BirdInFlight wrote:
There's a big difference between the cultural attractions and benefits of a city, and the daily experience of having to live in it.
The museums are great, but do they help me in the housing crisis? In my sensory overload every day when I leave my home?
All that stuff is there, but my daily life isn't about the British Museum or anything else. My daily life is about how my rent is becoming unaffordable. My food is expensive. I live with constant noise.
See, this is the difference between VISITING a place and enjoying all the "good stuff" but then being able to go home to a quieter existence, and living somewhere more comfortable for daily life. Vacationing is different from daily reality.
All those things about London do not mean a hill of beans when you actually live here. And I say that as a person who is actually into history, and yes I've been to all the places. But my DAILY life is another matter.
Only outsiders chastize Londoners for being unhappy with London, but it's because they are only thinking of that good stuff and not experiencing the ordinary bad stuff, which is the greater part of my daily life.
When you live in London you're living, not being a tourist. It's hard, noisy, expensive, loud and rough here.
Have you always lived in London? I've lived in the capital my entire life and while I agree with you that there are too many people living here, I don't find myself hating the city because it's overcrowded. I don't know what part of the city that you live in but I'm in SW London which is generally a fairly affluent and pleasant part of the capital. I'm also lucky enough to only be a mile or so from places like Westminster and Chelsea so it's very easy for me to get into the centre of town. Yes, it can be noisy and I live right in the middle of an area that's seeing massive redevelopment so there are construction workers outside almost every day working on various projects. Fortunately, I happen to have pretty good soundproofing in my home so this isn't too much of a problem. I do wish more could be done to improve air quality and increase the amount of homes available to buy or rent but overall I would say that there are more positives than negatives to living in London.