Alcohol-oriented districts

[imomus]

White people -- if you'll forgive the generalisation -- drink, and the further north you go the more immoderately and self-destructively they tend to drink. Or, to put that a little differently, the whiter your district gets, the more bars are going to pop up, and the more your Friday and Saturday nights will fill up with piss, shouting, boom-boom -boom, swagger and bravado.

When I first moved to London I lived in Streatham Hill, a residential district to the south of Brixton with a significant black population. There were certainly pubs there, but alcohol didn't entirely dominate Friday and Saturday nights in Streatham. For that you had to go uptown. A few years later I moved (via Chelsea and Fitzrovia) to Brydges Place, a tiny alley just off St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden.

I thought that being in the midst of a district dominated by theatre and retail I'd be living in a refined environment. Instead, I found I was living in a sewer. Brydges Place, of an evening, became an open toilet, used as a slash-wall of last resort by many of the thousands of people who descended on central London every evening to drink... heavily. My friend Thomi, who had a studio above John Calder's publishing house on Green's Court in Soho, had it even worse: people would stand on his step and pee right through the letterbox. Later I moved to the Chinese end of the Lower East Side just in time to see it teeter between a quietly industrious Asian district by day and a burgeoning, boisterous white people's drinking district by night.

Experiences like these taught me that sometimes what's passed off as a fashionable district, an artist's district, can actually turn out to be nothing more than an alcohol-oriented district. Where pubs and clubs dominate a district, the only artists are likely to be piss artists (and the odd DJ).

Yesterday Hisae and I revisited Friedrichshain, the Berlin district where we lived for over a year. Our only active tie to the area now is Smart Deli, the Japanese cafe where we eat salmon teriyaki and pick up our month's supply of Japanese rental DVDs. But every time we return to Friedrichshain there are a couple more glitzy new bars, a few dozen more people carrying beer bottles, some more drunks in the park, and lots more piss and broken glass underfoot. It's become an alcohol-oriented area. And -- no coincidence, I suspect -- it's predominantly white.

It's not that bars in themselves are a problem, or beer. I like a quaff of the old dunkel weissbier of an evening myself. It's when bars are the only expanding business in your neighbourhood that alarm bells should start ringing. Your neighbourhood, to stay liveable, needs to be more than a mere alkie magnet. And for that, I'd argue, it needs to stay mixed -- not just in the mixed use sense, but the mixed race one too.

Neukolln, where we live now, has a 35% immigrant population, most of whom are muslims. Our streets are dotted with Turkish, Iraqi and Lebanese social clubs where muslims play dominoes, smoke pipes, watch satellite TV and chat under bright fluorescent lights (white people's bars never have such bright white light -- drunk people know how gormless they look in that kind of blaze). What they don't do, of course, is drink alcohol. Islamic culture frowns on it.



It's been interesting following not just the embourgeoisment of our corner of "Kreuzkolln", but also its coverage in the Berlin media. My own coverage of Neukolln's transformation has followed a "creative class" template borrowed from Richard Florida: I've been focused on workshops, art galleries, shops. But when the Berlin media declares that "Neukolln rocks", what they mostly seem to mean is "Here are some new bars for you to drink in". It isn't even about house prices (Berlin is still mostly a rental city, and rents don't radically alter the way house prices do -- they tend to be controlled). It's about the Kneipenszene: drinking.

Two trendy new bars have just opened round the corner from us on the Hobrechtstrasse: Mama and Raumfahrer. Raumfahrer is an interesting case: the curvy-windowed 70s storefront it's housed in strugged for a year as a designer workshop where earnest girls converted Chinese laundry bags into inventive, quirky clothes and bags. They were offering cheap creative studio space in there, but didn't seem to get any takers, and suddenly they were gone, and their space re-opened as a bar.

The bar is doing amazingly well -- at weekends it mills with people, and the windows go opaque with condensation from all the chat. The contrast makes me a little bit sad. It seems to suggest that what I thought was shaping up to be an art-oriented district might just be turning into an alcohol-oriented district, another Friedrichshain. But we have one secret weapon -- our much higher muslim population. As long as they stay, the demon drink can never take more than 65% of Neukolln's soul.

Comments

i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[pitcherthis.livejournal.com]

for drinking, or drinking excessively, and that's the general oppressive working culture which seems to be less and less compatible with people's needs? i personally struggled with the idea of 'meeting friends in a pub' ever since i landed in england as i never could understand the charm of getting really drunk and spending the whole night shouting (rather than speaking, because of the noise) deeply meaningful beer-fuelled truths at each other...
soho is absolutely disgusting at weekends (i'd also experienced waiting for the last trains back to south london in the past, and they would inevitably be full of scantily clothed girls in high heels, barely managing not to fall over, and/or redfaced chips/burger/kebab eaters...)
give me a vegan cafe with cakes (very important) any day!

