City eyesores are getting bad
IMAGINE being so obscenely rich, lazy and selfish you would rather leave a prime piece of central real estate to become a decrepit rat nest than apply a lick of paint.
The Cairns CBD has become a network of rundown dives — properties overflowing with potential but left to fester into smelly old carbuncles on the Far North’s pristine haunches. We all know the ones. These were beautiful old buildings that have degraded into vacant squats with peeling paint and flapping gutters — structurally sound edifices that just need a few dollars to become entirely less offensive.
Unfortunately it is not a case of just one or two old shops.
These eyesores are all over the place, and they are getting worse.
Drastic action is needed to add some life back into the CBD, even if it is only a visual improvement.
Otherwise, why would anybody want to invest next door?
Here are three ways to fix the issue.
One is more extreme than the others but when you consider how bullheaded some of these landlords are, extreme action may prove the only answer.
Let’s start slow and work our way up to full-blown pitchfork territory. Cairns Regional Council has tried numerous times to offer slack owners a chance to spruce up their monstrosities without outlaying too much cash.
It set aside $100,000 in 2014 and said it would match every dollar landlords spent to renovate their ramshackle facades, capped at a $10,000 payment for each building.
This was an enormously generous offer, but only four people took them up on it. Pathetic. In Mark Twain’s coming-of-age classic, the eponymous hero is forced to whitewash his grandmother’s fence after being caught wagging school.
The industrious lad uses reverse psychology to convince a band of clueless young chumps to pay him for the great honour of carrying out the tedious task for him.
In the context of fixing up the Cairns CBD, it is a bit different.
It would be relatively easy to rally a volunteer army to donate time and effort to repaint some of the more prominent and disgusting building facades in the city — because we have to look at them every day.
A qualified painter might baulk at the final product, but it would add colour to these drab blights on the CBD.
The council could use the $40,000 leftover from its 2014 incentive program to buy the paint and cover public liability insurance.
It would require these indolent landlords’ permission, of course. The economic reality of retail means some landlords are loath to spend a penny on upkeep.
OK, but social responsibility has a role as well.
At the risk of sounding like a blood-red commie, the Cairns CBD belongs to all of us.
How about a change to the Local Government Act which says, as a last resort, landlords who allow prominent buildings to atrophy into wretchedness will have them taken away? Local councils would get first bid on the property at 30 per cent below the market price.
If they opt out of the purchase, the property would go out to auction with a reserve price at 50 per cent of the actual value, as set by an independent appraiser.
You can bet that would put enough fear up these self-serving real estate moguls for them to grab a paintbrush.
Fortunately we have owners willing to take pride in their town.
Frank Gasparin and the Kamsler brothers unveiled separate major redevelopment plans for tired old buildings just last week.
Not everyone needs to go out and spend millions, but the current situation cannot be allowed to continue.
The difference a cosmetic paint job can make is amazing.
TOO GOOD TO REFUSE TOM SAWYER TECHNIQUE USE IT OR LOSE IT THE CAIRNS CBD HAS BECOME A NETWORK OF RUNDOWN DIVES — PROPERTIES OVERFLOWING WITH POTENTIAL BUT LEFT TO FESTER INTO SMELLY OLD CARBUNCLES …