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March 30, 2008
It was a warm early evening around 5-6pm when I took this photo in Perth's CBD. Yet no one hung around this space on a weekday to have a drink and socialize before heading off to their homes in the dormitory suburban fringe development. If Perth is a nice place to live it isn't a vibrant place to live.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Australia Place, Perth CBD, 2008
There was very little urban vitality and spark in Perth's CBD that Thursday evening. Mostly people were waiting at bus stops to go home. There was nothing in this public space in Australia Place to encourage people to tarry a while and meet up with friends over a drink. I was looking for a space to sit amongst people in a bar as I walked the streets, but I found nothing. The CBD was emptying out. It becomes a bit of ghost town at night.
I didn't come across any bars in my explorations. Just like Adelaide I thought--it lacked a vital and exciting urban life. The CBD was all about working in the business precinct, and then shopping in the mall. From what I could see people got drunk and partied in the expensive restaurants, where the 'easy-living, boom-town' status was expressed.
Perth lacked a bar culture despite having some laneways in the CBD. It was all pubs and restaurants. All the dreams and desires seem to be embodied in the proposed Riverside development.
I appreciate that East Perth and Subiaco offer a superior urban life than the suburbs. The smaller private space is made up for by high quality public spaces, and these neighbourhoods enbale their residents to walk to many destinations locally, whether visiting a friend, going to work, catching a train or grabbing a meal. East Perth and Subiaco do demonstrate that reurbanisation is possible in cities heavily influenced by the Garden City Movement, where the automobile and public perception has been traditionally anti urban and pro suburban.
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Gary
Perth, in my experience, is a city of cars. It appears to have no coherent plan to deal with the social effects of growing urban sprawl -- save building even more roads, which will only make things worse. It is a really attractive place to live with our beautiful beaches and summer lifestyle It needs much more culture and life --just like Adelaide.
perth doesn't see itself in terms of the creative capital that makes it attractive for all those creative types to come back home to invest their talents in the place.