Looking out of a window toward Netherthorpe Road, sometime during November 2004. Here we have a delightful sight, a van full of Edale beer, yay! And a van full of Scott's Pantry sandwiches, awesome! You often get the impression that nobody on a council estate has a job given the coverage given by the small number of obscenely wealthy men that control our media. Lots of people here are working, and it isn't fiddle work.
What's this, the fancy goods warehouse across the road has had a visit. It appears to be the Police, and they've brought a hire van with them to remove boxes of stuff. It must the annual Feds Knees Up and they are after novelty helmets, no, that can't be right. Ah, it's a raid. No one ran off and had to be wrestled to the ground. Nobody shot or tasered, a completely peaceful and civilised sequence of arrest and property removal. Or is it perhaps party popper collection trip after all, it may not be a raid. No, no, there are some real looking handcuffs attached to a couple of real looking people, they must be real as they aren't pink and fluffy, the handcuffs that is.
In the evening it was possible to see prostitutes disappearing behind the buildings across on the right with their customers. That's what I assumed they were, perhaps it was an al-fresco speed-dating service and I've got it all wrong. Nope, judging by the rather aggressive looking men that lurked in the shadows, taking the money and keeping the women supplied with drugs then this was the real thing. Women end up doing this through either desperation, manipulation, outright violence, or indeed a shed load of reasons I can't begin to imagine. Generally it's the woman that gets the worst of it, whether apprehended by the law or not, while the pimp skulks off with the cash. The council rejigged the road layout when vast numbers of student residences were built on those back streets as a measure to disrupt through-traffic. I expect the old trade no longer takes place, not there at least.
Even more student flats have been built there now. What benefits have students brought to Sheffield I hear you ask. Well, apart from the huge influx of cash and benefit to the local economy there's the improvement of run down and formerly derelict areas, with the bonus that the council tries to make sure that the place is reasonable to live in. All good stuff, although why isn't the effort made to improve the environment for everyone as a matter of course? Doesn't the part of the environment shared by those in social housing count for as much, can we infer that those in social housing consequently don't count for as much? Is that a sort of 'straw man' argument?
Living in a more affluent area it is noticeable that any unpleasantness and anti-social activity is nipped in the bud by the local authority and the Police in no time. Why might that be.
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