Production along the Clyde peaked in the early part of the twentieth century. In 1941, the
population of Glasgow climaxed at nearly 1,200,000 people. The population has since steadily
fallen to less than 700,000 people in 1991. Glasgow's heavy industry declined for a number of
reasons. Increased competition
from other cities and the decline of the British Empire were the two largest. Clyeside had
been developed into a specialized area for large scale iron and steal manufacturing, whilst
the world's economy as a whole was moving away from large luxury steamer ships and
locomotives to cars and airplanes. World War II proved to be a turning point for Glasgow, and
unfortunately, city and industrial planners made several mistakes which contributed to
Glasgow's industrial fall.
The port and many ship building facilities were destroyed by Nazi bombers during the war.
City planners failed to predict the shifting nature of the industrial economy whilst rebuilding
port facilities after the war. One underlying misunderstanding that tripped planners up was
the idea that the redevelopment of the port was a separate and less important issue than
the redevelopment of the entire city. Planners such as Cooper and Abercrombie ignored
Glasgow and Clyeside as an integrated economic region and failed to see how Glasgow's entire
urban geography was largely dependant on the economic activity of the
industrial/port region of the city. The ports were built hastily with little thought to future
trends while planners focused their energies on another ghastly mistake (Konvitz, 1992).
The name "Gorbals" and the negative image the area gave Glasgow as a whole prompted city
planners to use the post-war redevelopment period as an opportunity to bulldoze. Block
after block of decrepid overcrowded housing was condemned and destroyed. In its place,
officials built large, tall, unpopular modern public housing. Many established local social
institutions, such as the ever important pub, were destroyed in the process. Due to the
clearing, many families were displaced.
Most of these families were re-housed in periphery public housing sites such as Drumchapel,
Easterhouse, Pollock and Castlemilk (Mawson, 1992). These new low income slums were
planned with little regard for the economic well being of the people who live there now.
Recently, the Electronic Herald has reported that some Catholic churches built in these areas
are physically coming apart due to shoddy construction and maintenance. These areas were
built with few local pubs, food, clothes, or convenience stores, and no industries were
planned along with the new areas for employment (Munro, 1993).
Castlemilk, located about three to five miles from Glasgow's city center, has a population of about 20,000 people. The male unemployment rate here is 31%, whereas the nearby New Town East Kilbride (built with amenities for the displaced middle class) has a rate of 8.7%. Due to a loophole in the law, teenagers often occupy flats without actually living in them, using the place instead as a postal address for welfare cheques which are sometimes then spent on illegal drug parties that no one cleans up. These flats are called "Girodrops" after the name of the welfare cheque and the drugs used here. Most people that live in Castlemilk are on a wait-list to transfer for better public housing. The list is 25 years long -- people speak of "serving their time" (The Economist, 1990). Easterhouse is in a similar situation. In 1984, nearly 8,000 residents applied for a transfer. The main income of 60% of the houses was less than 75 pounds a weak (there are roughly 1.6 dollars per pound).Infant mortality is 4.5 times the national average (The Economist, 1986). A Scottish magazine describes these areas as follows:
Poor post-World War II planning and changes in the economy have affected housing in all of
Glasgow. Between 25 and 45 percent of all dwellings in Glasgow are in need of major repairs
(The Economist, 1987). Housing markets have been deregulated as an experiment to help
solve this problem, with complicated and questionable results (Gibb, 1994). A new
administrative system was created with the intention of allocating public housing as
objectively as possible. Unfortunately, the system has fallen short of its goals. Homeless
households are discriminated against and transfer applicants are preferred when new
housing becomes available. Housing of low popularity is disproportionally offered to
low-income households (Clapham and Kintrea, 1986).
The economy has shifted from being primarily industrial to being primarily service oriented.
However, the service economy has not been able to completely replace the industrial
economy. In 1952, 50.2% of the 844.2 thousand people employed worked in manufacturing.
By 1987 these numbers had fallen to 23.1% of the 615.2 thousand people working (Pacione,
1995). The rate of employment has been falling for every period since 1952, falling at a
record rate of -2.68% between 1981-4. Over 52,000 jobs were lost in Glasgow during this
four year period (Lever, 1992). Unemployment rates increased in all areas of the Strathclyde
region, although unemployment has been increasingly focused on
certain parts of the metropolitan region. Glasgow's male unemployment rate went up from
12.9% in 1971 to 20.5% in 1990. The suburbs went from 3.6 to 5.5 percent unemployment,
the New Towns from 6.1 to 7.9 percent, old nearby industrial towns from 8.9 to 12.8 percent
(Lever, 1991).
Social polarization is increasing. This polarization may prove to be more dangerous than
that of the industrial era. Currently, the geographical gap (as well as the economic gap)
between rich and poor is widening. The wealthy and the poor share less common public
space and fewer facilities than generations ago. It seems that the suburban economy has
little connection with the burnt out economy of the inner city (or is suburban Glasgow
making the
same mistake that post-WWII Glasgow made about regional integration?). Not only have jobs
been leaving the Strathclyde region as a whole, they have been leaving Glasgow for the
suburbs. In 1952, 66.8% of all jobs in the region were found in the inner city, by 1987 this
percentage had dropped to 55.7%. Suburban areas have had some success attracting
international North American and European electronic and high technology industries to
their environs. Of the 27,600 new jobs created by these new corporations in the Strathclyde
region, only 1,521 of them have been within Glasgow itself (Pacione, 1995). Public funds have
gone to areas least in need as well. Of the 20,000 jobs recently created by the central
government, two thirds have gone to outer-city areas. Outer ring areas have received 68.6
million pounds in Regional Development Grants and 26.1 million pounds in Selective
Assistance, while the inner city has received 30.8 and 7.4 million pounds respectively.
Politically, Conservatives tend to concentrate in affluent suburbs, while Nationalists
concentrate in New Towns and Liberals in the city center (Lever, 1992). These political
differences are impacting the economy, as studies show that incoming corporations
deliberately avoid areas with labour activist movement histories (Lever, 1991).
An interesting study shows that socio-economics are a health issue. Despite similar health care and eating habits, Glasgow's women and men live 3.6 and 3.9 years less than their counterparts in Edinburgh, respectively. This difference cannot be genetic, as people living in the Glasgow suburbs live longer lives than anyone else in Britain (Brown, 1992). Crimes also tend to concentrate in lower income areas. Although surveys show that illegal drug consumption is evenly distributed throughout the city as a whole, people will travel further for harder, more dangerous, more illegal drugs. Typically, poorer areas have become the hard illegal drug market for all of Glasgow, and have therefor shouldered much of the criminal cost that the drug market incurs. (Forsyth et al., 1992).