Lights, culture, action: how to fix Adelaide after dark

[wll6568]

Lights, culture, action: how to fix Adelaide after dark

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

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Liam Mannix

THE State Premier and the Lord Mayor agree – Adelaide after dark isn’t working.

They spent yesterday listening to different visions on how to fix it. Ideas included a night-mayor, bus stops that served tea and coffee, a cultural and entertainment program focussing on the after-work timeslot, case-by-case closing times for city venues and the appointment of an artistic director for the city.

Premier Jay Weatherill and Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood, along with city councillors and cabinet ministers, yesterday attended the Growing Adelaide’s Evening Economy Forum at the Royal Institute.

The forum offered an opportunity for city thinkers to pitch their ideas for livening up the evening economy to Adelaide’s political leaders.

Weatherill told the forum he wanted to see a city that attracted people in at all times of the day and night.

“You need them at all times of the day – morning, noon, night, late night – to create that sense of vibrancy,” Weatherill said.

“What is going to get them here? Different types of activities. Not just getting completely hammered after midnight on Hindley Street, which can be fun. But it’s got a pretty limited appeal to a pretty limited group of people and has got some pretty significant knock-on effects to other people.

“We have to do something about the mall. The mall is virtually unoccupied in the evening. It’s largely emptied out at the close of business.”

Tensions between the different uses needed to be resolved before the city could function properly, Weatherill said.

"Vibrancy: there’s a tension at one end with family-friendly. If you want certain types of people coming in, certain types of vibrancy are going to be anathema to the one which they’re going to experience in the city.

“There are going to be conflicts. So there needs to be a debate and a consensus reached about what we mean about vibrancy.”

The State Government says the city has more than 200,000 users during the day, but that number drops more than 80 per cent at night.

Yarwood said administrations in the past had neglected Adelaide’s night-time scene.

"There is no question that the night time economy, and in particular the early evening economy, has been a categoric blind spot of the leaders in this state for a very long time,” he said.

“Tongue in cheek, it might be a reference to the fact the decision makers are probably safely tucked up in bed by about 8.30.”

The 100-plus forum participants included representatives from big and small business, the universities and the performing arts sector.

They pitched a broad range of ideas to Weatherill and Yarwood, many of which were met with support.

The ideas included a special ‘night-mayor’ who would care for the city after dark. Yarwood objected to this proposal, pointing out his role covered both the day and night economies of the city.

Safer public transport stops for late-night buses were also suggested. The stops would include people handing out complimentary tea and coffee. The hope was that people would disperse across the city to wait at the bus stops, rather than all huddling on Hindley Street waiting for a taxi.

The forum’s most popular idea was to create night-time pedestrian links across the city. Participants said travelling from one spot to another in the city often required moving through poorly lit areas such as Rundle Mall, which discouraged people to stay in the city.

Other ideas suggested included case-by-case closing times for city venues, pop up live music venues, an entertainment program focussed on the after-work time slot, open-all-night libraries, and an information flyer about city venues handed out on public transport.

The forum was told that Sydney is a couple of years ahead of Adelaide in its attempt to improve the night-time economy of the CBD.

Rachel Healy and Suzie Matthews from the City of Sydney Council told the forum their council had focussed on increasing food and entertainment offerings rather than cracking down on pubs and clubs.

“It’s not all about alcohol. Food is the thing that drives our night-time economy,” Healy told the forum.

By increasing the offering more people from different demographics – particularly over 40s – had been brought into the city.

Sydney has started a program of open-late libraries which run cultural and entertainment events. Dedicated late-night public transport stops have been set up, and more lighting and CCTV cameras have been installed.

And the council was encouraging drinking venues to spread through the city rather than cluster in specific places, with the aim of reducing drunken violence and anti-social behaviour. Restaurants were being encouraged to open in previously-pub-dominated districts such as Kings Cross.

“We stopped asking how do you fix alcohol related violence. We started asking how do we transform the city after dark,” Healy said.

Healy noted Sydney suffered from many of the same problems as Adelaide, including poor late night public transport and a lack of quality restaurants open after 10pm.

Many of those problems, particularly transport, couldn’t be solved by the council alone. Healy said her council started seeing success once they adopted a whole-of-government approach.

Again, my opinions are.... without enough residence living in the cbd, it's going to be extremely hard relying on suburban residences to go to city again after work. Not many people living in Melbourne suburbs go visit city often, most of the people in their city are tourists and local city residences. SA government just never get it....

[Waewick]

personally, a complete deregulation shopping hours would be a start, personally I'd focus on small (i,e sole or family operations) would be great (not the big ones).

The problem you need is decent accommodation in or above shops, something Adelaide doesn't have much of.

having more than just restaurants open after 5pm would be great and entice more people into the city (to shop and live)

[crawf]

Again, my opinions are.... without enough residence living in the cbd, it's going to be extremely hard relying on suburban residences to go to city again after work. Not many people living in Melbourne suburbs go visit city often, most of the people in their city are tourists and local city residences. SA government just never get it....

Actually they do get it. Think of the new planning system that allows taller buildings and the axing of stamp duty on new apartments which has sparked an increase in sales. Not to mention the billions worth of investment the State Government and Adelaide City Council is pouring into the city right now.

And now this.

