Inner urban observations

One of the great things I love about Melbourne are its inner urban neighborhoods. Personally, for those of you who know what I'm on about, I'm a "north of the river" kinda guy. Areas like Fitzroy and Collingwood etc make me feel far more at home than places like Sth Yarra. However, a few things are starting to become apparent to me: 1) Brunswick Street; voted Australia's coolest strip not long ago, i think it is becoming a victim of its own success. I went down for a coffee on Sunday with Mr Mike and found that the people who are shuffling up and down this strip are try hard hippy arty wannabees. NOt that I have anything against this, but I mean, these people are trying so hard to be different that they're all looking the same. Then you have the yuppy rejects from Chapel Street crossing the river to infiltrate the area and the yuppy parents who have ventured out of their fortified $1.2million warehouse conversion with one of those massive "excuse me while I hog the footpath" prams. Yes, people go down there to be seen. Big deal. 2) Smith Street. I work near Smith Street and I go up to there every so often to grab some lunch. I used to only ever go down there on the weekends and it wasn't such a bad place to hang around. However, during the week when I see it more often now, I have begun to realise that the place is falling into disrepair and the general feel of the street is definitely one of poverty. I get hit up for small change every time. What I find funny is the fact that to buy a house or apartment in the area costs a fricken fortune and the number of boutique style offices is simply staggering. There are quite a few empty shops now which is disapointing and urban decay is starting to set in, especially around Stanley Street. You can't tell the derros to piss off, but pretty soon, they'll be the only kind of people you'll see around there.