'Our city can’t keep giving': Redditor says Bengaluru needs to recover before it collapses, netizens weigh in

A heartfelt Reddit post from a longtime Bengaluru resident has struck a chord online, describing the city as “breaking” under the pressure of rapid, uncontrolled growth.

“I’m saying this as someone who has lived here my whole life — the city is breaking,” the post begins. The user writes not from anger but from “a place of exhaustion,” capturing what many long-time Bengalureans have been feeling for years — the growing gap between development and liveability.

The resident lists the city’s worsening problems: unending traffic jams, water shortages, skyrocketing rents, disappearing green cover, and a growing sense that the people who built their lives here are being left behind.

Despite these issues, the post criticises politicians who continue to promise “more growth,” “more companies,” and “more opportunities,” without addressing basic questions: “Where is the space? Where is the water? Who is this growth actually for?”

The user points out that taxpayer money is being used to attract more companies through subsidies and relaxed regulations, but the benefits don’t always reach locals. Instead, the costs — from rent hikes to collapsing infrastructure — fall squarely on residents.

They clarify that this frustration is not directed at migrants seeking work, but at policies that invite “unlimited inflow into a city that cannot sustain it anymore.”

Calling for urgent change, the post argues that Bengaluru needs a mayor who can take a firm stand — even if it’s unpopular. The suggestion: temporarily halt large corporate expansions until the city’s basics are fixed.

In conclusion, the user delivers a simple plea: “A city cannot keep giving and giving until the people who built it feel like outsiders in their own home. Bengaluru needs to breathe. To recover. To take care of itself and its own first.”

Soon after the post went viral, netizens were quick to weigh in. 

A user said: "You spoke my heart out. I'm glad to think that I'm not the only one who feels like this. Migrants coming in, not assimilating, that and all is a secondary issue. This is the core issue. Stop getting in people when the city is not even fully developed or even close to being there. Make it livable and then invite people." 

"It’s like you are so frustrated you broke your brain. BBMP hasn’t even had an election in the past decade or 2. How do you think you’ll get a new Mayor? And why do you think this new mayor will fix all the problems instead of just securing power and money like all the others? Apart from massive public protests, nothing is going to change anything in Bangalore. It’s a cash cow for all politicians," a second user wrote. 

"Swap put 'Bengalaru' for any Western Country that Indians target and this rant would be called 'racist' or 'anti-Indian'," a third user said. 

Another user commented: "Inviting? Lmfao. You talking as though its some foreign power calling them in. It aint. Its our own Kannadiga politicans who we voted for who is doing it. Not one politician is talking against it are they?"