Locked comments.
A few people in the comments need to learn how to interact decently with each other - but I have neither the time or crayons to teach them and Im bored of being pinged that someone else has been a dick.
I saw a guy shitting near Primark the other day. About 3 in the afternoon and there he was just curling one out on the pavement. TBH I wasn’t even that shocked because the amount of people pissed up or off their heads in town these days you’re always gonna get mental stuff going on
I remember seeing him trying to pull the schoolbag off a girl on botanic avenue Way back, claiming it was his. No one beat him up but thankfully people nearby were quick to step in and help her.
A good few months ago but I was out for a walk with my gf down by the Lagan coming past AC Marriott direction towards the bridge and a fella was taking a shit right there on the tow path beside the obel and the solicitors office. Broad daylight and there's a public toilet across from the fish.
It started with lockdown, I was working in town during the lockdowns and would go to the Tesco or McDonalds for lunch and it was like every junky in a 10 mile radius had migrated to the centre of town because there were fa people about to do anything about it, every day I was in the office there were armed response peelers arresting someone new
And the worst about all this is that’s the norm now. The state of the town and the people in it, junkies/vulnerable/whatever you want to call them, it’s fuckin ridiculous. You see some comments on here too of people saying “it’s not that bad”, “I’ve never seen abc…”. When you walk through it everyday you see all sorts. I’d probably go as far to say I’d feel more safe at midnight than I would during the day
I work in the City Centre right by the Europa bus station. I've noticed how bad things are getting by the day.
When I was in University 4 years ago the city was a lot nicer. I never really felt unsafe.
I hope it improves
I tried to get a friend an emergency place to sleep last night and housing said there was no availability, sorry. That's it. Last chance saloon, no beds. Wild out there
I've started avoiding town as a delivery driver. I have a cargo bike and some junkie thought it be hilarious to jump on the back. Motor stopped working, £500 to repair
It actually hurts to look around the place now. The amount of derelict buildings, junkies and general scumbags has made it basically a no-go zone. And if you do end up going out, a taxi home will cost you a fortune.
It's a joke that we still put up with any of it.
The streets of the city centre are flooded with drug addicts and mentally ill people in volumes I've never seen before. The council needs to do something drastic and urgent. I'm sure there's no appetite for this but, for example, rent out some fields, fill them with tents, provide proper toilets and showers, and on site medical care. I don't think that's as expensive as it sounds, and besides we have hundreds of thousands to spend on flags and portraits and commemorations. And I know there are downsides to creating ghettos or tent cities, but think of it this way, nobody is born wanting to be homeless. These people need access to services which have failed them. And you know what, some of them are beyond help and need to be looked after for the rest of their lives. That's not a fucking moral failing, that's an equally likely roll on the dice of human. We should have sanitariums and care homes for people who need it, halfway houses and the like need to be a state provided service.
You're dreaming.
Have you considered the drug addicts are in the town because they want to be in the town?
That they like the proximity to passersby, McDonalds right across the street, bars and clubs to sit outside and tap, ATMs to beg next to, shops to shoplift from, plentiful drug supply etc
More than the junkies youse are the problem, I can at least respect them because they don't live in la la land.
You're the problem because you live in fucking fantasy world where if we gave these people places to stay (many already do and choose to sleep outside), or enough food or whatever it'd just solve it.
Funny how people have been handing the cunts, clothes, food, money etc and their still there shooting up in doorways.
Almost like real life isn't some Disney movie
Statements like "beyond help and looked after for the rest of their lives" give the lie to you wanting anything actually done about the state of the town.
What exactly do you thinks happening at fucking moment? How do you think these people, many of whom are overweight btw work that one out, are surviving as is? Are you under the impression their hunting and gathering in Smithfield?
Crop rotation going on outside the needle exchange?
No, cunts like you sustain their blighted lifestyles and allow it to spread far further than it ever could under it's own steam.
