Chapel St: Lucky Penny’s Matt Lanigan wants street closed off in summer to boost traders
Melbourne’s largest shopping and dining precinct would be closed off to traffic under a radical bid to give struggling traders a post-coronavirus boost.
Inner East
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A Chapel St trader wants to ban cars and bikes and close off the entire street on weekends this summer in an effort to revive the strip post-coronavirus.
Lucky Penny owner Matt Lanigan is gathering support for his grand idea, which is designed to create a street festival atmosphere and a much-needed boost for struggling traders.
Under his plan, Mr Lanigan wants the entire 4.13km street closed off, which stretches through five suburbs including South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor.
It would be only open to pedestrians and trams, with safety barriers installed in empty car spaces to protect customers and encourage social distancing.
The barriers would also act as a way of providing extra outdoor trading space and allow traders to have more customers in store while complying with coronavirus restrictions.
Mr Lanigan, who previously worked on the St Kilda Festival, said he had imagined a Chapel St festival and it was the ideal time to make it a reality.
He believed the cost of shutting down the street would be outweighed five times over by the retail spend.
“The economic benefit that the closure of street would have would far outweigh the disruption of car and bike traffic,” Mr Lanigan said.
“We’re in extraordinary times and we need extraordinary ideas to get us back on track and get us thriving again.”
Mr Lanigan said he had a working group of six people finetuning the plan and was optimistic of receiving state and local government support.
A Change.org petition he started two days ago had nearly 800 signatures as of noon on Thursday, September 10.
“It’s about getting people out of their houses, on their feet and enjoying their community … and you can buy a T-shirt, support the giftware shop and get a coffee,” he said.
“There’s one in Brunswick (street festival) and one in St Kilda, why not here?”
Chapel Street Precinct general manager Chrissie Maus said all options, including Mr Lanigan’s idea, should be explored to support its traders.
“Everyone needs to be exploring many innovative solutions given that businesses are on their knees and every dollar counts,” she said.
Stonnington Council chief executive Jacqui Weatherill said the council was focused on initiatives encouraging footpath and kerbside trading and would speak to Mr Lanigan about his idea.
“Closing Chapel Street to traffic for weekends is a bold initiative that would require extensive consultation with local businesses, local residents and State Government,” she said.
“We will be considering all suggestions to support stimulating the local economy, and in particular the hospitality and entertainment sectors.”
The council has received more than 500 applications from businesses for its $250,000 recovery grants program.
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