COVID has had a massive impact on Melbourne's CBD. Will it ever return to normal? | ABC News
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- Melbourne’s CBD is a very different place after the long COVID lockdown - and it may never be the same again.
What to do with empty offices that may never be fully filled? And how to bring the life back to the city’s famous cafes, bars, and laneways?
Reporter Mary Gearin and producer Danny Morgan take an in-depth look at the future of what was Australia’s fastest-growing city.
Camera: Michael Barnett
Editor: Elahn Zetlin
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I flew from Sydney to Melbourne, a couple of weeks ago. I stayed in Docklands, fro 5 nights. I ate in many fantastic cafes and restaurants and went on the trams many times a day. It was the experience of a lifetime ! Such a walkable city, and SO much to look at and enjoy. The laneway art is fabulous, the botanical gardens, wandering along the river in the evening. Melbourne is a lovely city to spend a week in, just to wander around and enjoy. Thanks Melbourne, I really loved you ! Such an artistic vibe !
Then you woke up and realised what a craphole melbourne actually is.
April fools?
Yes! And don’t forget the facial recognition cameras they installed while everyone was in lockdown! Can’t wait for the social credit system
@@Isaiah54V7 also the bill gates george soros microchip vaccine which will turn everyone into gay autistic trans atheists
@@Isaiah54V7 I have a friend and a relative in VicPol, and as much as they'd like to have AI driven facial recognition cameras around the city to make their (already fairly easy) jobs easier, there's just no way to implement it here in Australia without asking everyone to come down and have their photo taken in the way neural networks require for recognition..
Perhaps it's time to let the concept of a single central business district die. There's a more distributed model of living that could develop, providing a boon for suburbs and regional areas.
The transition would not be ideal for those heavily invested in cbd spaces, but cafes and other small businesses are likely to pop up outside the CBD to better service those working from home.
Yes, and an end to all the silly zoning restrictions which prevents any mixed used in 'residential' areas and preventing residential in 'business' areas. We need to build cities more like European cities, not American ones where no one area is dependent on one 'industry' - including the 'international student' industry, which is for the most part a complete farce. But that's what happens when you force universities to behave like profit making businesses.
Good idea! And all over the world, perhaps the idea of a "center" must die. Plurality instead of singularity.
Yes, this is what it's like for most other countries.
Nespresso machine sales would have jumped as well I guess...
CBD's don't exist for no reason. They exist specifically because more distributed business districts can't compete with a single, centralized one.
Zoning codes in Australian cities mean that residential, commercial and office spaces don't mix as often as they would in older cities. It used to be the case that commercial properties in cities were built to be flexible. Mid-rise or low-rise buildings packed tightly together with shops on the bottom floor and apartments or offices on top. That flexibility was a key selling point. Nowadays because single-family zoning is the norm zoning codes are written to separate uses by default. Mixed use zoning still exists but the old flexible model doesn't. It's either a shop, an office or an apartment. You might have a combination of the three in one building but you'll not very often see an office becoming an apartment or a shop becoming an office.
You'd essentially need to somehow redo the entire culture that lead to the current zoning policy. And for cities with multiple local councils (read as: everywhere outside of Queensland) you'd have to get each council to cooperate in connecting to each other rather than just relying on the state government to do everything. Say, copying Brisbane's "city of neighborhoods" plan where each council gets its own business district with transit and high density residential zoning built around it. The current model of parasitic suburban sprawl won't really work with a decentralized city. By distributing everything you'll loosing efficiency that comes with the scale of one big CBD. That's fine, but it means cities can't really support as many low density suburban leaches hanging off them as most Australian/American-style cities have.
Well that KPMG guy who said he wonders if his colleagues are actually working just became the most popular guy in his office.
Classic, consultant says they work for 8 hours when they work 8 minutes,
Company charges for 8 hours work for a team of 5.
@@nvrluki7608 Not my experience from engineering consulting. Not sure about kpmg.