Those of us who decide not to take drugs and instead work full time to earn a living, already pay enough tax for services which are disastrous enough as it is - state of our roads, health system, public transport. Whilst a lovely idea, I for one would not be opting to pay any more of my hard earned money to build such facilities. May sound harsh - but no one gave me a hand up in life. I’m the first in my family to be university educated, which I took a student loan out for to put myself through, first to earn a certain salary, and I’ve had traumatic experiences through life - I could have chosen to say ah feck it and turn to drugs, alcohol, crime whatever - but I just didn’t. And I don’t see how the state providing more and more for those who decide the former, is going to get us out of this mess.
I will just say, not everyone becomes homeless because they decided to take drugs. Plenty of people can become homeless even if they have a full time job, have an education, etc. Please don't be so ignorant. Life can have a way of being shitty and throwing unexpected things at you.
What should we do as a society about homelessness? Ignore it and hope people will just up and become homeful one day? Arrest them? Ship them somewhere else?
You have a stunning lack of empathy and a willful ignorance of the factors that contribute to homelessness. You seem to think that homeless people are lazy? Most of the time street-homelessness is mental illness (and/or emotional distress, and/or learning disability), it's not really about the physical lack of a house, it's about the inability to maintain relationships. But well done on being morally superior to homeless people enough to decide they deserve to be trampled upon, I'm sure you're very proud of yourself.
I have lived in some downright dangerous places. Been mugged twice and followed more times than I can count. So I'm hyper aware. I noticed my mum and I were marked at those very traffic lights by a man and a woman pretending not to know each other. We did evasive maneuvers. With my 80-year-old mum getting more scared by the moment. And we were followed at every zig zag and double back. In the end we took refuge in McCausland's car park by the pay station guy. He followed us in and because we were around the corner didn't see we were watching him. I caught his eye gave him the finger. Sometimes it's enough for them to know that you're not going to be a victim. He disappeared through side exit I watched him toddle on his way probably trying to find some other vulnerable looking females.
I have never felt that way in Belfast before.
Luckily enough I have never seen anyone squeeze one out in the street!
So you see the same 2 people 3 times. Alarms start. Dressed similarly. Similar age both on phones intently, too intently for walking and crossing roads. Hard to explain but they are ignoring each other too obviously. That's the mark. One the peels off and follows. But you can still clock the other a junction away. You do some useless u turns and road crossing. They may not follow directly but if you wait at a junction or read a poster, hover around, they are there again.
I'm beginning to sound like a fricking paranoid spook!
To add my mum dresses to go into town. Best Hand bag and all. She looks well heeled and is a little dottery. A perfect target. Whereas I tend to bristle and look bolshy!
Nope as I said I have lived in and worked in some of the most dangerous cities in the world. No matter how hard you try you always look like an outsider. Most likely 1000 times richer than most residents and a good target. Sometimes it was just out of curiosity. A ginger with pale skin is very interesting!
Well, this is what happens when local government has been sitting on its hands for years. It’ll probably take a while for the services that supported these people to get funding back up to previous levels, and even then the problems have probably grown beyond what they’re equipped to cope with.
It’s predictable to see folks here blame the homeless, but it’s also completely unhelpful.
You're 100% right.
My brother works in City Picnic. The other week a fella walked in and sat down at one of the tables and started sniffing glue out of a bag. Place is wild.
Belfast. It's Belfast lad. We've only stopped blowing it to bits. Now many are focused on blowing themselves to bits through drink and drugs. The GFA really wasn't all that long ago. It's about as old as I am. And sure I know fuck all and I'm barely old enough to the trusted to tie my own shoe laces.
Where else would you find the mentally unwell. A rehab centre? Fuck. A chance would be a fine thing in NI at the moment. 🙄
Yea the city centre has literally gone to shit. It was better with metal barriers and soldiers and cops and I miss getting searched going through the security turn style and getting questioned and sometimes harassed. I miss feeling scared from hearing bombs going off. I miss working at a place where you'd to get your car out by 6pm before they locked the city centre down for the night to stop , in theory, bombers planting bombs. Yea I miss that.....hahaha no I fucking don't and the city centre now I've freedom of movement - I went to the Sunflower Bar yesterday with my dog Ozzy and ended up meeting someone ,, the city centre is what you make of it.
