Privatised London: the Thames Path walk that resembles a prison corridor

I was always torn between wanting more access along the waterway edges - it would make a fantastic bicycle route into town, as well as further outwards - and wanting more privacy / protection from the kinds of idiots that thought partying in front of a residential building at 3am was acceptable behaviour. By partying I mean music, shouting, glass bottles being smashed, and so on.

The estate was in on-going 'discussions' over the previous several years with the local council about gating half the street, and consequently access to the foreshore. It was moot in terms of providing east-west access, as estates left and right had already gated their access. And it's clear this is one of the problems being described in the article - the 'let's make it less appealing so you want to _use_ it less so you can _lose_ it more easily'.

I'm back in Australia now, where I believe (IANAL and the information may be apocryphal) access to all tidal foreshore up to some distance, I think 30 metres? - was provided by law with two notable (military) exceptions. Whether that's the case or not doesn't affect the fact that it's practically impossible to obtain public access to foreshore areas in and around our capital cities.

It's pretty frustrating as a citizen feeling that no one's got your back - the rich and the powerful work hand in hand for their benefit and everyone else is left with the scraps - little bits of fenced of public space as a charity gesture for the people who made the foolish choice of not being filthy rich.

But no, that just won't do. Instead let's reformulate it in ideological terms - who should have access? Now the whole planet is entitled to chip in. Facts just became irrelevant. Yay. "So let's go collect some 'facts' for our story," said someone at The Guardian before cherry-picking a few half-notable views from the (now global) distribution of opinions. One tiny little change to the premise and this problem went from something well-defined and manageable to a thinly veiled pitting of rich against poor with no objectively defensible outcome. The Guardian - our dear moral leaders who spend their days paving the path to social equality - pouring petrol on the class warfare fire to sell papers? Well I never.

This is all fine if the point is entertainment, but this bullshit - coupled with a super out-of-date version of democracy we like to get sentimental about - is how we govern. It's madness. It's certifiable, crack-a-jack, put-you-on-strong-pills craziness of the highest order.

Of course people who got hand on a part of city will try to ruin it for their profit. Build fences, destroy historical sight, build up waterfronts.

The solution is in regulation. You only buy property, but you end up owning a part whole of city experience. Preserve it or suffer.

   > Wapping and Limehouse have certainly been radically altered

So there a few CCTVs cameras and an increase in private property - since the public seems not to use it anyway - along a river ?

London is becoming a city for the elite bankers and capitalists, everyone knows it. The world is a massive place. Rather than working like peasants I suggest to the people complaining to have some dignity and create wealth somewhere else where they think is a much fairer place.

I am slightly frustrated that so many young people spend their prime years enriching a city that cares little for them and takes so much wealth from them.