Analysis – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] B[/dropcap]efore I write one word about the upgrade of Patloch Lane – the first of what is intended to be several lane upgrades around the Warrnambool CBD – let me say this: all of the artists involved have done great work.

It is not their fault that the rushed job that became the laneway upgrade is nothing like what was originally proposed and does not address some of the fundamental issues that were raised for this thoroughfare, including that very few people used it, and they still don’t.

I doubt, for example, that many people have sat on the two stunning, spotted gum seats hand-crafted by Lillier Fine Furniture. These bench seats are totally wasted by being stuck at the very end of the lane: they should be in one of the main streets – Liebig, Lava, Timor or Koroit streets – where the seating is metal, peeling and plain ugly.

Warrnambool City Council, for all of its grand plans, has a tendency to go for near-enough-is-good-enough and what is often promised is rarely delivered in full or at a level of quality where it can work well for years.

This applies to the big things – such as the upgrade of the Warrnambool railway station precinct which in 2010 was flagged to become a “public space that the city can be proud of” but remains a pedestrian/traffic nightmare – right down to one of Cr Peter Hulin’s favourite topics, the $100,000 disabled access ramp at the main beach which is regularly buried in sand.

It is one thing to bring in the experts to help develop inspiring plans, but it is another to actually deliver these plans through a combination of lobbying state and federal governments for funding, combined with clever decision making and prioritising at a council level.

Which is why I am writing this piece, because there are lessons to be learned from the microcosm of Patloch Lane as Warrnambool waits patiently for the long-awaited upgrade of Liebig St that has been years in the making and is now expected to start in 2017,  a year later than hoped.

If we can’t get one laneway just right, what are the hopes of getting an entire street upgrade right without the temptation of cutting corners, or by-passing the input of the experts? Both of these things happened with Patloch Lane.

Let me explain.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T[/dropcap]hrough a combination of Freedom of Information applications, questions to council and talking directly with people involved in the original Patloch Lane project, Bluestone has been able to piece together a picture of a lost opportunity to do something truly special for the city.

In a nutshell, Patloch Lane was to be a functional and striking art project that grew from the council’s Hidden Histories project, a series of art events that tapped into the lesser-known stories of our city. (The State Government provided $150,000 for the Hidden Histories project, including the laneway works).

Patloch Lane was intended to show what was possible, while at the same time becoming the first link in a chain of integrated laneway upgrades across the CBD, rather than a mish-mash.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T[/dropcap]o this end, in late 2013 the council invited the highly regarded Professor Paul Carter and his team from the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University* to oversee the Patloch Lane design as part of a wider brief to develop a “Hidden Histories” public art strategy for the CBD. (*RMIT was paid $53,625 for its work on the Hidden Histories project).

In consultation with the council and community stakeholders, Prof Carter and his team developed a concept – ‘Breaking Wave’ – that included a canopy structure down Patloch Lane, new paving that could be engraved as an artwork, light sculptures and an audio installation that would recreate the sound of a wave breaking as you walked through the lane, giving people a huge incentive to use it.

It was bold and exciting and was budgeted at around $90,000 – which is what the council had earmarked for the laneway – excluding engineering works and new paving to replace the cracked concrete which, as Prof Carter had pointed out, was a basic necessity for any upgrade in Patloch Lane.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T[/dropcap]he council was inspired enough to ask Prof Carter to provide a detailed breakdown of costs. That was in late 2014 and Prof Carter, in turn, asked if the council could provide an estimated cost for the engineering works and paving.

It was never provided, so Prof Carter suggested developing a scaled down version of ‘Breaking Wave’ at the laneway entrance, which would be a much cheaper option, but still a ‘lure’ for passersby.

Again, this went no further, so Prof Carter submitted his Hidden Histories public art strategy in early 2015 which included recommendations on how ‘Breaking Wave’ could be developed, and left it there.

What Prof Carter didn’t know was that the council in late 2014, around the time he was asking for engineering costs, had already hired another consultant (One Design Collective) to help bring a different version of Patloch Lane to life.

The “upgrade” itself was all done within about three weeks from early June and, despite being involved since 2013, Prof Carter was told nothing about it.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A[/dropcap]nd while the Patloch Lane artists – including Fiona Clarke, Kate Gane, Jessica Meggs – have done a great job with the “ocean” brief they were given, the final $52,000 project was ultimately done in a rush and on the cheap.

(By comparison, as Bluestone has written this week, $178,000 is being spent re-tiling the Aquazone changerooms…)

The whale etching, for example, is engraved into cracked old concrete that will eventually have to be replaced, and there is still no incentive for anyone to actually use the laneway. It is already looking unloved.

All of these same artists could have been involved in bringing something truly special to life: what a wasted opportunity.

In the meantime, Prof Carter remains hopeful his ‘Breaking Wave’ will still show up somewhere in the CBD renewal.

I hope he is right.

