Oxford Bubbles

Oxford is many things, but "average" it isn't. The discrepancy between the "haves" & the "have nots" is all too obvious here. It isn't just a question of "town & gown". It's far more complex than that.

The two extremes would be North Oxford where the academics & middle classes live in houses costing millions & the estates where the working & unemployed, who are trying to survive, live. As I have previously mentioned there are many more homeless & Big Issue sellers too, who are even more disadvantaged.

Then you have the tiers of students. At the top of the pile are the ones who actually attend the university. Then come all of the Language students. The population variation in term time & holiday time must be huge, but I haven't been able to find any stats. As a resident you can certainly tell the difference because of the numbers of cycles on the roads & parked. Also the number using the buses.

Then there are the children attending State & Independent schools. The former are here year round. Many of the latter are bussed in at the beginning of terms, often in huge, black 4x4s driven by burly"chauffeurs" or doting mothers. Everyone living here dreads the beginning of term when the road traffic becomes even worse than normal, & that is pretty bad, because of non boarding children being driven to & from Independent schools. Parking rules simply don't seem to apply to these drivers.

On top of all this is the seemingly endless coachloads of tourists who clog our streets & literally make it almost impossible to walk from one place to another in a straight line. Hurrying to get somewhere is almost impossible.The groups are ridiculously large for our streets & are like starling murmurations, swirling at will without regard for anyone else.

Oxford is a small university city, dating back to 912 AD, with narrow streets & pavements & beautiful architecture. It is the oldest surviving university in the English speaking world. It was founded in 1096. Oxford also has the worlds first university museum, the Ashmolean, founded in 1683. All of this makes it a really interesting place to visit.

The income all of this generates for the city & local businesses is important. But Oxford is rapidly becoming a place to avoid if you actually live here. It is in danger of becoming polluted by human beings. How sad is that.