Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 20, 2010 at 21:39
I dont know what happened but the next day there were police everywhere again down Stanhope gardens cus of somethign going on at th Kurdish Centre. I feel every other day brings something nasty down the lanes! I know crime happens everywhere even quiet villages but the regularity of things lately is really perturbing me. I feel my home is on the front line.
Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 21, 2010 at 19:24
I guess I just dont love Harringay anymore Liz. I used to but that was 10 years ago and I see it has changed for the worse. Sorry to say that. I think right now this site is one of the best things about Harringay! I quite like the Salisbury too. Maybe my time is just done with this place and will let you younger folk make something good out of it! good luck.
I think the last few months in Harringay have been quite tough - quite a lot of very nasty incidents that have understandably had a lot of attention. I do sympathise. I remember I moved here around the time some poor man was killed in a fight outside one of the social clubs on Green Lanes (around ten years ago), and just felt completely twitchy about everything in the area for quite a long time. That side of things has improved I think, even if various other things haven't.
As an aside, I wonder whether the number of incidents like this has actually gone up or whether this site is just making us more aware of them...
Permalink Reply by Ruth on February 24, 2010 at 0:19
hi Alison
I remember that incident outside the club. That was the time there were armed men, with machetes, storming down Green Lanes. Ok- we dont get that anymore! But there are so many other things going on like the HMO's, the noise, the litter, the sheer rudeness of people, the overcrowded bendy 29s, the being pestered and sometimes the sheer volume of people out there that you can barely get by on the pavement.... I'm afraid my list of negative things is long, just from my own observations and experiences and of my neighbours who have lived here for decades. Of course, the site does make us more aware of things going but now we can find out where those 5 cop cars were rushing to, rather than the incidents being anonymous.
Every place has a place and a period in a persons life and probably I am done with mine here. Goodness knows where I will go to tho! that is the next issue. thanks for your thoughts.
(watch this comment disappear from the 'front page'. Admin content monitoring again. So boring. And it'll be kept off the 'weekly mail out' too. Shhh, everything's rosy out there. HOL doing it for the politicians.)
Permalink Reply by Liz on February 24, 2010 at 10:12
or indeed the country, I was listening to a very sad discussion on the radio about a shopkeeper in a small village in Huddersfield who was beaten to death in his shop for a few cigs and some sweets. I'm sure if you search for crime news around other parts of London you'll find similar crimes to the ones reported here (well I know you do, having worked in Camden for 9 years where no handbag is safe)
Permalink Reply by Liz on February 24, 2010 at 10:09
Perhaps Matt you can take all this to the next police ward panel meeting that I believe you attend and get back to us via your blog with the police response to the concerns you've raised.
Maybe the crime stats (as skewed as they are) will show whether the crime is actually getting worse in this area, or whether its just because we have a heightened sense of whats wrong with Harringay. It's true, the negatives are so regularly highlighted on HOL and residents who dont use this site are probably not aware of all the incidents etc that we know of.
That said, after thirty years living on the ladder (since 1978!), my family is looking to move on too, for the same reasons as you, Ruth. It was a nice area during the eighties, but has declined ever since. We have a soft spot for the area because we've been around for so long so hoped to see a change for the better, but I guess we've sadly started to lose faith that it will improve! :(
Just where to go to next is the question. Most parts of London that have houses of similar value and size have the same social problems as Harringay does.