Opinion

Reopening of Keira St step to better CBD

The demolition of the Berlin Wall had huge global significance. But when it comes to deconstruction, smashing through Keira St - opening it up to cars for the first time in 25 years - is arguably going to have more impact for most of us.

There is a lot to love about Wollongong but, let's face it, the CBD is shambolic, seedy and seriously in need of TLC.

The council-lite we were handed by the State Government - the administrators you have when you don't have elected representatives - considered three options for the future of the mall. At most, they chose a mall spruce-up, baulking at even a partial opening to traffic.

What they did agree to, smartly, was to free up Keira St, at the western end of the mall, which has effectively sliced the inner city north and south. The move to allow all traffic along the length of Keira St will bring more activity to a CBD looking for a sustainable existence.

Hopefully, breaking the Keira St impasse will prove to be the first move towards the eventual reopening of at least part of the mall.

Wollongong is at the crossroads. It can forge its own future through bold decision-making and encouraging private investment (the GPT development will be critical) - or it can sit and watch the world go by as it becomes one of the great cities that never was.

Posted By: Editorial on 7/03/2010 3:13:00 PM | Comments (2)

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Thank goodness Keira Street is to be reopened - but why did it take the Council many years of work to discover what is so obvious - hopefully it will also reduce the ridiculous amount of traffic in Gladstone Avenue between Crown and Bridge Streets which is RESIDENTIAL - if Council wants to see a congested intersection they should look no further than Bridge & Auburn Streets on a weekday morning at 8.30am - a great stream of traffic - most ignoring the fact there is a public school and a 40km sign - and no police presence - this area is NOT a highway but Council has allowed it to be used as a de facto highway for far too long.

Posted by wally1, 8/03/2010 11:22:33 AM, on Illawarra Mercury

I am under the impression that the community voted to keep the mall as a walking prescint, especially with the ambience of the Friday markets which brings us all in to the city. Where did this idea that the Mall should, if only partly, be opened to traffic, occur? The residents thought that the reopening of the Mall to traffic was dead in the water. We spoke/ voted not once but twice through official WCC surveys. Re opening the strip of Keira Street to traffic is a very different proposal and your newspaper must not get the two issues confused.

Posted by Greenie, 9/03/2010 10:50:18 PM, on Illawarra Mercury

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