PalenqueBob

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.

billbarr

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

jody

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!

PalenqueBob

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.

billbarr

Then perhaps you should, PalenqueBob.

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.

billbarr

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

sheila

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.

carioca4ed

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!!!!

carioca4ed

I meant to say that the mobile camera is there in a van,manned by the police!!The Sauchiehall Street area near "The Garage"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!!!

DDA

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

Craigellachie

Could I set the cat among the pigeons and ask if anyone has checked how much CBC paid the "gangs" 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 "shock horror" headlines.
Glaswegians are something special. No airs and graces, none of the cold insincere "politeness" that tells you they couldn't care less, just honest down to earth humanity.
Barbara - "asylum seekers" - would it be too much to ask you to check your facts before you post? "Asylum seekers" 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?

Neil_Oz

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.

Robespierre

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?

begbie

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 ("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 "ned" (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)

flanneruk

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.

Robespierre

Cool! Thanks for the links.

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