What comes to mind when you think of Birmingham?

I think of hurling, airplanes to ireland, and massive roast dinners at carveries.

i'm interested to see if this turns into the 'Birmingham is (not) shit' thread...

I never even once suspected the Birmingham City Council logo was supposed to be a heart.

Industry & engineering

NEC, the exterior of Selfridges, Asian people, not really knowing where exactly it is on a map

unemployment and common people. sry.. I'm being honest.

banal urban sprawl

I can't disagree with some of the negative comments above, although it should be noted that everywhere has positives and negatives, it's just Birmingham seems to conjure more of the latter.

Urban sprawl though? Birmingham is actually impressively compact - 2nd biggest city in the UK and only about 6 miles from the centre to legit countryside. The only city in the UK i would call sprawling is London.

They're probably thinking of the north-west conurbation with Walsall, Wolverhampton etc. It does seem to go on forever.

Most of my B'ham memories/references are '80s centric - like going to the Mermaid at the Stratford Rd/Warwick Rd split to see amazing hardcore gigs

Now it confuses me, it's a good place to cycle as we don't get RLJ etc police attention, can lock our bikes to anything we want in the city centre and don't need to worry too much about bike theft, it's not out of control. Decent bands play in small venues here (Earth are playing a small pub in a few weeks) and we have most of the shops we need. It must be an ok place as so many people come here to live or study or just go clubbing at the weekend and they all seem to love it but... it's still Birmingham and somewhere in my rotten core I can't help not liking it.

Sorry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLm9iBUAogk

The only city in the UK i would call sprawling is London.

Liverpool, Bradford, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford and Brighton and Hove for starters...

Burgers and gangs.

hahaha this.

Spaghetti Junction.

I moved to North Wales a few years ago, various reasons..i always swore i hated the place.

Only thing was i missed the City..there some charm to Birmingham, what it is, i just cannot put my
finger on.

Rather be here than some other Citys, Dublin at 6am is an eye opener. Complete hole.

Liverpool, Bradford, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salford and Brighton and Hove for starters...

My definition of sprawling is obviously different to yours. I'm talking north-American style. The suburbs there go on for literally hours of driving.

Rain and ridiculous accents.

1. clubs in the jewelery quarter like wobble in the early 90's
   
2. nasty BCFC fans
   
3. getting lost on the gyratory system
   
4. err that's it.
   

Excellent Victorian and early 20th century industrial architecture.
Some of the best 60's archictecture in the country.
Cadbury's, Birds custard, anything really. There's a list of old Birmingham manufacturers somewhere on the web with their logs and crests we could half-inch for polo uses.
I'll have a rummage and see what I can find.

My definition of sprawling is obviously different to yours. I'm talking north-American style. The suburbs there go on for literally hours of driving.

Not really. Very easy to spend hours in a car getting more or less nowhere in some of those places. Which thinking of it is what Birmingham suggests to me. Endless traffic.

1. clubs in the jewelery quarter like wobble in the early 90's
   crunch,steering wheel,cream (the illegal one) west end bar,sundisential,que club,atomic jam,bakers
   I lost a few years and brain cells in those days :)
   

I read that of the top-twenty most densely populated cities in Europe, 10 of them are in the UK. British cities are compact, not sprawling... As I said - 6 miles from the centre to countryside with 1 million population is actually very compact. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&biw=1362&bih=583&q=aston+villa+leisure+centre&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il

I think Custard Factory. You should use the Birds logo and play on that.
Apart from that....... What comes to mind?
Er numerous incidents of bike crime, really shitty cycle conditions, racist graffiti on the walls outside my flat, 16 piles of vomit from my flat to my local bike shop, prostitution, dislocated ribs and ridiculous motor insurance. I really can't wait to start a family here.
Oh, wait, the fucking german markets!

Ha!

Burgers and gangs.

Interestingly enough, one of the most notorious of these gangs is actually called "burger bar".

I think Custard Factory. You should use the Birds logo and play on that.
Apart from that....... What comes to mind?
Er numerous incidents of bike crime, really shitty cycle conditions, racist graffiti on the walls outside my flat, 16 piles of vomit from my flat to my local bike shop, prostitution, dislocated ribs and ridiculous motor insurance. I really can't wait to start a family here.
Oh, wait, the fucking german markets!

Are you settling here for good then? I reckon its actually pretty good in terms of family, schooling and work. If you have your wits about you, you can get a lot out of it. I mean its easy to get out to the countryside either up to peak district or westwards to wales/coast etc.

There is enough middle class leafy surburbs AND cheap & more cultural places to live inner city. We actually have zillions of independent food retailers, which can be cheaper to shop at than supermarkets.

If you live anywhere near, ladypool, stratford or soho road you can do all your food shopping on foot. Our fast food outlets are also much more well kept/nicer than the equivalent stuff in London.

In london, somewhere like Brixton say. All those fried chicken shops are really impersonal and grotty. Whereas fast food and even mini-mart type shops here, are personal indpendent enterprises which people put a lot of care into.