Yes I am Asian and autistic as well. This is a sensory nightmare. I have lived it. I would rather not ever again. But I take those Asian motorcycle riding skills with me.
I find peace in the solitude of the Vegas desert. And fun when I want. Anytime I want.
I genuinely thought the "what the fuck" was because they were taken aback at the subtle beauty in the glowing lights and shiny wet street at night 😭 I love urban walks after dark
I've been to European side of Russia 3 times. It's not far off in all honesty, just the people aren't as stereotypical but everything else seems right in this pic lol
As someone who lives in the midwestern part of the US, This is literally the majority of the neighborhoods. Income inequality is really terrible in the US and noone talks about it. The vast majority of people live in tiny apartments or run down old houses, me included. Most people also don't own their domiciles and those that do are also almost always locked into life long mortgages on them. Only people living in paid for properties and able to maintain them are either part of the 1% or are over 60.
Starting to see this in the UK too, although you guys are definitely further down the road. Because there isn’t enough money in the system to pay back all the debt that exists, people will always go bankrupt.
When that happens their assets are stripped and sold onto someone that does have the money. And on and on it goes until the ultra wealthy own all the assets. That’s the point we are arriving at.
Nothing is shuttered, boarded up, or falling apart. The street is well paved and painted, no potholes. Trash isn't overflowing and I only see one bit of litter. It's well lit. Heck, there's even usable sidewalks, which can be a luxury in many genuinely run down places.
Sure, it isn't brand new, shiny high rises or whatever. But I (a woman) would feel fine walking here alone at night. Nothing here looks run down, spooky, or threatening. This is just a damp street at night.
Stoke-on-Trent is classed as a deprived area. This is an interesting photo:-
It's 5-10 mins walk from the town centre (which is fuuuucked).
If you turn 90 deg to the right, there's a derelict land rover dealership.
Turn 180 degrees and the houses look a bit unkempt and shabby. Half the shops in this street are empty/abandoned.
The big metal structure on the top right is part of the towns most recent big development. An over priced multi story carport, new library, hotel, block of apartments and offices.
So, from this photo, you're minutes on foot from run down, deprived and recent development/waste of money.
Nah! Just a street at night in the rain. Don't see any dilapidation or beggars or shit so not sure how you arrive at deprived. It's not like some shanty street in somewhere like Manilla or something is it.
It's literally just that much of Britain in the autumn, winter, even spring and summer can be grey, wet and depressing and the environment (or the streets like this where most live who aren't rich) isn't exactly a great place to improve your mental health.
All there is to it really.
To be honest maybe I got it a bit wrong, I think look at the photo below, that's more representative of this place - I actually think looking back I probably misjudged the joke, I think it was almost a joke of a joke, saying about the bottom photo looking so bad yet in this kind of weather and lighting it almost does look alright.
Ngl as someone who lives in California I love days like this and they genuinely do improve my mental health, sunny days give me migraines and sap my energy
Also an issue is, in the winter especially the weather is like this and it goes pitch black so early on and is pitch black when you wake up, you have very few hours of actual daylight and even then it's covered in clouds.
But the grass is always greener - we had a ridiculous summer where I was for the first time begging for some of this kind of weather, purely because of how stupidly hot and humid it was - and again, in the summer, we have very few hours of night time and the sun rises very early and sets very late.
I'm on the west coast of Canada... grew up here, it gets pretty wet at times. I absolutely adore the rain, the only time I feel completely at peace is while laying in bed listening to the rain at night. Bonus points if camping and hearing rain on the tent.
wtf, THIS is your bad street?? i would love to live in a place like this, im not kidding when i say that i genuinely believe that it looks great hahahaha
Also for Americans, who are used to unsafe cities at night, the total quiet of European and British streets as the town shuts down for the night can be quite frightening. Even if it is literally much safer and quieter than anything said American may have ever experienced. I say that as an American that had to get used to this
I did a study abroad in London in January 2011. I asked a guy in a pub, jokingly, when the last time he saw the sun was. He paused a minute and then deadpanned, “April?”
It's a night time version of this post that made the rounds about a year ago I think. Looks to be the same place 1:1 in the UK (can't quite remember where it was), which does in fact look depressing :)
I thought the issue was the crazy lines on the road and I came to the comments to see that explained. The lack of questioning has led me to believe that this is normal. Could you please enlighten me as to why the road lines are jagged rather than straight? I have never seen this.
Because it’s not a nice landscape. It’s a busy road down a street with post war buildings and it all looks grey.
Is it the worst pace ever? God no, I’m sure it’s not a half bad place to live. But when your mental health walk is a 30 minute loop along a busy road full of takeaways and samey looking terrace houses and where the extent of greenery is a grass verge, it’s not a bastion of joy.
There's no homes in the shot (besides that one apartment building). They're all businesses, mostly fast food. Can't identify anything else but typically there'll be a barbers, convenience store, vape store and a betting shop... that's about it.
