A global contest seeking the smartest city reactivation strategies unfolds as the Property Council’s campaign welcomes businesses and workers back to our CBDs.
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Three key takeaways:
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The world’s urban areas have been hardest hit by COVID-19. But the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge hopes to encourage new ways of delivering services, new forms of governance, new uses of public spaces and new ways of building community.
Cities with populations of 100,000 or more are being asked to share their ideas. Fifty finalist cities will be selected to expand their projects, with 15 winning cities to be named in December.
The Challenge, led by former three-term mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is designed to support leaders who are “on the cutting edge of urban policy and work with them to test their most innovative ideas and spread what works to other cities around the world,” Bloomberg says.
Melbourne breathes life back into the city
Australia’s capital city councils are breathing new life into their CBDs after a year of remote working and unprecedented downturns in foot traffic and retail activity.
The City of Melbourne’s economy was worth $104 billion prior to COVID-19, was home to nearly half a million jobs and accounted for 24 per cent of the Victorian economy, says Lord Mayor Sally Capp.
A $100 million recovery fund – a joint initiative with the Victorian Government – was established to deliver cleaning, projects and events that encourage people back into the city. Among these projects is an innovative approach to outdoor dining, with 1,500 permits already issued across the municipality.
“Extended outdoor dining has been a fantastic example of how we’ve worked collaboratively with hospitality businesses to safely reopen. In just a few months we received about 10 years’ worth of applications compared to normal times,” Capp says.
“We’ve had feedback from many traders saying the outdoor dining ‘parklets’ have made a real difference to reopening and many would like to keep them. We are looking at whether extended outdoor dining could become an ongoing or seasonal feature and a positive legacy for our city.”
Another project is transforming 40 of Melbourne’s historic laneways through lighting and creative installations. “It is the largest revitalisation of CBD laneways in Melbourne’s history,” Capp explains, and “provides a vital boost for our creative talent who play a major role in drawing people into the city, but are among the sectors most heavily impacted by COVID-19”.
Alfresco Sydney unfolds
In Sydney, Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her team are working with the NSW Government on a vision to create a “24-hour alfresco city”, starting with a $20 million fund to boost the city centre economy, support businesses and create jobs across the summer period.
“We’ve introduced a new, fast-tracked application process for outdoor dining permits, we’re waiving all fees for both new and existing outdoor dining permit holders and are offering new on-street dining opportunities,” says a City of Sydney spokesperson.
Sydney venues can apply to transform car parking spaces into outdoor dining, while others are transforming footpath space to attract more customers and comply with physical distancing rules.
Meanwhile Sunset Piazza, a new COVID-safe outdoor concert series, will give Sydneysiders the chance to immerse themselves in live performance and music. The Italo-themed summer pop-up stage will host 32 nights of performances spanning contemporary pop, cabaret, comedy, hip hop, indie rock and opera.
Brisbane city foot traffic bounces back
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says his city is also “bouncing back” and “takes leaps and bounds everyday towards returning to normality”. One promising sign is foot-traffic along Queen Street Mall, which had plummeted to just 20 per cent of pre-COVID levels in April 2020. By December it was back to about 80 per cent.
Schrinner says the Brisbane City Council has rolled out a range of measures, from suspending parking fees in the CBD, which saved residents $2.5 million, to a $18 million COVID-relief package for 14,600 businesses.
“In October, we launched the new Brisbane Business Hub in the heart of the CBD which offers a range of free support services from workshops and webinars to business health checks and one-on-one mentoring,” Schrinner explains. Brisbane City Council is also fast-tracking major infrastructure projects, like Brisbane Metro, which will deliver thousands of jobs.
City of Perth boosts the state’s backbone
City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas says Perth’s CBD is critical to Western Australia’s economic recovery as it “forms the backbone of our great state”.
The City of Perth has implemented a three-year, $38.1 million economic rebound strategy with an array of initiatives to “provide relief to local businesses, boost confidence in the local economy and encourage visitors back into the CBD”.
A five-day festival with 25-plus free events was delivered by the City of Perth over the Australia Day long weekend, for example. Three hours of free parking on weekends over December and January brought an additional 12,000 cars in City of Perth carparks when compared to the previous year.
“By December 2020, pedestrian activity in the city was nearly 23 per cent higher than December 2019 foot traffic and employment in Perth has now almost returned to pre-pandemic levels,” Zempilas says.
Small business grants have increased by 600 per cent over the current financial year, enhancing alfresco area activation and other COVID-safe initiatives, and helping city-based businesses to pivot.
Welcome back to the workplace
Property Council members have welcomed government support for the return to work, says chief executive Ken Morrison, and building owners and managers have been “doing their part” by ensuring workplaces are ready.
A Property Council campaign to encourage more businesses and their staff to return to regular office workplaces commenced last week with advertisements in The Australian and the Australian Financial Review.
“Every part of the journey through an office building including foyers, lifts, end of trip facilities, common areas and shared spaces has been reviewed with new practices and protocols put in place to promote health and safety,” Morrison says.
“There’s a powerful economic effect from people working together in offices, which is why our major CBDs are such important drivers of productivity and innovation. Our two biggest CBDs – Sydney and Melbourne – each contribute around seven per cent of national GDP.
“There’s a growing momentum for people to come back to their workplaces, and our members are ready to support their return in the coming weeks and months,” Morrison concludes.