Does anyone live in Cambridge?

I have lived in Cambridge nearly all my life. I was born in a village five miles south of the city and, apart from a year or so working in London, have lived in or near Cambridge ever since. Historically, the economy has always relied quite heavily on the University and, even today, many of the industries in Cambridge are science and technology based and owe their existence partly to the presence of the University community and also because it is within an hour of London by train or car. I believe that your friend's impression that there are a "vast amount of beggars on the street" is very distorted. It is true that there are people who are homeless and vagrant but this is mostly from choice. Our unemployment rate is one of the smallest in the country: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/nov/16/youth-unemployment-map and real poverty is certainly not a big problem. Because Cambridge attracts a very large number of tourists in the summer, a number of people who 'live rough' are also attracted to the city at these times and supplement their income by 'busking' (or, it might be more accurate to say 'pretending to busk'). Begging is illegal in the UK and anyone doing so would be warned and 'moved on', if not arrested. Certainly, those of us who live in Cambridge regard those who might be called 'beggars' as an occasional nuisance rather than a problem, though there is no doubt that they tend to prey on the visitors rather than on the 'locals' and, since your friend was a visitor, he/she may have had a biased view of it. Cambridge is a very pleasant place to live. The town itself is quite small and there are many open spaces and green areas. Public transport is, on the whole, very good and well used. Addenbrookes Hospital is one of the major teaching hospitals in the country and provides a better standard of healthcare than much of the NHS. I. personally, have a great deal to be thankful for in that respect. Really, the only negative things I can find to say about Cambridge are that house prices, rates and rents are nearly as high as those in London while the average wage is lower than that in London. As a result, people do find it more expensive to live in Cambridge and less easy to own a house.