Why is Coventry so crap? (11 Viewers)

[ajsccfc]

I couldn't drive a big car, I'd be terrified to attempt a park. I swapped from a 206 to a Fiesta and felt like I was in a tank.

 

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[Deleted member 5849]

Yeah great keep the life out the aspirational achievers.

Grendel in missing point shocker...

 

[Nick]

I couldn't drive a big car, I'd be terrified to attempt a park. I swapped from a 206 to a Fiesta and felt like I was in a tank.

I did it recently after the wife nicked mine, went from a really small car to an "executive" estate. Feels like I am sat on the sofa and gliding as you don't feel much from the road.

Haven't mastered the reverse park yet though.

 

[Alan Dugdales Moustache]

Don’t know if anyone has been to Zenia Boulevard in La Zenia, Costa Blanca, Spain but that’s what Coventry City centre needs. Knocking down and starting again in that vain. Everything including West Orchids. Cathedrals Lane especially. Open that all back up as green space bringing back the views of cathedral and everything else hidden behind it. In place of the precents and west orchard have a single story open air shopping centre with lots of open spaces and all the car parking underneath instead of all the monstrosities of multi-storey car parks. That’s what they’ve done in La Zenia and it’s bright and airy with no feeling of claustrophobia that I get in Coventry City centre. Doesn’t seem to have any problems attracting the big name brands and shops either. Open the river back up to

Haha, remember La Zenia fondly. Did my back in after slipping on the marble flooring and had to be helped on and off the plane . Redevelopment needs to be on a scale that Coventry City Council could never envisage. Cathedral lanes is too small. West Orchards is too small. It's a hotch potch of small scale ambition that doesn't go with anything that really sums up the City. Look what Birmingham has done to the canal area in the centre. What has Coventry done to make people want to visit it ? The area round the Belgrade has improved significantly but its simply not enough. Much of the centre needs bulldozing and billions spent on it to suck people in from 20-30 miles around . I doubt anyone outside the city would want to come to Cov when they can get a better experience almost anywhere else. Its about time Coventry was added to the official "craptowns" list volume 5. I've had a better experience at the seaside in January when everything's closed.

 

[Grendel]

Grendel in missing point shocker...

No I get the point but it’s just inverse snobbery - big expensive cars can be shown as a status symbol and a measure of material wealth - we should encourage not discourage.

 

[Alan Dugdales Moustache]

...as for the Whittle Arches.....well they're big I'll say that.

 

[shmmeee]

I did it recently after the wife nicked mine, went from a really small car to an "executive" estate. Feels like I am sat on the sofa and gliding as you don't feel much from the road.

Haven't mastered the reverse park yet though.

Cameras are a life saver. I’d be fucked in my fuck off car without them.

 

[shmmeee]

No I get the point but it’s just inverse snobbery - big expensive cars can be shown as a status symbol and a measure of material wealth - we should encourage not discourage.

Yes, like that famous quote: love of money is the root of all good stuff.

Why should we encourage people who are in their situation mostly from luck to lord it over others? It doesn’t make anyone any happier.

Or are you of the weird far right hypocrisy that people only work because they get big salaries and equally people won’t work hard enough if we pay them well?

 

[skybluetony176]

No I get the point but it’s just inverse snobbery - big expensive cars can be shown as a status symbol and a measure of material wealth - we should encourage not discourage.

We should be encouraging people to cut their cloth according to their requirements and not unnecessarily pollute an already over polluted planet. Big cars are not always a measure of material wealth. I know someone who has a brand new discovery and literally can’t afford to do anything else in life to pay the finance. I have a much better quality of life than him and by some distance. Not that you would know it if we were side by side at the traffic lights. Any idiot with finance can have a “status symbol” these days. Fair play to them if that’s what they want to spend their money it’s up to them but let’s not pretend big cars are an exclusive privilege of those who have “arrived”. They ain’t.

 

[skybluetony176]

It doesn’t make anyone any happier.

This is very true. The wealthiest people I know (and they are seriously wealthy, wealthy enough to make Grendull jealous ) are also the most miserable people I know. I put it down to one thing. They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, it won’t matter how much they have it will never be enough so it’s a self perpetuating misery as well.

The happiest most contented person I know is my mum, who’s had a difficult life, doesn’t really have a lot of material things in her life but values the things you can’t put a price on such as family above all else.

It’s my mum I’m envious of not the miserable millionaires.

