Valley needs 'Giulani makeover'

NEWS

Inner-city Councillor David Hinchliffe wants former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani to undertake a tour of Fortitude Valley and give his views on ways of reviving the Valley heart.

Mr Giuliani is in Brisbane as guest speaker at the Asia Pacfiic Cities Summit at the Convention Centre.
“Mayor Giuliani was able to bring back Times Square from the doldrums to its current position as the ‘Crossroads of the World’”, said Cr Hinchliffe, who represents Central Ward.
“His philosophy of ‘no broken windows’ could do the same to the Valley”.
Cr Hinchliffe, whose ward office is in the heart of the Valley's business area, said the Valley suffered from not having one authority with clear powers over crime and grime.
“The sooner Council and State resolve to have the one authority which speaks with the one voice and has complete say over what happens in the Valley the sooner the Valley will be able to get its act together. There are some property owners who are simply holding the Valley back.
“If properties look unloved as many properties in the Valley do, then it sends the wrong message to everyone else in that community.
“The state says council has the power to act and the council says it doesn’t have the power to take on property owners.
“We need to be able to go into the Valley with a bag of carrots and sticks – carrots to provide incentives to property owners to do the right thing and sticks to deal with those property owners who frankly don’t give a damn,” Cr Hinchliffe said.
At this morning’s session of the Asia Pacific Cities Summit, Giuliani spoke about his philosophy of making sure all property owners looked after their buildings “and that included fixing all the broken windows” as a way of building confidence in communities.
Cr Hinchliffe said: “There are a number of major companies interested in investing in places like the TCB building in the Valley, but the state of properties between the train station and the Mall is a big drawback to investment."