A few days ago, I dropped by the cleaned-up painted-up alley that runs between Granville & Seymour south of Hastings. Aside from a few smokers, several short-cutters, photogs, a selfie-snapper, a courier’s car and a garbage truck, the alley was quite empty most of the time. No long-dwellers except for the plumber’s truck.
My impression is that people are not quite sure yet what to make of it. Certainly, the alley stopped lots of curious passersby on the sidewalks, and attracted a lot of attention from them. But after a quip and a goggle, off they mostly went. With a few exceptions — and perhaps those that do enter the alley may, as I did, get a different sense of the space than in the days when the alley was dark, dirty and smelly. It’s possible that wheels will begin to turn as people consider what they’ve experienced and dream up possibilities for using it.
I’m well aware that a single photo (or even two) rarely serves as proof or prediction of anything. Maybe I was there at the wrong time of the wrong day, and the uses that people find will be in the weekend or evenings. Whatever happens, it’s a remarkable and positive transformation, and I hope for the best.
Awesome!
I’m a regular at Tree Coffee right at the corner of this lane. It has a charming European-flavour patio facing Granville. They’ve now also put chairs and tables in the lane and we tried it out – in large part because only it was in the sun.
Unfortunately there is too much slope to be comfortable. But that could be ignored if it wasn’t for the absolute madhouse mayhem of large trucks that are constantly maneuvering dangerously in-and-out and across Granville.
The charm of the patio has always been lost because of the ridiculous dominance of large trucks. So why would anyone linger longer and closer to the mayhem?
If it is to succeed as public space it must be closed to vehicles!
I have a bit of a problem with the push to activate our lanes. We haven’t yet activated our sidewalks. I feel like pedestrians are being sold a lemon so that we don’t have to face how to get motor vehicles out of our core.
I acknowledge we need deliveries etc. But Europe has whole zones where deliveries are kept to limited hours so pedestrians can enjoy their public realm. I fear this painted lane is just a distraction.
I think this fits in well with getting cars overall, out … if getting big trucks out is the result of any laneway activation, then that will help everything else also.
Now for the restaurants, the figuring out the garbage, and the alley bars … Melbourne basically, with Callister instead of Coopers (ok, maybe not Callister but it has the necessary alliteration)
… also visiting the Art G’alley while drinking Alley Ale(y)
It’s amazing the extent of transformation a couple of coats of paint will bring to a utilitarian space in the right artistic hands.