Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Who would want to live here ?
When I moved to Harringay in 1998 it wasn't a bad area - quite tidy and clean. I wouldn't have had any reservations about inviting people to visit. But look at it now :-(
And it's been like that for two weeks.
I don't blame the Council for this - they don't dump decorators' rubbish in our front area and fill the general bins to overflowing with stuff that should be in the recycling bin. It's my neighbours who do this.
Can you imagine trying to rent or sell a flat in this block ? Why does this happen in the 21st century in the middle of the capital city of a first-world country? Don't people have any pride in where they live ? Don't they have any sense of community responsibility ?
How the hell did we get here ?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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I could say so many things here but I know HoL well enough to know that I would be accused of this that and the other if I did by the PC squad. My solution? I f'ed off and moved. Real shame, but could not see any other way. I blame the HMOs entirely. No pride in where you live and no understanding of how other cultures work will do that to an area. Unfortunately.
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Permalink Reply by Laura on
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There is a massive amount of dumped rubbish around Harringay. At the top of roads, in the middle of roads (where the passage crosses) and at the Green Lanes end of the roads. EVERY SINGLE DAY there are new piles of dumped domestic rubbish. And you know what? Haringey Council and Veolia do not creep around at night dumping rubbish to make us all depressed, consider moving, and argue with each other about whose fault it is... no it's our neighbours who do it. It's other people living on/around the Ladder who do it. (And no, I'm not talking about the stuff that gets dropped off lorries by illegal flytippers, I'm talking about the stuff that very clearly has just come out of someone's home but they're too ****ing lazy to dispose of it responsibly).
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Permalink Reply by Nick G-T on
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I sympathise with you John. I see this each day I walk to the station and wish you did have more responsible neighbours. It's quite a smart looking mansion block that could do with a little sprucing up. A shame the bins can't be left round the back, though that may just feed the problem. Do you have a residents association that could get involved? Off topic, but are there plans to re-open the empty shop? If only the council would improve the immediate area and particularly Hampden Road; that might help attract more home proud neighbours.
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Permalink Reply by Friedrich Ernst on
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I found similar Picture in my street.It is a lak of community spirit!Neighbours burn rubbish ,the live alone in nowehre?
Well,look like the to so in theren home countrys.Only hope is to teach theren children that all the freedom comes from taken over responsibility.
Other wise we need a nil tolerance policy ala Singapur.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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As others have pointed out, the ratio between short and long term residents is probably a major factor here. People simply don't take pride in areas they don't feel rooted in - and there's only so much that can be done by the council/Veolia to deal with this attitude.That's not to say they couldn't be doing a better job: the current arrangement in Harringay, as I've witnessed it, is clearly an utter shambles.
Hopefully we'll see a change, but like many people here I'm currently in the depressed and dispondant phase on this one.
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No way. There are herds of "Resting Actors" up there, grazing on the plains.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Not so long ago in 2010 after a particularly awful walk with my small ones around the Ladder I entered that depressed stage of which you are all speaking and began my photo diary of the all the filth around the area, publishing it here and blogging about it on HOL. I sent letters to the council, to Enterprise and to local councillors. I obsessively reported every single bit of dumping in my bit of the 'hood and I even litter picked sections of the passage as I came back from picking up the kids.
I questioned the practices of the waste disposal and became an utter bore at area forum. Do you know what? I think to some extent it worked. Practices did change. Things were swept and cleared. Dumping/litter did loom large in local thinking and the streets did get better...
BUT we've had a setback.
A new company of whom I had high hopes have proved to be ineffectual and probably have taken us back to the bad old days of Enterprise before they raised their game. It is surely no coincidence that these setbacks have coincided with the change over to new practices by Veolia such as leaving purple bags overnight which attracts dumping (if someone is coming to pick up 'official' waste, they'll also pick 'unofficial') and having way too much faith in the local population to self-regulate their waste. The issue of HMOs and the high turnover meaning information about waste disposal must be constantly renewed is *still* not addressed and the council sponsored 'vandalism' of filling the gardens of the Ladder with wheelie bins adds to the sense of bedsit land.
Yes, it is our neighbours that do this. Somehow they receive tacit permission to do this by the current practices they see on the street. Alan has written and photographed extensively on this in his I is for Imitation set. There is no reason why a transient population should want a trashed environment. I've lived for short periods in a number of places but I didn't think that gave me permission to trash the area. We need to make a lot of noise about this. Complain, complain, complain. Report everything (that's what they do up the hill) and demand a focus from neighbourhood action teams on this.
With regard to the above, I've no idea why a block of flats like Station Mansions has wheelie bins. It was my understanding that flats would not be treated like houses and other options such as communal bins, recycling bags not bins etc would be available. Do you have any kind of residents assoc for the Mansions? Pressure needs to be put on the council to review their arrangements for your residences. You need to send these pictures to your local councillors and keep taking pictures of every horrible incident. Some happy clappy party types in the council would have you believe that there's no real problem with waste in the borough. Share your pictures widely and make sure cabinet member for environment, Nilgun Canver is aware of their existence. We could take flight but I prefer to fight. Council tax is too high to just allow them to provide a shoddy service.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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We do have a residents' association but out of 16 flats, only four or sometimes five ( always the same ones ) bother to turn up to the meetings. And I guess that they are the responsible individuals who wouldn't dream of contributing to the above mess.
I remember the Council information leaflet introducing the bi-weekly collections said that blocks of flats would continue to have a weekly collection but this has not happened. I suspect in their blinkered way, they were thinking of blocks of COUNCIL flats.
But, as I said earlier, I don't blame the Council for this. The problem here is the people who have new kitchens or flooring put in and don't ensure that their builders take away the rubbish: and the people for whom separating garbage from recyclable is just too much trouble.
Thanks, everybody, for your kind words of support.
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Permalink Reply by Julie - WPRNW on
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I am also inclined to flight vs flight, I think there is definitely more satisfaction in trying to effect change.
I am interested in hearing people's ideas in trying to change negative attitudes such as indiscriminate rubbish dumping in our community.
Just the other day on run home from school, a mum, in front of her 9yr old-ish kids readily dropped her rubbish from her children's after school snack on the ground, in front of the school. LIttering is a personal pet-peeve and at boiling point of how much of it in the area, I swiftly picked it up, put in in the bin arms length to the other side of her, saying, 'shall i get that for you?' She was none too impressed but frankly to do that in front of your kids, in front of their school, where are one's values?
Back to my original question, what can be done amongst those who want to promote community-minded, respectful values to make positive changes? All of what Liz suggests but anything else?
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