Christmas cheer despite upgrade gloom

BY BIWA KWAN
Gleebooks has celebrated the removal of roadblocks and a return to normal traffic conditions by holding a day-long ‘comeback to Glebe Point Road’ party.
After 14 months of major roadside construction, Gleebooks is leading the push to bring people back to the once vibrant thoroughfare.
Champagne and Christmas cake were dispensed with goodwill and carols set the festive mood. Book elves stationed themselves around the store, while Christmas book displays and a loaded trestle of children’s books allowed customers to do their shopping in one hit. Free gift-wrapping was provided and shoppers who spent over $300 were given a free 2009 Gleeclub membership.
Co-owner for more than thirty years, David Gaunt, said that with more than 95 per cent of the upgrade now complete, the party aimed to lure those people back who may have been put-off from coming to Glebe by the heavy construction work.
‘I see it as more building up relationships with outsiders again because it was very hard for people to feel connected to Glebe over the last six months to a year because there has been such dramatic renovation of the street and streetscape taking place’ We want to reacquaint people with Glebe Point Road,’ Mr Gaunt said.
He said Gleebooks has been one of the many businesses on Glebe Point Road that has been affected by a drop in business during the past year.
‘There has been a significant downturn for a fair period of time, it has obviously been a tough year for businesses in Glebe generally and we have been no exception.’
Events manager Morgan Smith said the attendance levels at the events dropped off by 20 percent as the roadside construction restricted pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
‘For most of 2008 it was only really locals using Glebe Point Road and attendance at our events were down. General customers were down in terms of coming to the shop. Cafes and restaurants, all along Glebe Point Road were affected, and I think several have actually closed down.’
The $15 million upgrade of Glebe Point Road includes new paving, landscaping, lighting, and measures to ease traffic and create a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly environment.
Major construction work has been completed, with minor work continuing such as the removal of overhead power lines and power poles, footpath repairs, tree-planting and the installation of parking signs.
Council publicist Duncan Fine said the upgrade is ahead of schedule to meet the April 2009 completion date.
‘I think everyone has been terrorised by the roadworks and now is the time to get people interested in returning,’ said Jenna Price, organiser of the event and local resident.
Price has a long relationship with the bookstore, beginning when her parents bought her the Complete Oxford English Dictionary from Gleebooks for her twenty-first birthday. The connection has been shared with her children, who learned how to read at the knee of Gleebooks staff members.
‘I just think that it is important to have little shops like that around the place, otherwise you end up buying your books from Kmart. And no-one is going to help you pick Gabriel García Márquez [Nobel prize-winning Colombian author of ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’] at Kmart, they’re not even going to stop at Gabriel García Márquez.
‘The fact is there are so many people who come to Glebe, whether to eat, or go to the galleries, or whether to go to book shops. Many of them wouldn’t be aware that now is the lovely time to do it,’ said Gaunt. ‘It is all fully accessible again.’