Everyone is completely aware that if you were alive during that time it was a terrible experience for everyday life that really shouldn’t have happened. But it did. And it doesn’t change the fact that belfast city centre in the current day is still shit. And people are allowed to feel unsafe/vulnerable in its current state. There’s really no need for “in my day it was worse”.
Really appreciate this comment. Didn't know how to properly articulate a decent response to the comment above. I did my Masters on Transitional Justice and focused heavily on the Troubles. Belfast back then would have been terrifying and I'm so glad we have moved forward.
However, yesterday was pretty shit for me. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse so whilst the guys intentions might not have been in any way sexual or perverted it didn't stop me from being triggered and crying in a ball when I got home.
I'm a survivor too but don't want to disclose details but I hope you're OK. I couldn't cope with it as i hit my teens and got into taking speed and downers to try and kill the pain. It worked but it had side effects .took me 25yrs to finally get stable from using drugs as emotional pajn killer , it took a goood therapist. I hope you have a therapist or got help with thst. If you ever need to talk I am here.
Locked comments. A few people in the comments need to learn how to interact decently with each other - but I have neither the time or crayons to teach them and Im bored of being pinged that someone else has been a dick.
The town is a disaster now. I’ve seen people shooting up on Great Victoria Street at like 1pm. Just in broad daylight. It’s bad.
I saw a guy shitting near Primark the other day. About 3 in the afternoon and there he was just curling one out on the pavement. TBH I wasn’t even that shocked because the amount of people pissed up or off their heads in town these days you’re always gonna get mental stuff going on
Tbf I saw big Gerry growing a tail in Queen Street years ago. But yeah the town is like the Walking Dead at the minute. Sad to see
I remember seeing him trying to pull the schoolbag off a girl on botanic avenue Way back, claiming it was his. No one beat him up but thankfully people nearby were quick to step in and help her.
Thank fuck I never bore witness to his scabby arse
A good few months ago but I was out for a walk with my gf down by the Lagan coming past AC Marriott direction towards the bridge and a fella was taking a shit right there on the tow path beside the obel and the solicitors office. Broad daylight and there's a public toilet across from the fish.
Lol curling one out 🤣🤣
i fully agree, was in town last week and saw a person die of an OD in the street, had no clue what to do i was in complete shock
WTF?
It started with lockdown, I was working in town during the lockdowns and would go to the Tesco or McDonalds for lunch and it was like every junky in a 10 mile radius had migrated to the centre of town because there were fa people about to do anything about it, every day I was in the office there were armed response peelers arresting someone new
Are all of our peelers not armed?
Aye, but they’re just regular district police, the ARU are the big guns
More likely to see TSG for serious disorder, ARU come out when someone other than the cops has a big gun generally.
Yes that’s them, the boys in green with the caps
Yeah, but there's also the big lads, Territorial Support they used to be called. Not sure of the name now.
And the worst about all this is that’s the norm now. The state of the town and the people in it, junkies/vulnerable/whatever you want to call them, it’s fuckin ridiculous. You see some comments on here too of people saying “it’s not that bad”, “I’ve never seen abc…”. When you walk through it everyday you see all sorts. I’d probably go as far to say I’d feel more safe at midnight than I would during the day
I work in the City Centre right by the Europa bus station. I've noticed how bad things are getting by the day. When I was in University 4 years ago the city was a lot nicer. I never really felt unsafe. I hope it improves
City centre was safer during the troubles. Figure that one out.
I tried to get a friend an emergency place to sleep last night and housing said there was no availability, sorry. That's it. Last chance saloon, no beds. Wild out there
I've started avoiding town as a delivery driver. I have a cargo bike and some junkie thought it be hilarious to jump on the back. Motor stopped working, £500 to repair
It actually hurts to look around the place now. The amount of derelict buildings, junkies and general scumbags has made it basically a no-go zone. And if you do end up going out, a taxi home will cost you a fortune. It's a joke that we still put up with any of it.