It's been a long time since we've had a State Government focusing so much on the Adelaide CBD. Kudos to them.

[monotonehell]

personally, a complete deregulation shopping hours would be a start, personally I'd focus on small (i,e sole or family operations) would be great (not the big ones).

Shopping hours are pretty much deregulated, and yet most shops still close before 6pm.

[Punishment466]

Tea and coffee at bus stops?

Ground breaking.

[SRW]

I'm curious how they'd go about encouraging more restaurants to open in certain locations? Hindley Street in particular needs more restaurants and retail outlets, but I don't think many fancy dealing with strip clubs and drunk factories as neighbours. Rundle Mall too needs more restaurants and bars, but I don't think many would be able to cope with the rents demanded. To my mind, that leaves only regulatory means or perhaps some agency that liases between desirable businesses and leasers/building owners -- but no-one's a fan of red tape and an agency would cost money.

[Colen001]

As many have said here, more cafes / restaurants/ eateries / things to do after dark. The mall should have more restaurants so that once the shops close it does not become a ghost town, more mixed use is what is needed. The more people, the safer it is, the safer it is, the more people will come. As for Hindley St in my eyes every city has its dodgy, drunken sector and I do not think many higher class restaurants would want to open up shop there, in saying that there does seem to be more eateries opening up which is a good sign and a possible slow shift in that direction.

In my eyes Splash Adelaide is one of the best things that has happened to this city in the last decade with regards to making quiet places busy and therefore safer. The night market, Fork on the road, Nights on North Tce etc are all things which need to be further promoted to make these areas come alive after dark. The squares especially need more lighting and a stronger focus on events to help create a safer place.

As for the state government, I commend their efforts into attempting to revive Adelaide. We live in a brilliant city, one that I am beginning to be incredibly proud of, but it does need improvement, and the state gov are truly making waves.

[Will]

I don't offer anything groundbreaking, just to point out that many streets in the CBD are very dark and hence not very welcoming at night. I'm thinking of streets like Wakefield Street, Angas Street, Flinders Street......

Put more street lights and light up the facades of heritage buildings please.

[Colen001]

light up the facades of heritage buildings please.

Funnily enough I was only talking to a friend about that the other night. Adelaide does have truly beautiful buildings and yet once its dark they go completely unnoticed, perhaps along the mall the council could invest in some lighting for the more desirable buildings. I'm sure Rundle Place lights itself up well enough. You do make a good point about Flinders/Angas/Wakefield St and all the other streets south of Rundle, you only have to go for a walk on a "busy" Friday night to see these streets are virtually dead as well. I guess they too suffer from Offices/Commercial buildings closing after 5:00. Grote/Gouger are probably the only exceptions.

[Aidan]

personally, a complete deregulation shopping hours would be a start, personally I'd focus on small (i,e sole or family operations) would be great (not the big ones).

Shopping hours are pretty much deregulated, and yet most shops still close before 6pm.

Shopping hours are far from deregulated, and we have the ludicrous situation of Coles being forced to shut from 9pm to midnight. But even in Sydney, where Coles stays open, that seems to be the only difference - almost everything else shuts. I started a thread about it a while back - since then I've spent a few days in Melbourne, and they don't seem to have the answer either.

But I will ask again in case someone has any more ideas: what do the big ovseas cities have that makes it worth staying open?

[Waewick]

I think a lot of the problem we have is our English way of thinking

that is work 8.30 - 5 Dinner at 6-6.30 and in bed by 10 (I'm being very broad here), we are very rigid still, I think that is changing however.

what to me makes the cities I enjoyed visiting great is a atmosphere which is relaxed, i.e families and groups of people eating out at 8,9 and 10 O'clock.

As a suburban city, we will always struggle to have that atmosphere because people don't leave in and near the "eateries" so they always have to drive home, so unless we can significantly improve our PT to get people home after hours, well we are stuffed.

I spent some time in Osaka, whilst nowhere near as fantastic as Tokyo or as traditional as Kyto, it still has much to offer - If you go to their main entertainment precinct you will be fascinated, but I'm not sure Adelaide has the ability to match that kind of busyness (Google Osaka streets or Glico Running Man sign and start google mapping from there)

edit - the area is D?tonbori

[Colen001]

Excellent point about the public transport. I still have no idea why the after midnight services are not extended for the Friday night / Sat early morning period. There are heaps of people in the city all of who are far from being able to drive and no way to get home except a cab after midnight. In my eyes it should be free after midnight as well, far less dangerous for the driver, more people on the bus and far less accidents due to alcohol, a few angry cab drivers though I could imagine.

[Shahkar]

Not only extended hours for PT, but also increased frequency. No one, especially the drunk population, likes to wait 30-60 mins for the next bus to arrive if you've just missed the bus by a matter of minutes. Obviously more tram extensions would also help and the undergoing electrification are stopping people from further away to come to the CBD. I heard a lady the other day saying how she never used the tram because she thought it wasn't free from the Entertainment Centre. LOL. Further extending trading hours on Mon-Thurs won't hurt. And yes, restaurants and cinemas are a great way to increase people population. A great example is the area around Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square in London.

[AtD]

Shopping hours are pretty much deregulated, and yet most shops still close before 6pm.

Except on the two of the biggest trading days of the week.

[[Shuz]]

They really should set up Northern Lights again, permanently.