The woes of owning a bicycle in Brighton

Brighton is without a doubt, one of the finest and interesting cities in the world. I may be biased, because I live here, but regardless it is one of the most fun city I have ever had the pleasure to visit too. One of the most striking things about Brighton is its location. It is smack bang on the Southern coast of the UK. Meaning, the people who live opposite speak French.

Brighton is home for a mere 229,700 people (figures from 2011 census) and many of them are annoyingly young. Such a young demographic is mostly due to the fact that the city has not ONE but TWO universities plus FIVE colleges to boot. It's the architecture, young and old but mainly pretty old, much of it listed as Regency, particularly on the seafront itself. And above all (once again in my opinion) the diversity of the people it seems to attract. Here, young mix with old, coloured skins mixed with different coloured skins. Religious people seem to accept other types of religious people, regardless of them being wrong or right (I guess someone has to be wrong somewhere). 

The beauty of Brighton is the fact that it remains to be small as far as cities go. It is because it is small, that as such there are no ghettos, there is no Chinatown, the is no Latin Quarter the is no "no go area". Generally speaking, people get on there, unless (I think) you have very right-wing political views (if you did you would not like to live in Brighton anyway). Another striking thing about Brighton is (now here is a bad point) many of the bicycles get vandalised. It is the norm to be walking along any street in Brighton to see bicycles with severely buckled wheels or worse they have been stripped of anything and everything from pedals to handlebars to gears to seats and saddles worth taking. Often a carcass of a bicycle is all that remains still securely locked to a railing or lampost.
I honestly thought this was simply the way it is everywhere you go in the world. I knew wasn't perfect but as a none bicycle owner, I was quite prepared to accept it. Well (and please tell me if I am wrong) it does seem to be pretty much unique to Brighton may be to the UK at a stretch. I haven't seen this anywhere else in the world so far, why is someone doing such a grotty thing?  Namaste