The streets of Geelong

from w
Walking through the city streets yesterday I noticed that many streets were almost bare of people, shops empty - but, down at Westfield it was like mobs of sheep surging forward amidst all the red and green and glitter. How appalling. The rich owners of Westfield will be laughing that Mr Rudd's cheery thousand dollar gifts to pensioners are going to swell the coffers. I did see some buskers on Malop Street though and some cheery shoppers taking time to talk with kids. But the Santa at Westfield certainly looks zonked out!

Geelong streets in a mess this week

from w
They are digging up holes everywhere and putting up barriers to block off traffic and buses are running late. And as usual the bridge over the Yarra Street is still under construction. I did a pencil sketch of the Westfield development (?) from inside a bus. The other sketch was at the Virginia Todd Centre of the garden. I used Peceli's pen to fiddle with the details. I'm not good at drawing straight lines and the trees with the interesting white and black trunks should have been more upright.

Chockers in Westfield today

from w
It was the grand opening today so everyone seemed to abandon the shopping strips in the suburbs and the family businesses to have a gander at the re-opened Westfield shopping centre in Geelong. Thousands of people were there as the crowds flocked inside. I was there 15 minutes (in between a writing group and a Bible study) and that was enough to get the gist of it. It's not a good place if you are claustrophobic but of course all the magic of millions of dollars have sparkled up the place and the variety of food and coffee is tempting.

And many people think it is a marvellous project, not monotonal at all as in my drawings. For real photographs, history of the project and a video go to an article and pics in the Geelong Advertiser.

The sea, where is the sea?

from w
Despite our protesting, the Yarra Street development is going on with Westfield spending hundreds of millions of dollars to 'upgrade?' the area for bigger and 'better?' supermarkets, etc. The sea, which should be the focus of the vista will hardly be visible when a glass bridge is built over Yarra Street.

Westfield development in Geelong

from w
Despite many protests, the bulldozers are in pulling down buildings and preparing to 'upgrade' the supermarket and shops both sides of Yarra Street in downtown Geelong. The artist's view of the glass bridge may look enticing but it's not what many people want. We like our view of sea and sky! My two minute sketch doesn't do it justice but it's a nice clean look which will be spoilt by the greed of capitalists and the shareholders wanting more and more dividends with their plans for 'development'. Hey, what's wrong with shopping strips and family businesses? The Geelong Council caved into 'development' and there's only one teeny problem left - who owns the air above the street where there will be pylons to hold up the glass cage?
While they change to look of this part of the city, there will be no supermarket in central Geelong for six months. Okay, we will shop elsewhere, particularly in our own suburbs and perhaps never go back!