Living in Manchester I’m used to areas that you really don’t want to go into. “Moss Side” is such a place, most famous for the riots there in the late 80’s and for the band Oasis saying they grew up there, before having to admit they didn’t. Even all this time later things haven’t improved too much. The council tore down the curved concrete town blocks, affectionately known as “The BullRings”. However, the people didn’t want to move from the area so they moved into the newly built homes. So while the area may look much better than it did before, not much has changed.

But what’s the problem with this? Well other people, the ones with the money, don’t want to live there. This causes concern for the local council who have a sort of obligation to provide nice living so businesses want to open there and more prosperity to the area. But is it just a myth that these areas are as bad as you hear or are they misunderstood. Having spent a lot of time pseudo living on the edge of Moss Side for a while, I would say they’re not as bad as everyone makes out. That isn’t to say it’s the kind of place I’d recommend a friend to move into. If you live there, it’s likely that you’ll get broken into or you’ll be mugged on the way home.

I should explain why I’ve got thinking about this. Today I’ve been walking around San Francisco on holiday. There were a few sights that I wanted to go and see some of which are broken apart by areas which locals had said are “best avoided”. My default way to get around a city is on foot. Some would say this is because I don’t like public transport or I don’t want to pay for a taxi. However, the truth is that I feel I get more time to take things in when walking around, not to mention it’s healthier. ooh, back to the point of this winding tale. So, I walked through some of the areas which weren’t the most welcome looking. Perhaps it was chance, but I didn’t have any problems, even looking a little tourist like (having to keep checking my map). This being San Francisco the architecture was beautiful, far from the concrete mess in Moss Side but still it was badly maintained. It was another one of those areas that you would not advise a friend to move into.

So do all cities have bad areas? Of course they do, but perhaps they’re not as bad as people make out. The measure it relative to what you’ve grown up with or are used to. Take someone from Monoco and put them in an average area of England and they’d probably think it was a dodgy area as well.