The phenomenon of shop closures, graffiti and homelessness is a troubling trend that is not, unfortunately, unique to Carlisle Street.  What is troubling however, is the apparent lack of interest and investment by the Council to improve amenity and restore this once vibrant and rich shopping precinct to a semblance of its glory days.  

There is no doubt that COVID has contributed to the demise of this local strip.  During the COVID nightmare, our worlds shrunk as did our shopping options when only one of us was ‘allowed out’ to replenish supplies within a 5km radius.  But what happened afterwards?  As a Balaclava local of almost 40 years I dearly miss the halcyon days of the local shopping strip when shoe shops, butchers, and my choice of green grocers nestled alongside bakeries, butchers, a bespoke cake shop and fish monger.  

What’s my experience now?  ‘Disappointing’ isn’t quite adequate.  The only remaining butcher recently closed it’s doors and today I see the organic grocer has upped and left so now there are two more vacant shop fronts with all the others that now dot the once busy and vibrant strip. What have the Council done to address this sad and sorry decline?  Well, there was the street art project ‘People of Balaclava’.   Not the best of ideas but far from the worst – pity that some of these images were not vetted prior to be being painted – I won’t rehash the controversy of well worn tropes here.  

So we have a series of faces that remain and compete for attention with graffiti and tags.  If you still visit the strip, next time stop for a moment and look up.   The volume of visual junk is substantial and growing – perhaps Council should issue building owners with orders to remove this ‘artistic expression’ or do it for them and send them the bill.

What is the council doing to entice small retail to return to the strip?  Are there pop-up initiatives similar to those operating in Fitzroy street?   Retail attracts retail – it needs to be encouraged – and not just fast food outlets.  Carlisle Street is languishing and slowly getting worse - so much so that residents like me have no choice but to look further afield.  

I appreciate Councils can’t dictate to private property owners and tell them what to do with their properties – but they can encourage and entice changes in behaviour through the use of incentives within the control of council.  Other than the pawn shop, the only other outlets new to the strip are fast food and what appears to be a small clothing outlet that is rarely open (a pop up passion project maybe?) and another selling what appears to be used sporting clothing and shoes.  The strip is begging for a multifaceted plan to improve amenity for residents and business operators in equal measure.  

Council should be taking the lead on this and speaking with locals and business owners and, most importantly, listening to what they have to say.  Revitalisation of this once proud strip through sustainable solutions requires council attention, investment and action. Council needs to rid the strip of mindless graffiti which only exacerbates the perception of a neighbourhood in decline.  

Council also needs to take the lead with the those who regularly beg for coins near either of the supermarket entrances or who set up camp outside the 711 near the entrance to Balaclava Station and in the public carpark in Woodstock Street behind the now vacant butcher shop.  No intervention will cement the demise of Carlisle Street – and we won’t know what we’ve lost till it’s gone.