Sugo

Is anyone else totally over the aggressive begging that goes on in Melbourne.

I live in Collingwood Melbourne and live close to Smith st, on a daily basis I am hassled for money, often the beggars are verbal and sometimes they get physical. I always say 'sorry no mate I don't have any change' and I still get hassle.

I am totally pished off with it really, the Police seem to make no effort to sort the problem out and people just accept it. I find it stressful just walking from work to home. I know I could move to a different area but why should I, we have an awsome house to live in and its close to work.

I know most of the beggars are feeding there heroin and alcohol addictions with the profits from begging but I don't understand why the police don't sort out the aggressive beggars, it is illegal to beg in the state of Victoria.

My other half just went across the road to pick up some juice from the supermarket, some girl asked him for money, he said he didn't have any, then a guy who was with her ran around in front of him, grabbed his arms and held them and then demanded money, my other half pushed the guy out the way and walked home and called me to meet him on the street. Luckily they didn't follow, not sure what I would have done to the little shite.

Earlier in the day some guy came up to my OH and asked him if he works in the city, my OH said yes then the guy went on the ask if he trusts people. My OH could see this guy was after money so politely said he isn't interested and wished the guy a good day and then he walked off, the guy then started shouting and swearing at my OH, this was on Elizabeth st in the center of the city.

I dont think I get approached as much because i am a bigger guy, and I think I know most of them from work (i work in one of the main emergency departments)


This type of thing is common in the inner suburbs, I have lived in London and recently visited San Francisco and Vancouver and didn't find the beggars as aggressive as here.

I have been here for 3 yrs and am over it.

ukecadet

Going off what you've said it sounds more like an attempted mugging.
You should have reported it.
I have my own method of dealing with these types but going off what you have put in your post it probably wouldn't work for you.
So in future, don't look at or talk to them,walk tall,speed up and plough on.
They should move on to the next one that's coming along.

Malian

doh.

scrubbedexpat020

In a Scouse accent say "you snarl at me and I'll rip your f****ing 'ead off. Do you understand what I'm tellin' you, our kid"

If it doesn't work, run!!

Seneca21

Sounds like an attempted mugging to me. Same thing happened to me in an English town of 100,000 that shall remain anonymous - outside the railway station. What is it about public transport stations that attracts so much scum?

fish.01

Yeah, I got screamed at by a homeless guy in a cafe in London. They had signs up all around the cafe saying not to give them any money - the guy was really aggressive. I noticed Melbourne has a lot more homeless looking people wandering around the CBD transport than Brisbane seems to. Also dirtier. I just assumed these were things that happened when a city got bigger. Lets hope the police can do something.

Seneca21

Homeless is a tough issue. The worst place I ever saw for this was Vancouver in British Columbia - genuinely shocked and I lived in London at the time! I really do not how to deal with it.

ozzieeagle

Either complain to the Cops.... or the Council... in fact I would phone 3AW and tell them that you've complained to both and they wont do anything about it. I'm not joking either... give it a go.

Someones not doing their job properly, in relation to this.

Sugo

yeah we called the cops, they only seem to do anything once you have been injured or stabbed. They see this as a minor problem, they practice very little preventative policing here.

Agree though that this was more like a mugging, I told my OH that he should have reported it as an attempted mugging rather than an aggressive beggar. I didn't put in the post that the guy was with another 2 guys and a girl, so 4 on one were not good odds.

Being aggressive back to them often doesn't work out well, some recent research showed that 2/3 of them are carrying knives. I see a lot of people come into my work place who have been assaulted by random strangers on the street. One guy a few months ago was walking down the street with his girlfriend and some random guy ran up to him and slashed his face open. This happened on the corner of Bourke st and Elizabeth st, he was sober and was a soldier. He was very calm when he came in and gave me no impression that he did anything wrong. It seems to me that random attacks are increasing in the city.

This is not just happening at night, we have a lot of people coming in who are just walking home from work at 6pm and they get robbed or just assaulted for fun.

A bit off topic but I think its all related, we have lived here for 3 years, I definitely feel that things have got worse here in Melbourne. I certainly don't feel safe walking home after work.

We are seriously considering moving on in the next year or so, will either move back to my partners home in New Zealand or might go to Vancouver.

Dorothy

Do you honestly think that you will be any safer in Vancouver? One of the cities with the highest homeless population anywhere with terrible drugs problems and a huge problem with gay bashings. Vancouver was by far the worst place I've ever had the displeasure to live - and I have lived in some pretty shit places over the years.

If you are serious about moving to Canada and want to be in a big city I would suggest either Montreal (my 1st choice if we were to move back to Canada) or Toronto (where I'm from).

Seneca21

I think I mentioned Vancouver above. If your problem in life is homeless people, you should make Vancouver the last city on earth that you choose to live.

Dorothy

Whether homeless people is your issue or not...IMO you should make Van the last city on earth you choose to live. People tend to let the touristy bits and pretty picture postcards deceive them.

Seneca21

I've had some great times there, but I wouldn't want it to be my FT home. I preferred the east coast. But then six months of ice and snow rule that out for me as well. Oh, Canada.

ozzieeagle

Smith St has one of my favourite eating places in Melbourne. I dont know of any better Spanish restaurant than the Robbie Burns hotel.... strange place for Spanish food, but they've had Spanish owners for at least 20 years now.

I go there a lot, and I used to work out of 433 Smith St in Collingwood, when it was a gas and fuel depot. In fact we always park in between Smith and Johnston st when we go out for a meal in Fitzroy. I know the beggars are there.... They for some reason never come near me/us

Maybe If I lived there it would be a different story.

I"m going to do some checking with people I know and see if I can get enough information as to times and specific locality to give the radio station a call myself.

If I had 2 mil plus to spend, I would happily live around Alfred Crescent..... up the road a bit where the big detached Victorian houses overlook the gated park.


Last really bad story I heard from the area, was when someone got badly attacked allegedly for a upmarket sports car, parking in the area we park.... almost killed him, I thought at the time... so it is dodgy after all. Turned out the wife had arranged a hit on on husband and the attack was perpetrated by her boyfriend.. They both got arrested and it made headlines in the papers.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vic...-1225943430231

MartinLuther

Talk about Deja vu

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=587317