London Loses Its Luster

...As Washington's troops continued to withstand the best King George III could marshal against them, these wellto-do visitors found that London was growing disturbingly expensive...

...Such things were simply not done back home in America...

...Developers hoping to bring new residents and business activity to the huge, largely unused Thamesside Docklands area on the eastern fringe of the city have been running into difficulty...

...At present, the crowds on some platforms occasionally create a safety hazard...

...They were jostled in streets far more crowded than any they had formerly known...

...The idea of integration and planning of public services is considered wrongheaded and immoral...

...Soggy London gets less rain than sunny Rome...

...When the GLC was abolished by an act of Parliament, its duties were assigned to London's Borough Councils, which already had more than enough on their plate, and to appropriate central government ministries...

...In times of disaster, they operate completely independently...

...Critics of the government hold it responsible for London's apparent decline...

...And despite its formerly deserved dismissal as a culinary desert, it is now possible to eat quite well in a wide selection of restaurants...

...Scotland Yard has conceded that because its resources are so stretched it pursues only cases where there is an immediate prospect of an investigation bearing fruit...

...Norman Gelb is The New Leader's London correspondent...

...Exhaust fromthetraffic, meanwhile, poses a mounting threat to London's health...

...They were appalled at the public hanging of pickpockets at Tyburn near what is now Marble Arch—too jarred by the spectacle, in fact, to notice that their own pockets were being picked...

...The people who bought lavish flats in Docklands, expecting all the right sort to follow their example, now find themselves in something of an upscale ghost town that is short on transportation, shopping facilities and other amenities...

...Nevertheless, those charged with administering the British capital are in danger of seriously losing their way...

...Measures to discourage the use of private vehicles—including wheel clamping, heavy fines for parking violations and vastly increased parking rates— have thus far failed to ease the situation...

...His latest book, Dunkirk: The Complete Story of the First Step in the Defeat of Hitler, has just been published by William Morrow...

...They were repelled by the crassness of theater audiences who, when less than captivated, would boo and throw sundry objects at the actors...

...As a result, London becomes less and less attractive as a place to live and work...

...The Redcoats, it was thought, would make short work of George Washington and his ragtag band of rebels...

...But their opponents charge that the Thatcherite private enterprise philosophy has in many cases entirely displaced the public service approach the GLC was supposed to adhere to...

...Londoners are also bemoaning the deplorable state of the Underground, once deemed the finest subway system in the world...

...Compared with New York, Los Angeles or Detroit, Londonis quite safe and clean...

...The ironic consequence, it continues, is that the capital becomes less appealing to new and profitable private enterprise...

...Three years ago, the Conservatives succeeded in obliterating the elected Greater London Council (GLC), the body responsible for overseeing public services and the overall well-being of the city...

...Last year, conditions and pay levels in primary and secondary schools sank so low that a quarter of the city's teachers quit their jobs...

...They became homesick for the more serene, more ordered comforts of Virginia or New York...

...Their initial relief at arriving in the city they had always considered the hub of the civilized world quickly turned to despair...

...The institutional complexion of London's difficulties became tragically apparent after a barge on the River Thames ran into and sank a pleasure boat one night last month...

...Few, though, would be able to return...

...They may yet succeed in fully executing their plans, but capital has proved tougher to raise than expected and some aspects of the ambitious construction project there have been put on hold...

...Education authorities have had to go to Holland, Germany and Barbados to import replacements, but schools remain understaffed...

...Furthermore, the woefully inadequate number of trains must be increased to meet expanding demand...

...Contrary to the old song, in short, the British Museum has not lost its charm...

...Conservative-backed, money-saving privatization schemes, notably in garbage removal, are spreading among local councils short of cash...

...Finally, as in virtually every major city, crime is on the rise here...

...They are certainly in a better way, though, than the inhabitants of the highrise tenements that went up in the 1960s to meet the desperate need for public housing...

...its reputation as one of the most agreeable urban centers in the world is starting to fray...

...Yet, many of them have of late been wondering, along with most of the7 million-plus native inhabitants, whether London has begun suffering from big-city disease...

...Times have changed...

...The Tories maintain that today no one really misses the GLC...

...A visitor to London from the United States—though possibly startled by the weakness of the dollar—might wonder what all the complaining is about...

...All of this has focused attention on the fact that while British investment in the United States has soared to unprecedented heights, many English financiers are unexcited about pumping money into London...

...Toward this end, they plan to impose a 20 per cent increase in the already steep subway fare...

...Administrators of the National Health Service were similarly forced to recruit abroad, and had even less success, after domestic campaigns failed to fill a shortage of nurses...

...Some of those buildings have developed alarming cracks in their exterior walls, and the local councils responsible for maintenance are having a hard time finding the funds to put them right...

...Nor are such efforts likely to pay off if thegovernment goes ahead with its plan to ram new arteries through the city...

...A replacement for the Greater London Council is badly needed to keep watch on this great city and to issue the appropriate warnings when things get out of hand—as they appear to be doing at the moment...

...Much of the grumbling is about the sharp decline in the quality of public services...

...This means that a burglary might be checked out while a murder case without clues will simply be filed away...

...The estimated 125,000 Americans who currently reside in London—like the great numbers of other foreigners living here for business or personal reasons—generally find it a pleasant metropolis...

...But those who have switched to the less crowded buses find that rush-hour traffic is so congested, the extra time involved in getting to and from work requires serious changes in their lifestyle...

...A recent article in the daily Independent declares: "What were once seen as public services are now seen as sources of private profit...

...Many had been lured away by the higher pay and lighter work load in private hospitals...

...Shortly before, the GLC had been commandeered by a group of far Left militants who—in addition to getting on with their normal business—took to funding and promoting radical feminist and gay organizations, adopted a pro-IRA stance, campaigned for nuclear disarmament, and generally behaved in a fashion that many, and especially Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, saw as both outrageous and beyond the Council's competence...

...Since a station fire two years ago claimed several lives, it has been commonly accepted that the reconstruction of tunnels and replacement of escalators, however disruptive, is vital...

...Compared with Parisians, Londoners tend to be friendly and gracious...

...their funds were running rather short...

...Subway authorities are seeking to alleviate the pressure on the Underground by persuading people to take a bus instead...

...The drowning of 51 partygoers led to widespread awareness of the fact that no single office coordinates emergency police, health and fire services...

...Colonists of rank and position who wanted nothing to do with the Revolution being waged in the New World, they had scurried across the Atlantic for what was supposed to be only a brief sojourn...

...The capital that half a century ago endured the nightly Nazi blitz without a murmur is nowadays full of complaints...

...London faces housing problems as well...