Town Hall Square back on the backburner
COMMENT –
The axing of the CBD Metro has put Council’s pet project, Town Hall Square, back on the backburner now that the State will not be acquiring any properties in the busy business hub, opposite Town Hall, that Council wants to demolish.
City centre workers who enjoy a cooling ale at the Criterion or a cheap fresh roll at lunchtime from Woolies’ basement bakery can relax – for now.
But the City is not to be deterred by such minor setbacks. According to A City of Sydney Spokesperson:
“A central component of the City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan is to activate and enhance the City Centre with enlivened public spaces including a new Town Hall Square on George Street.
“Town Hall Square was part of City planning before the Metro was announced and will provide a civic gathering place and form part of a revitalised and pedestrian friendly George Street and Central Sydney.
“The Sydney Metro proposal had presented an opportunity to bring forward delivery of the square to 2015.
“The City remains committed to building Town Hall Square despite the cancellation of the Sydney Metro and is in discussions with the NSW state government on their plans for the city’s rail network.”
The City did not respond to further questions about a new finish date.
But claims that this new vacuum in the city centre will “activate” anything betray the deep dysfunction of the top-down planning model operating here.
Urban planning guru Jane Jacobs wrote a book full of reasons against such a project. She writes cuttingly of “promenades through vacuous parks”. She criticises civic precincts which typically become dead zones, not centres of life. She says “newness is perishable” and describes the ignorance of those at the top who can never truly understand the cities they seek to reshape because “big cities are just too… complex to be comprehended in detail from any vantage point”. Ms Jacobs would vigorously defend the evolved and functional jumble of businesses fronting sheltered ‘sidewalks’ opposite Town Hall, against the dead hand of planned sterility.
Her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is essential reading for all councillors!
by Michael Gormly
Related stories: Cities abhor a vacuum, so why create one?