 

[Nick]

On another note, what is it with lads about 19-23 or so now driving round in financed up to the eyeballs A class Mercs, Audi A3s and 1 series BMs? Yeah they might look nice but bet it's taking a large chunk of their income just for that, the other half is probably on a bottle of vodka they carry around all weekend for selfies.

 

[skybluetony176]

On another note, what is it with lads about 19-23 or so now driving round in financed up to the eyeballs A class Mercs, Audi A3s and 1 series BMs? Yeah they might look nice but bet it's taking a large chunk of their income just for that, the other half is probably on a bottle of vodka they carry around all weekend for selfies.

Status symbol and anyone jealous of them is just an inverse snob. Either that or any idiot with finance can afford a “status symbol” these days.

 

[Marty]

I think its pritty funny the way people go on about not being able to buy a house, a lad where I work has just traded his financed top of the range focus for a financed amg A class, currently owes about 40k on cars (still paying off the focus).

Back to the original topic, I'd like the city to become something good. We could have made a decent start with the city of culture, but when they said we'll celebrate our diversity and youth, you just know they'll fuck it up. I'd like to see most of the city centre go. Make the streets wide and pleasant to walk down, plenty of green spaces, knock down cathedral lanes and open up the views to the cathedral. Stop with this student housing bollocks going up everywhere.

 

[Macca]

Places I have visited that make Cov look like a safe paradise

London outside the centre
Birmingham
Manchester
Portsmouth
Southampton
Leicester
Stoke
The North East except central Newcastle
Swathes of the grotty DSS on sea south coast
Plymouth
Bradford
Rochdale ( fuckinghell)

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

I think it's really vibrant now that they've put Cathedral Lanes to better use and opened up the square to markets and attractions. Looks a site better than some grass and is now a productive space.

Excellent

 

[Joy Division]

On another note, what is it with lads about 19-23 or so now driving round in financed up to the eyeballs A class Mercs, Audi A3s and 1 series BMs? Yeah they might look nice but bet it's taking a large chunk of their income just for that, the other half is probably on a bottle of vodka they carry around all weekend for selfies.

Yeah they are the people we should be encouraging. Apparently.

 

[Joy Division]

Places I have visited that make Cov look like a safe paradise

London outside the centre
Birmingham
Manchester
Portsmouth
Southampton
Leicester
Stoke
The North East except central Newcastle
Swathes of the grotty DSS on sea south coast
Plymouth
Bradford
Rochdale ( fuckinghell)

Manchester? Your're having a laugh right?

 

[Nick]

Bollocks to that, I reckon there should be more education on Finance and things like that in schools. We didn't get any of that at school, we had HSBC come in to offer us bank accounts but they gave away a free football so of course everybody got one for the football for lunch time.

Then you get to 18 and it's far too easy to just get credit and nice things on finance. Don't get me wrong, when I was about 20 I had a car loan but it wasn't stupid money that I couldn't afford. It baffles me how on earth so many young lads can afford that type of car, even more so when you see the ones driving about in 35k S3's that are brand new.

Yeah they are nice cars, I wouldn't mind having one but I could go out and get one tomorrow if I wanted to be financed up to the eyeballs so settle for something not as fancy to have more spare cash.

 

[Marty]

You can't expect the schools to teach everything, things like finance, healthy eating need to come from their parents. It's about time people took responsibility for their actions. Our parents never got this sort of help from schools, it came from their parents and that generation have done alright for themselves.

 

[Nick]

You can't expect the schools to teach everything, things like finance, healthy eating need to come from their parents. It's about time people took responsibility for their actions. Our parents never got this sort of help from schools, it came from their parents and that generation have done alright for themselves.

Well yeah, there is that too. Don't see the harm in a life skills lesson that would come in handy in later life with things like finance etc though, it would be used much more than most of the stuff I did at school.

 

[henry the wasp]

I was taught to make a full English breakfast and a Victoria sponge in home economics. Seen me alright.

 

[wingy]

I just wish they'd have got their shit together about computers and taught us about them and how to them instead of just telling us about them.

 

[Macca]

Manchester? Your're having a laugh right?

Far from it

 

[Deleted member 5849]

The North East

Depends which bit!

Kind of glad I've narrowly avoided the Easter holiday to Middlesbrough, mind...

