Jazz up our cities year-round with some adventurous ideas

Great cities are great play zones, and that means our night-life and weekend options need to be sophisticated and compelling for all ages as society recovers from the pandemic.

‘Let’s pursue more street activations, arts and cultural events – rally behind events like Vivid in Sydney but make sure we have an all-year-round calendar.’ Dancing at Sydney’s Circular Quay on the autumn-winter Vivid opening night in pre-pandemic 2019. Picture: AAP

Walking through our central business districts, something just doesn’t feel right.

The hustle and bustle is gone, office buildings are empty relics, For Lease signs dominate and public transport is running ghost services with few passengers.

These factors are a hangover from the pandemic – but we’re now one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, business is open, we’re free to move around and lockdowns are over. Why are we allowing our capital cities to languish – the epicentres of our commercial, social and cultural attractions? It’s pleasing to see the sensible wind-back of restrictions and more workers returning to CBD offices, but there’s plenty more to do.

Great cities are great play zones, and that means our night-life and weekend options need to be sophisticated and compelling for all ages. New York City boasts of being the city that never sleeps, but most of Australia’s cities are in bed by nightfall and feel more like suburban towns. It’s time to shift our CBDs to 24-hour economies.

That means flexible and extended trading hours for retailers, restaurants, bars and clubs along with round-the-clock public transport. Let’s pursue more street activations, arts and cultural events – rally behind events like Vivid in Sydney but make sure we have an all-year-round calendar. How good would it be to see our CBDs buzzing with families and tourists – more outdoor dining is a must. It would provide a massive lift to the vibe of our cities and the economic benefits would outweigh the investment.

Pet ownership is now at record levels – 69 per cent of Australian households have a pet, with two million households welcoming a four-legged companion to get them through the darkest days of the lockdown. After months hanging out together, it can be hard to leave our furry friends at home, so let’s embrace pet-friendly cities, offices, shops and restaurants.

We should allow pets on public transport, and – within reason – employers should allow pets in the office, dining and shopping locations. Who doesn’t love dogs? A favourite pre-pandemic experience was being on the shoe floor of a famous department store in New York City trying on a pair of brogues with Muffy, a west highland white terrier, and his mum sitting beside me trying on the latest Louboutin stilettos.

Childcare is another area where employers could contribute significantly, providing more access to facilities for mums and dads to bring their young children to work. This would assist parents with not having to make multiple drop-offs and pick-ups and would make travel to and from the office a more seamless experience.

It’s tempting to see the CBD issue as just a Sydney and Melbourne problem, but it’s not.

The office occupancy rate is in single figures for Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and it’s also languishing at 11 per cent in Adelaide and 13 per cent in Brisbane.

Those numbers will lift as work-from-home directions are changed, but demand for office space will never be at the same level. This presents an opportunity to change the commercial and residential mix in our CBDs. Covid-19 has not only accelerated trends that were already occurring, it also exposed many weaknesses – the heavily weighted commercial property in our CBDs and the lack of residents.

We should enable more mix-use developments in our CBDs and convert vacant office space into residential apartments – like what is being done in London and cities in North America. We should look at streamlining the planning approvals process so this does not get bogged down in red tape and that we can truly accelerate the CBD recovery.

The international border has finally reopened after more than 700 days, but don’t expect a massive influx of tourists to our capital cities. It will take years for international travel patterns to return to near pre-pandemic levels. It’s not a silver bullet solution to the revitalisation of our CBDs.

It’s time to embrace some bold ideas and inject our CBDs with new life.

Paul Zahra is CEO of the Australian Retailers Association.

Originally published as Jazz up our cities year-round with some adventurous ideas