[p0d]

I am a walker and walk around most of my city, Belfast. The affluence I encounter does not seem to match the news narrative. I am concerned that I have become hard-hearted. Alternatively, I wonder if I just see the world differently to others. I have not determined how to come to a conclusion on the matter.I have lived and worked in some of the poorest regions and housing estates of the UK. If anyone has insight I would love to hear it.

[tremon]

I don't live in the UK so I don't know if this is relevant, but you could possibly argue that Belfast has been in an upward trend since the end of the Troubles, and therefore it might feel different to people living there as opposed to old mining towns like Birmingham or industrial areas like Liverpool/Manchester.

[truculent]

Northern Ireland has done much better over the past decade IIRC, with more government spending and investment per head than the rest of the UK. I visited last year and felt the difference was immediately noticeable.

[meheleventyone]

It's a bit like climate change in that local conditions are not necessarily indicative of overall trends.

[Der_Einzige]

Ireland (including the illegally occupied parts you talk about) is economically far more prosperous than the rest of the UK.

[graemep]

I think the pessimism of the British is part of it, and as I have said before, the British have a rosy tinted view of the rest of the world. They compare to UK to the nice bits of other developed countries that they visit on holidays and business.

[roenxi]

You're not really saying anything there. It is a city. There are buildings. How are you judging how affluent an area is by walking through it?

[badlibrarian]

How deeply your asshole puckers at dusk when you hear a loud noise is one sign. Artists, musicians, survivors of trauma are clued into such things. Also parents with children, merchants carrying sacks of cash to the bank. You know, humans.

[roenxi]

That is crime, not affluence. Poor people aren't automatically criminals.

[badlibrarian]

It is called "street smarts" for a reason and there are many aspects to it.

[roenxi]

Sure, but I'm going to put it to you that on encountering poor people the proper response isn't for your asshole to pucker and then to start reliving old traumas. That seems like a pretty wild response.

It is a reasonable response to high-crime areas, and it is unusual for the wealthiest parts of a city to be high-crime areas. But an area being less affluent doesn't make an area high-crime.

[badlibrarian]

There's a reason your original post is a very light shade of gray. If you want to continue pumping words into the ether I suggest you typeset them in TeX and submit to arxiv. A paper entitled "Walking around an area doesn't give you any information about the area" may help you find people who can commission a study. Perhaps with you as the subject.

[vel0city]

There's a lot of ways to get at least a surface level understanding of the general affluence of an area.

How well upkept are the buildings? Are they clean and well maintained or are they dingy and broken with overgrowth? Are there a lot of open shops around? Do people seem to be buying things? What kind of clothes are the people wearing? Does it seem like many people are homeless? How is the state of the transit (both public and private?) Do people feel the need to have bars on their windows and security stationed around to prevent theft, or do storefronts feel safe enough to even have merchandise sitting out? Are people eating in restaurants? Are those expensive or cheap restaurants? Do people seem to be comfortable spending a night out on the town, going to bars and shows or are the streets empty because people can't afford outside entertainment?

[roenxi]

You're describing a scene that I have seen in a fairly un-affluent country (namy, Thailand back in the day) that looked fairly affluent (central Bangkok, the place was thriving). There were a lot of beggers, I grant you. But homelessness beggars are famously common in some of the most affluent places in the world, like San Francisco. It is probably more linked to outdoor min & max temperatures than anything else.

You can find relative class status of an area by the number of beggars, I grant you that. But you aren't going to get a bead on the actual affluence of the high-class people. Are they thousandairs or billionairs? All we really know is they aren't beggars.

[FirmwareBurner]

>How are you judging how affluent an area is by walking through it?

Probably seeing a lot of new/upper segment cars and well maintained houses.