The gentrification of a treasured Notting Hill venue at the heart of the local black community for almost 40 years has triggered a row over "economic apartheid" in the area.
Wha..?
Residents say the Tabernacle in Powis Square, a community centre since the early Seventies when Notting Hill was on the front line of racial tension in London, has become elitist and expensive.
Oh, noes!
Ishmahil Blagrove, 27, a documentary film-maker and resident, said: "Big business has moved in and the community is being moved out. There are youths who have nothing to do now, spaces have gone for commercial ventures."
I do love the implied threat therein, don't you?
Locals, including South African actress Janet Suzman, said that the Tabernacle, occupied by squatters in "the siege of Notting Hill" in 1973 and closely linked with the foundation of the Carnival, has become another "trendy bar for bankers".
Because when it was a 'trendy bar for dropouts, deadbeats and hippies', it was so much better...
One, who gave his name as Emmanuel, said: "We've got a lot of disenfranchised youths who play in the park, they've got nothing to do. The pricing here means that if these youths want to come in here, they can't afford a glass of soda.
"We've got kids coming from private schools who can afford to hire the hall in their little straw hats but we can't afford it."
That's the way of the world, chum. As the council is at great pains to point out:
… council bosses, who provide a £95,000 annual subsidy for the Tabernacle, which has had a chequered financial history, have said it has to be more commercial to survive.
Translation: "Sorry, Denzil and Leroy, the money tap's been turned off.."
11 comments:
"they've got nothing to do"
What about a quick game of French cricket in the park with their fathers?
"What about a quick game of French cricket in the park with their fathers" ?
Never happen .. that'll go straight into the "too difficult" tray ..
They couldn't be arsed enough to invest the time & effort required to trace & locate their fathers ..
Maybe Janet Suzman would like to assist them .. After all, she can't have much else to do (haven't heard of her being "in" anything for years) ....
They get rather territorial these chaps. Wait til we get territorial then they really will have something to worry about.
They could read a book, ride a bike, play football, walk around the city, watch a film, in fact there are a colossal number of things they can do. They.are part of a generation with opportunities fore leisure unprecedented in human history.
The irony is that this bounty has coincided with the domination of our culture by a Liberal elite determined to convince them that they are oppressed and imprisoned by that culture.
Do all blacks in Notting Hill have such a galactic size sense of entitlement?
CH
You said:
'...haven't heard of her being in anything for years'.
Better:
'...I haven't heard of her'.
"We've got kids coming from private schools...in their little straw hats"
Oh yes, because pretty much my entire time at public school was spent in a punt wearing my straw boater and clutching my teddy bear, Aloysius. Occasionally we caught a fox and stoned it to death with champagne bottles. Then there was that ripper wheeze where I stole a policeman's helmet. The beak bound me over in the sum of £5 for that one, of course. Still, he was a Stowe man and likely didn't know any better.
I am confused. I thought this was the ideal of the multi-culti society we yearn for: wealthy bankers rubbing shoulders with the less fortunate from, er, another culture.
Apparently not.
Still, the Tabernacle drinkers could, to help further an earlier idea here, set up a French cricket team to play against the, say, Gangsta Rappers team.
I know that 'the youths' so lovingly spoken of by Ishmahil Blagrove, 27, a documentary film-maker and resident find plenty of things to do; there's shooting/stabbing/disrespecktin & killing each other for one. Then there's robbing an all dat kinda ting! Dem disenfranchi-i-i-sed yoots do Ok for soda elsewhere. When is all this lefty, liberal handwringing bollocks going to stop? When is the constant whinging and bleating for handouts going to stop?
"What about a quick game of French cricket in the park with their fathers?"
:D
"They.are part of a generation with opportunities fore leisure unprecedented in human history.
"
Indeed, and they squander it at every opportunity.
"Oh yes, because pretty much my entire time at public school was spent in a punt wearing my straw boater and clutching my teddy bear, Aloysius. "
There are clearly some stereotypes that aren't harmful. Who knew!
"I am confused. I thought this was the ideal of the multi-culti society we yearn for: wealthy bankers rubbing shoulders with the less fortunate from, er, another culture."
Good point! Did no-one think to check that the 'less fortunate' were as up for it as the Islington set?
"When is the constant whinging and bleating for handouts going to stop?"
When it stops being profitable?
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