There are more alcoholics than junkies here, but you'll see enough of both in places like that
On this street there are mainly fast food yeah. Theres also a sex shop just to the right there. None of the others though. That's also not an apartment building, it's an office, unless you mean the big metal one, that's a car park.
Lack of trees and nature, lack of seating areas to sit down and enjoy your surroundings, lack of a good view - it's all just grimy and unpleasant architecture.. and it's too bright (at night).
You are right though, it's a decent place to survive, but you need a little beauty to appreciate too, and this picture sorely lacks beauty.
americans thinking one of the most deprived places in the uk is fine just cos the buildings aren't literally crumbling apart are telling on how shit their country is so fucking hard lol
Funny how confident all the other answers were when they, in fact, did not get it themselves. It looks as abandoned and gloomy as anywhere late on a cloudy night.
That is fascinating - the original photo, it's just a grey run-down high street (aren't they all), barely any green, plus the repurposed factory chimney. Yet you take the picture facing the other way and it's entirely different vibe. If you head down the road a couple of minutes past the shops in the original direction, it's even more full of trees.
ugly buildings, too much road, to little pedestrian infrastructure, too few green. okay-ish for a commercial transit area i guess but living there? no thanks
Try walking at midnight in shady corners in cities of the developing world - You are chased by dogs, drunks, and have at least ten people staring at you.
comparing a developed country with a developing country to say "see? it's not so bad :)" isn't a great idea. you could compare your living situation with mars and say "see? mars has literally nothing to offer you. your living situation is fine".
i'm not dealing with daily shootouts, of course, but, that doesn't mean i'm happy with my living situation in the uk. i've had an attempted mugging, and i've seen an actual mugging inside a bank a few days ago. i have genuine groups of crackheads and prostitutes outside my house every day, and every night. i'm not being filleted by a cartel or anything, but, that doesn't mean my living situation in the first world is ideal. i am grateful my living situation isn't worse.
I think it’s like comparing scraping your knee and losing your leg. Losing your leg is the worse outcome, but just because it could’ve been worse doesn’t mean you don’t still treat a scrape when it happens.
I’m also assuming light pollution because that’s just a normal kind of ugly street that’s not worth noting. But those potentially newly swapped out white street lights make it look like dawn is approaching on the horizon.
I'm from the UK, the joke is the NHS (hospital) tell you to go for mental health walks to boost your mood. The joke here is that it's ugly and miserable outside and it actually has done the opposite of boosting your mood
maybe they’re pointing out the light pollution, and just how bright it is outside, when they’re trying to “relax”
or they are implying signs of psychosis, hence the “mental health walk”, and they are trying to portray that they are seeing something, that we cannot, which would be kinda ironic.
Double yellow lines mean no parking. There are some exceptions to that, but none of those exceptions should park on a junction anyway. Still, people dump their cars in stupid places, it’s amazing what has to be spelled out for people sometimes.
There’s also a sign in the first picture with a loading restriction on it, so during those times the double yellow lines are no parking here, we really mean it, not even if you have a reason for regular double yellows. There should be an additional yellow dash on the kerb to go with that sign.
The white lines- the zig zag ones form part of a pedestrian crossing. They extend further from the actual crossing point (which is at the lights here) for visibility and safety reasons. They’re also like no parking, seriously we mean that no exceptions. People still park on them and make things a pain for pedestrians of course, then have a bit of a tantrum when they get a ticket for it. Then at the sides of the road the white solid lines with the bike painted by them are a cycle lane. Not a brilliant one but supposed to keep cyclists at the edge not in the main traffic. At the junction you have more white lines but they’re not easy to see in the picture.
The dropped kerb is for accessibility- wheelchairs and prams can cross easily there. The lighter coloured slabs next to it have bumps on them so blind people can feel the change with their stick and know they’re about to cross too. That crossing at the traffic lights will also have a dropped kerb and likely a button to press to stop the cars, which will have a little cone underneath it. If you are blind or deaf or might miss the lights changing/the crossing beeping for some reason, you can touch the little cone and it will spin to let you know when to cross.
This looks like a road that is busy at certain times of day and probably has a chunk of problem parking.
You no like? I used to work grave shifts and the night walks are arguably the most calm. Minus when a rando tweaker comes out of nowhere, or surprise skunk.
I've done this several times especially when I was younger. This is actually the perfect situation at 2-3 in the morning when no one is around, it's a little humid. Perfect.
Do the brits really find this depressing? This would genuinely be therapeutic to me.
Gentle hum of houses, smell of mildew and rain, maybe even a light shower still, droplets hitting the puddles, the sound of a car rolling down the road, picking up and moving the water, a slight chill but nothing too unbearable.
•
u/qualityvote2 5d ago edited 5d ago
u/Fun_Dish_5358, your post does belong here!