Thinking big for our city

HIDDEN halfway down Amanda Ducker’s Cafe Society column yesterday was a great idea, proposed by local urban design expert Jerry de Gryse. That idea was that Elizabeth Street in central Hobart be converted into a “pedestrian zone” from Federal Street in North Hobart all the way down to the waterfront. Under the concept, the footpaths would be widened and an electric tram (trackless, one assumes) would ferry passengers along the spine of what would surely soon become a world famous feature of our city. Mr de Gryse is not saying that cars should be banned from the road; he’s just advocating a new design where Elizabeth Street is no longer treated as a main arterial — one that stops dead at the pedestrian mall.

It’s a good idea of the kind of big-picture (and yet suitable) thinking that our governments — and particularly the Hobart City Council — should be far more active in fostering. As we have said many times in this column, our capital city has a unique opportunity right now to rethink our central business district.

The University of Tasmania’s move from Sandy Bay into the centre of town will be a major catalyst for a rework of the spine of their development along

Melville Street. Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has meanwhile quietly proposed (but hasn’t yet appeared to progress) the idea of a pedestrian-friendly rezoned medium-density housing precinct along Campbell Street up to the Officeworks site. Urban planners have at the same time been talking up the benefits of socalled “infill housing” right through the CBD — perhaps, as an illustration, turning what is now a singlelevel car yard into a five-storey unit block with a fresh new showroom sharing the ground floor with a cafe and shops. The result of all of these ideas would be a city centre that is home to many more people than is currently the case, most of whom would be able to walk to work — and to dinner and perhaps a movie or a show afterwards.

One of the benefits would be that we could slow the city expanding ever-more outwards as new housing estates turn what were paddocks into new suburbs full of homes to people who have no choice but to add to the traffic on our ever-more congested arterial roads every peak hour. That would mean the government could save millions of dollars on the roadworks necessary to carry that extra traffic. And new supply would see rental prices in the inner-city fall from their current unaffordable level to a price more suited to our community. That, in turn, would make it easier for us to attract from elsewhere the nurses and teachers that our state needs to ensure our education and health systems are delivering what they should — and give our retail and hospitality workers respite from a long and dangerous drive home at the end of their shifts.

Now, perhaps Mr de Gryse’s idea for Elizabeth

Street is a step too far. Perhaps it’s a silly idea. But isn’t it refreshing when somebody proposes something new that actually feels like it not only fits our city, but matches our time — and protects (and even enhances) what makes this place so special. Imagine for a moment a city council that spent its time thinking beyond the horizon instead of debating whether its councillors and aldermen should be allowed to fly business class.

Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by the Editor, Chris Jones, Level 1, 2 Salamanca Square, Hobart, TAS, 7000

IT’S A GOOD IDEA OF THE KIND OF BIGPICTURE THINKING THAT OUR GOVERNMENTS — AND PARTICULARLY THE HOBART CITY COUNCIL — SHOULD BE FAR MORE ACTIVE IN FOSTERING.