Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport
There are swathes of seedy areas in London with high burglary rates (EoA, Pond Mills, Lyle/Eggerton/Florence, Horton & Wellington, etc.)...just like comparably sized cities in Canada
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I'm not sure what the situation is like in other cities in Canada, but the inner city areas once home mainly to the working class/working poor are now more working poor/underclass. They have become much "harder" places with a lot of people operating outside the bounds of what we might consider mainstream society.
To those familiar with Winnipeg I'd be referring to the most hardcore areas like the North End (and not the West Kildonan parts of the North End, but the real North End, mainly south of Mountain Avenue), Point Douglas, the Centennial area, the eastern edge of the West End, even into Elmwood a bit. 30 years ago those were still woven into the texture of the city with lots of normal businesses, working class residents with tidy yards, a social network with clubs, churches, associations, etc.
These days those areas tend to have the hallmarks of poverty... business tends to cater to the underclass (tattoo parlors, bong shops, thrift stores, payday loan places, etc.), lots of social agencies/social services, few local community institutions, etc. There aren't many employers where a local kid can pick up a job out of high school.
And most noticeably, those areas have gotten harder. More crime, more violence, drugs, gangs, unprovoked assaults, etc. They aren't really places where a lot of people would felt comfortable walking around after dark. While we're still a long way from the situation in a lot of American cities, these parts of Winnipeg have been moving in that direction for the last 40-odd years.