Yes, sure, you have to be careful what you wish for but imagine for a moment that our main streets could look a bit like this.
This is actually a small section of Macarthur Square shopping centre this week, dolled up for Christmas, as it always is.
And it has to be admitted it looks fantastic without being over the top.
For better or worse here in Australia – unlike parts of Europe – we have adopted the shopping centre model, whereby we can do all of our shopping under cover, in air conditioned comfort and with the car parked not too far away. It has a much bigger environmental footprint – think how much electricity is used to produce its air conditioning – than the poor old outdoor retailers, but we don’t go shopping to comfort our consciences.
Just can’t beat it, can you, and it goes a long way to explaining why our main streets are struggling and probably will continue to do so for some time yet.
Liverpool Council obviously thinks its main shopping strip, Macquarie Street, can be revived to the point where it can be a serious alternative to the comforts offered by the giant Westfield shopping centre a stone’s throw away.
Liverpool will spend upwards of $10 million on a makeover of Macquarie Mall and hopefully it will be money well spent.
Down south, Campbelltown Council has taken the view that time is the answer for Queen Street, which is battling along.
The council believes the construction of apartments near the railway line will be the saviour of its main street, but it’s only a guess.
Who can say for sure these new residents won’t hop on the train and travel to Macarthur Square.
And as for Liverpool, if council’s efforts don’t produce a result, what will happen after that?
In an ideal world both shopping centres and open air shopping strips would be competitive.
But given the obvious advantages of shopping centres, main streets will need to produce some sort of X factor to entice the punters back on their footpaths.
