Activation
Bringing the city to life is about more than events and foot traffic
Vacant shopfronts have become the norm in Townsville’s CBD, and it’s been that way for a while. Townsville City Council has tried multiple initiatives to accomplish activating the CBD, including regular events in the city heart designed to encourage people to enjoy what it has on offer after business hours.
Mayor Jenny Hill says the council has been doing its bit – but is facing issues with some building owners. This came as YWAM secured one of council’s latest incentives, in which the council waives fees to help make reactivation or upgrades easier.
The council is also looking at removing red tape involved in allowing seating at restaurants to spill out on to the footpath.
Another part of the council’s plan to bring more life to the city was the stadium.
Now open for more than three years, the stadium is proving useful on event nights, keeping revellers in the city for much longer.
But there is still a missing link. This newspaper doesn’t have the answers – yet – but more events and better organisation of a CBD ‘hub’ may be the answer.
It is one thing to have 12 nights a year activate the CBD for Cowboys games, and maybe a handful of extra nights for special events, but there are another 30-something weeks of the year that need love.
More businesses will move into the CBD, more restaurants will open, when the foot traffic exists outside of those specialist days.
Townsville’s CBD is dead on weekends, there are a handful of cafes and restaurants that open, but it’s not where people go outside of major event days.
On weekends, Flinders St East does a reasonable job of activating for young partygoers, but it feels disjointed. The city needs to find a way to better connect all the areas of excitement.
Encouraging business development is part of that, but so is creating the right atmosphere in the right space. In the sweltering and suffocating heat of summer, no one wants to walk the length of Flinders St to get from one bar to the next. Getting foot traffic into the CBD is one thing, getting people to access the whole thing is another.