“The city isn’t good for everybody else” but “it’s no fault of the students.”
Portsmouth has over 28,000 university students making up 7.5% of the city's population – and most of these students are housed and study in the square mile around Winston Churchill Avenue in the centre. What do local people think of the ever-expanding university population and infrastructure?
We set out to find local people to ask. It was an early Friday afternoon, we left our seminar and headed to the high street, eager to conduct our first live interviews. We were on the lookout for mature civilians. This was not entirely down to their low threat level but also because they would be the most reliable demographic, given the number of years they may have spent in the city.
Much to our surprise, we were met with a shortage of our intended subjects. The benches were filled by twenty-something-year-olds, intently clutching their cigarettes and coffee cups.
The bus stops lay barren, most likely down to the vicious winds circulating outside. We subsequently sought refuge in the Cascades Shopping Centre. It was here we found 72-year-old retiree Paul Sumner.
Mr Sumner told us he was born and raised in Portsmouth, and had travelled as an adult before settling back here in 1998.
When asked if he thought Portsmouth was turning into a student city, Paul said: “There are a lot of students but they’re good for the city’s economy.” He further went on to say: “The city isn’t good for everybody else. It needs improvement” but clarified that “it’s no fault of the students.”
We only managed to find one local in our allotted time, so will need to head out again to get more opinions.
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