What is birmingham like to live in?

Smeghead said:
I remember going to a gig in Birmingham, and parked in some random NCP car park. As I was going down the stairs, there was a homeless person, complete with needles strewn about lying there. To be fair, he was a bit sheepish and apologised and moved out the way, but it didn't leave the greatest impression on the city.
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Every City and large town has a dark side though, a few years ago I was speaking to someone living in Birmingham and they said people literally search through their trash bags when they leave them out for collection.
I guess they wont be short of bags now, they are piled high.
 
Put it this way, I live in Bradford, and given the option between Bradford and Brum, I'd pick Bradford.

Stay well clear unless your option of housing is far enough out of the center that it shouldn't matter.
 
Nasher said:
Council spent all the money on "diversity" projects and went broke lol.

Now it's even dirtier than it used to be. Now with added stink.
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Stop peddling crap.Takes literally 2 secs to get to the truth, but your not interested in that. The council became skint when it had to settle historical equal pay disputes for women.

Ive been up and down the country, and every major city is about crap as the next one. All have cracking areas and some absolute dives.
 
Tinders said:
Stop peddling crap.Takes literally 2 secs to get to the truth, but your not interested in that. The council became skint when it had to settle historical equal pay disputes for women.

Ive been up and down the country, and every major city is about crap as the next one. All have cracking areas and some absolute dives.
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This is true. The council lost a court case forcing it to pay Dinner ladies the same as Binmen. Insane decision.
 
I mean if you really want to know what Birmingham is like, here you go


On a serious note, it's like most places, some good some bad. And talking about the equal pay court case, most people don't realise this is round two of the pay outs. They lost the same case over a decade ago and never fixed the problem. It's one of the reasons the NEC group is now private, a terrible decision that cost the city hundreds of millions of pounds. Take a look at the sold prices in 2015 and 2018 :(
 
Went to uni of Birmingham in 2008, ended up staying until 2022 before we sold up and moved.

Lived in varying places, in edgbaston near the reservoir, Harborne, near the edgbaston cricket ground and then bought a house in bearwood before we left and moved down south. I still miss that house, lovely Victorian terrace with great neighbours.

Loved my 14 years there, it’s like any city, you just need to know where to go and where to avoid.

I was back for a week just gone for work, the bin situation is really sad to see because some streets just look awful. It was also really telling before we left was the volume of homeless people, in 2008 you’d have a few around the centre and that was largely it - but the other week I was up for work and the volume just on main roads, even under spaghetti junction, wasn’t great.

There was that whole issue of Stratford and Warwick councils bussing their homeless people across to Birmingham in 2016-2019 that obviously hasn’t helped - but the council seem to have just accepted the state of things.

I’d hope people see more of Birmingham than just those things. I went to Chichester the other day and all I see is old ********* parking range rovers in parent/kid parking spaces - so everywhere has *********, just in different forms.
 
t2na said:
Lived in varying places, in edgbaston near the reservoir, Harborne, near the edgbaston cricket ground and then bought a house in bearwood before we left and moved down south. I still miss that house, lovely Victorian terrace with great neighbours.
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Edgbaston by the Reservoir isn't real Edgbaston, Harbourne by the cricket ground isn't real Harbourne and Bearwood isn't even in Birmingham... proof Birmingham is rubbish ;)
 
Sythe79 said:
Edgbaston by the Reservoir isn't real Edgbaston, Harbourne by the cricket ground isn't real Harbourne and Bearwood isn't even in Birmingham... proof Birmingham is rubbish ;)
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The weird thing was every time I lived in a 'place' we were always told it wasn't the real place. Lived in Edgaston, nope not Edgbaston. Lived in a flat looking over the cricket ground, nope, still not Edgbaston. Lived in Harborne, nope, you're past the New Inn so not real Harborne :(
 
Tinders said:
Stop peddling crap.Takes literally 2 secs to get to the truth, but your not interested in that. The council became skint when it had to settle historical equal pay disputes for women.

Ive been up and down the country, and every major city is about crap as the next one. All have cracking areas and some absolute dives.
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Along with the awful Oracle (shock) project overspend and the insane amount in pension overpayments the council has made - https://www.itv.com/news/central/20...und-iceberg-that-sank-birmingham-city-council


And then there is this sort is insanity. The Conservative government appointed commissioners who were forced upon the council to "sort things out" are paid insane day rates for doing nothing.

 
hornetstinger said:
What is Birmingham own local food?

Eccles, staffordshire oatcakes, bakewell tart etc
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We have decent curries! The one benefit of living here is the fact you can go into most supermarkets and they have a decent range of proper spices :)

Tinders said:
Ive been up and down the country, and every major city is about crap as the next one. All have cracking areas and some absolute dives.
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t2na said:
you just need to know where to go and where to avoid.
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Cracking areas/where to go: The M6 past junction 10 northbound and 4 southbound, M5 past 4A Southbound, anywhere outside the M42

Absolute dives/where to avoid: anywhere not mentioned above

Have submitted an invoice to the council to cover my time taking a month's worth of rubbish to the tip, will be amusing to see the response.

Also raised a complaint about it not being collected and got a response saying they aren't dealing with complaints related to rubbish collection! :eek:

Might go full on Karen and raise a complaint about them not dealing with my complaint :cry:
 
MartinPrince said:
Considering the OP asked the question you're responding to in 2017 (and is heading to Cyprus) I'm not sure the thread necro is necessary or relevant.

You're probably better off starting a new thread if the current state of Birmingham is concerning to you.
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So where in Birmingham do you live?
 
I can't really comment on Brum, I've only been a few times and none of them really gave me enough of an impression to judge. Their architecture looks ******* awful though :p
 
I've lived near the uni for 5 years then moved to the city centre for 10 years before moving out in 2022
It's not too bad as long as you're in the right area. There's parts of Brum I'd actively avoid going.
Too many beggars nowadays
 
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