Charged 8 hours, worked 12 :(
@@Ruxxnation yeah that happens, but your charge rate is about 8-10x your salary.
@@nvrluki7608 you always pay more than just someone's salary. The price is supposed to cover other ppl salaries too, just as it's the case with any factory good. You don't only pay for material and factory labour costs but also for all the administrative costs 'needed' to keep the factory running.
How many people have been trapped by the cbd model? Over inflated house prices and hours of wasted time commuting. How much time and effort has been pushed into the regions to support people who can now get a job because they can work from home. There is so much negative about covid but redistribution of wealth over the state rather than concentrating it in the cbd is definitely one of the brighter silver linings.
Melb CBD is much more than a commuter zone.
I work in the CBD doing a job that can't be done from home. My observation is that businesses in areas with plenty if residents are doing ok (not great but ok) while businesses in areas predominantly with offices are not.
I think this will end up being good for Melbourne long term. In my opinion one of the strengths of living here is the vibrant new and modern feel to the city something a big turnover like this will likely highten. I've also lived in NYC, SF and Boston and Melbourne is by far the most modern city in my opinion. Hopefully some of the office space will be turned into housing to capitalize on the great tram system and walkability in the CBD. I could imagine small NY or Paris style flats being incredibly popular with younger renters who would prefer to be near the night life and events to having a yard or large flat. Then the older couples with family will be able to move further out into the suburbs and work from home.
I think many of the buildings we have would also be great for homeless shelters. we have many buildings and high rise apartments in the city. one building could sleep many people or house them to get them on their feet, some are still children, some things In Melbourne or Australia will never change. I know because as a child i was often homeless and now i still see children with no where to go, Our Aboriginal peoples who never gave up this their land, They get next to nothing but talk. So yeah matey thing in Melbourne CBD is still a hidden mess, and a great shame of Australia and every govern/meant. Shame. I pay my Deepest RESPECT To Elders...Past...Present and Future Rising. Treaty Now Australia.
I hope it never returns to normal, dont want to travel 2 hours+ a day to get to work when I can do it at home, save fuel, less traffic and probably better for the environment
People like you ,should move to countryside if you don't like hustle bussle of the bigger cities, instead of demanding killing cities vibes and wanting to turn it sleepy retirement towns
@@ruzgargulu7820 the nothing wrong with living in City and staying at home
Def turn it into housing for those that need it. Get rid of half the offices.
Why is the State Library corporatised? Why a 'CEO'? That's distrubing.
@@tjmarx And yet there's homelessness... not very marxian of you...
I was in the CBD last night and it seemed pretty bustling
Oh good
Likewise.. I can't even get a table at most of my favourite restaurants unless I book a week or more ahead of time..
There wasn’t one new idea in this segment. Everyone’s idea of ‘saving’ the CBD is by everything ‘kind of’ going back to normal. It’s never going back to normal. We need smart people coming up with new ideas.
That's a very lazy answer from the former Premier! It's easy to do the same and label it differently. Urban designers and architects needs to re-configure cities as people centric environments, not for business centric like of old.
Hahaha...I was thinking the same thing. Felt like the classic early Noughts playbook of every city in the western world. What a complete has-been.
Yes indeed.
was in Melbourne Thursday night. my vline arrived at 7.10pm - and first thing I noticed, all the food places in Southern Cross. Already closed. even with footy being on. I went to a number of other places, and restaurants closed, until i got to Swanston street where there was a range of places open
Sounds great! 😁 More is not always better. I feel for those who have lost businesses, but it certainly exposed which ones were not essential.
@@itsame6150 is that legal?
"International students pay big money to get a degree here"
How about Domestic Art Students, whose fee is double that of an international Sci Students?
Education should be free, as it was decades ago. Honestly it is quite disheartening to see my beloved country regress to the past.
Nothing is for free you wouldn’t have anyone working if it was
@@Unknown-nf1se except that University was free. And is in certain European countries.
