Stop the Gentrification of Central Bristol
By Roger BRHG
Saturday 12th April: Protest Against Gentrification of Central Bristol
11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls and 2.00pm Broadmead (Centre)
Bristol is undergoing massive attacks on our free spaces and culture by property developers and their friends in the City Council. Across the city green spaces, pubs, clubs and amenities are being closed and sold off with little consultation with the communities affected.
So if you oppose the…
* Threat of closure of the clubs and pubs on Stokes Croft (Clockwork, Lakota, Blue Mountain, Junction)
* The threatened sell off of Castle Park to the developers
* The loss of playing fields and green spaces city-wide
* The ‘private streets’ of Cabot Circus
* The dispersion orders on College Green
* The removal of the Bristol-Bath cycle path
* The loss of pubs and meeting spaces in our communities
On Saturday 12th April there will be street protests against the gentrification of Central Bristol. There will be two meeting points:
11.00am Albany Green, St. Pauls: Join the ‘Bristol Space Invasion’ Carnival Parade as part of a europe wide weekend of action against the privatisation of public space
Joining with…
2.00am Broadmead (Centre): ‘Save Stokes Croft from Gentrification’ party parade going to College Green
After the parades come along to Bristol Space Invasion Autonomous Zone featuring Art, performance, cinema, open-mic and live music – ALL FOR FREE! – Call 07528 953 230 or 07591 631 230 on the day for details of precise location.
Please show your opposition to the destruction of our places, spaces and culture, before its too late.
See you there….
Save Stokes Croft and Bristol Space Invasion
I totally agree – Stop the Gentrification of Central Bristol, especially in more greener communities like Greenbank. Have you seen the modern Neo-Georgian style houses beside the Railway Path? Best wishes for a successful protest and I hope the sun shines for you all.
I’m all for urban regeneration (of which I think The Paintworks is a very good example) but oppose those London-types and their topiary trees.
I disagree – I’ve lived in inner city Bristol for years and for years it’s always been a good place to get out of.
Anything that takes away the power of the gangs, who have shot god knows how many people by now, has to be a good thing. Yes, some nice pubs have shut. But Lakota isn’t one of them – it’s actually a part of the drug scene which has attracted these vampires.
I have a friend who has moved into St. Nicholas’ Road – a working class girl who can’t afford to live anywhere else. I hope nothing happens to her – but if it does, it’ll be because there hasn’t been ENOUGH gentrification, not the other way around.
I know people who have died because of the thugs and crims who run the poor parts of town, and I find it a bit offensive, sick in fact, that someone actually wants to keep the inner city a slum.
Don’t black people deserve to live in safe streets and watch the value of their homes go up? It’s racist as well as classist to say that fixing up a once-neglected part of town is some kind of moral outrage. It has already been gentrified – my favourite pub for years shut down so that poverty tourists and backpackers could have somewhere to hang out. Nobody complained about that.
Sorry – I hit return too soon
Contd:
But then the Eclipse wasn’t a hippy hangout was it? Actual working class people used to go there rather than stereotypes, politicos and druggies, so it wasn’t worth saving and didn’t get a campaign.
I’m surprised to see this coming from you, BristolBlogger, because you’re normally right on the button, but this attempt to conflate the very serious threat that the council will detroy our parks and public spaces with the regeneration of the inner city, is nothing but sour grapes from a bunch of hairies who couldn’t care less about the working class, much less local culture. In fact, these guys are the shock troops of gentrification themselves- the pseudo-homeless wannabes, the “anarchists” who bring a touch of “local colour” to the area, making it attractive to yuppies in the first place.
Please – just remember the dead when you talk about how the renovation of St. Pauls is equal to some sort of social cleansing. The place is a slaughterhouse and the victims tend to be young black men – as far a lot of people are concerned, it could d0 with a spot of gentrification.
Keeping the inner city a slum? Do you even know what gentrification means? It means displacement of community and social class. Do you really think if St Paul’s was gentrified your mate would be able to afford to live there? No, she’d have to go to somewhere else, probably just as bad. Gentrification does not mean improving a community, it means changing it completely. If the people of St Paul’s are so poor, do you also think they all own their own houses? The first to go are those who rent because the prices shoot up. You really do not understand gentrification at all. This is not an altruistic venture of community rescue. It is money making and profiteering. They’re building Harvey Nichols around the corner and they aren’t expecting the residents of St Paul’s to keep it afloat.
I come from London, last year I had a friend shot in the back of the head and killed. The gentrification of Tottenham won’t stop the killing. If you want to see a slaughterhouse go to South London. It has had the fuck gentrified out of it and guess what? Fuck has the violence stopped. I’m not blaming gentrification for making it worse but it has gotten worse and not better. The people of South London don’t think more wealthy, and at the end of the day white people in their area will help, what a stupid thing to suggest. Community solutions are what is needed to cure the ills of violent inner cities. You combat it through getting into the community, injecting cash into youth centres and workers, job creation and all that jazz. The problem will only move to the closest, cheaper place to live and the horrid experience of displacement only creates more problems. Gentrification does NOTHING to help.
Sam and I were a portion who helped to organise the Stokes Croft protest and we have been campaigning against gentrification from a class perspective in both London and Bristol for a while now. Don’t fucking judge everyone campaigning against this. You weren’t there. By and large, these were ordinary people who who live in and around and use the area and value it. Many people on this have been and are also involved in campaigns to save playing fields and parks and other valuable assets. They know the situation in the wider context of not just gentrification but developments across the city. Community is so valuable to the people and that is what we are trying to protect, the solutions come from community. I don’t think you know what gentrification is.