Moss Side gained the title of "Baby Beirut" and Manchester was soon dubbed "Gunchester
" by the mainstream media.The big society will struggle in Moss Side | Belinda Webb | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "With councils up and down the country being forced to claw back on services through cuts imposed by the government, one of the areas that will be squeezed dry is youth services. This has troubled the Unite union so much that this weekend it held a Rally for Youth Services.Inner-city youth groups are a lifeline for many urban communities. They save kids from having to create their own 'fun' on grim concrete estates, where boredom and frustration quickly turn to trouble. On the Moss Side estate in Manchester where I spent my teen years we had an old field and a pit. This pit usually contained a burnt-out car that had been 'borrowed' for a joyride, along with used syringes and anything else you care to imagine. However, in the past decade Moss Side has started to change thanks to a range of youth services, such as the Powerhouse Library. They have worked hard to overturn the decades of despondency that once blighted the area and which featured regularly in both national and regional press. It has meant a real result – the steady decline of crime."