( obviously payed for by tax , “not free” )
@@bvo.. since when does Europe pay taxes? Massive corruption in those countries
Australia's education system is world-leading (highest literacy rates, greatest number of leading universities per capita, comprehensive access, etc.). Plus, the Australian model is about contributing to your own education. We don't have stupid $50,000 a year fees like they do in America; it's a fifth of that, which can be deferred at low interest and paid back only when you're making a sustainable income. The people accessing the service are the ones contributing money towards it, thus lowering the collective tax burden. It's the best tertiary education model in the world.
But we are happy at home!! The CBD is overrated
Here's a crazy idea: how about making universities more affordable and accessible to Australians that live here in Victoria, instead of exclusively catering to obscenely wealthy Asian visitors? Nah that would make too much sense.
Here's even better idea...dont accept asian student to enter australian universities.....
well without the money from those rich asians how are we supposed to fund the universities? more taxes? most university are already cutting down on jobs and course quality without international students
@@patricknugraha3252 I can't seem to find where I said that we shouldn't have international students at all. It's obvious that they are an important part of the city's economy. However, we can't exactly rely on people who are physically barred from entering the country to help our economy bounce back. If the CBD is hurting as much as people say, then universities need to start incentivizing more locals to move into the city to attend college courses full time. ESPECIALLY undergrads from local high schools. Plus, there's plenty of job availabilities. Businesses are pretty much begging people to return to work in person. So, if we can bring more locals to the party, surely we can expect a bit of a boom. That all starts with how universities want to play their cards.
@@___P___H___T___M___ yeah, my response was more towards @frry comments. while i do agree with some of your points, the australian education is already too reliant on international students. the major reason why the government can subsidise local students is by charging internationals 4-5× more for their education. if you take international money out of the equation, you would need to find incentives to attract 4-5x more local students to unis to maintain the same standard as before. so, the easier method for unis is just to cut down on cost, both in the workforce and content quality. i mean this is still a wakeup call for the industry, where they need to find a way to reverse their overreliance on international students. but i just dont see incentivising locals to unis would help the industry and the economy, at least in the short term.
The international student system was broken pre-covid (see Four Corners episode from 2019), yet now post-covid we want to go back to that?? Of course the Chancellor for La Trobe John Brumby will say that - good choice to interview him ABC...
International students are vital, but it was being taken advantage of, to the point that 27% of all students were international (by far the most of any country in the world), making Education our second largest export. wtf?
Fix this system, reduce the numbers and regain the integrity of the university sector.
How do you pay rent in Melbourne? Retail will only going to end up as chain corporates.
London is even worse. But I appreciate that Melbourne is getting back to gear. We’re only slowly easing out of our third lockdown. Wish us luck...
I'd love to see the big retailers' numbers, which are really sick I bet .. Despite all the bustling, Melbourne has gone really flat.
I shop locally as I like to support my once small town, a green wedge to be precise. No It a short cut for outer regions to cut through. We have so many different shops, cafe and all you need, and only allowed two of a particular business only. Our restaurants open and close one day a week on different days to bring an evnly placed small business zone. Unfortunately a couple of businesses closed as of stock, and no customers, It was a fantastic shop, ow a massage place?. But some of our small business have picked right up as all locals return as do surrounding regions. perhaps some would be better off giving your money at this time and always to the Australian small businesses. All my clothing comes from one shop, "Michelles On Main" where any clothing , accessories, bags the lot and boutique, beautiful things. Aussie and New Zealand designers and the few manufacturers left. possum pure wool. linen, cotton silk, bamboo. the lot. TIME FOR BIG CORPORATIONS TO FEEL THE HEAT OF THEIR OVERPRICED AND and greedy pockets whilst paying Slaves elsewhere to do their work for nothing. PIGS. BIG CORPORATIONS ESPECIALLY BANKS SHOULD NOT RECIEVE TAX PAYER MONEY. I wont even buy fast foods ,kf, rouge r, none, not even a soft drink. never had a can a c, I clean old coins with it. SHOP LOCALLY YOU WILL BE BETTER FOR IT. I love my town and the people, I love the Interaction and when kids ere young someone always knew whos kid belonged to who. We seen to growing though which is not as good as you do not know now always who is who, and we no get some break ins , we used to leave doors open. never now. anyways that's my rant the way I've always felt about the greedy and the big corporations and the control they think they have over us, because they have it over the stupid govern/meant.
