Bruce,
The same happened on Stratford Rd Sparkbrook, as what happened on the Ladypool Rd. The planners pulled all the houses down around it. A little further up the Stratford Rd in Sparkhill because they left the housing alone up there it never suffered the same fate as Sparkbrook and the shopping area was never blighted.
As for the Somali area of Stratford Rd that is where my fathers family came from, my uncle lived there all his life until he was nearly 70 and planned to end his days there, but the Somali's brought so much trouble with them with inter tribal fighting every night that he had to give up and move to Wythall. Even the police couldn't do anything, that's why the Old Victoria pub was converted to a police station because they were spending so much time there.
Phil