tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7159946864890651879.post6863027454025236402..comments2024-03-28T07:23:06.432+00:00Comments on Open a Bookshop, what could possibly go wrong?: Local ThingsSimon Keyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10026040394346670345noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7159946864890651879.post-51512182647242604622009-07-13T18:47:08.876+01:002009-07-13T18:47:08.876+01:00Right! I have found some sense at last. I've l...Right! I have found some sense at last. I've lived in Muswell Hill all my life and even in this short period of time the area has gone rapidly down hill. 'Classy' couldn't be further from the truth. Muswell Hill is a tacky arena for Americanized suburban competition. I like to describe it to people as a 'shit Hampstead'. All of a sudden the shops are French boutiques, everyones middle aged (with surprisingly young children), overweight and white. Imagine being gentrified out of your own area, it just isn't fair. How can an area be cool if it doesn't have a record shop? Whatever happened to retro being cool? Why are all the pubs overpriced and over 21's? Why isn't there a pool table left on the planet? How many estate agents does one area need? Do men in Muswell Hill not wear clothes anymore? <br /><br />What is good about my area is the man I call the bubble gum man because he decorates the gum stains on the floor. He is London.<br /><br />What is good about my area is all the charity shops, because they are the only places I can afford to buy clothes and they are in good condition.<br /><br />What is good about my area is the 99p shop!<br /><br />Toffs used to make me happy, but now it makes me sad. Some people go for fish and chips, I go for chips because fish costs over 6 quid.<br /><br />KFC should be made illegal.<br /><br />So should the rich, they are disgusting, gosh, tacky, vain, ignorant and thieving! <br /><br />Someone has to tell the kids that this isn't how its supposed to be, otherwise they'll turn into their parents pretense and blackberry all their mates about it.<br /><br />Who shops in planet organic? who thinks that thats alright? that it makes any difference at all? I'll tell you who, people who are rich enough to fanny around all day with impractical contradictory morals. Lets recycle our plastic bags and drive a bloody tank around! Lets actually save battery chickens and talk about saving Africa.<br /><br />The end is upon us, the end of Muswell Hill, the Palace will burn again and so will any remaining glimmer of humanity, reality, life!!!!Mistar Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7159946864890651879.post-10338936014360646732009-06-27T22:31:19.775+01:002009-06-27T22:31:19.775+01:00We had a discussion about Noel Park in this course...We had a discussion about Noel Park in this course of this thread http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/threats-to-our-neighbourhood<br />on Harringay online.<br /><br />We are all wishing you well with your campaign and many of us will be watching your progress with interest.<br /><br />Here in Harringay, there is enormous sympathy with your problems. Just getting Haringey to admit there is a problem can be an uphill struggle let alone tackle it, because tackling it means finding funding. <br /><br />As to the whole East/West thing in Haringey, we KNOW that most of what happens here in the East would simply not happen in the West. Have a look at the councils future plans for development. Virtually no new devlopments being sited in the west whereas in the East, charming new devlopments like this are going up fast: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardandgill/3629806124/<br />Imagine if they tried to build that in Muswell Hill?Lizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08966133281474936237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7159946864890651879.post-54519784349481370622009-06-27T08:18:54.264+01:002009-06-27T08:18:54.264+01:00That's not the first time I've read nasty ...That's not the first time I've read nasty comments in the press about Wood Green. A recent Telegraph article used the phrase "the down at heel London suburb Wood Green" in an article about the M&S historic archive. Why they had to use that phrase, and its relevance to the M&S archive is beyond me.<br /><br />On a positive note, Noel Park got some good press as a result of the English Heritage Campaign. We were on the BBC 6:30 news on Tuesday, we were mentioned in the local papers, and we made the Guardian today, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/27/ian-jack-conservation-environment-comment <br /><br />Congratulations on the signs! We also got a grant to produce some educational leaflets, informing residents about the conservation area. As you said, it's a lovely neighborhood. It would be nice to keep it that way.Rachellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05616188385588061330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7159946864890651879.post-79493488841185830372009-06-26T21:20:35.780+01:002009-06-26T21:20:35.780+01:00Simon, I read that article and was also very pisse...Simon, I read that article and was also very pissed off. As a denizen of Muswell Hill I have long-awaited the 99p shop. Finally, a shop in Muswell Hill that might sell something useful instead of organic hoummos, art supplies or bruschetta. <br /><br />Having lived in Muswell Hill most of my life, I've seen the area change and evolve. It used to be a fairly normal lower-middle-class suburb, with a Woolies, a butchers, a record shop etc. You know, normal shops selling normal things. Now it's been gentrified to the point where every other shop is an overpriced boutique selling useless shit that no-one other than a well-kept yummy-mummy can afford. With the closure of Woolies, there were almost no shops in Muswell Hill where you could buy anything practical. A hammer, for example. <br /><br />Frankly, Muswell Hill can do with a good dose of Wood Green to bring it back down to earth. <br /><br />I mentioned the 99p shop to a woman who works in Boots. She said that they had been hoping to move into the vacant Woolies themselves. I mentioned that there was a very large Boots in Wood Green.<br /><br />"Yes," she said. "But people in Muswell Hill don't want to go to Wood Green. They go to Brent Cross instead."<br /><br />"But that's miles away. Wood Green is just around the corner."<br /><br />"I know," she sighed. "But they simply will not go to Wood Green."<br /><br />Let's hope a small degree of humility returns to Muswell Hill.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com