I’m sorry but the pandemic didn’t do this
What? Where have you been?
Will things ever return to normal? We should ask the World Economic Forum this. Since they're kinda saying we should see this pandemic as an opportunity to reset the economy.
Why wouldn’t you wanna work from home? You don’t need to pay for fuel to travel to work. These workers indirectly get a pay rise and have a zero commute time.
For me, as a teacher, I hate online teaching, I can only deliver a fraction of the experience, everything is sliding backwards and I want the social connection of work and going to cafes.
Stuck in our third lockdown in Ontario, Canada and watching this gives me hope for months to come. Thank you for sharing.
Love how KPMG said they only check when people are online... you see back in 2010 I wrote some software that moves your mouse randomly :)
8:51 camera jumper coming from the left
Work from Anywhere has changed the world forever.
It has positively changed the trajectory of my career forever...
@@Funkteon amazing. Tell me in what ways?
@@michalp1 I have now taken a job for an Australian company offering 100% work-from-home and I'm organising my move to a cheaper city in Asia or Europe, but will be paid Aussie wages. I've always wanted to earn money from Australia but live elsewhere, and Covid finally showed business leaders around the world that people can be highly effective without needing to be chained to an office desk..
Has not the ABC turn its back on Melbourne. Just about everything comes out of Sydney. Actually I turned my back on it in 1991 moving South to the Island State.
Big Aunty. Utter BS Victorian journalism ! Please stop this sensationalism and can we just get back to factual reporting ? V.
yes
Turn them empty skyrises into quarantine facilities...
Aussie accent is like a soft panacotta, gentle, a bit sweet, could someone give me free flight ticket to Melbourne? 😊
The office buildings will become apartments
Who’s going to buy the apartments.
@@whtdafuk1701 City people
Make them free for the homeless
Get people back? Do you ask or $17/h for parking? Or does it mean workers are force back to the city while working from home is fine?
For long Aus has been treating the international students like a cash cow and labour gap filler. Lot of famous Aus uni in major capital cities have been taking advantages the money they bring in over the past 10 years, some uni have even expanded their campus size by double, for example Uni of Technology in Sydney. They have capitalised the international students as if there is no tomorrow. It is the time now for these universities to return something back to these poor uni students.
Companies should really recommend work from home since it's the best way to get a work life balance. Then use the space to provide a better experience at work.
Everything will go back to normal.. please delete all social media apps and stop watching TV .... educated fools everywhere.... doesn’t know what to eat and how to be super hygienic and super healthy.... really sad 😢
Melbourne will never be the same again.
There does not seem to be much in the way of COVID precautions being observed here and yet we are still a way off from even the majority of the population getting vaccinated.
A dead cbd is wonderful
Students will not come back as PR path is almost closed by SCOMO. They are all going to Canada who gives respect and chance to settle easily.
good
Who cares? Melbourne goes on about its coffee culture because with its awful weather, 3rd world train system and traffic jams sitting down and drinking is about all you can do. And yes ive lived there. Northern Victoria, awesome, Melbourne not so much.
And it makes international restaurant guides. It is a top ten food, art and festival city. That cafe culture brought huge tourism, as any 101 market research will demonstrate. Stop insisting things stop because you don't like them. Move elsewhere if you don't like the lifestyle. And if you think Melb is cold, don't visit the Grampians in winter.
Yup!
