In 2003, the then Mayor Lucy Turnbull announced Frank Sartor's plans for a $24,000,000 upgrade of Oxford Street's roads and footpaths. It was to be known as the Gateway Project. The community strenuously objected that it was not merely a gateway to Sydney, but a precinct of its own. The name was promptly dropped, but the plan was never revised. Oxford Street became a six lane highway between two major malls and the airport. Peak hour clearways were created, the median strip was removed, as were the right hand turns off Oxford into Surry Hills and in the 18 months it took for this to happen, a brand new Westfield, complete with 3000+ free parking spaces, opened in Bondi Junction. At the same time the local post office moved down to Hyde Park. This left 2010 (Darlinghurst and Surry Hills) with a grand total of none central to anywhere. Additionally council (the largest single property owner on the Lower Oxford Street) began to empty their largest property (66) of all its tenants for a development that never left the drawing board. Five years on, this project has finally been cancelled, but some of the long-term tenants still don't have long term leases. Only in 2010 did 'some' of the tenants recieve the rent reductions they had been calling for since the upgrade and this was only after City of Sydney council finally (on the third attempt) hired a truly independent valuer, who promptly dropped the rents by 30%. |
 2010 - A suburb without a town centre. |
The
problems assocaited with late night drinking and violence are well
known, as is the fact that a functioning 24 hour economy is the
best way to ameliorate the harm caused. If only we had a plan like
Melbourne
did, perhaps Sydney wouldn't be a third
rate city. |
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