Who Actually Lives In The City Centre?

[goldenfleece]

Who really lives in the City Centre??? Excluding the student only complexes, and concerning only the 'open to all' apartments and flats that comprise enormous areas of the City Centre, what sort of people live in this new 'urban utopia' to quote estate agents. Some estates agents market their urban residential spaces as

'modern living space for young professionals':

 

others as

 

'the thriving hub of a new citywide culture'.

 

How much of this is true? Is the idea of the City Centre residential areas full of 'young professionals' actually an urban myth???

 

So if YOU live in the City Centre residential complexes, how would you define yourself? Young professional? Student? Unemployed? Self-employed? Family?

 

Service industry staff? Doctor? Lawyer? Teacher? Bin-man? Artist? DJ? Bus driver?

 

I want to see what sort of percentages comprise our new urban landscapes.

 

The purpose of the poll is to give your views on what sort of people you THINK comprise the biggest percentage of city living spaces. Maybe the posts by many residents, which hopefully this thread will get, will put such a poll into perspective.

 

My personal theory at the moment is that the largest % of residential city centre living spaces are held, NOT by 'young professionals', but by people working in the service industries, everything from bars, night-clubs, cafes, call-centres, city centre late shops, etc. Certainly I know at least FOUR full-time bar staff who live in West One, 2 of which work in bars on West Street 6 days a week, all type of shifts, attracted to the City Centre to drastically cut their otherwise obscene taxi fares bill every month. If you work in the late hours, its much more attractive to be able to leave work and just walk around the corner to be home, rather than wait around for taxis, or the inconvenience factor of bussing in in the day to start a 'non sociable hours' shift pattern. Is it realistic to think that service industry staff form the largest chunk of city centre living? The money they save in taxis and buses would easily help pay for a flat in town over a month,as the days of bars and clubs giving free taxis home for staff are long gone.

 

Your thoughts welcome.....

[MrH]

How about "Not as young as he used to be" professional who is not a doctor or a lawyer or accountant?

 

Sorry I don't fit into one of your categories!

[Serafina]

I live in town and I suppose I am a mixture of all your categories! I was 24 when I bought the lease (and flat above) of a pub in the centre of the city - I'm now 29.

 

I have to admit (possibly because of my profession), that I could not imagine choosing to buy a property in my vicinity where you can hear drunken people bickering and throwing up at all hours of the night. Or when you have to pour bleach on a drunken a**eholes p**s which is in your doorway!

 

So I suppose I am a professional (?), who lives in town, who worries listening to aggressive couples...

[vegemike]

Corporation provide us with free taxis home so i'm able to live in Crookes, paying £42 a week for an ensuite double room instead of £85+ in the city centre.

[kitchew]

Hmmm well my sis lives in the city centre and works in a bar... if that's anything to go by?

[goldenfleece]

oh well, there goes my theory....

[Cyclone]

I don't like the way you've categorised "young professionals", managers and executives? Okay, maybe managers, but you don't get recent graduates acting as executives. They take jobs in engineering, HR, IT, teaching, NHS, banking, etc... But it's normally a good few years before they make it to management levels and by then they are just professionals, not young ones.

 

I know one service/manual labour worker who lives in the new builds near the leadmill.

I don't know a single student who lives in either the cheaper or the more expensive city centre apartments, and I do know quite a lot of students.

Given the level of rent, i'd have thought that living out of town and getting their own transport would work out better for people doing bar work, although I always thought that bar work was normally taken for temporary work or to get a bit of extra pocket money, not as a way of life.

[goldenfleece]

Given the level of rent, i'd have thought that living out of town and getting their own transport would work out better for people doing bar work, although I always thought that bar work was normally taken for temporary work or to get a bit of extra pocket money, not as a way of life.

 

Maybe for most, but for several I know it IS their sole income and way of life, and if you work full time in one or more clubs or bars you can pull a fairly hefty wage including tips each week. GIrl I know works 48 hours a week in 2 different bars, plus does 2 shifts in a nightclub Fridays and Saturdays until very early hours, and pulls over £340 a week (inc tips), no problem renting a city centre flat on that level of income. SHe claims she saves £280 a month in taxi fares by not living at home, which offsets the rent which I think was 275 a month in a cluster flat...

[PROJECT]

i think you would be better off splitting your pole between the larger developments, such as westone, westpoint and royal plaza and smaller ones such as the ones around the peace gardens as i think they attract different people. The larger ones on west street definately do seem to be made up of rich students and a mix of other younger people, whereas the smaller ones seem to be inhabited by professionals of all ages.

[Sheffair1]

I live in town, i'm a lollipop man on the M62