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Edinburgh - what is wrong with the place?


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25 minutes ago, Thorongil said:

I am proud of how this thread has turned out and feel like I deserve immense credit.

That attitude might be why folk in your Edinburgh office don't like you and it causes a bit of an atmosphere.

 

😉

Edited by Suspect Device
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15 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

My biggest gripe with this thread is the folk that consider a 2 hour drive to Aberdeen as some sort of journey to the edge of the earth. 

Given that the only thing resembling a service station is Strathcaro, it pretty much is a journey to the edge of civilisation.

Strathcaro is an absolute hovel.

Edited by BallochSonsFan
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40 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Given that the only thing resembling a service station is Strathcaro, it pretty much is a journey to the edge of civilisation.

Strathcaro is an absolute hovel.

There is a decent chippy in Stonehaven if you insist on driving. 

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I like Edinburgh (lived there for nearly a decade so it would be weird if I didn't), but I do recognise some of what's in this thread. I worked in the offices at the Local Authority for a while and they were utterly obsessed with Glasgow. To a ridiculous degree. Everything was viewed through the prism of some imagined battle between the cities, and there was a palpable insecurity about it all.
I will say that this might have been particularly prevalent because we were working in development and planning etc., so perhaps that focused folks' minds on that sort of thing, but it was still pretty odd. I have since worked and lived in Glasgow and no-one seems to give the slightest f-ck about Edinburgh. I think that as I came at all this from the midway point around Stirling I was able to balance my view.

The city has loads of stuff to be proud of so I don't know where this insecurity comes from. There are some great parks, loads of lovely city walks, especially round Braid/Blackwood Hill, the Crags, and I'm particularly fond of the Water of Leith as a walk. There are also loads of decent pubs. Transport is a pain, and I did hate the crowds during the festival, but there are worse things.

There are a few things that summed up this neediness for me. Firstly, those "Edinburgh's Slightly Superior" stickers that did the rounds when the Glasgow's Miles Better campaign was on during the 80s. Those were pathetic.
The other thing that springs to mind is the Scottish Parliament. I was working in Edinburgh (again at the Council) when the devolution vote passed. They needed to find a place to house it while Holyrood was built. The old Strathclyde Regional Council HQ in Glasgow was empty and the council there offered it up. There was panic in Edinburgh and they frantically moved heaven and earth to make the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland available instead. The locals could not bear the idea of the Parliament sitting in Glasgow, even just temporarily. It was ridiculous.

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1 hour ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Given that the only thing resembling a service station is Strathcaro, it pretty much is a journey to the edge of civilisation.

Strathcaro is an absolute hovel.

It's Stracathro

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2 hours ago, BallochSonsFan said:

I dislike Edinburgh immensely.

It's a horrible city to try and navigate by car. I occasionally go to gigs in Edinburgh on the few occasions that they have something worth going to. I have to drive there as public transport isnt an option. Trying to navigate Edinburgh by car, content with the bonkers 20mph limit  and find somewhere to park is a pain in the hole. Had the trams covered more of the city then park and ride might have been an option, but the tram system was a massively flawed project that isnt fit for purpose beyond it's link to the airport.

I mentioned going to gigs. It blows my mind that Edinburgh has such a poor live music scene compared to Glasgow. Big city with a decent sized student population and yet they rarely have decent gigs in Edinburgh,. Queens Hall is a decent venue. Thats pretty much it, although potentially the take over of Edinburgh Corn Exchange and it's rebranding as an )2 Academy venue might help.

Shopping isnt great either. You have a few interesting places. Assai have opened a record store in the city and there are a couple of others. You have stores like Penhaligon. But overall it always seemed to be a shite version of Glasgow - similar big store profile but just not as good. Too much of the place is devoted to tourist tat. There's really no reason to go through to Edinburgh for something a bit different because it doesnt really offer enough thats different. I'd be partially interested in the farmers markets if they were easier to get to (see car/parking issues above) but its just not worth the hassle when I can go to Perth for their market.

Tourist traps are everywhere in Edinburgh. The balance between tourist tat and stuff that the natives might actually want is off. Which seems strange since Edinburgh is increasingly a city that hates tourism. The council seem to want to hit back at the tourists despite it being a major source of income. Its difficult to some extent to avoid tourism in Edinburgh given that the castle dominates the city centre, but the abundance of tartan tat and shortbread tin pish is annoying.

Edinburgh as a capital city just doesnt seem to have the energy or diversity of other major capitals. It doesnt really have much that's definitively Edinburgh, other than the watered down Gold Star that they spray on the chips - and even then that's made on the outskirts of Glasgow. You look at Dundee getting the V&A and seeing the waterfront redeveloped and think that its a city thats improving. There's a very good chance that the redevelopment of Dundee with change it's image and will actually make it quite a nice place to be, You can't really say that about Edinburgh. For all that its got the national museum of Scotland and the festivals, the city itself isnt a particularly nice place to be for the majority of the time and that's increased during festival season when it becomes genuinely unpleasant to be in.

I agree with all of this, A!

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On 02/10/2021 at 10:26, Thorongil said:

Only offices in Edinburgh have this weird vibe. And it’s been every single one of them. Charlotte Square. St Andrew’s Square. Leith. York Place. George St. Always the same pervasive feeling of low level malevolence. 

I've worked in several offices in Edinburgh, and found none of them to be like that.

Can you think of anything else they had in common?

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Those specific four are all gone.
Schooner was lost due to development re Union Square shopping centre - a huge part of why our city centre is in the mess it is.


The Schooner has now been replaced by another place that’s more coffee and craft beer- rather than sailors starting their sesh at 8am.

Due to a night out on Friday, the Bond film and the Celtic game, we decided to stay in Jurys Inn at Union Square this weekend.
Beautiful views over the city from up on the 7th floor there - and Union Square was fine with a bit of vibrancy about it that has certainly gone from much of Union Street itself.

Belmont Street is still a nice spot too, with several more pop up bars and cafes evident than last time I was there - recall the Burnley fans loving it round there, albeit when you see the state of where they live, not a high bar.


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I work in Edinburgh but fortunately not anywhere near the centre of the place. Hate venturing near the place unless really necessary. Plenty of shops in the east lothian area for us to use. 

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9 hours ago, tarapoa said:

Who’d have thought this, hot off the press about “depressing Aberdeen” ?

https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/03/these-are-the-happiest-cities-in-the-uk-to-live-and-work-15355644/?fbclid=IwAR0U8Kl2GCAoUM2vSTurkfby1fnvzo3tK6aFyhUQ9gIIA4eSn8zcsUyBxQE


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Obviously didn't ask me yesterday.

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