Bray - A kip - And I'm from bray !

I actually don't blame Drink and Drugs for Brays demise and the behaviour of the local skangers. It's really easy hto use a big Drink/drugs brush and paint them all the same but I believe it's incorrect to do so. Alcohol and drug abuse are symptoms but not actually the disease.
That, in my opinion is all about lack of respect. They have no respect for their town and no respect for themselves. This obviously isn't just Brays problem, but it's a problem I see all over Ireland.
I don't want to be one of those "Blame the parent" types, but that is generally where we learn our manners from. In Ireland, it has always been a good thing to get one over someone. Paid too little for an item? Bargain. Get away with not paying your TV licence? Fair play, there's nothing on the box anyway. Look at the parents that get told by teachers that their offspring are trouble, "Sure what would they know" is a usual response.
I lived in Vienna for a year and the difference in how children are raised is astounding. There was one particular street, about a kilometer long, with a set of traffic lights in the middle. Everyday it amused me to see people with children (Sometimes without) waiting to cross the road as the red man was up. You couldn't see a car 1/2 a kilometer in either direction, yet they still waited. It was all about teaching the kids respect from a young age.
But more importantly, what can we do about it?

When I was a kid, my gran lived in Charnwood, and twice a year, at the start of summer and the end, flyers were posted in all the houses saying the residents committee were having their "spring clean" of Charnwood on a certain weekend, please help out. I'd say the turnout was about 60-70% of residents including kids turned out, rubber gloves on and cleaned the estate up, mowed all the verges, trimmed the shrubs, that sort of thing. It fostered in me a real, "Don't mess this place up, as we'll all have to clean it afterwards" attitude. Which has stuck with me all my life. People need to remember that instead of it being the councils responsibility, it's ours. We're an awful lot more powerful than most people think, but it just takes a little bit of effort from our part.
So it's one thing I'd do. If it was to work in partnership with the council, where they'd provide a few skips for rubbish in return for people cleaning their estates it would be even better.
In the area of crime, for small crimes (small possession, drunk and disorderly and other minor crimes) I would give them all long stints of visible community service. Cleaning graffiti off the walls of Main St, tidying up (not necessarily street cleaning as the unions would be protesting about that) the main st. But giving them something to remind them that this is their town too. And if they mess it up, they'll have to clean it up.

It's only a small thing, but enough small things make a big thing