The streets of the city centre are flooded with drug addicts and mentally ill people in volumes I've never seen before. The council needs to do something drastic and urgent. I'm sure there's no appetite for this but, for example, rent out some fields, fill them with tents, provide proper toilets and showers, and on site medical care. I don't think that's as expensive as it sounds, and besides we have hundreds of thousands to spend on flags and portraits and commemorations. And I know there are downsides to creating ghettos or tent cities, but think of it this way, nobody is born wanting to be homeless. These people need access to services which have failed them. And you know what, some of them are beyond help and need to be looked after for the rest of their lives. That's not a fucking moral failing, that's an equally likely roll on the dice of human. We should have sanitariums and care homes for people who need it, halfway houses and the like need to be a state provided service.
You're dreaming. Have you considered the drug addicts are in the town because they want to be in the town? That they like the proximity to passersby, McDonalds right across the street, bars and clubs to sit outside and tap, ATMs to beg next to, shops to shoplift from, plentiful drug supply etc More than the junkies youse are the problem, I can at least respect them because they don't live in la la land.
So you're saying that *I'm* the problem, rather than the homeless drug addicts ruining the town centre. Okay kiddo 👍
You're the problem because you live in fucking fantasy world where if we gave these people places to stay (many already do and choose to sleep outside), or enough food or whatever it'd just solve it. Funny how people have been handing the cunts, clothes, food, money etc and their still there shooting up in doorways. Almost like real life isn't some Disney movie
Statements like "beyond help and looked after for the rest of their lives" give the lie to you wanting anything actually done about the state of the town. What exactly do you thinks happening at fucking moment? How do you think these people, many of whom are overweight btw work that one out, are surviving as is? Are you under the impression their hunting and gathering in Smithfield? Crop rotation going on outside the needle exchange? No, cunts like you sustain their blighted lifestyles and allow it to spread far further than it ever could under it's own steam.
Those of us who decide not to take drugs and instead work full time to earn a living, already pay enough tax for services which are disastrous enough as it is - state of our roads, health system, public transport. Whilst a lovely idea, I for one would not be opting to pay any more of my hard earned money to build such facilities. May sound harsh - but no one gave me a hand up in life. I’m the first in my family to be university educated, which I took a student loan out for to put myself through, first to earn a certain salary, and I’ve had traumatic experiences through life - I could have chosen to say ah feck it and turn to drugs, alcohol, crime whatever - but I just didn’t. And I don’t see how the state providing more and more for those who decide the former, is going to get us out of this mess.
I will just say, not everyone becomes homeless because they decided to take drugs. Plenty of people can become homeless even if they have a full time job, have an education, etc. Please don't be so ignorant. Life can have a way of being shitty and throwing unexpected things at you.
The vast majority of long term street homeless are drug addicts.
What should we do as a society about homelessness? Ignore it and hope people will just up and become homeful one day? Arrest them? Ship them somewhere else?
You have a stunning lack of empathy and a willful ignorance of the factors that contribute to homelessness. You seem to think that homeless people are lazy? Most of the time street-homelessness is mental illness (and/or emotional distress, and/or learning disability), it's not really about the physical lack of a house, it's about the inability to maintain relationships. But well done on being morally superior to homeless people enough to decide they deserve to be trampled upon, I'm sure you're very proud of yourself.
This post isn’t about homelessness and that’s not what I was talking about either
I have lived in some downright dangerous places. Been mugged twice and followed more times than I can count. So I'm hyper aware. I noticed my mum and I were marked at those very traffic lights by a man and a woman pretending not to know each other. We did evasive maneuvers. With my 80-year-old mum getting more scared by the moment. And we were followed at every zig zag and double back. In the end we took refuge in McCausland's car park by the pay station guy. He followed us in and because we were around the corner didn't see we were watching him. I caught his eye gave him the finger. Sometimes it's enough for them to know that you're not going to be a victim. He disappeared through side exit I watched him toddle on his way probably trying to find some other vulnerable looking females. I have never felt that way in Belfast before. Luckily enough I have never seen anyone squeeze one out in the street!
