Anyone from Glascow??
 

Our daughter, a university student in Scotland, wants desperately to attend a concert in Glascow tomorrow night. Going would involve a bus ride to Glascow and a ride home quite late at night. I think the venue is called The Garage. At this point it would be 2 girls going. I have never been to Glascow, and know nothing about how safe it is at night. At this point I am discouraging her from going--any opinions on safety from people who know Glascow? Thanks for any help.

I hate to rain on your daughters parade but a CBC (Canadian) tv report said the Glasgow was the MOST violent city in the developed world and Scotland was the developed world's most violent place - even topping the U.S. rate.

Apparently much of the violence, including 35 mainly stabbing deaths the past year, are a result of gang violence and not perpetrated against innocent bystanders ordinarily.

But they showed gangs roving thru the city centre looking for rivals to fight - visciously fight with knifes, clubs, etc.

That said, and i think Glasgowites will confirm this the concert venue will probably be totally safe but she should not probably wander around downtown on a Friday or Saturday night especially.

She is a university student and thus presumbaly fairly intelligent so i'd let her make her own decision obviously.

Again let me say i hope local Glasowites will respond as i'm sure they will say it's safe where you daughter is going - i was just reacting to 'how safe the city is at night,' and it's apparently the least safe in the developed world.

Glasgow.

Glaswegians.

Just don't mention <i>Celtic</i> or <i>Rangers</i> and you'll be safe.

Interesting that a city with 35 murders in a year is seen as more violent than my home city in the U.S. with almost ten times that figure.
(I'm not sure what the pop.of Glasgow is,but that's compared to a city of about 600k)

The city is called Glasgow and the inhabitants are called Glaswegians.

There will be hundreds of young people coming out of the concert and I expect that the bus will be full to the gunwhales.
It's not as though she will be wandering alone through Glasgow.
I'm surprised that your daughter has told you where she is going and she will probably not tell you again ;-)
I bet that if my daughter had told me half of what she got up to as a student, I would have had many a sleepless night.

&lt;Interesting that a city with 35 murders in a year is seen as more violent than my home city in the U.S. with almost ten times that figure&gt;

the violence statistics is based on violent crime - in Glasgow mainly knifings and viscious attacks and not the murder rate. Yes they said there were some 600,000 Glaswegians. TheCBC documentary showed many gang members who proudly showed off the scars from knife attacks.

You present a very alarmist view of the city. Glasgow is heavily populated by students who manage to go to rock concerts unscathed.

&lt;You present a very alarmist view of the city&gt; - yes and borne out by facts and stats that CBC reported - i was shocked yes and i hope the alarm bells are going off in Glasgow.

Alarmist because you make Glasgow sound like a no-go zone (and will panic poor DDA enormously), when the truth is no where near what you suggest.

Good grief; if she's mature enough to attend university abroad, she's mature enough to stay clear of street violence in Glesga or anywhere else.

Crime in Glasgow is an issue as it is everywhere, just as drug abuse and HIV are big issues in Edinburgh. By most countries' standards Scotland is an extraordinarily safe place.

Just spoke to my daughter, and it appears that they would not be able to get a bus home after the concert. SO...she is going to a ball at her university instead. Thank you for the help. Actually, I love Scotland and also feel that the Scottish cities are much safer than most here. I was only concerned about them possibly wandering about very late at night trying to get home. Again, thanks for the advise.

I thought there were over 1m people in Glasgow?

If the documentary is about violent crime then it's unlikely they'll show many pictures of the majority of Gaswegians who live peacefully and happily every day. Of course there's violent crime and I'm reasonably sure it's already come to the attention of the Strathclyde police. Scotland isn't a nirvana where there are kilted bagpipers on every corner and hielan' cattle strategically placed in fields for your photographic pleasure. It's a modern country trying to absorb a ridiculous number of &quot;asylum seekers&quot; and it suffers from many of the downsides of modern societies.

Nothing to do with asylum seekers - they were all Scots thru and thru - young tough poor kids from the housing projects who it said and showed often meet right in the city centre to do battle for 'pride'. So cxan't blame on asylum seekers in this case.

