Following a recent visit to Newcastle, Rodney Jensen questions the viability of Newcastle as a sustainable city. He writes; “Where on earth are all the people? Have we missed something?”
—————————————————————————————
It’s a wet holiday weekend in Newcastle, just 160 km to the north Sydney, but worlds apart. The roads are wide, the cars are impatient, the city approaches are flat – more like Melbourne or Adelaide. The Central Business District (or “CBD” in planning-speak) is surprisingly extensive and lifeless. It’s a central district or C ??? D with the business part missing. The streets are surreally empty and lacking any sign of vitality. Along the elegant boardwalks, the only signs of life are a few Asians showing their children how to fish in the rain, and a few louts brazenly drunk by mid-afternoon, pissing into the bushes beneath elegant high rise apartments. Outside a riverside tavern, a marquee has been erected for a concert venue. Live music played by a forlorn guitarist, plays to an enthusiastic but select audience of three adults, six children and a dog.
The lifelessness of Newcastle’s city centre is not a new problem. All the locals are now pinning their hopes on a developer who has bought up a sizeable development chunk of the CBD amidst all the lifelessness. It seems a little desperate, or cargo cult-like for a cynic like me. Maybe the locals have got to pin their hopes on something, but it would have to be more than just another large redevelopment to really turn things around. Nor would it be the first time a major assault on the market has been attempted. There are heaps of others built within the last couple of decades, starting with ambitious government sponsored schemes such as Honeysuckle, and more recently, a raft of well designed high rise housing projects built at the high points around Nobby’s Head and along the Hunter River waterfront to take advantage of the magnificent views and centrality in the regional context.
Even these appear to be lifeless this weekend – their acres of dark toned plate glass stare blankly through the rain at the distant views. Nothing stirs behind the ranks of glazed-in balconies. I wonder who lives in all these buildings – and how so much luxury housing could possibly be sustainable in a flat economy such as Newcastle’s? Perhaps they are heavily invested-in by outsiders? With no occupants in evidence, maybe they come and go anonymously via the security basements in the darkness of night. Or at the weekend, they leave central Newcastle to its own devices heading south to the big smoke. Or even more plausibly, I muse, maybe the units lie empty for most of the year except in the holiday season, just like the Gold Coast?
Where on earth are all the people? Have we missed something? The next day, we finally discover that there is some life after all. But there are only two streets in the vicinity of the centre of Newcastle where it can be found. The first, actually in the CBD, is Darby Street and the second is Beaumont Street nearby. They both have linear strip shopping, with many cafes, womens’ clothes, and the slightly bohemian atmosphere that Richard Florida (author of “The Rise of the Creative Class”) has claimed draws in young creatives – in cities around the world.
For Newcastle, its two creative streets are the relatively buzzing with life on this a cold winter Sunday, despite the rain still bucketing down. The people have braved the elements to frequent the coffee shops and huddle in the warmth and dryth (it’s a word I have just invented). The shopfronts have a diversity of creative signage and intriguing window dressing. These are probably the result of another innovative plan, to support the creativity and vitality of Newcastle taking advantage of the huge supply of vacant premises and making these available to nascent businesses for little or no rent – a form of so called “economic incubator” dreamed up by another well respected local entrepreneur.
It seems like a great idea in the short term at least, but doomed not to be really sustainable in the long run. In my humble opinion well intentioned as the impact is, there is only so much demand for the bric a brac and tat that you generally find in the weekend markets. The scheme cannot continue to work in the long term if you follow the inevitable logic of an over-supply of un-used retail or commercial space – market intervention like this is at best band-aid, until something or someone with economic muscle and major job opportunities comes along.
But don’t get me wrong – Newcastle has heaps going for it – a swag of elegant historic buildings, a magnificent setting with the Pacific Ocean crashing onto miles of white beaches on one side and the expanse of the Hunter River on the inland side of the CBD. The keyhole views down the cross roads out towards the wharves along the Hunter River present a fascinating backdrop in which immense foreshortened profiles of cargo vessels seem so large as to be almost steaming up the streets. The railway line which terminates at the end of the peninsular also adds a uniqueness to this centre – let’s hope that the dark forces of development “progress” do not win the battle to have it removed and put car parks in its place!
Strategic and economic planning has failed Newcastle by facilitating a Canberra type system in which major retail outlets have proliferated off-centre in the low density region which surrounds the CBD. In the competition for the retail dollar, the CBD seems to have lost out long ago, and it will be difficult to change the paradigm, where the car is king and the convenience of a shopping mall somewhere outside the CBD seems hard to beat for the average punter.
But in the last analysis, physical planning is not really what fundamentally causes the lack of vitality – it’s more of a social and economic problem brought about Newcastle’s one- company town status dominated by mining, engineering and shipping and not much else. A diversity of life requires a diversity of jobs – the creatives may go for Newcastle’s environment, but they need to be gainfully employed. Richard Florida had it only half right.
Source: Cityscape Creative Cities
Please see http://www.renewnewcastle.org.