What to do with a waste of space
IT’S 3.30pm on a Friday and I decide to take a walk up Moorabool St and check out Geelong’s infamous mall.
Not because it has become my new favourite post-retirement haunt, but I want to check out how things are faring in the troubled area.
I battle my way through crowds clogging the footpath at the Moorabool St bus port, where schoolkids, parents with toddlers in pushers and the elderly are packed together like sardines waiting to catch buses to various destinations.
Just metres away, comes the all-too-familiar sound of yelling and swearing over the buzz of the waiting bus stop crowd.
A couple of drunken men are staggering around in the mall, swigging grog from long necks and screaming abuse at seagulls threatening to home in on the food scrap pigsty the pair has left on a nearby bench.
A group of teens are gathered a short distance away, talking among themselves.
That is, until one of the drunks decides to hurl his bottle at the marauding seagulls, yelling at them to ‘F--- off.’
He misses the seagulls (no surprises there) and the bottle smashes on the ground not far from where the teenagers are standing.
The group approaches the drunks and words are exchanged before the teens, to give them credit, move off down Moorabool St to join the noisy bus port congestion.
Meanwhile, off to the left a man sits cross-legged on the ground swigging from a can of Jack Daniels while a small child rolls around on the filthy ground beside him.
Shoppers, anxious to avoid the wrath of the drunks and any other untoward behaviour from resident mallrats, scurry by, eyes averted.
Clearly after 32 years since its inception, nothing has changed to fix this absolute waste of valuable inner city real estate. Despite all the talk fests, working parties and task forces put together, it remains a great weeping sore on the face of Geelong’s city centre. Certainly a place most shoppers try to avoid.
The mall was created during construction of Market Square Shopping Centre in 1985 and, in the decades since, has been the scene of some of the city’s worst crime — from murder to rape, violent brawls, vicious unprovoked assaults, armed robberies, drug dealing. The list goes on.
The same place where, when police do have to attend, they usually need back-up, not to help them deal with the issue at hand, but to protect them from drugged-up mall rats always ready to arc up at the first sign of law enforcement.
From piped music to fountains installed then ripped out, trees planted and replaced, temporary police booths and security guards, visiting food trucks, live music and farmer’s markets — all have failed miserably to fix the troubled area.
So, when administrators were brought in following the sacking of Geelong’s council last year, many were hoping they at least would take some firm, positive steps to sort out the mall once and for all. No such luck.
It seems administrators have also placed the mall in the toohard basket, ignoring the blight on the city centre, preferring instead to welcome people to Geelong through, among other things, a so-called art trail.
When asked about the ongoing saga of the mall, chief administrator Kathy Alexander said it was “a complex issue”, and “administrators want to put together a workshop jointly hosted by local police command — to develop a strategy for the mall”. Whatever that means. According to Ms Alexander the mall is “a broader issue than just policing” and factors behind the troubled area are “multi-dimensional”. Sound familiar? Sounds like another cop out and, delivered at the death knock, just months before a new council is elected, means administrators won’t have time to address the issue anyway.
So what can be done to make the mall safe?
First, relocate the beleaguered bus port from Moorabool St, to either Yarra or Gheringhap streets, leaving the city business centre free for development and revitalisation.
Next, completely open up the mall to redevelopment and give Geelong back its heart by turning it into a series of sidewalk cafes and boutique businesses, extending the positive development already taking place on the western side of Little Malop St right through to Yarra St.
If those two suggestions don’t win any votes there is of course another option.
Erect a cyclone wire fence around it and charge admission!
At least that way it would keep the rest of the community safe.