London is a shadow of itself – our cities are left to die


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It’s too early to say London is dying, but something is wrong with the city and Covid has accelerated it. Surely there is a feeling that things are getting out of hand.

On Monday, flash floods meant the water was rising over South Hampstead and Raynes Park, of all places. The day before, on a happy occasion, Wembley was surrounded by people for 10 hours who drank before the European Championship finals kicked off: What did the FA and the police think?

I was in central London last week and it felt more and more threatening. Maybe it was the weather – the rain was monstrous again. Or maybe it was the silence: the department stores on Oxford Street were glassy and empty. How long can they survive if people prefer to have breadsticks delivered by truck, which continues to clog the streets of the capital?

What happens when offices are closed forever and most people work from home? This will work for the wealthy with free spaces for offices and gardens; or they could just go to Amersham and its Britain-in-Bloom awards piled on posts. For those who rent in city centers, this won’t be the case; Employers will pass a business expense on to an employee whose apartment is already small.

Are the beautiful buildings in central London becoming apartments? John Lewis moves into an apartment. Will anyone want to live in it when the city goes down?

I went to the National Gallery, which usually calms me down: through new security and ticket controls. Pandemic, of course – but will they ever be reduced? In the past you could just stroll in because it was yours, the national collection.

For once it didn’t calm me down: art seemed powerless against what was happening outside. It seemed small and tinny, and when it rained I was scared. As everyone said on Monday, it felt like an omen, the story of Noah in concrete.

I left London four years ago because I was afraid of it and because I felt there was no room for us anymore. The violence we witnessed at Wembley on Sunday – the frustration, aspiration and greed that led to men without tickets attacking others and leaving children with tickets outside – seemed ever closer to that, especially in the summer To stand on the surface, although summer riots have a long tradition. Politicians facing rioting pray for rain.

It was normal to be yelled at by strangers in Camden Town, where I used to live, and from my desk I could see a memorial to a murdered woman; and of course I didn’t know my neighbors. In the local elementary school, the children had perverted smiles. At the local nursery they played in the haze.

I am not surprised that they were sad. We have filled our city with traffic and covered our gardens for parking lots; therefore the water rose at least partially. This is detrimental to physical and mental health – nothing is as good as a walk or as calming as a tree – and, now we know, drainage. I have always felt that people cannot live happily without trees and gardens; now it seems that we cannot live without trees and gardens. After all, they are not a luxury.

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About Nina Snider

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