THE NAKED CITY – ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN
In a week where the music industry and punters alike bemoaned the impending closure of the high profile Newtown Social Club, few would have noticed a similar demise for a couple of small coffee shops in Devonshire Street. Both closures are symptomatic of a malaise which seems to have hit the city when it comes to nurturing small business and encouraging a so called ‘cosmopolitan culture’.
The announcement that the well patronised Newtown Social Club was calling it quits in April came as a shock, given its popularity as a venue over the past three years. Whilst the owners have been somewhat vague in revealing their reasons, it seems Council compliance played a major role in the economic shutdown of the venue.
It’s just another sad story in the history of live music in Sydney over the past few decades, despite continued murmurings on the part of the State Government and the Sydney City Council that they are there to encourage the spread of live music. Given the experience of the Newtown Social Club, who in their right mind would start a dedicated live music venue in Sydney, fighting their way through a minefield of Council bureaucracy just to open, and then an ongoing battle of compliance just to remain open?
Meanwhile in Devonshire Street Surry Hills, near Central Railway, a once buzzing strip of coffee shops and takeaways is being slowly suffocated by the tediously slow and hideously expensive light rail construction. Two coffee shops, Café Gallery and Café Connexion, have felt the full brunt of dwindling patronage and pulled down the shutters. Sadly it’s an all too familiar story when it comes to civic works and major construction throughout the city and environs.
Many will remember the drawn out pavement widening and paving that took place in Kings Cross and Oxford Street and impacted severely on numerous small businesses, forcing many to close. Perhaps with this in mind Transport For NSW did initiate a program to advise small business holders affected by the light trail construction, however given the Devonshire Street experience you have to wonder as to its efficacy.
The reality is that these kind of situations need more than just a thinly disguised PR exercise that looks good on paper but does little when it comes to preserving people’s livelihood. What’s required is a coordinated approach on both the part of the State Government and the City Council and some serious compensation if these businesses are to continue.
If allowed to fail they often have a snowball effect on the rest of the immediate street and it can take months or years before new shop holders move in. Witness the boarded up strip that is Oxford Street between Taylor Square and South Dowling Street and you’ll soon see what I’m talking about.
The Sydney City Council have made numerous noises about creating a vibrant, European style streetscape of coffee shops, small bars and food outlets through the CBD and the various “villages” of the inner city. The lower Devonshire Street precinct was once a good example of this, but its immediate future looks bleak, given that the light rail construction could drag on for months.
What we need is some good old fashioned nurturing by officialdom, as idealistic as it might sound – where coffee shops and live music venues are treated as part of the essential heartbeat of the city – where compliance is compromised and rules are bended and the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality becomes a thing of the past. If $2 million can be found to erect a giant milk crate in Belmore Park then surely something can be spared to save a couple of coffee shops and a much loved music venue.
