There's a danger (and I'm aware I can fall into this too) of setting too much store by the blog/twittersphere. Almost by definition, this excludes many of the working class kids I saw the other night because teenagers from St Pauls aren't - so far as I can see - on twitter or blogging. This means that overexamination of the concerns of people talking about all this on the net ends up with the 'Tesco conclusion', that there's no other cause than Tesco/squat/policing. Yeah they're flashpoints but there's so much more under the surface - youth unemployment, education cuts, pressure on working class communities from asylum seekers, substance issues, people with mental health problems. I found a lad in my car park on Thursday night who'd been trapped in there by the automatic gates when the disturbances passed by. He's schizophrenic, lived in the Jamaica Street hostel and was freaking out. Spent ages with him and on the phone to the 999 people (who he'd called before I found him) and ended up walking him to A&E. Nice lad, wanted to do right by himself and his young son but stuck in a hostel he hates living in and with services for people like him contracting.
We have lots of people like him in this area and in an already pressured community it's an overconcentration which isn't good for them or for the community at large. These are problems which aren't being discussed by the arty bohemian types (well, not as much as Tesco or whatever) and I get the distinct impression that many of them want this to begin and end with Tesco. Talk of 'our cause' and losing the argument through the actions of 'these dickheads'. I dislike Tesco, don't want it there, no bones about that. But it's not the be all and end all of what's behind the disturbances beyond the individual flashpoints and the linking of people's anger to one community campaign is unhelpful and limiting. There needs to be more community coherence but not of the sort the hipsters and trusties are on about - THEY need to gain some kind of understanding of, and empathy with, the working class areas they've landed on top of. Sadly I've heard too many comments - on the street and online - which are sneeringly dismissive of the people they live alongside. Some hipster on his fixie was watching the roof siege yesterday and started being loudly sarcastic about another guy near us who was venting his anger at police. The hipster bloke was assuming that everyone nearby was going to back him up but I know I didn't. Should have said something tbh.
We've got a lot of arty bohemian types here who - in my opinion - have some interesting things to say and do. I enjoy some of their contributions, street art and whatever. However, they're not the only people here and they can't assume - like Chalkley and others - that they speak for all of us and we have one united point of view on things. They may see their Stokes Croft as being a hippie/hipster paradise, all art installations, organic food and voting Green/Lib Dem but my St Pauls (for that is what one side of the road is) is something else, with different concerns which occasionally coincide with theirs.
And that's leaving aside the relations with the rest of Bristol which, it seems to me, involve much mutual incomprehension on all sides.
That was a lot longer than I intended it to be
We have lots of people like him in this area and in an already pressured community it's an overconcentration which isn't good for them or for the community at large. These are problems which aren't being discussed by the arty bohemian types (well, not as much as Tesco or whatever) and I get the distinct impression that many of them want this to begin and end with Tesco. Talk of 'our cause' and losing the argument through the actions of 'these dickheads'. I dislike Tesco, don't want it there, no bones about that. But it's not the be all and end all of what's behind the disturbances beyond the individual flashpoints and the linking of people's anger to one community campaign is unhelpful and limiting. There needs to be more community coherence but not of the sort the hipsters and trusties are on about - THEY need to gain some kind of understanding of, and empathy with, the working class areas they've landed on top of. Sadly I've heard too many comments - on the street and online - which are sneeringly dismissive of the people they live alongside. Some hipster on his fixie was watching the roof siege yesterday and started being loudly sarcastic about another guy near us who was venting his anger at police. The hipster bloke was assuming that everyone nearby was going to back him up but I know I didn't. Should have said something tbh.
We've got a lot of arty bohemian types here who - in my opinion - have some interesting things to say and do. I enjoy some of their contributions, street art and whatever. However, they're not the only people here and they can't assume - like Chalkley and others - that they speak for all of us and we have one united point of view on things. They may see their Stokes Croft as being a hippie/hipster paradise, all art installations, organic food and voting Green/Lib Dem but my St Pauls (for that is what one side of the road is) is something else, with different concerns which occasionally coincide with theirs.
And that's leaving aside the relations with the rest of Bristol which, it seems to me, involve much mutual incomprehension on all sides.
That was a lot longer than I intended it to be