[box]The full breakdown of the Hidden Histories $150,000 project fund: $29,536 – Patloch Lane physical works; $22,827 – commissioning artists work in Patloch Lane; $8690 – One Collective Urban Design Studio, Patloch Lane upgrade consultancy in Jan/Feb 2015 ; $53,625/$4950 – RMIT University/Material Thinking for “Hidden Histories: A Public Art and Spaces Strategy” and development of concept plan for Patloch Lane, both overseen by Prof Paul Carter, Aug 2013-Feb 2015; $32,000 – The F Project, Hidden Histories Laneway Festival Jan-May 2014 including a Patloch Lane mural.[/box]

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OPINION

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color:#A02F2F;”] Q [/dropcap]uite a bit has been written about the latest Warrnambool Business Confidence Survey that tests the pulse of local businesses, but nobody has been prepared to say that it reflects a city in deepening trouble.

The spin put on the 2014 results by the Warrnambool City Council is that business confidence has “stabilised”, in that the steady decline since 2011 has levelled out and while things are not good, at least they are no worse than last year.

And while nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news, this is a bit like saying that the Titanic is still sinking, but it’s going down more slowly.

Statistics are hard to make sexy, but the number crunchers at Deakin University who analysed the results of the 344 respondents don’t mince words.

They found what they call “a highly statistically significant difference” between how Warrnambool businesses feel about the future compared to those in other Victorian regional cities like Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

The difference was this: in 2011, 63% of local businesses felt they were either faring ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ compared to other cities, but in 2014 only 49% felt this way, which was a further slide from 55% in 2013 and 58% in 2012.

The researchers consider this “a continual and significant decline” but us lesser mortals might just call it terrible.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A [/dropcap]t the same time, in 2011 only 11% of businesses described their future as looking fair or poor. This year, that figure has almost doubled to 21%.

Again, this is not good news.

The survey also revealed “a significantly worsening trend” when it came to business owners looking at opportunities for further investment in their business in the next 12 months. More than half (51%) said that their prospects were low to very low.

Then there was the sobering response to this very simple question:

“What is your confidence in Warrnambool’s business environment over the next twelve months?”

In 2011, 43% of people said high to very high. This year, that number had almost halved to only 24% and another 26% said “low to very low”, with the rest feeling pretty average.

Is this what we aspire to for our beautiful city? To have business confidence levels that are low to very low, or average?

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]he sense of melancholy is not just confined to retailers – the business professional and commercial services industry is as equally distressed.

In 2011, a cheerful 77% of people working in this field felt either “good” or “excellent” compared to their regional counterparts, but this has since tumbled to just below 50%.

But even they look upbeat compared to the service, electricity, gas, construction and wholesale sector. Again, in 2011, a healthy 71% of respondents said they felt “good” or “excellent” – today that has plummeted to only 30%.

All of these figures might be interpreted by spin doctors as signs of “stability”, but they can be more truthfully described as pretty shocking.

And this is where we get to the troublesome part, because when the council refuses to name up the reality of the sentiment out there in the wider businesses community – as revealed by their own surveys – then nothing is done to confront it and change it.

Instead, the issue is reduced to fact sheets and media releases that tell us things are “stable” and we all breathe a sigh of relief and move on, because to point out the problems leaves you exposed to claims of being negative, or “only making it worse”.

Yet none of us can avoid the obvious signs of decline: like the ‘for lease’ signs all over town, the loss of locally owned businesses that have been around for decades, the vacuous arcades that cannot be filled, the depressing state of Bayside Plaza with its vandalised toilets, and its torn shade sails flapping in the wind over Merri St.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] W [/dropcap]hat is needed is not a head in the sand approach, hoping things might just right themselves, but a wide-ranging, open, community discussion on what is not working, why and how we can all work to improve it.

It is not as simple, unfortunately, as whacking traders with a new promotional levy or sprucing up two blocks of Liebig St.

While the Liebig St upgrade is a welcome rejuvenation of at least one part of the main street, it is a little like reupholstering the lounge chairs on the Titanic.

The harder questions to ask and to answer are those like these:

* what sort of retail mix do we want in the CBD and how can we encourage this mix?

* are commercial rents too high compared to other regions?

* what can be done to assist more small business start-ups?

* would more people shop in the CBD if there was free, timed parking?

* do the almost-empty arcades need to be remodelled or removed?

* how can local businesses be assisted to sell online? (Only 46% do and this has not changed in four years.)

I would like to see the council host a Warrnambool 2020 forum where we map out, as a community, a vision for our CBD by 2020 and how we can all work together (business operators, landlords, the council, thinkers, artists) to start turning the boat around before even more passengers jump ship.

[box]You can download the full Warrnambool Business Confidence Survey here (2mb) and the council’s media release here.[/box]

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 You can find earlier Opinion pieces here…

Sucking the wind out of Portland’s sails

Fun4Kids: the missing bits

Fun4Kids faces axe after cost blowout

We reveal the ‘mystery man’ behind $20m apartments

Granny’s Grave buried in bureaucracy

All words, no funding, for Fletcher Jones story

Grappling with the work of a predator

Unravelling the mystery of art commissions