Cars in mall plan splits city business owners
CITY stakeholders are split over the possibility of reopening the mall to cars in a bid to revitalise the iconic but diminishing shopping precinct.
Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis wants to look at the idea in the future, but reopening the Smith St Mall precinct to cars between 6pm and 6am was the general idea.
“One of the things I want to do is go down south and go to some of the malls that are closed and open and see what the traffic is like in them,” Mr Vatskalis said. “We’re not going to rush any decision … in the New year, we will have more clarity.”
Mr Vatskalis said there were many different ideas that could come to fruition in the mall but wanted to make sure it would take into consideration the fact a lot of time and money had already been invested in the precinct.
“(We could) Put more lights in the mall to attract people and attract restaurants to open up in the mall – We have a drinking precinct in Mitchell St – this could be an eating precinct in the Mall,” he said.
“Council has spent a lot of money on the mall … but is the solution to have it closed and build on that to attract foot traffic or open the mall up?”
Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Bicknell said he wouldn’t form a position without consulting his members but it was worth visiting the ideas brought forward by the lord mayor.
“The whole vibrancy of the CBD has been an issue for some time, (elements) such as traffic closure of the mall should be revisited from time to time,” he said.
“There are parts of the country where they have been opened and parts where they have been closed down – it’s certainly worth investigating.”
Cafe 21 owner Jenny Um said many Mall traders would have different opinions but she supported the prospect of more vehicles bringing more people into the mall.
“The current situation is not working at the moment, any idea is worth exploring because if we don't try we don’t know,” she said.
“Generally, traffic brings noise and energy, for people like me with hospitality, it will have a positive impact, I’m greatly supportive of the idea – if it brings energy, why not.
“At the moment it’s dead, there’s no atmosphere, there’s no energy.”
But on the other side of the fence, some business owners think the answer to the lack of vibrancy is to attract more pedestrians to the area.
Manager of the Darwin Book Shop Sean Guy said it would take a lot of work to build, especially considering how much work would have to be done to accommodate it.
“I just don’t think it’s worth it. I assume it’ll mean ripping up the shade and all the seating and trees, the playground which is new, they just put that in, I don’t see it being worth it,” Mr Guy said.
“We should probably be looking at possibly restaurant’s or something instead.”