r/Glasgow Tools

I've lived here on and off for about 25 years now, and one thing that is really noticeable here in comparison to most other UK cities is the rate of change and the sense of optimism. Literally nothing is as it was when I first got to know the city, everything is always improving - barely a week goes by there isn't a new exciting thing to see or do. I've seen actual slums disappear, cycle lanes and green landscaping weave their way through previous areas of wasteland, tower blocks pulled from the skyline and swathes of sensible, normal social housing crop up in their place. Violent crime has plummeted - the main thing that used to make me not want to live here was the feeling of insecurity, but that is now almost totally gone.

The city isn't perfect by any means but there's always been the sense that, since about 1990, things are always improving, people are becoming healthier and happier, life is starting to evolve towards the quality that some of the better european cities have but, importantly and differently, without being dependent on affluence.

I visit older cities like Edinburgh and London and they are mostly exactly the same as they were 25 years ago. Places like Leeds and Manchester have undergone similar rapid change, but seem to have lost their roots in the process, skipping straight from industrial decline to anonymous bland corporacy. Liverpool and Newcastle are the places I'd say have kept their identity in the way that Glasgow has while gradually improving the quality of life, and I'd happily live in either of them, too, if they were closer to the Highlands.

Or maybe it's the Three Judges. Wait, yeah, it's the Three Judges.