ACLAND STREET ST KILDA

 

‘AN OPEN LETTER’

Congratulations Port Phillip City Council because you have managed to remove the heart and soul from Acland Street St Kilda as an ‘international go to tourist spot’.  You have turned it into a dead tram stop now inhabited by the socially disadvantaged day and night. 

Shops are closed, banks are gone and the disenfranchised treat the area as place to just sit.   Old men without shirts wander aimlessly looking for cigarette butts on the ground, younger more aggressive people seek cash and the homeless just sit with an empty hat in front of them seeking anything.

There is no life left in Acland street!  It’s gone from a bustling character filled international go-to destination to a bland suburban tram stop now inhabited by a disadvantaged social group.

Whoever made the decision to destroy Acland Street should be paying all shop owners for their losses and compensate Melbourne for gross stupidity.  No real consultation with any key groups and no reason to add two tram super-stops just metres away from existing stops outside Acland Street near Luna Park.     Lunacy!

Is there a solution?  Who knows after the damage has been done.  But ...

Bring in big street art, mass painting classes, family attractions, security, gated, events, MSO, moving sculpture on now disused tram tracks, walk through W class trams as changing exhibition museums, giant gladiolas [think Hamer Hall opening], whacky art on porticos, no smoking, variety of shops, buskers, no booze except in restaurants, a giant sculptural waterfall  – fun with stuff to see!!

This would be a perfect foil for Luna Park and cement Luna Park precinct as a go to must see area.

Cost?  Nothing compared to what traders have lost due to the council operating above its pay scale whilst destroying a legend.