Kate: I agree with your cricism and in retrospect probably shouldn't have said anything a'tall - just that i just saw the CBC show and it showed these gangs running amok, beating up folk right on Queen Street in the main drag. This would give me pause about wandering about there at night though i know Glasgow must all in all be a very safe city. And if it were my daughter i'd just make sure she didn't end up wandering about at night there and i wouldn't worry at all about her going to the concert.

I'm from Detroit by the way.

I didn't blame it on asylum seekers, but they are a contributary factor to the continuing lack of jobs in Scotland.

Just for info (seeing as the OP's daughter isn't going to the concert anyway), I used to go through to Glasgow from Edinburgh for concerts all the time when I was younger (as from about age 16-17).

It's pretty common practice in Scotland, as most popular bands only play one Scottish city, so you'll get lots of young people from Glasgow going through to Edinburgh or vice versa.

I think that, had your daughter gone, she'd probably have been more surprised by the friendliness of the locals than by any violence. Let's hope she has an opportunity to visit Glasgow before she leaves Scotland - perhaps in the daytime, though, for your peace of mind!

I am sure that she will get to Glascow. ( And hopefully us also sometime when we visit her). By the way-she had little concern about their safety --it was the logistics that did in their plan. Thanks again to you all.

DDA it's Glasgow, not Glascow.

Obviously you are correct. We have never been there, though I've certainly seen the correct name many times--guess it did not register with me. My apologies to the people of Glasgow! Thanks, again.

As a Glaswegian now living in Canada, I have to say that the majority of Glasgow people are very friendly and have a sense of humour second to none, especially when compared to the much more dour Edinburgh inhabitants. Glasgow's problems stem from too much drinking and from an appalling amount of religious bigotry. There is an area in Glasgow where the average life span of an adult male is 53.5 years, compared to that in Bangladesh of around 63 years. The population used to be about one million, but many decades ago, they knocked down large parts of the city and built new towns miles away, thus reducing the population to around 600000. an enormous emigration to counties like Canada and Australia also helped the population to go down.

Tourists should not be deterred by postings like mine from visiting Glasgow, at least during the day. This is a fantastic city of great Victorian architecture, large parks, neat ethnic areas, fine museums and a pleasant enough if rather pedestrian city centre. Folks flock to Edinburgh like lemmings but rarely think of Glas-cow - i like that one - i day tripped only from Edinburgh and was delightfully surprised by Glasgow.

I only lament that the antique train time board at Queen Street station (i think it was this one of the two major stations in Glasgow), a huge wooden thing with windows where a man's hands would stick thru and manually change the train times - now replaced by the usual modern automated schedule board.

I live in Glasgow. Safely and very happily.

As an 'incomer' from the very west coast of Scotland I moved here almost 34 years ago and I was welcomed and welcomed warmly by complete strangers.

I've never seen a street fight, a stabbing or a witnessed a murder. Of course, they happen. Just not when I've been out and about, day or night.

Would I live anywhere else? No.

bill

Only 35 stabbings and murders last year...I wish my friendly southern tourist city could boast of that statistic! We're over 40 so far and that was just by the end of September..and our population is only 1/3 of Glasgow's.

Come on down to Disney World, we'll treat you right!

I live in Detroit. Safely and very happily. I've never seen a street fight, a stabbing or a witnessed a murder. Of course, they happen. Just not when I've been out and about, day or night.

Would I live anywhere else? Yes.

Then perhaps you should, PalenqueBob.

A more careful reading of Would i live anywhere else and the response Yes would lead you to see that i don't necessarily not like Detroit but when asked if you would live anywhere else many people would say yes - but i like my town and have no desire to relocate - but would i live anywhere else - you bet - Amsterdam, Maui, etc. lots of places i would like to live - even Glasgow i would like to live in.

Problem - too few lives to live.

I always read very carefully PalenqueBob, and I agree with much of what you say.

For me though, I get a buzz coming back to this city having travelled to (and lived in) many countries in this wide-world over many, many years.

Not so sure why I still get that buzz though. Perhaps it is because I've always felt that it 'adopted' me, if that makes any sense.

bill

Again, I'm sorry I missed this earlier.

For the record DDA, I don't think you should worry at all if the situation arises again.

Glasgow has great poverty alongside great wealth and that can be a recipe for problems. It also has great religious intolerance, and that too is often a flash point for violence.

