Battle against car hoons gets surreal
- Author:
- Michael Gormly
- Posted:
- Thursday, 19 November 2009
COMMENT
Big police operations closing streets feeding Kings Cross on weekends, and the local politics around them, have taken on an Alice-in-Wonderland surrealism.
There seems to be a yawning reality gap between what resident activists, Clover Moore and police report; and street-level observation of events.
The official line, rapidly entering the public record as fact, is that police have closed Cowper Wharf Road near the Navy Base for the past few weekends, blocking all but residents and public vehicles between midnight and 4am in a four-week trial. Cars denied entry to Kings Cross were turned around in the driveway of the Navy carpark and went who knows where.
An organised group of residents then flooded Police, Councillors and media with grateful letters and emails running a common message that they had enjoyed their first good night’s sleep in years and thanking the authorities for activating the closures that they had been lobbying for. They claimed the moves had also stopped the littering of streets residents face on weekend mornings.
This version of reality continued at Clover Moore’s Community Forum in Kings Cross on Monday 9 November, after the second weekend of the trials, with Ms Moore delighted with the success of the closures and applauded by the same group of residents with the same message.
The only problem was, no such closures were apparent to The City News on Saturday 7 November, as reported in last week’s edition. While there was a large Police RBT operation near Harry’s Café de Wheels, drivers heading towards the Cross were waved onwards after being breath-tested or having their cars pulled over and examined for defects.
Our photographs show no closures along Cowper Wharf Road just after midnight. We saw none at 1am either, while returning to Kings Cross via the McElhone Stairs. Soon after, we saw Macleay St Potts Point bumper-to-bumper with cars in both directions, as usual. Two cars impatient with the delay indulged in a horn-blasting session, just as residents complained about before the trials began – but there were no police around to stop them. We saw modified vehicles crawling from Potts Point into Kings Cross in a near unbroken line for the next hour, complete with rumbling exhausts, subwoofers etc.
We saw a large truck heading up Macleay Street carrying all the paraphernalia for a road closure – barriers, witches hats and other gear. We asked the driver if he was going to be blocking any roads. “No, mate,” was the response.
It seemed like business as usual, so residents’ claims of their good night’s sleep ring a little hollow – was there a touch of propaganda in their message, telling Clover Moore exactly what she wanted to hear?
Kings Cross Police provided a partial answer to the conundrum, explaining that an earlier arrest had delayed the road closure, which they said had been erected at about 12.30 am.
A spokesperson said approximately 60 cars were turned around and there were no reported noise complaints on Macleay St. The heavy traffic observed in upper Macleay St had been banked back only to Greenknowe Avenue (which connects Elizabeth Bay and Macleay St), and had been “95 per cent taxis”. As our photos show, this was not the case at 2am.
While 60 cars does not seem enough to make any appreciable difference to vehicle counts in that area on a busy night, the heavy traffic reportedly coming from Greenknowe Avenue makes it possible that the promenading motorheads have simply switched their route from Woolloomooloo to Elizabeth Bay as they head to Kings Cross, a feasible explanation in these days of mobile phones and GPS navigators which enable networks of friends to change their routes instantly and flexibly.
This is the problem with such road closures. All they can do is quarantine one set of residents from the fallout at the expense of other residents, just as the closures at Hickson Road in The Rocks have displaced action to Kings Cross. Such measures are not going to stop Sydney’s widespread suburban car-culture or reverse the city’s role as a destination for work and entertainment – the very definition of a city.
Locking up crucial police resources to block not only Hickson road but Cowper Wharf Road every weekend, as the Macleay St residents group wants, would be ineffective and inequitable, protecting a few enclaves of wealthy people while others cop the overflow.
If the problem is noise, a few police patrolling the busy streets on foot could simply book cars that make excessive noise, enabling Sydneysiders to retain access to their public roads while the visible police presence would also deter other anti-social behaviour.
Police deployed three unmarked patrol cars to monitor traffic in Woolloomooloo during the closures, which reported no increased traffic. On Saturday night [7 November] there were 21 Mobile RBTs, 24 Traffic Infringements
and six Defect Notices issued.
by Michael Gormly
…But the car calvalcade continues in Kings Cross – these photos taken around 2am
Police line up to breath-test drivers in Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo…
Like this article? Register as a subscriber here. It's free! We'll keep you up to date with new stories on the site.
