Photo: Joe © via Flickr
The Docklands are a controversial area of town. Some argue that the area has been developed in an illogical manner… others complain that there aren’t enough attractions to entice locals to spend more time down there.
Everyone’s got their own theories on how the area can be improved, so what would you do to improve the Docklands area, and why?
<h2>What’s the best way to improve the Docklands?Add a Cinama!
</h2>
.. I mean “Cinema”, Movies, etc
I remember there used to have a sand sculpture festival down there a long time ago. Maybe bringing it back might be a good start. Though not a big whoop for attraction, still might offer something to the area. Summer is coming, good outdoor activities for family would be an ideal (but cheaper tickets/fees would be best).
Basically, I guess they attempt to make it similar to Darling Harbour. Unfortunately, when there are cracks on southern star observation wheel (my friends call, wheel of joke) and need to be taken apart, their plan seems to go down hill since then.
I know, a giant wheel – like the Eye of London …
Actually, a cinema is a bloody good idea!
Plant some trees. Lots and lots of trees.
Get rid of the wind in Docklands by shifting it back to where it comes from – Port Melbourne.
All that icy air from Antarctica finds its way to Port Melbourne before it gets swirled up into Docklands. Docklands then ends up acting as a windbreak for the rest of Melbourne, more or less.
You could try to shift it back to Antarctica but what with climate change and everything, it would be pretty silly. And it’s a long way from Docklands, so cost considerations would be significant.
Port Melbourne, though, well that’s a little more achievable, plus there’s a win for Greater Melbourne – reducing the number of people who grumble about how windy it is in Docklands.
There would be a few of ways to stop the wind in Port Melbourne before it reaches Docklands, the easiest would seem to be putting up a MASSIVE wall along the beachfront at Port Melbourne, Truman Show style.
Like any improvement plan, there would be some logistics to deal with but on balance it would work out. For example, the Spirit of Tasmania would need a new home. Wouldn’t it be a lot more convenient for almost everyone in Melbourne if it berthed in Vic Harbour? And of course there wouldn’t be the wind problem to contend with there any more.
Let me know it you’d like ideas for sorting out the Southern Star Observation Wheel problem.
Docklands is like a glass that has been filled with stones. Between these stones is cavernous space, empty, devoid of matter. Now if you fill the gaps between the stones with pebbles, and the subsequent gaps left by the pebbles with sand, you have one full glass. Bear with me here.
If Docklands is the glass, then the stones are big f***-off buildings and monstrous sculptures. If you add culture – represented in this analogy by the pebbles – in the form of a school, art colleges or artist lodgings, a library, maybe even a farmers market, amongst others, it then becomes much easier to fill that glass with sand. Or, as is the problem here, people.
If you don’t add the pebbles, all you have is a bunch of sand wondering around aimlessly with nothing to do but buy groceries in bulk. Who wants to do that?
You can now play glow in the dark black light MInigolf, just behind the Big Wheel, up the escalator beside KFC.
This may seem like an obvious one, but if they want to make it a popular tourist precinct, it wouldn’t hurt to have some actual hotels there. There’s really nothing that exciting there to pull crowds at the moment, and it’s the reason every restaurant and cafe is half-empty most of the time.
I’m not sure it will ever be a place that attracts many locals — so sterile, very little to compete with the CBD, Fitzroy, St Kilda, etc — but I’m pretty sure that if you brought the tourists TO the area, they’d stick around and you could build a pretty lucrative local industry around that.
A variation on this would be to stick a bunch of cheap backpackers/hostels there. It wouldn’t do much for all the overpriced restaurants, but it would pretty much give the place an instant nightlife (albeit a fairly seedy one) and plenty of the young, single (or otherwise) office workers would stick around for the prospect of an easy lay (you know it’s true) and nasty backpacker happy hours.
bulldozers
Seahorn