Crap Bags

Holy crap bags I had a great weekend catching up with people...and there are still more folk to see!
Though I wouldn't call this a first world problem, it certainly is better than a kick in the face.

So yes, back to the task at hand of examining the less appealing side of Londinum - to be followed by something positive.

Crime
London is a big city and it has a somewhat notorious crime problem, despite an overall decline in crime rates in recent years. Like the high cost of living, this is something which most of the human race is well aware of - regarding big cities in general, if not London specifically. Islington ranked fairly well in the overall London borough crime charts.

As in Germany, strict knife and gun laws have led to a trend towards "weaponized" dogs amongst gang members and thuggish types in general. Pitbulls (and mixed breeds with a healthy bit of pitbull in them) are very trendy amongst Chavs and their ilk for precisely the associations that make most other folk shy away from them. In Islington, Finsbury and Hackney I saw more of these dogs than any other by far and I must admit that it was a little annoying how my view of them had been changed to one of apprehension by the almost inescapable headlines put out by the various news outlets (which generally bore a great resemblance to the style and bluster of millennial American journalism).

Though it's been many years since the infamous Kray Twins ran around Bethnal Green, organized crime is still a force in the city - with the Russian Vory most recently capturing the public imagination in Cronenburg's latest.

But la dee dah

I generally felt perfectly safe as I went about London, be it the shiny tourist paradise along Embankment or getting lost in the Kray's old neighborhood while trying to find an illegal bar. This is despite a failed terrorist attack that happened in a part of Picadilly Circus I'd been in only a couple of days prior. Say what you will about the big brother effect, all those CCTV cameras left me feeling safer than if they weren't there. As a friend of mine put it, "Try living in Israel for a year, then move back to London and see how scary it feels".

That being said, I can see my patience for them wearing thin if the new talking camera initiative gets some serious momentum behind it. I can't say as I see a lot of wisdom in the ongoing ASBO program either - generally the British law seems focused almost entirely on the treating the symptoms of crime while paying little heed to addressing the causes and this is displayed rather well by ASBOs. Better to try and brand a child with a mark of cain than to find out why he or she is acting up in the first place? I guess, seeing as how they are so effective at deterring further offenses.

Pollution
Cars are the primary culprit of London's pollution troubles, sparking Mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion charge and low emission zone initiatives. I've talked a bit about this before, in the broad strokes, but I haven't really said anything about my personal experience. I can tell you that the entire time I was in London, when I blew my nose the results were always dark grey going on black. This had only ever happened to me before if I had spent an evening indoors with several heavy smokers, so it was certainly disconcerting when I noticed the same thing after spending an entire day out of doors and romping through St. James park.

I also remember feeling a slight tug on my lungs when I was in certain areas during my first three weeks. That went away as I got used to it but, as is generally the case with these things, getting used to it was a tad more disconcerting.

General Filth
Walk around London's core and you'll probably wonder why London has such a reputation for being a dirty city. Outside the inner core, it's not unusual in a lot of neighborhoods (including my own) to see garbage bags burst open with their guts decorating the sidewalk, on top of the usual littering. The practice of fly tipping is also well exercised in some parts. Coming from Ottawa, you can appreciate how this drove me crazy and took the longest of anything to get used to. I know that part of the reason is the way that local councils charge for rubbish collection, but that can't possibly be the whole story.

When it comes to recycling, I can say that the public attitude generally doesn't match the enthusiasm and PR on the subject which is put out by the government. I could toss out some theories on this, but I don't feel qualified to say anything of great substance. Suffice to say, I found this difficult to reconcile after the first thirty times it came up.

So okay, enough already. Next post I'll see what I can do to sum up the great things about London/England.

--------
Addendum: For those of you who are a fan of Saul Willaims and/or free music of a high quality, may I suggest you head on over to his website to download The Rise and Inevitable Liberation of Niggy Tardust! Interestingly, Trent Reznor has produced the album as well as helping with writing and backing vocals.