If you have a look at the Up my Street web site, you'll see the most recent published crime statistics against the national average. Worse in some areas and better in others. And one of the areas it's worse in is violence. And that's highlighted in this BBC report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4527570.stm

But as Bill said, the average man on the Kelvinside omnibus will never see any of it. Most is restricted to the sink housing schemes and poorest areas.

For the record, Barbara, the unemployment rate in Scotland is under 4% (down from just over 9% in 1990). Glasgow about 5.5%, which is somewhat above the average. Glasgow provides about 600 ousing units for Asylum Seekers (because it's got so much spare housing- shrinking population). Since 2002, Asylum Seekers have not ben allowed to work.

Can I be perfectly honest with you?This is probably going to be the safest gig in Scotland !!Why? They have installed a mobile camera that watches everyone.Well,at least it is there on Saturday nights.Because this area near the Garage nightclub has thousands of people passing to and fro it is very well policed.I have seen an incident a couple of years ago,but it has not stopped me walking along there.It is just a combination of youth and drink,which you can get in every big city!!!!I still love Glasgow,and nothing would stop me going through city centre!!!!

I meant to say that the mobile camera is there in a van,manned by the police!!The Sauchiehall Street area near &quot;The Garage&quot;gets incredibly busy.But if she steps outside the venue and looks across the road she will spot the van,with a rotating camera that is watching everything!!!

Thanks for the specific information. Next time she talks of going I will remember.

Could I set the cat among the pigeons and ask if anyone has checked how much CBC paid the &quot;gangs&quot; to stage their fights for the benefit of the cameras? It has been known.
Like any other large city (and Glasgow has all the characteristics of a large city, even if it's small by US or English standards) Glasgow has its areas where tourists really shouldn't wander. Innocent tourists are extremely unlikely to be the victims of violent crime - check the details behind the &quot;shock horror&quot; headlines.
Glaswegians are something special. No airs and graces, none of the cold insincere &quot;politeness&quot; that tells you they couldn't care less, just honest down to earth humanity.
Barbara - &quot;asylum seekers&quot; - would it be too much to ask you to check your facts before you post? &quot;Asylum seekers&quot; are not the cause of poor housing, unemployment, crime or anything else. God forbid that we ever turn our backs on the centuries old tradition of sheltering those in need. Have you forgotten that we chose an asylum seeker for our patron saint?

I've never been to Glasgow, but my heart warmed to the city when the American chef Tony Bourdain, perhaps with a touch of hyperbole, described Australia and Glasgow as the last of the world's bullshit-free zones.

Australia did indeed receive many Glaswegian immigrants. They all became union shop stewards and settled in to waging the class war in sunnier climes.

My student digs were at 18, Athole Gardens - just up from Hillhead station. It was somewhat seedier the last time I saw it in '83 than when I was there as a student 20 years earlier.

Anybody know if the neighborhood's quiet slide from Victorian opulence to post-WWII genteel poverty has stabilized? Am I correct in assuming proximity to the Uni counts for something in that regard?

i wouldn't worry about having any problems whatsoever. if it really were the case posed by the CBC report people in scotland would be hiding out in their houses and never leaving out of fear of getting stabbed (&quot;chibbed&quot;) i lived in edinbugh for years ( now in madrid, again according to statistics a scaringly violent place .. hardly seen any of it though) and regularly went through to glasgow for gigs since i was bout 15. yes, scotland is a violent place. fine, but its pretty much restricted to the &quot;ned&quot; (non educated deliquent) population. it can happen that if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you may have problems ( as has anyone who has lived in a place like glasgow or edinburgh or anywhere )
but alarmist tv reports should not be taken to heart. (by the way, glasgow was indeed called glascow way, way back in about the 15th century)

Robes:

It's a decade since the area was on my patch. But by the mid-90s, the West End generally was getting seriously gentrified (those buildings have serious potential, as most estate agents would put it, once you've damp-proofed them and put in double glazing).

The links at www.glasgowwestend.com seem to imply the process hasn't stopped. Alternatively, look at http://www.corumproperty.co.uk/devel...ole/athole.pdf. Prices still seem low. But the neighbourhood certainly isn't going downhill.

Cool! Thanks for the links.

I can see a morning Parkin on the Byers Road one of these mornings...