Do
you feel saved? Today’s Age says the Queen Victoria Market has been saved by
people power. Why don’t I feel saved?
The
headline follows a CoM decision to abandon a key component of renewal which is the removal (and replacement) of
market sheds to construct underground facilities. I
can see that four open air sheds have possibly been saved from some
misadventure during replacement.
But
if I can play around with words for a minute this has been more about "wasting" than saving. Wasted time, wasted effort, wasted finances, and the list goes on.
Now we are going to go through 6 months of reassessment and a new proposal that
will ask CoM management “to work with Heritage Victoria, traders, customers and
other key stakeholders.” Mercifully, 6 months is a short time.
The
other word that comes to mind rather than saving is “stopping”. There has been
a lot of “stopping”. Stopping is quite easy to achieve. You just stand in the
way of things and block wherever you can. Stopping is a hell of a lot easier
than progress. Stopping does protect you from scary new things but it also means that
things don’t change, and when your business is declining, that is critical. Stopping can be just as wrong, as runaway enthusiasm.
Let’s
make it clear - in my book “saving” means measured progress, improvement, and preparing
for the future. The biggest problem facing QVM is not protecting old buildings
but protecting a way of doing business in the middle of a global business
revolution.
I
have attempted to avoid blame in this little rant. The truth is that we are all
to blame either because of complacency, self interest, or failing to
communicate properly. Only considered, professional, and truly co-operative
engagement will work here.
Until
then you can keep “saved” in your back pocket. I have definitely not been
saved. But I remain hopeful.
Have Your Say - click here.
COMMENTS:
19/05/2018 16:23:28 Saved "This
presents an opportunity for a clean slate.
The against group for renewal has been
guilty of stopping renewal at any cost.
The CoM has been guilty of assuming they
could proceed with their plan without a serious attempt to justify their plans
and communication has been well beyond poor.
If the Renewal wasn’t temporarily halted
it was doomed to fail with both groups fighting each other.
Although frustrating perhaps this will
give both groups a chance to realise that the core of a renewal will be a
strong plan to revitalise the retail environment at QVM - the buildings are at
the end of the day, just buildings.
It is surely a last chance scenario now so let’s
hope we can genuinely work together to get it right this time" Thank you - well said. - Ed
