Embarrassed by the state of Sheffield

FairyNormal · 26-03-2005, 22:09

I love Sheffield and have never wanted to live anywhere else. But, today, coming home from town to Hillsborough on the bus, I was embarrassed and pretty disgusted by the state of things. On that particular bus route I passed road works, several demolition sites, buildings with scaffolding all around them, boarded up buildings and shops a plenty. The only saving grace was the beautiful daffodils on the grass banks of the Langsett Estate.

My 8 year old son turned to me and said "I can't wait until I am grown up so I can leave Sheffield 'cos it's a right mess!"

I have to agree with him, it is a mess. I am not one for moaning about this and that, and as I said, I love Sheffield and where I live but it really saddened me to see it in such a mess.

What is happening? Why is it such a state? How long are we expected to put up with it?

[/end rant]

xafier · 26-03-2005, 22:11

it's called spending lots of spare money before the new tax year

and would you rather buildings get repaired or crumble? and demolishing rubbish buildings for new exciting things is good

Connect4Fun · 26-03-2005, 22:16

I agree with fetish. They are spending so much on the city centre and nothing anywhere else. I commute through woodseats and heeley every morning and its terrible. Its saying something when you come back from china on business and think that its cleaner there!

Fareast · 27-03-2005, 02:57

Fetish fairy :---Sheffield seems even worse if and when you do up sticks and live in other cities , particularly abroad.
I left Sheffield in 1980 and I think it was pretty good at that time. However after living in 5 different countries and visiting a few more on holiday , you begin to realise how cold and grim Sheffield is by comparison---and getting colder and grimmer by the day !
Generally I've found that in most countries cities are full of life and colour , activity and buzz. Last summer , as an experiment I took a Turkish friend of mine round the centre of a town in the North of England-----weather was quite warm , Thursday , about 6- 7 p.m. He couldn't believe it-----nobody about ! In most good cities , you'd find cafes open , people stood around chatting , others shopping , children playing , bars open and generally a lot of street life. I went through Sheffield city centre on a bus a few years ago at about 8 p.m. on a weekday and it was very much the same----dead.Of course it's packed on Fridayand Saturday nights----all very well if you don't mind getting punched , robbed or having sick over you !
It's not new buildings or beauty that "makes" a city , a city----it's the everyday buzz and activity. Sheffield and a lot of U.K. "cities" are more like overgrown villages. Even in the daytime , Sheffield seems sleepy , half dead and run-down. There are various reasons for this and most people know what they are.
So , tell your son he's right----obviously even children know there's something missing , somewhere !

robbie · 27-03-2005, 16:16

We still are a fairly post manufacturing/Industrial Northern City. We have had no investment until recently and most of the city is a mess.

It takes time and money to sort out...and unfortunately a lot of people just don't care about maintaining their area.

LL200 · 27-03-2005, 21:30

I dont think anyone can deny that, even in just the past few years, Sheffield has seen a huge improvement. I'm not talking about specific places, just Sheffield in general. Sure there's areas that need more improvement but that happens everywhere.

And how anyone can say that pulling down knackered old buildings and renovating others (even if it means scaffolding or piles of bricks for a few months) is a bad thing??!?!

Andy · 27-03-2005, 22:47

I'm not embarrassed by Sheffield - scaffolding and building sites are there because the place is improving. Look at Sheffield now compared to 10 years ago - look how nicer West Street/Devonshire Green area are, look how much investment there has been. There's obviously still much more to do.

What does embarrass me is that you can't walk for 2 minutes on our streets without someone asking you for change, or to buy a Big Issue, or spinning you some yarn about having lost their bus fair. That's what the council need to sort out next.

Cyclone · 27-03-2005, 22:51

you gotta make a mess and knock things down if you're going to improve them.

Although I can see the point about the lack of life in the city centre. To be fair though, this is only compaired to tourist places, where the way of life and business revolves around a slightly different timetable.

Plain Talker · 27-03-2005, 23:23

you can't make an omelette wiothout breaking eggs, as the saying goes...

cyclone is quite right, before we can build these (?hopefully?) magnificent new roads and buildings, there's bound to be some upheaval. (look at the new square being built in front of the train station, as a F'r'instance? it is a right royal pain in the ' arris, at the momnet with all the road up, there, but once it's finally done, it should look lovely)

I still think Sheffield has a lot to offer, and is a great place to live.

PT

Cyclone · 27-03-2005, 23:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Plain Talker
you can't make an omelette wiothout breaking eggs, as the saying goes...

cyclone is quite right, before we can build these (?hopefully?) magnificent new roads and buildings, there's bound to be some upheaval. (look at the new square being built in front of the train station, as a F'r'instance? it is a right royal pain in the ' arris, at the momnet with all the road up, there, but once it's finally done, it should look lovely)

I still think Sheffield has a lot to offer, and is a great place to live.

PT

thanks omelettes and eggs was exactly the metaphor I was struggling for.