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

Of course, it is possible to drink alcohol, even to excess, and fail to smash someone's windows and piss through their letterbox. I've done it loads of times. Every time, in fact.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's all well and good, Rhodri, but just don't tell your muslim brothers.

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

I'm probably being incredibly stupid, but I didn't get that comment when you first made it last week and I don't get it now.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

Anyone who thinks Soho is disgusting at weekends should be gently led to a few British provincial town centres and left to peep from behind police vans at the unrelenting chaos. Incredibly, we're comparatively lucky in London.

And obviously there's a colossal grey area between having a cake in a vegan cafe, and vomiting into the lap of someone you fancy in an All Bar One. A quiet pint in a handsome old boozer is one of life's great pleasures. For me, anyway.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, those muslims sure are saints. And of couse the troubled or troublesome among them don't use weed instead of alcohol or anything.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You Welsh are muslims, aren't you?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

People on weed tend to giggle a lot and mumble like Tricky, don't they?

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

No, still not getting it. I imagine you're trying to make a point, but I've no idea what it is.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[imomus.livejournal.com]

My mission here isn't to attack "quiet pints in handsome old boozers". And I agree that provincial UK town centres are the absolute pits. What I am saying is that alcohol blackspots tend to be, demographically, whitespots. Living with muslims (and I don't really think you're one, Rhodri) is a way to keep that horrible alcohol-orientation at bay.

[mrobot.livejournal.com]

you've obviously never been to seoul. the vomit stains permeate the entire city.

3 cheers

[(Anonymous)]

All major cities, metropolises if you want. Seem to be coming binge boozing piss pools. People are unhappy and need some escape. They bore me as well. Piss artists are nearly the worst. There will never be enough muslims living here (london) to stop it, sadly. Welcome to the age of the leisure indusry.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

I think the increasing need amongst young drinkers to get absolutely shitfaced is going to have far more of an effect on your surroundings than having a certain proportion of Muslims living in your area.

One option would be to move to Saudi Arabia, I guess.

[tinyfolk.livejournal.com]

I live in a small college town in Indiana. We have this problem only one weekend a year when there's this huge bicycle race and everyone gets hammered. Last year we had drunk folks tearing up lawn furniture and throwing it against the side of our house at 4am. This weekend is the weekend. I'd go out of town if I didn't have things to get done. I'm glad I don't live in a city.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Alcohol and North. You didn't mention the Vodka Belt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_belt) in this entry.

Though it is about your current district of living, not alcohol in general. Just wanted to point that out though.

[(Anonymous)]

the whiter your district gets, the more bars are going to pop up, and the more your Friday and Saturday nights will fill up with piss, shouting, boom-boom -boom, swagger and bravado.

Your analysis seems to miss out on the fact that huge swathes of the white European population are Latin, and Latin countries don't tend to go for binge drinking.

Choose Christianity, kids

[(Anonymous)]

When is Islam a race? Momus and his commentary could convert tomorrow - would they stop being white? Wouldn't Christianity urge you to refrain from drinking as much as Islam?

But - is the 'problem' of revelry in the streets (don't go to Jamaica, Nick) really worth the brain-closure of religion? A few broken bottles - it's the patina of living. I say 'sweep them up and stay free'.

[god-jr.livejournal.com]

Interesting theories. I grew up in a working-class black and Hispanic neighborhood in the US, and we had plenty of drunks, especially on the weekends. But sparked by today’s post I just did a quick search on statistics and found that one site after another agrees with you: whites drink more than any other ethic group. Part of it seems to be the white man’s capacity. That is, if a white man and, say, a black man, were to drink the same amounts weekly, the black man would be more likely to suffer from alcohol-related diseases.

I can’t find any studies that go into motives for drinking: why do white colleges for example have bigger kegger parties than black colleges? Reason would tend to suggest it’s because they can, but I’m no anthropologist and will leave that to the research of “the experts.”

I do know a bit about Berlin though. Just from observation I would guess that the boozing in Friedrichshain also has a lot to do with the age demographics. Not only are more young people living there, more young people who don’t live there are flocking there on Friday and Saturday nights.

In Neukolln, where you have just moved, there are not just more Muslims, there are also more families and elder (past middle-age) people. But that can only provide so much defense against the make-over of gentrification. In the end “who lives there” is only part of the change, and the smaller part.