I think Melbourne peaked pre-1900. The gold rush was replaced by a property collapse, bank collapse, curiously timed pivot to Federation and the adoption of Nationhood as a very Victorian-centric preoccupation. It's a nice living time capsule of a bygone era but the world turns once more.
lmao this comment
Is it Botox? You look amazing for your age.
@@lizziebkennedy7505 Thanks! Raw and natural like the crystal bays of Sydney.
its not over
True! It's far from over. The worst is yet to come.
I hope Melbourne can become more like Brisbane.
Why?
@@millertas To troll Victorians
More suburban, less people living in the CBD, more conservative, & earlier nightlife hours you mean? Why would you want that? Melbourne does pretty good just being Melbourne.. .. A New Zealander from the suburban drudgery that is Christchurch..
I sincerely hope not (other than for housing prices)
God no, that would be embarrassing.
They are doing a great service for people encouraging travel to Melbourne CBD by showing these extraordinary images reminding us of life here.
Doesn’t John Brumby look great compared to Daniel Andrews
Melbourne has famous streets? Haha
You've obviously never been and most likely a "sydney-sider"?
@@seane6324 Then you woke up and realised what a craphole melbourne actually is.
@@llaughton69 did I?
Yes, famous urine smelling streets and the acclaimed alley of used needles.
@@emcats84 Sounds like Kings Cross
So forget the homeless. Yup you always do. WTF did we ever do to be ignored
Not COVID anyway andrews government and lockdowns get it right
Melbourne is NOT the only city that went through lockdown. Many others all over the world are still going through it. So what's the big issue. Getting back to "Normal" is going to take time, so stop whinging and wait. Now that the Health professionals say that office workers can go back to work, DO IT! Don't sit at home costing your employer to pay more to have you at home.
My employer has saved a fortune having us at home. No energy costs, no security needed. They love it.
I've been coming to the CBD since 1988 here and until 2019, that's when I had absolutely enough of coming down here! Ironically happens during the koof and where we have a terrible state government and council here. I can't and I won't support it now nor ever, I've had my run ins enough. From now in I only venture out outta melbourne which I enjoy but I'll never go back to the current dump of the cdb here...
Melbourne .....the New Detroit
They’re made of pillows in Melbourne
Andrews has had a massive impact on the CBD.
By stopping the spread of the virus? Or making people work from home like every other big city around the world?
@@dickiesdocos By destroying small business..........
It's not Andrews - he had no choice but to take the health advice. To ignore it would have been to write the death certificates of a hell of a lot of people.
@@stevewiles7132 Where has that not been an impact of lockdown?
do people really want to be cheek by jowl with a million others, unable to move , unable to be heard?
They have all moved to the Sunshine Coast.
Not if you can help it.
What about climate change?????????
Melbourne is the "poster child" for climate change...
Went in there the other day so dead
We need more CBD
whats normal?
Terrible place full of terrible ppl
Hope for the best to recover economy more faster..let's pray together for healthy and prosperous life
Congrats Dan Andrews destroyed this once great city
Que querés si melburne hace un frío de cagarseeee
Nahhhh
I am glad that many MSG restaurants & MIC product shops have closed
Knock it down
Do not worry about the future enjoy every day😉
If anyone wants to be angry 😠 be angry with China
China?
@@millertas they started covid 19. That’s why 2020 was a whole year wasted
@@zeddernator2522 Isn't China also a victim of Covid?
blame ccp. We too are the victims. Just look at those people in Wuhan, some are silenced and others disappeared for telling the truth to the world. The Chinese scientist who told the world the genomic sequence of the virus back in January 2020 was also punished by the authorities. I can assure you, Chinese people are not to be blamed, they are victims of this brutal regime.
@@jonathancrane969 not really. They are the winner of covid. They own a good chunk of commodities now. Well played China 🥳
Why would you want it to return to the same way that it was before?? Covid was a sign that things really needed to change. Work from home should be the new normal.
Enjoy seeing an opthalmologist or a cabinet maker who studied on line.