Richard’s Rendezvous Is it a chicken and egg question?

Exactly that: What has to come first for it to work? For what to work, you would sensibly ask. Yes, I must admit I sometimes write in a slightly obscure or vague fashion, but I do eventually get to the point for all to understand.

Government is planning to spruce up Casemates, Chatham Counterguard and Main Street. And the side streets? We ought to deal with those too.

Well, I don’t mean to be a pessimist or even a damp squib, wet blanket or cynic, but the not unimportant subject of maintenance has always been my favourite issue when it comes to our image.

Works and refurbishments are carried out and all is looking great for 18 months or perhaps two years and then signs of wear and tear begin to show and the usual inevitable downhill trend begins to take hold, spoiling the original idea.

What a pity.

One perhaps minor-ish example is looking back to when the revamped Casemates, as we know it now, opened up for business in the early 90s.

All awnings and umbrellas placed over the restaurants were meant to be uniform.

In no time at all, the free advertising versions appeared whilst other more conscientious restaurant owners set up the proper type contrasting with the easy-way-out variety, cheaper-looking ones: of course at no cost at all to those restaurateurs!

Whilst on that subject, signage and shop fronts come very much to mind.

I don’t think they all have to be uniform in the sense of them all looking the same. That would be a little boring, I think. But painted in pastel colours, and brightly coloured showy, gaudy, tasteless signage is a definite no-no, to my mind.

I remember a few years back, there being three or four different coloured shop fronts along Governor’s Street, all close together, and another shop frontage in Irish Town painted bright pink!
Isn’t there a law for these things?

Don’t shop owners have to ask about shop frontages, and what colours and shades are allowed and see what’s acceptable, from the Town Planner or some department, before doing their own thing?
Where plant pots are displayed, should they not all be the same and not plastic and of different shapes and sizes?

As I sometimes say, you may think these are tonterias, pero really, no son tonterias. It’s the all important look of the place that leaves a good, pleasing and fulfilling impression of any town centre.

And the back streets that business people regularly say are forgotten. That’s true, but here too we have the chicken and egg situation.

Should we wait for more shops and stores to be opened on Engineer Lane, City Mill Lane, Governor’s Street and other side or back streets to attract, not just visitors, but locals to frequent these thoroughfares before promoting them seriously, or should it be the other way around?

If there is not much to see or even less to shop in, through lack of retailing outlets (even the large Saverland store on Governor’s street closed down and others along our side streets), presumably through lack of footfall, then, what do we expect?

However, Irish Town seems to be doing well with quite a number of different businesses there, perhaps because it runs parallel to Main Street.

But there are shops and restaurants and takeaways there keeping an element of ambience in that ‘back street’.

So what comes first, create the right atmosphere in a particular street or area, or businesses need to be brave and set up first to help provide some sort of life?

It’s a tricky one and loads of admiration and pats on the back are called for towards all those would-be entrepreneurs taking that risky plunge and hoping for the best.

There’s a similar situation regarding chickens and eggs when we say shops should remain open much later. At least one day a week.

But how can shops and stores remain open if there’s nobody around – Main Street is generally a ghost town from about seven or seven thirty.

Do we need to bring in the crowds first or shops to remain open later? How?

I often ask myself, do we have a large enough population to serve all these businesses? Could that be the problem?

The moment businesses open up in a not particularly busy area, those establishments tend to suffer.

Another couple of examples: two cafeteria/restaurants facing each other on Reclamation Road – one in the Midtown development and the other on the opposite side of the road. I could see both seemed to give it a good try but eventually both of them closed down.

So a good revamp, overhaul, facelift or a fresh new look adding a touch of sophistication also, will be a very much welcomed project in those important areas of Casemates, Chatham Counterguard and our Main Street.

We look forward to the results. The chickens are already there. Now, let’s get them to lay the eggs!

So whilst we wait, join me in my observations...

Let’s see if we, at long last, see a brand new lift installed at Commonwealth Park. The recent one has been a troubled soul for a long, long time. I’m sure mothers with kids in prams, wheelchair and mobility scooter users as well as shoppers with heavy bags, will jump for joy to see a new lift working non-stop. Or maybe they will try and repair this once again and hope for the best?

Is the object protruding from a tree in Commonwealth Park a type of exotic fruit, or a forgotten gun or cannon of some long forgotten war?

We’ve all heard of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Do we have an equally famous Leaning Sign Post on the Peter Isola Promenade at the Small Boat Marina? Just like the tower in Italy, which has been like that forever and will remain so, will our lamppost remain inclined for much longer? So far it’s been like that so for a long, long time.
See you!