NYC depends. Sometimes yes, and then there's whole commercial districts or market rows or parks, or in the case of Manhattan, Central Park, separating the neighborhoods from each other.
I lived temporarily in an apartment Kensington, right next to Gloucester Road. A quiet, slightly hidden away street where the average price of a one bedroom flat starts at £3 million.
I can’t tell you how many run-ins I had with aggressive crackheads, urban youth in Gucci bags and balaclavas zipping around for someone to rob on e-scooters, watching the odd drug deal or a zombie with a needle in their leg slumped out some alley way.
I also had a friend who lived just outside of Mayfair, very, very expensive property. I went to visit her once and there was a homeless looking black guy with a huge chin wide grin on him, hiding behind a low brick wall next to the front door. I didn’t want to enter so I walked around the block, came back and he was still there. Went to get a coffee, came back an hour later, still there. It freaked me out, genuinely thought he was going to stab or rape someone.
London is sometimes weird where the richest neighborhoods can be right next to the poors and chimpouts
It’s done on purpose to prevent financial segregation and it’s a well established and organised phenomenon. In London, for every part of prime real estate built today, you need to also build and provide at least part of it as affordable housing. I am in two minds about it.
I can appreciate giving people access to live in the places they work and not be priced out. On the other hand, it creates this really strange dynamic where many areas just don’t feel nice anymore. Where you don’t ever get that feeling of being in a place where everyone is well dressed, well established and generally polite, instead you get a mix of rag-tags, people who don’t speak the language etc.
I was in Canary Wharf on business once. Decided to walk around the area which mostly consists of financial firms and expensive high-rise apartments. 2 minutes around the corner from my hotel I see a group of old Somali women hanging their washing up outside their concrete council houses. Blew my mind.
>I can’t tell you how many run-ins I had with aggressive crackheads, urban youth in Gucci bags and balaclavas zipping around for someone to rob on e-scooters, watching the odd drug deal or a zombie with a needle in their leg slumped out some alley way.
Did this happen in Kensington or just nearby? I live relatively nearby and go there often, but I've never seen anything like that. Maybe like 1 homeless guy sitting around at most
It's nice until you see a million rows of it, all one color. It gets samey looking, tacky and bland. This is something upper Manhattan has over London, because there's more variety.
Brit here. Most of London is a shithole compared to most of NYC, because the one thing I've noticed about New York is they will actually put the money and backbone in to fix older infrastructure. No luck doing that in London, where they'd likely knock it down and stack something nowhere near beautiful unless it's under the privilege of the National Trust.
>the one thing I've noticed about New York is they will actually put the money and backbone in to fix older infrastructure
this is literally, factually incorrect
that specific part of manhattan is god awful. the parts of london we are discussing are nice. I am from nyc and have lived in london, shut the frick up
£20 million quid for that house and there is only on-street parking and there are black people within hearing distance.
only black people there are the children of african businessmen with human rights violations
London is sometimes weird where the richest neighborhoods can be right next to the poors and chimpouts
Isn't NY similar?
NYC depends. Sometimes yes, and then there's whole commercial districts or market rows or parks, or in the case of Manhattan, Central Park, separating the neighborhoods from each other.
You’re joking, right?
I lived temporarily in an apartment Kensington, right next to Gloucester Road. A quiet, slightly hidden away street where the average price of a one bedroom flat starts at £3 million.
I can’t tell you how many run-ins I had with aggressive crackheads, urban youth in Gucci bags and balaclavas zipping around for someone to rob on e-scooters, watching the odd drug deal or a zombie with a needle in their leg slumped out some alley way.
I also had a friend who lived just outside of Mayfair, very, very expensive property. I went to visit her once and there was a homeless looking black guy with a huge chin wide grin on him, hiding behind a low brick wall next to the front door. I didn’t want to enter so I walked around the block, came back and he was still there. Went to get a coffee, came back an hour later, still there. It freaked me out, genuinely thought he was going to stab or rape someone.
It’s done on purpose to prevent financial segregation and it’s a well established and organised phenomenon. In London, for every part of prime real estate built today, you need to also build and provide at least part of it as affordable housing. I am in two minds about it.
I can appreciate giving people access to live in the places they work and not be priced out. On the other hand, it creates this really strange dynamic where many areas just don’t feel nice anymore. Where you don’t ever get that feeling of being in a place where everyone is well dressed, well established and generally polite, instead you get a mix of rag-tags, people who don’t speak the language etc.
I was in Canary Wharf on business once. Decided to walk around the area which mostly consists of financial firms and expensive high-rise apartments. 2 minutes around the corner from my hotel I see a group of old Somali women hanging their washing up outside their concrete council houses. Blew my mind.
>I can’t tell you how many run-ins I had with aggressive crackheads, urban youth in Gucci bags and balaclavas zipping around for someone to rob on e-scooters, watching the odd drug deal or a zombie with a needle in their leg slumped out some alley way.
Did this happen in Kensington or just nearby? I live relatively nearby and go there often, but I've never seen anything like that. Maybe like 1 homeless guy sitting around at most
Gloucester Road usually.
Just walk around Pall Mall or Downing you'll see bundles of it
Yeah also in Belgravia and Pimlico
if you stick to Westminster and the surrounding areas it’s actually very nice
>black people within hearing distance
no there's not
It's nice until you see a million rows of it, all one color. It gets samey looking, tacky and bland. This is something upper Manhattan has over London, because there's more variety.
upper Manhattan is a garbage dump of black and brown criminality
But so is London
You can't compare one area of NY to the whole of London
Brit here. Most of London is a shithole compared to most of NYC, because the one thing I've noticed about New York is they will actually put the money and backbone in to fix older infrastructure. No luck doing that in London, where they'd likely knock it down and stack something nowhere near beautiful unless it's under the privilege of the National Trust.
the nice parts of london are better than new york
Thankfully we have a lot of 'listed' buildings which means they can't be knocked down and replaced
>the one thing I've noticed about New York is they will actually put the money and backbone in to fix older infrastructure
this is literally, factually incorrect
that specific part of manhattan is god awful. the parts of london we are discussing are nice. I am from nyc and have lived in london, shut the frick up
you're right, it isn't funny anymore, its become life and death
better to be racist and look uncool than catch a knife in the kidney