The Burbs are all White

Midsize British suburban towns are all very similar. They are nice places to live, undoubtably that's true. And that's why people live there. But its also true to say that they are slightly more expensive than living somewhere where there are more immigrants. The additional expense of living there means that their inhabitants tend to pull towards the white end of the spectrum. The people with the money to do so, and it really is a lovely place to live.

Except maybe for the new electricity pylons which I am still getting used to:

Immigrants in the 1950s and 60s were from the Caribbean, Hong King or India and Pakistan, plus Italians always seemed to be noticeable. Now there is more of a mix, immigrants are from war zones in Africa, the Middle East, more likely to be Islamic, added to Tony Blairs Eastern Europeans, most of whom have more money that those in the former category and who can find work easier. Immigrants tend to get put into similar areas and also want to be with people they feel familiar with, which is why you get neighborhoods that then start to have features of the populations that live there. Shop signs in foreign language catering for specific foreign food.

This diversity is not something you see in the British suburban town so much. Yes, there may be a Chinese, Italian or Indian restaurant but that's about it. These are places where white people retreat in numbers to avoid the problems of neighborhoods where there is lower income and therefore more immigrants.

None of that is to say the people who live in the burbs are bad. People in the burbs display a lot of very positive traits. I dropped something whilst walking here without realising it, only to find it a few days later left on a ledge close to where I dropped it. Perhaps the one exception I would say to that is when these people get into their cars. Then their personality takes on a darker side, but that's for another blog suffice to say, the car remains king in these estates, and the large four by fours are presumably for protection against tigers and rhinoceroses that roam these estates unseen.

And those cars own this place, if you expect to walk along the perfect pavement and for a four by four to give way to you, think again.

The grass verges are really well trimmed, manicured to perfection, even any weed looks tidy. This is how we like nature, under control. The verges are the shape of a draughtsman's drawing on a page when the estate was planned out and carved out of the field. There are trees planted in the verge, not too many, but enough to fit the verge, 1, 2 or 3, trees, not huge, not old trees, but a nice size, the perfect size, picture perfect.

Behind the verge you get the houses. The bricks are perfectly matching, even if they're different. They're almost clean, like they have never been on a building site. The houses have features, but I'm not sure there is a personality. They look tidy, but they don't trigger any feelings.

My mum played the piano when I was younger. Some of the piano songs she would play were from the 1960s counter culture movements and I really remember one which always reminds me of these places.

Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky-tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same

And the people in the houses All went to the university Where they were put in boxes And they came out all the same And there's doctors and lawyers And business executives And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same

And they all play on the golf course And drink their martinis dry And they all have pretty children And the children go to school And the children go to summer camp And then to the university Where they are put in boxes And they come out all the same

And the boys go into business And marry and raise a family In boxes made of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky-tacky And they all look just the same

A song which this FT article described as:

"a mournful ditty of suburban malaise... the 1962 song sharply critiqued the growing conformity and consumerism of the US."

A ship that was sailing in 1962, was well on route in the late 1970's when I was playing this song on the piano, and which in 2023 has now well and truly sailed. In 1962 we were only just beginning to see that resources do not go on forever. In 2023 we can see the effects of those resources running out and the destruction their use will cause us.

The current fashion in the burbs is to remove nature with plastic fake grass or gravel or a variety of chippings or just paving and bricks in symmetrical shapes.

The lack of litter, anything broken, or dog poo is really something. Even the evening after recycling there is nothing blowing around the streets. There isn't anyone or anything on the street bar the occasional dog walker, or rarely a car passing by. The streets seem to be for display purposes only. Until the weekend where a few sterile cafes and bars provide a gathering place for a few residents who venture out. Not for enjoyment it seems, but more to be seen and to be nosey about who else wants to be seen. Most however still seem hidden away inside their new builds.

None of these things are negative. These are the reasons people move here and why they are nice places to live. But they hide you from reality. And its a reality that these people do know exists, but they are just not exposed to it and they do not want to be exposed to it.

We know they know it exists because they have all invested in doorbell cameras. They want to safely look out into the world and be able to protect their castle with this electronic moat of CCTV. Only after a a few days of being here did I realise that my dog walking route is being captured one house at a time.

The reality of Britain today, that is totally off the radar in the burbs, the reality is that a lot of people are struggling. In the burbs however, your worries are different and you have signs of the concerns you have.

In the city there are other things harmful to the well being the well being of city wild foul. There is a significant adult mental health problem mixed with addiction issues. The withdrawal of funding for any services in this area means this issue is now visible on the streets as we copy the American way of discarding our junk people from institutions onto the streets. Yes funding has been withdrawn from the burbs too. The library is now really just a facility that provides a computer so that lower income residents can log on and pay their Council Tax if they cannot afford their own computer. The local swimming pool has to be commercially viable, if not, swimming will be for people who can afford swimming pools only.

Homelessness is increasing and people are sleeping on the streets in cities, not in the burbs, the worst thing for a family in the burbs is kids sharing a bedroom.

Things are getting more expensive which leads to an increase in shoplifting and street crime in the cities, but in the burbs, that doesn't seem to be a problem, there is money enough to fund the lease on an Audi or BMW and if you needed to cut back to a Chinese electric car, then sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

Funding in cities means that litter is not picked up as much, roads are of poor quality and pavements are difficult to walk on. Food banks exist but I also see people running out of Tesco with their arms full at least once a month.

All of these things are hidden from people who live in the burbs and it must be a shock to visit cities and see this reality. They must leave and be glad that their hard work and enterprise (if it's that, rather than skin colour and privilege) has meant they ended up in the burbs.

I think if I lived here maybe I would vote Conservative, because I think I would feel the need to be protected from the woke liberal mob trying to make things fairer by allowing the criminals on the boats to come and live in my neighborhood. Who wants that spoiling things.

As for me, I leave and drive back into the city the roads start to become a boneshaking fairground ride. People on the pavement increase, students roaming around in groups making the vibrancy of a place. Old buildings, large trees, parks all marginally more chaotic and unplanned. Deliveroo riders swarm and even though I dislike them, I like the chaos and movement. The sterile scenes now replaced with a bit more character. Less well polished, sometimes crumbling, but interesting and changing. Doorbell cameras replaced with police CCTV replacing police which have also been cut back. Its dirty, its messy and sometimes people's desperation causes danger. But its reality, and that reality is getting worse, we can only hide away from that for so long.