Government killing CBD
RE: Attitude of all levels of government to the Cairns CBD.
All levels of government in all other cities in Australia, keep their public service departments open in their respective CBDs to assist the cities to remain financially viable. They are also open to traffic, with minimal restrictions.
In the Brisbane CBD, those government departments occupy almost 27 per cent of all office space available.
In Cairns, six government departments have left the CBD from Abbott St since late 1980s; Clerk of Petty Sessions Office, Austra Post office, Court House, Medibank, Cairns City Council, and Department of Motor Transport, all of which contributed to the collapse of the “Gold- en Block” in the CBD. A city the size of Cairns cannot lose the thousands of jobs from the CBD and expect it to survive.
The perfect example is when the Post Office moved to Grafton St, it left Abbott St in dire straits. And when the Post Office again moved from Grafton St to Sheridan St, it caused businesses to close down in Grafton St, including a bank.
While it is bad enough for the CBD to be affected by this lack of support for the CBD, then you have government restricting traffic, which stifles business.
After 30 years on the Esplanade, the one-way traffic has been a failure – it has reduced Esplanade movement by up to 60 per cent.
Since 1996, the Cairns Plan of building of apartments has not been a success.
Urbanising the CBD cannot solve all the problems. Tony Basha, Cairns