 

[clint van damme]

Places I have visited that make Cov look like a safe paradise

London outside the centre
Birmingham
Manchester
Portsmouth
Southampton
Leicester
Stoke
The North East except central Newcastle
Swathes of the grotty DSS on sea south coast
Plymouth
Bradford
Rochdale ( fuckinghell)

yep. Cov is a fine City to live in. The city centre is shite though. But as a place to live it's better than a good many.
And even if you end up in a dodgy area, even on foot you'll be out of there in under 10 minutes.
You can drive for 10 minutes in London, Brum, Manchester and see nothing but god forsaken shit holes.

 

[Otis]

I was taught to make a full English breakfast and a Victoria sponge in home economics. Seen me alright.

Yeah, but I'm not sure you are supposed to put them on the same plate, Henry.

 

[Gazolba]

<snip>
You can drive for 10 minutes in London, Brum, Manchester and see nothing but god forsaken shit holes.

You can do that in Coventry too if you drive in a circle.

 

[clint van damme]

You can do that in Coventry too if you drive in a circle.

I was referring to the non senile.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Absolutely agreed. I moved out of Coventry years ago to Rugby. Its a small town of around 50,000 with an out of town development called Junction1 Elliots Field that attracts loads for people from Daventry, Leicester, Leamington, Coventry.
Coventry could never do this without ballsing it up. Look at Hertford Street. As bad as anything Ive seen in the fag end parts of London and Croydon. Then you have the white elephant that is the canal basin, Fairfax street, the lower precinct then was done on the cheap, the upper precinct that needs bulldozing. The walk from the station along Warwick road looks promising until you hit the bull yard and then its like some apocalyptic nightmare all the way to the bus station which someone designed on the back of a fag packet. All neatly strangled by the ring road.
Nottingham and Leicester are far better city centres because of serious investment . Coventry city centre is just a serious, soulless mess .

Yet the first release very high spec luxury apartments in the Coop have sold off plan. Maybe things are changing, slowly.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Manchester? Your're having a laugh right?

You've obviously never driven in east or north Manchester. It's a shite hole (Hyde Rd through Gorton or Oldham Rd through Miles Platting & Newton Heath or Rochdale Rd through Collyhurst). Not to mention Cheetham Hill. All these areas are immediately outside the city centre.

Oh and the city centre is increasingly becoming a hole as well. Litter strewn streets. Crime on the increase.

 

[fernandopartridge]

Depends which bit!

Kind of glad I've narrowly avoided the Easter holiday to Middlesbrough, mind...

Durham is lovely, a good example of a town which is prosperous in no small part due to its university.

 

[dutchman]

Yet the first release very high spec luxury apartments in the Coop have sold off plan.

To an occupant or to a buy-to-let investor?

 

[Macca]

yep. Cov is a fine City to live in. The city centre is shite though. But as a place to live it's better than a good many.
And even if you end up in a dodgy area, even on foot you'll be out of there in under 10 minutes.
You can drive for 10 minutes in London, Brum, Manchester and see nothing but god forsaken shit holes.

This is kind of my point. Everyone is obsessed about the centre when comparing cities. I'm more concerned with where you have to live, the suberbs. It's alright having a city centre full of wanky restaurants but not much good when you can't step outside your street after dark. Even the worst excesses of Cov are laughable in comparison to some of the areas I listed above. Liverpool is much talked about on here and yes a fine centre it has. Would I prefer to reside in Coventry or Liverpool suberbs? Coventry anytime. Relatively speaking from my experience, Cov is thankfully generally soft as shite

 

[Sick Boy]

You can't expect the schools to teach everything, things like finance, healthy eating need to come from their parents. It's about time people took responsibility for their actions. Our parents never got this sort of help from schools, it came from their parents and that generation have done alright for themselves.

I doubt there was as many fast food outlets, microwave meals and takeaways with a few clicks/taps of a phone. I kind of agree that schools are already stretched enough as it is, but a lot of people don't have the knowledge to know any better.

It's a cultural issue across the country that needs addressing more than anything, fair play to the likes of Jamie Oliver for trying to address it. The diet of a lot of people in Britain is shocking.

 

[Marty]

I doubt there was as many fast food outlets, microwave meals and takeaways with a few clicks/taps of a phone. I kind of agree that schools are already stretched enough as it is, but a lot of people don't have the knowledge to know any better.

It's a cultural issue across the country that needs addressing more than anything, fair play to the likes of Jamie Oliver for trying to address it. The diet of a lot of people in Britain is shocking.

Fair point about the masses of fast food/takeaway places.

I don't think it helps with the government promoting things like the 400-600-600 'healthy' diets.