Landlords have a responsibility

EMPTY and neglected buildings, especially shopfronts, are a blight on the CBD of Cairns.

There is nothing worse for tourists and visitors to our city to see vacant stores or properties in need of repair.

It ruins the ambience especially when retailers and property owners nearby have made so much effort to make their premises attractive and enticing.

It’s not a good sight when peering through grubby windows and seeing rubbish and abandoned furniture and the like.

Not so long ago landlords were encouraged to spruce up their buildings and show some pride.

Some offered short-term reasonable or even free rents for pop-up shops.

Others allowed artistic people to be at work in the empty spaces and display their creations for sale.

But that all seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Why don’t property owners allow artists, especially talented young people, to paint murals in waterbased paints on their windows to bring their empty premises to life?

Earlier this year the Sea Walls Artists for Oceans were given the sides of buildings to create fantastic murals.

One of the worst and most embarrassing sections of the CBD is Sheridan St, our main arterial route, between Aplin and Shields streets.

The owners of some of the buildings on the southern side should be ashamed of themselves.

Landlords have a moral responsibility and a civic duty to ensure their empty buildings do not become eyesores.

Cairns Regional Council should get tougher and also offer incentives to property owners to clean up their buildings.