Downtown Beirut?

[B-dos]

but the west end has no reason to exist now that everyone shops at Kotara and Charlestown.

a major contributor to the fact that most shoppers head to kotara and charlestown is firstly the free parking and secondly the higher quality and quantity of retail stores.

if the GPT proposal were to go ahead, id expect some form of car park offering that would be far superior to what hunter st mall currently offers. if the hunter st mall and surrounding streets were to attract higher quality retail stores, and more of them, then id much prefer to shop there rather than out at the suburban shopping malls.

as for hunter st west, this area would likely be more suited to apartment blocks and office blocks and this would complement the revatliisation of the CBD as more people will actually choose to live there.

 

[JW]

we should secede.

Bring on New England!

 

[macavity]

Bring on New England!

the sad part is if Newcastle (or as was considered, Nelson Bay) rather than Armidale had been the capital when it went to referendum it would likely have succeeded.

The country areas were overwhelmingly pro-secession - but the Hunter was marginally against it (mostly due to Armidale being named capital and being so far away), and our votes overwhelmed the country.

all we have to show for it is UNE.

 

[B-dos]

ive heard you mention seceding a few times mac.

it sounds good in theory but in a time where many want to remove the state level of govt all together, i dont see a chance in hell of that happening.

 

[Pika]

I dont even know what you egg heads are talking about

 

[macavity]

ive heard you mention seceding a few times mac.

it sounds good in theory but in a time where many want to remove the state level of govt all together, i dont see a chance in hell of that happening.

IMO perfect scenerio would be 2 levels of govt - federal and a county style system - ie the Hunter would be one county, which had the powers of local govt and some of the powers of State, with the rest transferred to the federal govt.

realistically under our constitution the only way we could do it is to have a mass of states (ie counties) and no local govts, and have the states cede some of their powers to the feds.

the other way would be a referendum, which would not get up as the rest of the country is more than happy mooching off NSW and VIC.

 

[B-dos]

I dont even know what you egg heads are talking about

seceding means newcastle (and probably the hunter valley) would remove itself from NSW and form its own state. theoretically it would be of huge benefit to newcastle and the hunter valley as all our coal reveues and roaylties would remain in our new state for the benefit of the residents rather than be siphoned off to sydeny.

 

[macavity]

Novocastria

I like it.

 

[Frederick]

Then we can get state of origin changed to a 3 team tourney - nsw v qld v novocastria

 

[hgfds]

Statistically according to the nh the hunter is dependent on the car and has the worst public transport of oz's major cities ,my opinion is that public transport has been in decline in the hunter for 30+years and no further cuts to services should be allowed so that greedy developers can gain valuable inner city space

 

[roopy]

Statistically according to the nh the hunter is dependent on the car and has the worst public transport of oz's major cities ,my opinion is that public transport has been in decline in the hunter for 30+years and no further cuts to services should be allowed so that greedy developers can gain valuable inner city space

Does a massive rail line for a few thousand people a day do anything for public transport that one bus on a continuous loop couldn't do better?

 

[macavity]

Statistically according to the nh the hunter is dependent on the car and has the worst public transport of oz's major cities ,my opinion is that public transport has been in decline in the hunter for 30+years and no further cuts to services should be allowed so that greedy developers can gain valuable inner city space

a LITTLE knowledge is a dangerous thing.....

 

[B-dos]

Statistically according to the nh the hunter is dependent on the car and has the worst public transport of oz's major cities ,my opinion is that public transport has been in decline in the hunter for 30+years and no further cuts to services should be allowed so that greedy developers can gain valuable inner city space

the greedy developers line is trotted out again and again but is in actual fact complete nonense.

i support ths removal of the rail line and the reinvigoration of the CBD, not for the developers but for the sake of everyone who lives and works and 'potentially' travels to inner city newcastle to experience something other than the dilapidated ghost town currently on offer.

 

[Serc]

I gotta admit I used to enjoy the convenience of catching the train right into Newcastle station...but my visits to there were only to hit the town on Fri/Sat nights

In my experience its certainly is quite grubby and run down after Civic/Wickham etc, but don't ask me for a solution! Though the more i think about it...maybe getting rid of that first section of the railway line could be a great idea when you have the good stuff along Wharf Rd and Honeysuckle Dr

 

[hgfds]

The rail line with its location next to the ocean baths,nobby's headland brings people into the city and is a major asset for teens,families,elderly people and the disabled,are they still going to travel into the city when they are herded off at wickham and jammed into buses?.Who will want to travel into the city anyway and view the developers high rise and apartment blocks.Newcastle with more difficult access to its natural beauty is a poorer place

 

[Pika]

Where are these commuters you speak of?

Its true, the train line could deliver them to the City, but everytime I see a train in the City, its deserted......

 

[cram]

Where are these commuters you speak of?

Its true, the train line could deliver them to the City, but everytime I see a train in the City, its deserted......

The train is fairly packed at peak times. There are a lot of people for Maitland who catch the train into work in the city but saying that it probably accounts for only a couple of trains in the am and same number in the pm.

If they put a decent system in to transport people from the interchange, where ever they put that, into the city then I can't see it being an issue.

 

[shane1970]

There's only 2 good things about Newcastle-
.
1 - The F3/Pacific Hwy Northbound
2 - The Mighty Knights
.
That is all

 

[Big Tim]

The train line needs to go. I work in the biggest private retail store in Newcastle and that rail line does nothing but congest things and make people go to places like Kotara or Charlestown (though you have to pay at Charlie now, so that helps us)

Get rid of the line, then we can link Hunter street with Honeysuckle and the city can move past being a coal mining town....... BHP was closed down years ago.

 

[IanG]

Newcastle city centre is a disgrace.

Exactly it's been like that since the 89 earthquake