Richard’s Rendezvous All set to go, almost!

I guess, round about now, anxiety will be setting in all across the Rock wondering what July 15th will bring.

What will it be like seeing a completely open Gibraltar/La Linea border with no restrictions, at least for us and Gibraltar residents, and also very importantly to see the effect of the changes at the commercial goods entrance hopefully running fluidly, if not right away, soon afterwards.

So far, so good: now the little improvements we, maybe, to my mind need to look at.

Visitors travelling in their vehicles wanting to enter Gibraltar whilst accepting the idea of sorting out some arrangement with them parking in La Linea sounds like a good one, but will those wanting to enter be encouraged to use the Devil’s Tower Road garage/car park, maybe adding another floor of perhaps two?

Is it very much in use at the moment, apart from Laguna Estate residents?

Tourist sites are being updated and publicised, so shouldn’t our excellent museum be promoted more? More eye-catching signs at the junction of Main Street and Bomb House Lane signalling it’s just two steps down the lane and certainly worth a look.

The large colourful Gibraltar Macaque ape figures soon to be introduced in prime locations around the town and elsewhere, but I heard no mention of one suitably placed in the Botanic Gardens (la Alameda), adding much needed colour to the gardens and encourage more visitors to the area.

What else?

Should we now re-start a weekly, fortnightly or even, monthly street market, set up in smart, colourful, identical, standardised stalls? Apart from the usual items to show, we now have more than a vibrant fraternity of excellent artists, photographers, sculptors and others – young and old – constantly on the go, displaying their work in our galleries.

Locally, the visual arts are alive and kicking, possibly attracting artists from the hinterland too, yes, a vibrant street market like you see in every other town and city all around the world. That would be great.

A big one for visitors has to be where they go in the evening or at night. Yes, there’s Ocean Village, the marinas, the Leisure Centre and plenty of restaurants and bars, but some of them are closed in the evening and Gib tends to become a bit of a ghost town after about 7 pm. We have no night clubs or venues where to have a dance.

One starts up from time to time but eventually forced to close their doors through lack of business.

At present I can see it’s because there aren’t enough local residents walking around in the evenings. It’s a well known fact generally that many places survive at the weekend on Fridays and Saturdays, which are the going-out days and the rest of the weekdays are pretty dead.

So how will we keep visitors busy and entertained after sunset?

Earlier in the day during shopping hours, there’ll be a need to encourage potential customers to move into the side streets.

Apart from Irish Town, the others leading off Main Street don’t seem to be enjoying much, or any, piece of the cake. Do we need to encourage more businesses to open in those streets and lanes?
When you check those streets there aren’t many shops situated there.

How do we attract tourists to venture away at least a little away from Main Street? This is perhaps another case of the chicken and egg situation – no shops, no shoppers and no shoppers, no shops.

So there is a need for a number of entrepreneurs to bravely open up for business, remain open regardless, for many months if need be, and see what materialises.

Maybe visitors will be encouraged to venture forth along the side streets.

When the frontier is more free-flowing and we see more aircraft arrivals from other destinations, and there are more people milling around, they are going to be on the lookout for more than what’s on offer at present.

Once they’ve done the usual Upper Rock tours and dolphin trips, what does the town have to offer in the daytime apart from a shopping experience, and what’s on offer in the evening, and later on, for those seeking night-time entertainment?

At the moment, many locals, especially the young, are attracted to La Linea for their fun and games and a great lively, vibrant atmosphere. Don’t we need to bring that back here and steal them away from the neighbouring town?

Once we hopefully receive more visitors and the hotels are full, how do we get those individuals and our own to remain here? We will then, it seems, have enough numbers for them to do more, on this famous Rock of Gibraltar. That is the big question.

Perhaps one remedy could be a noticeable reduction in premises’ rents, Government utility services slashed in a serious manner showing a marked difference – at least for a period of time until hopefully, we notice things moving in a healthy and positive direction.

Something will have to give if we are to take advantage of what this big change could bring.

Now let’s have a look around, observe and see what else could be improved and check out those little changes which are little, but so important.

The first one this time is an eyesore you can’t help missing. As you walk towards the Convent and Convent Place, just past the Courts’ gardens as you approach the narrow pavement, there’s a patch of scruffy wall that can be put right with a quick scrape and a lick of paint and make it look so much better. The Royal Mail post box that stands there, is still full of stickers which I highlighted here in observations a few weeks ago and looking scruffy also, so that doesn’t help either.

It’s good to see the so-called Central Police Station open. There will be a need for that now in the new, soon to arrive, climate with more enquiries from those visiting. However, it has to be said more officers are seen around town these days. Well done RGP.

And here we have one of those forgotten side streets looking very clean but noticeable very bare and sad. Engineer Lane, not even a stone’s throw away from Main Street.

And last but most certainly not least. Dog fouling has its ups and downs on our streets and recently I notice there seems to be an ‘up’ in the habit. How can the owners and walkers do that, just leave it and walk away? It’s mind boggling.