Build Adelaide apartment towers to ease housing crisis and cut crime | Paul Starick

An alarming surge in petty crime and harassment in Adelaide’s CBD should be tackled by dramatically growing the population, Paul Starick writes.

Adelaide needs to grow up to dramatically boost the CBD population and stamp out an alarming surge in petty crime and harassment.

We should build quality skyscraper apartment towers to ease the housing crisis, capitalise on nearby open space in the world-renowned parklands and finally deliver on long-discussed plans to boost the city’s population.

More people living and working in the CBD – and North Adelaide – would follow trends of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, where high-rise apartment living has escalated in recent years.

This is strikingly noticeable to anyone who has visited these cities. Brisbane, like Adelaide, escaped the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike Adelaide, though, there is a distinctive buzz and energy in Brisbane from young people living and working in the CBD as apartment towers have sprung up in the past decade or so.

“We should build quality skyscraper apartment towers to ease the housing crisis,” Writes Paul Starick Image supplied.

There are numerous benefits from more people in the city. There’s more money for city businesses, which then generates a greater range of shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.

This generates more revenue for authorities to keep streets clean and safe. People feel much safer, too.

For some years, efforts to substantially boost the Adelaide City Council’s population have been championed by local and state governments.

I often heard this catchcry as a young reporter covering the council in the mid-1990s. But the faction-ridden council, hopelessly divided in development and heritage factions, never did that much more than talk.

North Adelaide’s Eighty Eight O'Connell project, on the long-dormant former Le Cornu site. Build more like this. Picture: Supplied by Commercial & General

I’ve worked in the city for most of the past 30 years. But I’m not the only one to notice a dramatic increase in harassment, theft and threats to personal safety.

City traders, workmates, friends and family members all have noted this unwanted trend.

Some traders say they no longer bother reporting petty theft to police, because they believe they are under-resourced and won’t be able to follow up on minor shop stealing.

The situation was neatly summarised by a letter to the editor published in Tuesday’s Advertiser, authored by Chris Lockhart, of Leabrook.

“It is getting to the point where I am scared to go into the city during the day. Today, I was abused, threatened and sworn at because someone perceived I had looked at them the “wrong” way. Most times when I’m in Rundle Mall, there is some sort of incident.

I do feel sympathy for those who are homeless or have mental health issues, but more needs to be done to protect those of us minding our own business,” said Ms Lockhart, 68.

In a subsequent phone conversation, she told me the abusive incident was not an isolated one during her visits to the city.

Police are fighting for more resources in a recruitment campaign deemed sufficiently important by Premier Peter Malinauskas that he named Treasurer Stephen Mullighan as Police Minister in a January 29 cabinet reshuffle.

Perhaps he should consider demanding police follow the zero-tolerance policy that famously cleaned up New York in the 1990s.

“Mr Mullighan is on the right track when it comes to city development,” writes Paul Starick. Picture: NewsWire / Dean Martin

Mr Mullighan is on the right track when it comes to city development, though, as is the government with plans for apartments and higher density housing along major roads and public transport centres.

Mr Mullighan should act decisively on his own words from September, 2022, when he urged an aggressive growth strategy to double the CBD population.

Speaking at The Advertiser’s landmark Housing Forum, Mr Mullighan said the current Adelaide City Council population of 25,000 was “in this day and age … absolutely laughable” — and should be doubled in the next 10-15 years.

Several projects have been announced since then, including 14-storey and 18-storey apartment towers on the former Franklin St bus station site. But developers should be able to build as high as the market wants and aviation safety laws allow. Adelaide needs to get moving – up in the CBD and North Adelaide – to grow population, boost safety and ease the housing crisis.

Originally published as Build Adelaide apartment towers to ease housing crisis and cut crime | Paul Starick