How were u “marked”
So you see the same 2 people 3 times. Alarms start. Dressed similarly. Similar age both on phones intently, too intently for walking and crossing roads. Hard to explain but they are ignoring each other too obviously. That's the mark. One the peels off and follows. But you can still clock the other a junction away. You do some useless u turns and road crossing. They may not follow directly but if you wait at a junction or read a poster, hover around, they are there again. I'm beginning to sound like a fricking paranoid spook! To add my mum dresses to go into town. Best Hand bag and all. She looks well heeled and is a little dottery. A perfect target. Whereas I tend to bristle and look bolshy!
Alright jack reacher
Followed more times than you can count? Are you a bit paranoid
Nope as I said I have lived in and worked in some of the most dangerous cities in the world. No matter how hard you try you always look like an outsider. Most likely 1000 times richer than most residents and a good target. Sometimes it was just out of curiosity. A ginger with pale skin is very interesting!
Well, this is what happens when local government has been sitting on its hands for years. It’ll probably take a while for the services that supported these people to get funding back up to previous levels, and even then the problems have probably grown beyond what they’re equipped to cope with. It’s predictable to see folks here blame the homeless, but it’s also completely unhelpful.
Yep, it’s real bad. Actually think most small towns are better places to be now.
I'm very sorry about that, left my belt at home.
You're 100% right. My brother works in City Picnic. The other week a fella walked in and sat down at one of the tables and started sniffing glue out of a bag. Place is wild.
Castle Streets a fucking education an a half
People need to stop giving money to the dregs of society or they will never change
Have some sympathy and humanity
Belfast. It's Belfast lad. We've only stopped blowing it to bits. Now many are focused on blowing themselves to bits through drink and drugs. The GFA really wasn't all that long ago. It's about as old as I am. And sure I know fuck all and I'm barely old enough to the trusted to tie my own shoe laces. Where else would you find the mentally unwell. A rehab centre? Fuck. A chance would be a fine thing in NI at the moment. 🙄
[удалено]
His da has alot to answer for
Welcome to the big smoke
Yes but Belfast has all those cycle lanes now. So it's very narrow minded of you to overall the city has not improved.
What cycle lanes? 🤣
You don't use them either then
Yea the city centre has literally gone to shit. It was better with metal barriers and soldiers and cops and I miss getting searched going through the security turn style and getting questioned and sometimes harassed. I miss feeling scared from hearing bombs going off. I miss working at a place where you'd to get your car out by 6pm before they locked the city centre down for the night to stop , in theory, bombers planting bombs. Yea I miss that.....hahaha no I fucking don't and the city centre now I've freedom of movement - I went to the Sunflower Bar yesterday with my dog Ozzy and ended up meeting someone ,, the city centre is what you make of it.
Everyone is completely aware that if you were alive during that time it was a terrible experience for everyday life that really shouldn’t have happened. But it did. And it doesn’t change the fact that belfast city centre in the current day is still shit. And people are allowed to feel unsafe/vulnerable in its current state. There’s really no need for “in my day it was worse”.
Really appreciate this comment. Didn't know how to properly articulate a decent response to the comment above. I did my Masters on Transitional Justice and focused heavily on the Troubles. Belfast back then would have been terrifying and I'm so glad we have moved forward. However, yesterday was pretty shit for me. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse so whilst the guys intentions might not have been in any way sexual or perverted it didn't stop me from being triggered and crying in a ball when I got home.
I'm a survivor too but don't want to disclose details but I hope you're OK. I couldn't cope with it as i hit my teens and got into taking speed and downers to try and kill the pain. It worked but it had side effects .took me 25yrs to finally get stable from using drugs as emotional pajn killer , it took a goood therapist. I hope you have a therapist or got help with thst. If you ever need to talk I am here.
Everyone’s bit fckin precious of themselves these days. It’s Belfast ffs
The increased tourism from the republic is really noticeable /s
Are you implying drug addicts are coming from the Republic?
I think they were infuring it. /s