After working in Crown Street Mall for roughly half a century, shop assistant Judy Short will soon be reluctantly forced into retirement when the store she works at closes down.
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The tiny, smiling woman - who won't admit her age - has worked in Crown Street since the 1960s, starting out at Greens Newsagency, then Angus and Robertson.
When the long-standing bookshop closed and discount book store All Books moved in to the same storefront, Judy stuck around.
But she says she won't keep working, except for volunteering at her church, this time around.
"I blame this new structure of the mall, there's nothing appealing," she said.
"There's no people, and - it's hard to say just one thing - but I'd say the mall was the start of it."
Ms Short remembers the "absolutely bustling", traffic-filled high street of the '60s and '70s, as well as the debate leading up to the creation of the original mall.
She has a particular fondness for the steel arches of the "birdcage" which was installed from 1986 until the council removed it as part of the $22.5 million mall revamp in 2014.
"There's always the knockers, but the bird cage over the top gave us shade in the summer and there was the amphitheatre to bring people in," she said.
"I think for about five years, things have been really tough in here."
Even "undesirable" customers are fewer these days.
"We've always had the ones walking down from the methadone clinic, but we don't even get as many of those coming past these days," she said.
Asked if online shopping and other major retail trends have influenced her clientele, Ms Short says "it's hard to say, because there's not enough people around to judge it."
Like many residents, Ms Short said she thought better parking, easier pedestrian access to parts of the city, and "something like a cinema to give the kids something to do" would make a difference.
"I think parking is a big problem, and if they want people to be coming in for concerts, or create a big business centre on Burelli Street, then where are they going to go for parking," she said.
"People can go to Corrimal, Figtree, Shellharbour, Dapto - anywhere else where they can stay all day."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
