor]

Thread continues into February here: http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/brixton-news-rumour-and-general-chat-february-2015.331813/