Letters? Where does the editor live?

Injecting Centre evidence
Residents who lived in the Kings Cross area before the medically supervised injecting centre opened will remember the then-ubiquitous used syringes in the gutters, the constant sight of people shooting up in doorways and the frequent wails of ambulance sirens attending overdoses.

These have been much less prominent since the MSIC opened. Drugs would almost certainly continue to be sold in the area if the MSIC was closed ‘ as they were before it opened.

Health policy should be evidence-based. One part of the evidence surrounding the MSIC’s operation is that residential amenity appears to have improved.

Dr Sacha Blumen, President, 2011 Residents’ Association Inc

Bourke Street as TARDIS’
Hear hear, Steve Miklos (Letters, 15 January) ‘ what a neat summary of the issues on the Bourke Street Cycleway. As a fellow Bourke Street resident, I am equally baffled and confused by both the proposal and the City of Sydney’s ‘consultation’ process. It is as if the Council has God on its side. Those of us who dare to question this proposal are dismissed as anti-cycling troglodytes. When will the Council face facts and notice that Bourke Street is not a wide, flat Copenhagen boulevard, but a largely narrow, winding, hilly street snaking happily through the inner city, congenially shared by cyclists, pedestrians and cars’ Tardis it is not.

Claire Pamenter, Redfern

Where does the editor live’
I just wonder where Mr Gormly actually lives. He certainly can’t live in the near vicinity of Kings Cross.

His scornful flippant remarks about the disaffected residents of the Cross certainly do him no justice either as a journalist or a human being!

This ‘handful’ of residents in Kings Cross, to my knowledge, crosses the barriers from scores of young people, doctors, lawyers, members of the Judiciary, actors, musicians and yes even some ‘poor old people’ who have lived in the Cross for decades ‘ hitherto loving living here but now terrified of going up the road for fear of being mugged or spat on.

Mr Gormly, I am sure that wherever you live, you wouldn’t appreciate endless numbers of drunken men shouting at the tops of their voices as they kick over every rubbish bin up and down your street. This happens EVERY weekend up and down Macleay Street, to EVERY bin left out for collection!

I doubt very much whether you would really like having to step in huge puddles of urine and/or vomit on your doorstep every Saturday and Sunday morning. This happens EVERY Saturday and Sunday to countless doorways up and down Macleay Street and many other side streets. Would you really like YOUR buzzer to be pressed relentlessly at 4am’ Would you like to have 80 or so massive motorcycles roaring up and down YOUR street at 2am’ Would you really like to put up with hundreds of P-plate drivers and their mates roaring up and down your street with their boom boom music blasting loudly enough to be heard in Port Moresby’ Or would you like your front window kicked in’ How about groups of marauding drunken youths intimidating you as you go out for your Sunday paper’ I think NOT Mr Gormly… very easy to sit in your comfortable ‘Editors chair’ and criticise others, a little harder to actually live with reality.

We are NOT as you suggest a bunch of senile retirees who need to be farmed out to the suburbs. We are actually concerned residents who have lived in this area for a very long time and have seen the appalling abuse and destruction of this area and the seemingly unstoppable escalating violence. We are NOT wowsers Mr Gormly, we too actually go out and enjoy ourselves, the difference between us and the louts that you appear so eager to defend, is that we do ENJOY ourselves and our SURROUNDINGS… we don’t cause destruction, offence and abuse as do your charming ‘friends.’

Get a reality check Mr Gormly and get back to some real journalism.

David Polson, Potts Point

Editor’s note: Mr Gormly lives less than one minute’s walk from Kings Cross Station, enjoys the sound of Harley-Davidsons and walks around the pools of vomit.

Not an old NIMBY
I strongly disagree with your editorial in the last issue of City News. To suggest that everyone who complains about the state of Sydney’s ‘entertainment precincts’ after dark is an old NIMBY is not true. I am 26 years old and often enjoy a night out.

I contacted Clover Moore over a year ago expressing my concern about the decline of Oxford Street and Sydney’s nightlife in general. I wrote that letter before I had even considered moving into the area as I used to visit it regularly and was saddened to see the changes that were occurring.

Oxford Street was once a unique gay and lesbian district but in the last few years has turned into nothing more than a 24-hour binge-drinking zone. Even if you don’t take into account the violence, there are a number of other problems. I encourage anyone to walk down the street late on a Saturday night to see first-hand.

The large influx of late-trading licensed venues (many with questionable operators) and dodgy fast food outlets has caused serious harm. Every few metres you are likely to come across a group of people either completely wasted, vomiting, urinating or worse. Rubbish from the fast-food shops and broken bottles overflow from the bins and line the footpaths. The street is now becoming famous not for its diminishing gay population but for the masses of drunk suburban teenagers flocking to it every weekend.

I recently had friends from London come to visit and even they were amazed with how bad it has become. It is messy and embarrassing and surely this is not what we should be aiming for’ Most of the residents I have spoken to in the area do not expect total peace and quiet. Many of them moved in a number of years ago because they were attracted to its lively character and diversity.

My understanding is that Clover Moore and the Council are very aware of these problems and are working towards fixing them. I do not feel it was correct to suggest that Ms Moore made a mistake by initially supporting the 2am lockout and then requesting the number of gay and lesbian venues on the list be reviewed. It seems to me she was simply listening to the feedback from her constituents and responding appropriately.

Stephen Pate, Surry Hills