November 19th, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
I couldn’t agree more that Macleay St residents should not be enjoying noise-free nights “while others cop the overflow”. The fact of the matter is NO RESIDENTS should be made or expected to tolerate the level of noise, disruption and anti-social behaviour which we have for so long campaigned for individually and via various residents’ groups, ad nauseum. So the hoons and late night revelers will have to also be moved on from wherever their detour now takes them. And so it goes until they get the message that they are not wanted in anyone’s neighbourhood. Mr Gormly’s comment about “the city’s role as a destination for work and entertainment” is incomplete. Cities, and in particular this most densely populated area of Australia, is also for living which not unreasonably includes a decent night’s sleep. And ‘entertainment’ also means things other than too much alcohol, drugs and general sleaze which is about all Kings Cross offers can currently offer the local community. So the bottom line about traffic diversion is that it is merely a symptom of very much bigger, generic and pathologic issues to do with Kings Cross.
December 2nd, 2009 @ 8:34 am
Rebecca neatly (but politely) sums up the NIMBY position, confirmed by other campaigners who have angrily emailed me — they want to in effect blockade Kings Cross (and maybe the whole city) from unwelcome suburban visitors who come here for entertainment.
The very definition of a city is “a destination for work and entertainment”. Just because a small minority of us choose to live in the city does not alter that. Sure, find ways to mitigate problems without killing the party, but to simply gate off the city is one of the silliest ideas I have ever heard.
The NIMBYs don’t agree with this, but that’s because their sense of self-entitlement apparently knows no bounds. They seriously propose that taxpayers’ dollars be permanently sunk into a weekend blockade of the whole of Kings Cross (and wherever else the party goes) to keep out the very people who pay most of those tax dollars. I think the police have better things to do that serve minority elites.
December 15th, 2009 @ 10:33 am
Its no longer a “small minority” of us that choose to live in the city. Residential density, particularly in the city and surrounding suburbs is increasing at a rapid rate and in fact is being encouraged by Government planning as we all deal with sustainable/affordable living and dealing with land shortages.While it is important to see both sides of the arguement and consider the culture that has been around for a long time particularly in Kings Cross and its local community the reality is something needs to be done in giving the increasing City population a safe/peaceful environment in which to reside. Sleep and well being are important and paramount to a good community regardless of where you live. I feel for the police. There are just not enough of them to deal with every issue.Anti social behaviour, illegal street campers and noisy cars seem to be the core of the majority of issues that we are dealing with here.Driving loud cars around any part of the Cross does not constitute “work or entertainment” and serves no purpose nor benefit to local business. Good luck to the police in curbing car/hoons. Any action must fair for every resident and not just directed from one spot to another.
January 6th, 2010 @ 4:22 pm
I think the closures are a help, vehicle noise seems less to me.
I’m used to noise from the resty below and from events inside Finger Wharf. They go reasonably quiet at bedtime and in any case the sound of people enjoying themselves in a nice way is a good one.
Carlover noise isn’t nice.
Even if the closure doesn’t occur on time every time the signs probably deter. If a closure becomes an RBT and illegal modification check… so much the better.
If the Police want to move their tactic around the area, so all CoS residents get the benefit, that’s great. I’d like petrolheads to expect to be stopped for alcohol and noise compliance on every night visit.
January 15th, 2010 @ 8:34 am
Reading Jeff’s comment – I don’t make statements like ‘a small minority’ without foundation. In Council’s own research last year, while (from memory) 55% of locals surveyed said the noise and fallout from drinkers was the worst problem about the place. Yet only 16% wanted fewer pubs and clubs. Yes, this is not about cars, but the same people complain about the cars as the fallout, so I think the two issues parallel.
These figures strongly support my view that, like all my neighbours who live in an extremely noisy street, most people who move into the Cross want to be close to the action and are willing to put up with the fallout. It seems basic commonsense to me. Unfortunately these data did not back up Clover Moore’s policies so they spun the surveys into the far universe and are commissioning more research at our expense to try to back up their mania for gentrification. A key figure in the anti-everything campaign denied that the 16% figure existed in the survey but it’s there in black and white, and was published by The SMH in a letter from me after they asked for the hard data.
Also from the survey, only 35% of people on the streets of the Cross on a Thursday night were locals. On Fri and Sat nights it would be far less. I don’t know how better to define ‘a small minority’.
Jeff also misses the key point that much of the diverted traffic simply detours past other people’s residences so they pay the price for the privileged few. It’s totally undemocratic.
I know cars are not work, at least locally, but Jeff might be amazed to learn that some of us actually enjoy watching those immaculate machines promenade through the Cross. I have quite a photo collection of amazing machines and I am sad to see a few NIMBYs and a gentrified Council spoil my pleasure.
Dismiss such culturally tolerant and heretical views if you like, but you would be in the Chardonnay-sipping minority.
– Michael Gormly