The Failure of "Regeneration"

David Farrell finally got his skip moved. Naturally they left a mountain of rubbish for the council to clean up, or not.
Farrell, never one to miss a photo-op, was complaining about the state of the place and the presence of "over 100" skips in the area. He really should learn to count. That would mean an average of 15-20 skips in each street and, while we are living in an endless building site, things aren't quite that bad.
However, he does raise, unintentionally, a useful point. He speaks for the "Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association", but what is regeneration? Is it demolishing family houses and replacing them with HMO flats? This is the argument the landlords use when they promote their "University Quarter Regeneration Association".
On the night that the landlords were finally ejected from the residents meetings I saw Michael McMahon screaming into the face of Denise from the church,
"We're landlords!! We're regenerating this area!!"
"You're a fuckin' vampire!!" I shouted.
Denise came between us, slowly backing me away. I remember the look of terror in Declan Boyle's eyes as he cowered behind his two year old son in a manner that looked for al the world like he was holding a human shield in the middle of an angry face off between landlords and residents.
If we use the landlords definition, Farrells clique have succeeded in regeneration. The area has been raped and raped until there is almost no community left. Officially there are "less than 200 residents" and 6000 students left, a ratio of 30 to 1. In reality, there are less than 100 residents, a ratio of 60 to 1.
In their constitutuon, the Farrell clique claim they want to "redress the balance" between students and residents. In this they have surely failed. Now a number of half assed schemed have been proposed ranging from forcing families to rent from private landlords to government confiscation of vacant dwellings.
For the record, the landlords may be evil, but they are not stupid. If they put "students" into their properties they get more rent plus a humongous pay off courtesy of the ratepayer. They don't have to pay rates on their properties.Landlords surely want families to be forced to rent from them, but only after they have extracted the maximum profit from "students" and the ratepayer.
I notice some families, many immigrants , are being moved into the slums in Wolsey street. Flat Rentals have an entire block that are nearly all empty because they are Unfit for Human Habitation. The government can sieze them if it wants, but the cost of fixing them is approaching that of a new build. In fact, it's probably more than the cost of system built housing. As well as that, imprisoning families in an area that is completely out of control is an act of extreme moral depravity.
Investigations on the deleterious effect of "studentification" show that once the student population reaches 10% a residential area becomes unsustainable and inevitably dies, becomindg "Studentland". A government cap of 30% on HMO's, a ratio of 30% "students", will destroy every community the landlords invade. Of course, the government was lying. Planning have rubber stamped a free for all on the rape of communities all over South Belfast.
So now we come back to were we started; Farrell, skips and "Regeneration". If Residents outnumber "students" 9 to1 their community is destabilised and finished. If "Students" outnumber residents 60 to 1 It's been over for a very long time. People want out and skips are the least of their worries.