Just too many people have a downer on the place. Maybe we need to look back to what we have achieved to move on and make the City great. People are great but truthfully our biggest asset is our history. Something needs to be done sharpish.
Bigger and better shopping venues, an airport, City centre revamp. Not sure as I'm not from Sunderland. It's not attractive though to anybody outside of Sunderland. Where do you ever see Sunderland advertised for anything on the TV adverts, newspaper or radio? It doesn't happen. It needs a major redevelopment and better promoting outside of the area
Well, I moved away from Sunderland aged 19, and bar 2 fleeting weeks when I was waiting for the keys to a new place, I've never considered a return. Sunderland has an insurmountable issue with access to the city, the A19 is a good drive out, and that will always ward off major multi-national companies, which, like or loath, make a city economy stronger. Then, sadly, we have the jokers running the city. Now, when I was a young lad, I was going to go work at the brewery, a few weeks before I was due to start an apprenticeship, news broke of the closure, as such, from age 16 I had an interest in the council, stemming from the promises made in the aftermath of losing Vaux. First we had Tyne & Wear development corporation, which did absolutely **** all with a prime city centre site, the handed it on, to One NE I believe it was? They did even worse, Tesco submitted plans that would have created a visually attractive site and a thousand or so jobs, sadly, this was blocked, one can only assume because Tesco, as a supremely run and ethical company, don't do brown envelopes. The city could be fantastic, with some foresight the undersized city centre could have been extended to straddle the river a-la-Durham, or even back over towards Hylton Road etc, incorporating the Vaux site. No, they knocked up a cinema & Nando's, and an eyesore of a building in the Echo building, on prime land again which could, and should, have been incorporated into a city centre extension. The city has fantastic scenic parks, and beaches, again, no development, little to attract visitors, the air show shows the potential for our fantastic seafront, the council neglects to give a ****. Then their is the adjoining land to the 13 year old Stadium of Light. Yes, the club plans to develop it now, the council should have been onto that as the stadium was being built, especially after billing the club for remedial work to the roads around the stadium, roads that would have been used in any case for access to Roker Park. The city, sadly, has been left behind, antiquated in comparison to similar sized cities. I will give credit for some excellent new leisure facilities in the past few years, Raich Carter etc, but not nearly enough, money is plowed into the same run down areas of the city, that are then re-tennanted with the same wrong uns and swiftly fall back into disrepair. Now, nobody is a prouder Mackem than me, anyone who knows me, will know what happens if people call me a Geordie, they get the full ****ing history lesson, butit would take 30 years, a revolution at the Civic Centre, and probably the thick end of a billion quid to bring the city up to standard. As a final point of note, £1 billion is how much the borough of Gateshead have pledged over 5 years, and look at the difference in the place already, it's an incredible change. Over to you Sunderland City Council, I won't hold my breath for anything happening like.
We take for granted everything around us, a colleague from Birmingham is so jealous we have a local beach as they don't. We may not be as cosmipoliton as other cities but we still have a lot
We have so much that with a bot of thought & investment could be made really special. It's a crying shame really, I'd love to see it happen.
I was born and bred in Hendon 65 years ago, I have lived and worked on all 5 continents and I can honestly say that Sunderland died when the heavy industry died, we lost our identity, the white collar vandals knocked the town hall down , our brewery shut down, major department stores shut down, there is nothing left here, I would honestly advise any young person with any ambition to get out of the place, there are no prospects. The only identity we have, started as a piss-take from the tynesiders mocking the way we speak. I can't believe that people are buying flags and scarves with the derogatory term of "Mackem" on them, it's an insult FFS. Doom and gloom I know but it's just the way I see it because I've lived through it. Still be at Wembley next week though, full of drink and shouting for Sunderland. By the way, Shy Tall Knight, your wrong about the first Masonic Lodge, that was in Scotland, we have a building in Queen St in Hendon which is the oldest "purpose built" Masonic lodge in the world.
Nicely pur fella. Rhe existing cpuncil need to be voted the fcuk put for chagnge to ahppen for thebette, otherwise it's rhe same old flies and the same old ****.
You've seen the worst of it mate, as I did, over the last 40 or 50 years but what sort of message is it to tell the youngs'uns to get out of the place? We need the young to re-build the city and bring back some respect to what used to be one of the finest industrial towns in the world! Furthermore, mackems might have been an insult years ago, but we took it on as a badge of honour! I'm proud to be a mackem. It marks me out from where I was born and bred. And it weren't from Newcastle!
I thought it made perfect sense, non? I must try and remember that typing in the dark in a taxi on the way home smashed after a friday night out is never a good idea Rough as a 's arse this morning. Anyway, what i meant to say was, well said GG. The council leadership needs to change for anything positive to really happen. Things could be so much better than they are.
I was born and raised in Sedgefield, then went to Uni in Newcastle, then left the area for work down south and have never moved back. The only two things that I ever used to go to Sunderland for were the football, and rock nights at some club that I forget the name of now. It had a fake tree in it, and cider was £1.50, lager was £1.50, but snake-bite was just £1 a pint. Anyone remember what it was called, and is it still there? Good call about the beaches. I live in the Midlands now, and it pisses me off that it's nearly a 100 mile drive to a beach. When I was a kid we used to go to the beach all the time. I miss that.
I;m still chuckling reading it mate. The only place i remember that had rock nights was The Mecca/Genevies. Believe it's now gone.
Anyone got a spare 220k? Chance o buy a bit of history. The Dun Cow pub, opposite the Empire. http://www.cannybevvy.com/blog/2014/02/18/historic-pub-dun-cow-sale-220000/
Yep, it is free to get in and I wouldn't go back again - nuff said I started work in Shields and Sunderland but I've worked most of my life (46 years) north of the tyne including some time with a local sponsor of NUFC (big mistake). Even had to walk past a life size pic of Shearer to get to my workplace. People in Newcastle are no different to those in Sunderland in my experience. Had some great banter with mags I've worked with. If I weigh up the pros and cons for both cities Sunderland is a very poor second. If we are talking about the borough (if that's still the correct term) then Sunderland has a lot going for it but city for city Newcastle wins hands down. Postcode wise I'm glad I don't have a SR prefix. My last house move took me within sight of one and my bike insurance went up by £100. Is it exoensive to live in a SR area? Football wise it is entirely different with NUFC not even coming close to us The cities and the football clubs are completely seperate - you don't have to love the city cos you love the club and vice versa