In my 20s in San Francisco I lived in the predominately Mexican, Mission neighborhood. It was great place for years, but during the dot.com boom (remember that?) it got gentrified into party central. And you’re right, it was mostly those damn white kids, not only frequenting the bars, but opening and running the bars. On the weekends those of us who lived in the neighborhoods were out-numbered by the swarms of slumming hipsters.

So your percentages might not have much to do with the final picture. IF Neukolln becomes the next Friedrichshain in terms of being a party destination, the piss artists will desend like locusts.

I also moved recently, and had considered Neukolln briefly because it was a neighborhood I always liked. But then there was so much hype over the area in the past year that I ended up deciding on another neighborhood (also known for its Muslim population): Wedding. It’s wonderfully quiet, and more central than most people think. The part I live in is a hop away from Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, and as we talked about before, on bike there’s no where in this city that is far. I’m also near the cross-town trains (S1, S2), the circle line, and the Neukolln-express, the U8—not to mention a beautiful park that most white people—including Germans who have lived here for years—have never even been to.

[mistresshellena.livejournal.com]

Was it here in Click Opera that I read recently about how the folks who complain most about gentrification are the first wave of gentrifiers?

In any case, the thought seems applicable here.

Re: Choose Christianity, kids

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't Christianity urge you to refrain from drinking as much as Islam?

No, Islam quite specifically forbids alcohol, Christianity doesn't.

You're right that not everyone muslim is non-white, and not everyone white is non-muslim. But the vast majority of muslims aren't white, so I'm being a bit lazy and leaving out the caveats.

I'd say, by the same token, that all brain-closed people aren't religious, and all religious people aren't brain-closed.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wedding is demographically quite similar to Neukolln, though, isn't it? Large muslim and non-white population, and good age-spread.

But yes, you're right, there can be a nomadic population of drinkers who descend like locusts onto an area if it gets bar-hip. When that happens, it doesn't matter who lives there. People will come expressly to piss on you night after night.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

For me, there's a tipping point which is hard to put your finger on. Friedrichshain has tipped, Neukolln hasn't yet. You feel it just riding or walking through the areas. And, oddly enough, the same sorts of people/phenomena can have completely different meanings, depending on whether that point has been reached.

For instance, I would rejoice to see a video store in Neukolln as good as Friedrichshain's Filmkunst (world cinema, nice cafe, trendy clientele). For it to appear here would be a sign that our area was going in a good direction. And it would really stand out here, because there's nothing like that.

But in Friedrichshain, Filmkunst just caters to the majority of the local population. It somehow feels smug and non-controversial there, part of a young white bourgeois hivemind. It certainly doesn't stand out. Context, it seems, changes everything.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Now, if I'm advocating "mixed use and mixed race" neighbourhoods, would that really be the thing to do?

Are you not terribly keen on this "mixed race" idea, then? A little bit of this, a little bit of that? It seems to work when it comes to music. Saying "You should move to Saudi Arabia" is a bit like telling Hall and Oates to move to Africa because they like a little soul in their music.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

Man. I didn't suggest that you ought to move to Saudi Arabia. I just said that moving to Saudi Arabia would make absolutely sure that you'd never get moronic white drunks vomiting on your fire escape. Someone else put it more eloquently than me a bit further down this page and managed to avoid having accusations of racism flung at them.

Anyway, what you actually don't like is stupid people. You don't like people who invade your space, behave like wankers and piss you off. Same here.

Yep, bars give more of a reason for thoughtless cretins to head for your part of town. Because inventive, quirky clothes made out of Chinese laundry bags have never been a big draw, have they. Anyone with the cash in their pocket can have a drink, but you need a bit more nous about you to appreciate world cinema.

From my experience in my part of Tooting, anti-social behaviour certainly isn't restricted to drunk white people. A proportion of the black community behave like wankers, too. The Muslims and Tamil Hindus seem very pleasant... but if I moved to Colombo I'm sure I'd end up living next to some c#nt who listens to loud music at 3am.

Re: i think there's a very simple explanation for this

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't making accusations of racism -- "one option would be to move to Saudi Arabia" just sounded a bit Daily Mailish, that's all. It sounded like you were about to say "...and get stoned for adultery, have your hand chopped off for theft, and see how you wish you were lying on the ground in Ipswich being booted by white trash alcoteens instead..."

I remember asking in a TV shop in Camden once whether they had satellite systems I could watch French TV on, and they said "You could always move to France, you know!" It was as if they were saying "Britain! Love her or leave her!"