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Travelogue

One good reason to come to Byron Bay...

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There's a definite hood-rat problem in Byron Bay, which I'm sure is creating a bit of tension between it's ongoing gentrification, tourism, and this visible underclass....

We were at this restaurant called Hutong Harry's - a modern Chinese place with quite a sophisticated ambience, menus and a wine list where the bottles start at around $80.

Just outside there's several other similar types of restaurants but then up the road there's a little corner of the street you get all these hoodie's congregating.

Hoodies up, no shoes, shifty beady little eyes scanning for opportunities, buzzing around on e-bikes and the patchy little "trying to look hard" beards or chin scruffs...

These aren't hippes or even your dole-boy surfies.

Just absolute ferals looking to intimidate people..

Little Chinese man running Hutong Harry's says the police do little or nothing about the problems!
 
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Football us life said:
There's a definite hood-rat problem in Byron Bay, which I'm sure is creating a bit of tension between it's ongoing gentrification, tourism, and this visible underclass....

We were at this restaurant called Hutong Harry's - a modern Chinese place with quite a sophisticated ambience, menus and a wine list where the bottles start at around $80.

Just outside there's several other similar types of restaurants but then up the road there's a little corner of the street you get all these hoodie's congregating.

Hoodies up, no shoes, shifty beady little eyes scanning for opportunities, buzzing around on e-bikes and the patchy little "trying to look hard" beards or chin scruffs...

These aren't hippes or even your dole-boy surfies.

Just absolute ferals looking to intimidate people..

Little Chinese man running Hutong Harry's says the police do little or nothing about the problems!
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Those are called eshays and they’re common everywhere unfortunately. Only a minority of teenage boys are actually like that but they do exist everywhere (most prominently in places like Western Sydney). A bit like how druggies are everywhere (but also more predominantly in certain places like Western Sydney).
 
HonestSpursFan said:
Those are called eshays and they’re common everywhere unfortunately. Only a minority of teenage boys are actually like that but they do exist everywhere (most prominently in places like Western Sydney). A bit like how druggies are everywhere (but also more predominantly in certain places like Western Sydney).
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Fair call, but these aren't the classic Western Sydney eshays with the tight Ralph Lauren polo, socks-up trackies, overloaded on Chemist Warehouse 'Gio' aftershave and that specific "oi cunt" swagger. Byron's crew has its own flavour or in these cases feral smell....

And yeah, it's probably amplified by the tourism bubble, high rents pushing dysfunction, drugs/alcohol, and the transient backpacker/dropout scene that doesn't quite match the wellness-hipster influencer postcard.

I'm not sure that the police are doing nothing about this loitering around and intimidation but there's certainly a perception that leniency, or focus on "prevention" over enforcement...

Example being the Chinese restaurant manager's thoughts!

Not sure how the mega wealthy tech bros, blockchain nomads, Web3 wellness types deal with this kind of street urchinism polluting their new found Byron vibe, but I strongly believe a more visible police presence wouldn't quite match their poltical world view....

Until one of the little shits snatches one of their Pateks or slides off on one of their VanMoof's....
 
Football us life said:
Fair call, but these aren't the classic Western Sydney eshays with the tight Ralph Lauren polo, socks-up trackies, overloaded on Chemist Warehouse 'Gio' aftershave and that specific "oi cunt" swagger. Byron's crew has its own flavour or in these cases feral smell....

And yeah, it's probably amplified by the tourism bubble, high rents pushing dysfunction, drugs/alcohol, and the transient backpacker/dropout scene that doesn't quite match the wellness-hipster influencer postcard.

I'm not sure that the police are doing nothing about this loitering around and intimidation but there's certainly a perception that leniency, or focus on "prevention" over enforcement...

Example being the Chinese restaurant manager's thoughts!

Not sure how the mega wealthy tech bros, blockchain nomads, Web3 wellness types deal with this kind of street urchinism polluting their new found Byron vibe, but I strongly believe a more visible police presence wouldn't quite match their poltical world view....

Until one of the little shits snatches one of their Pateks or slides off on one of their VanMoof's....
Click to expand...
Do they smell like weed and vapes? That would be pretty typical of them.

As for alcohol the regions have a major drinking problem, especially among Indigenous people. There’s a deeply-embedded drinking culture out there.
 
LFC said:
be hoods thugs stupid silly minors have always roamed the streets.....
Coastal busy towns its a given.
Happens all up and down the coast lines.
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True....these stupid, silly, low-impulse kids and young adults roaming in packs has always been part of coastal busy towns. It's not a new invention....

But in Byron Bay the contrasts between the hyper-affluent tech bro's/Web3/wellness layers and the hoodied-up, e-bike urchin underclass feels more profound because it's a small coastal town that's been supercharged by proper global money in a short time......

It reminds me a little bit of Brighton on the South Coast of England. Brighton has attracted it's fair share of cashed-up tech bro's and their ilk down from London. The post-COVID remote-work/crypto influx accelerated everything. Housing/rent crisis, more transients chasing the vibe, and the resulting opportunistic crime/disorder in a confined area.

Like Byron it sells itself as an enlightened, high-vibe, alternative paradise. The sharper the postcard myth, the more the low-impulse "street urchinism" stands out.

Although in Byron, which is smaller than Brighton, it's a far more obvious scar on the "conscious community" image....
 
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