INSTALLING public Wi-Fi is a small part of the cost of a plan to do up Post Office Lane, but it is one idea that could really change the way the community sees the area.
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This paved thoroughfare between Summer Street and the Orange City Centre is an eyesore, but with the right redevelopment could be a pleasant place for people to meet and socialise.
That doesn’t mean piping Barry Manilow through the proposed $15,000 sound system to drive away teenagers who have as much right to gather there as anyone else. It means introducing the right facilities, like a Wi-Fi hotspot and plenty of decent seating, to attract people of all ages.
What Post Office Lane doesn’t need are the ill-mannered, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking louts who make the precinct utterly unappealing to everybody else. Right now there is nothing to entice pedestrians to want to sit in the area and a few potted plants won’t change that.
Council’s plan is a good one because it promises to make Post Office Lane a really desirable place to be, but it will still need some buy-in from police.
The CBD is overdue for a well-designed public space with good seating, lighting and some public Wi-Fi, but if the city is serious about claiming it for the well meaning majority - of all ages - it must have the active support of police to back up its own rangers.
There should be no place for people whose language is offensive, whose demeanour is belligerent and whose cigarette smoke is illegal. The likelihood though is that a great deal of money will be spent to achieve nothing unless police and council do a lot more to discourage the minority who see it as their patch.
Right now the area is nothing more than a bleak thoroughfare which people hurry through. It could be so much more than that.