What you said about Brisbane's 'ghost town' CBD
A dying Brisbane shopping location has been torn to shreds by angry locals. HAVE YOUR SAY
Dirty, parking costs and lack of quality.
The problems with Brisbane’s ghost town of a CBD have been laid bare, amid calls for it to be more like New York or Dublin.
A Courier-Mail investigation revealed 34 of 73 retailers on Queen Street Mall don’t open on Sundays, and Uptown retailers are down to 115 tenants from 230.
Business owners and workers say the CBD is “dead” and are calling for more attractions to bring families into the area.
But in some long-awaited good news, Brisbane City Council last week announced a pedestrian-only section of the Albert St mall would open in December, between Elizabeth and Charlotte streets.
QUT retail expert Gary Mortimer said it was a first step, but more was needed.
Times Square and Dublin’s downtown were examples Brisbane could follow, he said.
Night-Life Economy Commissioner John “JC’’ Collins said restrictive trading hours were raised during his statewide listening tour.
Committee For Brisbane CEO Jen Williams said downtown areas in major cities around the world were all facing challenges, which in Brisbane included competition from suburban shopping centres.
Wayne “Balloon Man’’ Bloomfield, who has sold balloon animals in the Mall for nearly three decades, insisted it was thriving.
However readers had their own very different views.
Many claimed the CBD was simply too dirty; some claimed there needed to be more and better shops.
While some insisted parking was the top problem.
In an online poll, majority of people voted that they hadn’t visited Brisbane’s CBD in more than a year.
See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>
WHAT YOU SAID
Parking’s the problem
Frank
Bring down the cost of parking in the city and people will come. Why should they pay extortionate parking fees when they can park for free, or free 3 hours in Westfield’s.
Jane
Parking is too expensive. Even on weekends. At the shopping centres like Westfield parking is free for the first three (or four hours) and they also have a way better range of retail choices and entertainment options. Why would you bother trying to go to the CBD when those other places are cheaper and have more choice?
J*P
Several reasons why I don’t go to the Mall. The carparking is too expensive compared to the major shopping centres, the main Mall area is far too hot with not enough shade in Summer, the range of shops is now so reduced, seating is not generally shaded, the food available is boring and mostly takeaway quality, there is little in the way of attractive and changing art/entertainment, Myer used to be worth visiting at Christmas, old and wary of escooter traffic, and so in summary. why bother?
Frank
The King George empty carpark just tells me that the cost of parking in the city is just too expensive.
It’s just ugly
Pleb
Is anyone in council taking responsibility for ripping out two established restaurants in the mall and replacing them with a slab of non-income-producing concrete, then following it up with a short-lived mess of ugly food vans?
tbar
100% cbd is grubby and dirty now used to work there have lunch at king george square nice open space not now
Mia
Too right. Removing the Pig n Whistle, Rankins and Milano was an abomination. They need to reinstate new offerings in those now soulless spaces. Food trucks are gimmicks and trashy in what is supposed to be our premier shopping mall.
Tony
Basically Brisbane went from a big country town where you went for specialist services such as medical, financial, high end shopping to a dump and that is being polite.
Kazzamays
The area is not safe, push bikers e scooters skate boarders there is no security to police this behaviour and inadequate seating, it’s dirty signage is either non existent or very poor especially for wheel chairs and when looking for toilets. That are not clean.
Wider issues
Grassroots
WFH is killing the City.
Bob
The CBD was dying LONG BEFORE Covid and WFH ! It’s a worldwide phenomenon and not unique to Brisbane.
Djaisi
The parking costs are brutal, and the homeless need to be dealt with, but if there are no shops or the ships that are there are shut – what’s the point?
mark
The Council got rid of the drinking and eating establishments at either end of the mall and it had been all downhill since then
Stephen
It’s simple get rid of all those dangerous death scooters they are the problem and the council is more interested in the royalties they receive then the vibrancy of the cbd.
Brisbane needs 10 new bridges – this is where they must go
