'T' PLATES

TOURIST PLATES

We drive from St Kilda to Fitzroy between 9am and 1am 5 days a week and we watch with some trepidation what happens to traffic, drivers and pedestrians.

 

The national endemic is ignoring red lights by all participants which creates constant ‘mind’ chaos because no one is sure what anyone else will do.  For example, the disaffected personally powerless dropkick deliberately walks across traffic fingering anyone who dares to complain.  Not a good look.

Everyone has a ‘whoops’ moment being caught clipping a red light but this is vastly different from the dross who accelerate through an intersection in the full knowledge it’s red.

Enter the tourist into this mind chaos.  Strange car, strange city, perhaps driving on the other side of the road and in a constant state of panic.  We as locals are used to it and expect others to also be used to it with little quarter given.  Yet, any tourist wants a positive experience and I speak from personal experience having driven all over Europe.

The trouble is that we don’t know who the tourists are so we have no chance to cut some slack or even smile.  These people are not dross, they are tourists enjoying our space but in a constant state of panic.

The solution is simple.

Magnetic ‘T’ plates the same as ‘P’ plates identifying the driver as a tourist who may make mistakes and whom we have a duty to both understand and support.  

Nice people in a nice city doing nice things being supported by nice locals.

Couldn’t be easier really.

Montsalvat

PRESERVE MONTSALVAT AS THE ICONIC ARTS COLONY

Yesterday we had occasion to visit the iconic Montsalvat to interview Mr Sigmund Jorgensen for news publication. 

During this period we could not help but notice the deplorable state the buildings and grounds are currently enduring.   Weeds on steps, grass unmown, moss on tiles, render falling off buildings, a filthy inappropriate pool fence and a palpable feeling of neglect.

This current board and management are failing in their duty to preserve Montsalvat.  Have a look at Heidi, or indeed, any reasonably run art institution, and note the differences.  

Unfortunately, Mr Jorgensen had been voted off the self elected current board and since thwarted by them in his attempts to revive the arts colony.  

I doubt that the paying public will want to look at an unkempt ruin remembering Montsalvat circa 70’s used to be vibrant and alive when Mr Jorgensen was running the show yet now it feels like a place in its death throes.

The current board and management without Mr Jorgensen have failed in their duty to protect and nurture Montsalvat and therefore as an act of good faith should resign forthwith.  Indeed, Montsalvat’s constitution at section 9a demands board member skills and experience appropriate for the company which would obviously exclude skills and experience such as local government, academia and anything not focused on the business that is Montsalvat.  Unfortunately most of the board and management fall into this exclusion zone and it shows.  Terrible management decisions are prevalent such as outsourcing revenue streams for a fraction of their worth because of an inability to manage.

Montsalvat needs professional intervention to survive starting with the reinstatement of Mr Sigmund Jorgensen as the live in doyen and founder.

The risk is losing the history that is Montsalvat.