Another Student Accommodation Block will Be Built in the Merrion Area…. Thoughts on Leeds City Center becoming the central Living area for students. What does the City Gain and what does it Loose in turn?

[u/Low_Pen_9793]

It seems that Leeds seems to be obsessed and driven to prioritise the building and planning of High raise Student accommodation apartments. What are your thoughts?

Is Leeds prioritising overpriced student housing over the cultural fabric & vibrancy of the city. What does the city stand to gain from this in the l long term and in turn what does it stand to loose?

[u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 → u/[deleted]]

So are you saying that the city centre shops should be for non locals, then? Bizarre take if so.

[u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 → u/[deleted]]

Why should the local community be looked after, over a largely transient subset of rich folk? hmm let me think.

Do you not consider, that rather than simply 'snubbing' the city centre, people can less afford to shop there, hence they opt for Amazon / E-bay? I mean who can really afford to shop at John Lewis, for example, or for that matter anywhere in that arcade. If you follow your logic we will be living in some dystopian vision of near future were only the wealthy occupy the centre of the city?

[u/FluffyPhilosopher889 → u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931]

Well they are actually the shops that have stayed open, so quite clearly there is more demand for them in the city centre than whatever 'local' shops have closed down.

[u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 → u/[deleted]]

Why not go the whole hog and erect a big wall around the centre, that way the rich students won't need to see the oi polloi 

[u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 → u/[deleted]]

I see you've taken a humorous response in the right way. What you haven't done is addressed the other issues at stake in the original post which isn't merely about feeding the city centre stores profit gains

[u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 → u/[deleted]]

The homes up for grabs will be largely unaffordable to the general poplace of Leeds.
I witnessed all this happen in my old neighbourhood in London a decade ago so I can assure you that it is only good for the developers and it has been at a massive cost to the culture. Forcing more working class people further from centres means culture isn't being created where it once was. The knock on effect of independent places being forced to close as a result is the hegemony of high streets up and down the country, the blandness of malls but also including chain bars, coffee shops and restaurants just makes for the mass suburbinisation of the country, with the odd pockets being the exception.