One of the things demanding an amount of my time recently has been trying to move. This activity has actually become an enduring theme in my life in recent years—and I still haven’t managed it. I don’t live in Birmingham per se. I live in a small town about 15 miles North. I’ve spent a large chunk of my life in this town variously. I’ve escaped a couple of times and somehow been sucked back in. As much as I hate this place (the small town), I’m sure it’s at least a bit unfair to aim that hatred at Birmingham as such.
I’ve even been looking for a place in Brum. But I have a few technical hurdles, let’s say, and being a dog owner happens to be one of them. Poor old Fred.
(Incidentally: Fred is now nine years old. Who knew? More about him in a future post. But he’s in great shape, apparently.)
Anyhow… Birmingham. It’s Not Shit, so I hear. I’m always trying to weigh that question up. Let’s try a list of pros and cons.
Pros:
-Renting is less expensive than some places, i.e. London.*
-I know a number of people in the area.**
-City centre has good transport links to most of the country.
-I’m struggling…
*But not as cheap as you might think.
**But the same is true of London.
Cons:
-Renting is not as cheap as you might think.
-The job market is in a dissipated, miserable condition.
-In terms of events, it still pales next to many other cities.
-The city is not terribly big and the attractions are minimal.
-The atmosphere, IMO, lacks energy & inspiration.
-There isn’t even a Fopp. Nottingham has a Fopp! Fopp is great, BTW.
-Birmingham accents are not very cool.
-The thought of being here forever totally depresses me.
I guess I lean towards it not being utterly shit—but it is a bit shit. I’d welcome any arguments in favour of the Second City, though. Tell me why it’s great if you want.
Having lived in Birmingham for 43 of my (almost) 50 years, apart from five years in the 1980s when I was mostly staying elsewhere, I concur with pretty much all of this. Birmingham is surprisingly limited culturally given its size and supposed status, and long-term local government corruption is definitely part of the problem. Apart from minor pub gigs I’ve been to more live music in Wolverhampton than I have in Birmingham. And employment opportunities, outside the dull world of retail, are dismayingly poor — it’s a finance-based city, but who apart from a few shits want to work in finance? There’s some lively local culture — black live music in particular — but you have to live here to find it and it has to be what you want (I’m not keen on reggae, which is the biggest live music scene in Birmingham). You might have more fun in Wolverhampton than in Birmingham — much livelier culture and counter-culture — but being poor anywhere is difficult.
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