C’MON COAST, LET’S GET THE PARTY GOING
Empty cafes, deserted bars and uninhabitated Games precincts ... it should be enough to drive us to drink
MY fellow Gold Coasters, there is a civic duty that tonight we are called to do.
This is a crusade for our city.
We must leave the comfort of our homes and our couches and journey into the night. Well, into a nightspot.
Be it pub, club or restaurant, it is our job – nay, our responsibility – to drink for the Gold Coast.
Not just to its health, but for its health.
Thanks to years of warning about dire traffic and crazy crowding during the Commonwealth Games, our festival is fizzling out.
Turns out, bureaucracy is a total party pooper.
People blame the media for #fakenews, but this is the fault of officials who falsely sounded the alarm to stay off the roads and at home or else risk the traffic apocalypse. It’s the government who cried wolf – because our city is a ghost town.
It’s sad as a resident to see our normally pumping Coast limping along trying to infuse some party spirit into empty streets.
As a parent it’s worse … when the kids annoy me I can’t even tell them to go play in traffic – because there is none.
Games volunteers at many events are also under-utilised, perhaps a reflection of overpricing for some seats. Surely we would have been better to make them all a familyfriendly cost and fill every venue?
But the people I feel sorriest for are business owners. They are the collateral damage of this over-the-top catastrophising.
There are those who closed out of fear that nobody would be able to travel, and those who stayed open – even employing more staff, operating on the promise that this would be the greatest business boom in years.
The biggest damage is not to big business – though they are surely suffering too – but the small operators who have struggled through years of roadworks and construction with the light at the end of the (brand new) tunnel being this two-week business bonanza.
Commonwealth Games chairman Peter Beattie told the Queensland Media Club in October last year that the $2 billion boost the Games was expected to deliver to the Queensland economy may be “out of date” and could in fact be far higher.
Instead, many business owners are experiencing the worst April trade they can remember.
The promised boom has gone bust.
Those who closed their doors are realising that, given the light traffic, they could have stayed open.
Those who prepared for the flood of customers are hearing nothing but crickets – apparently they’re allowed to use the Games Lanes.
To be fair, I understand that the State Government is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
If they didn’t warn of the possibility of heavy traffic and there were cars on the road, they’d probably cop a spray too.
But that’s part of the job. As the media, we cop that too. Toughen up.
While I hate to spoil our traffic-free streets, it’s time we got out there and reminded the country – and showed the world – that this city can party like it’s nobody’s business.
Go to the shops, visit a theme park, grab a drink – meet our visitors and let them know there’s someone still home.
Many of those who have travelled long distances have come for the Games – or a specific game – only, they are here to see their sport and then leave. They might have paid top dollar for their seat but they’re not spending their cash anywhere else.
So let’s make sure we convince them to stay for one more round.
Yes, it would have been nicer to have more families flock here and experience the magic of the theme parks or even just savour a coffee at one of our amazing cafes, but let’s make the most of what we have.
If you’re a business who’s suffering, send us your details and we’ll try to spread the word to bring back the buyers. Let’s start a campaign to take care of business.
Sure, there’s every possibility that this weekend might see our streets start to come alive, but let’s not leave it to chance. Let’s get out there and make it happen.
And if it does, in true political style, I’m going to claim it.
Cheers to that.