I live near Brighton and am moving away soon: house prices in Sussex pretty much anywhere with decent transport links are insane (the house I'm buying in the West Country would be more than double the price over here, around £1m!!), pollution is bad, there is drugs and crime, loads of the shops are just overpriced crap for idiot hipsters, and it's always crowded with tourists. It's such a shame because Sussex is lovely.
You can say that about any city of major size. If you live in Brighton, you don't have to visit Beach and clubs around Middle street (I guess this is where a lot of crime and fighting happen) and you dont have to go to Lanes and areas around Pavillion (hipster shops and tourists).
Brighton for me was more about open mic events, lots of concerts, hikes in nature, coffee shops and work. I barely seen any tourists.
Sure, but some cities are worse than others, and Brighton is particularly bad for pollution and drugs. But then my feeling is that SE UK in general is unpleasantly overcrowded. For example I don't bother trying to go anywhere on a bank holiday any longer because the roads will be miserable, and anywhere apart from obscure destinations will have hordes of daytrippers. Too many people with too much money and too little space.