Fareast · 28-03-2005, 00:24

The cities I mentioned , re-lively , are not tourist cities at all. Go to most cities in Europe that are the equivalent to Sheffield and you'd see more street life.
What's all the point of magnificent buildings and massive constructions ? Are they so that we can look at them and go ,"Aah" ? I thought we'd got over the "magnificent " building disease in the '70's. Park Hill and Hyde Park flats were magnificent.
I thought the whole idea was to renovate as much as possible , nowadays , and to enable people to live and work n buildings that are on more of a human scale.
Won't be long , perhaps , before they demolish Paradise Square and build a car-park there--after all it's only eggs and omelettes , innit ?

Cyclone · 28-03-2005, 00:46

it could be down to our weather, most of europe has better weather and thus is more suited to having seating outside.

The cafe thing (in my opinion) is part of enlivening the street, and having shops opening late has to be partly down to tourists, who else would be shopping at that time.

meer · 28-03-2005, 08:10

The street culture thing is definitely a european thing. It's great abroad to wander the streets with dressed up grannies and children walking around and couples whizzing by on scooters, but it doesn't happen in Britain. I used to live in London and I assure you, Sheffield is busier at night than many parts of London. In Waterloo and the City, there aren't even any pubs open at the weekend!

Fareast · 28-03-2005, 09:14

Well , Cyclone----believe it or not ,local people in these foreign countries like to shop when THEY want to---and shops actually stay open to serve them ! I know it must seem remarkable if you haven't lived abroad but some countries don't have by-laws , making everything difficult and/or complicated. Bars seem to open when they wish and close when the last customer goes home.
Sometimes an elderly woman may fancy an ice-cream , perhaps at the disgraceful hour of 10 p.m. and she nips to the corner shop to buy one ----on her own !! Or a child is sent out to get a loaf of bread in the evening----hard to credit , isn't it ?
As a previous poster said , it's a real pleasure to stroll through a lot of foreign cities in the evenings or at night---thousands , milling round , having a good time----all age groups , rich , poor ; buyers , sellers.
You can't blame it all on the weather----have you ever strolled through Sheffield city centre at 11 p.m. , in Summer , and seen happy , joyful families and grannies enjoying life ?
On Fridays and Saturdays , from all accounts , you'd be safer taking a stroll through South Bronx.

max · 28-03-2005, 09:26

Alternatively, it could be down to the fact that in other countries the shops/cafes/stalls need to stay open to make a living. I should imagine that most people, including shop/cafe/stall owners and workers, would rather be at home with their loved ones than stay open on the off chance granny wants an ice-cream.

Perhaps if we got rid of the minimum wage and raised taxes then people would be encouraged to stay open longer.

(Nice line from Al Murray about letting women work longer hours so they could earn the same as men.)

Or, perhaps we have better TV programs.

Cyclone · 28-03-2005, 09:26

no I haven't, probably because at 11pm most families have gone home and put the kids to bed.

Walking through the city centre at a weekend evening is nothing special. It's certainly busy, and most of the people will have had a drink, but that's about it. It's little different to walking through Prague at the same time, except for Prague having lots of outdoor seating and patio heaters.

Corner shops aren't forced to close, neither are the city centre shops, they close because it makes no sense commercially for them to stay open, paying their staff will cost more than sales of ice creams to confused old women will make.

Fareast · 28-03-2005, 09:41

Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

fnkysknky · 28-03-2005, 11:14

Quote:

Originally posted by FetishFairy
I love Sheffield and have never wanted to live anywhere else. But, today, coming home from town to Hillsborough on the bus, I was embarrassed and pretty disgusted by the state of things. On that particular bus route I passed road works, several demolition sites, buildings with scaffolding all around them, boarded up buildings and shops a plenty. The only saving grace was the beautiful daffodils on the grass banks of the Langsett Estate.

'Destruction is a form of creation' and all that

fnkysknky · 28-03-2005, 11:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Fareast
Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

If there was a demand for a 24/7 chippy in the centre of Sheffield then I'm pretty sure there would be one...

Cyclone · 28-03-2005, 11:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Fareast
Well , Cyclone that's more or less the point I'm making. Cafes ....etc. wont stay open late in the centre of Sheffield because they know Sheffield people either don't want to use them or live too far away. The reasons are irrelevant----the fact remains that Sheffield does NOT have a City centre life as people generally understand the term.
I don't know about little old ladies being confused---but wouldn't you like to live in a city centre where your elderly relative felt relaxed about nipping out for some fish and chips when they felt like it ? Not everybody has to go to bed at a fixed time-----sometimes they break all the rules and actually have a lie-in !

I don't think sheffield is unusual in this, apart from London is there a british city where this mythical 'city centre life' exists?

I mentioned Prague, it's an example where I spent a week living in the city centre, and it's a popular tourist destination.
As I said, it didn't seem that disimilar to Sheffield, corner shops closed in the evening, bars were open, crowds of drunken people in there 20's and 30's wandered the city centre.
The only things open apart from bars were places that caterered to tourists.