By Rod Mitchell
A month back the Herald Sun produced an article “St Kilda “just like Mad Max” which was followed up by other news outlets including tantalising statements like “St Kilda’s mean streets: Abused walking your dog on the day…. Smoking ice on the corner.”
As someone who is a resident of “Thunderdome” and a strong critic of CoPP/Councillor inaction in this area, I watched with interest as the various “actors” positioned themselves regarding yet another report on St Kilda’s woes. My response in this article is not some voyeuristic “double down on St Kilda”.
St Kilda remains home to an eclectic and gifted community of artists, writers, dancers, musicians, restaurateurs, and intellectuals. It however has developed a hard under belly not seen since I have been a resident back in the early 90s and this is what should be of concern to all of us.
My firsthand observations of this underbelly of St Kilda are these:
- There is currently a wave of anti-social behaviour,
- Criminality especially drug dealing is rife on our main high streets,
- Drug users are visible especially near 7 Eleven and the Chemist shops in Fitzroy Street,
- Violent drug affected and anti-social behaviour leading to innocent people being severely bashed or robbed including a recent death on Acland Street,
- Naked person(s) running through Acland Court,
- Break-ins and robberies,
- Defecation in front of customers in one of our supermarkets,
- Verbal abuse/spitting/harassment from a small rowdy crowd of rough sleepers and the like,
- Graffiti littered streets,
- Spitting and verbal abuse,
- Out of control AIRBNB rentals with associated drug parties, and sadly
- An element of antisemitic and anti-homosexual bile from misfits.
With St Kilda primary school nearby, who knows what bad influences as well as improper conduct as discussed above is impressing on the young and vulnerable. I shudder to think.
Public frustration is running high as there is a sense of helplessness in our suburb. Police are under resourced, the judicial system is viewed as too lenient and an overarching feeling of being swamped by social issues, of which the State washes its hands. At council level, as one Councillor stated to me. “it’s not our job,” – well it may not be fully your job Councillor, but Council still has a role to play!
What I find most disturbing about the response to St Kilda’s challenges is the lack of leadership in dealing with the issues head on. We have an almost state of denial of the very problems inflicting us from Councillors through to CoPP operatives. Even the police downplay the issues with statistics which we know are unreliable because crimes go unreported and or not recorded by the police. I would suggest that the 4,100 crimes recorded in 2023, is not a shade on the real St Kilda crime figures.
At times, there is a bullying mentality if you do speak up and talk about the obvious in St Kilda. Some ‘leaders” go on the attack believing that to tell it how it is, only deepens St Kilda’s woes by making the destination even less attractive for both shoppers and tourists. This appears to be part of the “new chorus line” with senior local business operatives joining with certain Councillors almost in an alliance, to present a play it down “nothing to see here” narrative. It’s reasonable to ask what long term interests are being looked after by this approach?
Council is rarely better on this front. They will underspend on a per capita basis in St Kilda as opposed to other Wards. They will talk about local laws officers and joint patrols with police officers being undertaken, but this is but a half truth.
There has been a strong reluctance by CoPP for several reasons including cost, to increase the number of local laws officers to patrol our main retail strips. They have been dragged to the table on this, just to get the minimum presence that we have now. With a minimum resourcing in Acland Street, we have seen very positive results to date. The local laws officers should be commended for what they have achieved with limited resources. But we need a greater commitment from CoPP.
At a time when some Councillors are calling for an increase in rates, why not ensure that the increase goes to strengthening the presence of local laws officers in Acland St, Fitzroy St, and Carlisle St?
Why has the Council not been supportive of developing a master plan for our retail strips to lift their economic viability.? I use the terms economic viability because nothing will improve the economic performance of our main streets unless we first tackle the safety issue. That is, what Council needs to have as the central hub in any master plan for our high streets, is dealing with safety. People will not shop or come or invest when our streets have real perception problems, and they are real.
Why is it so hard to get modest street modifications endorsed by Council to reduce the congregation of anti-social elements in certain areas? A bureaucratic maze and double speak meets anyone who tries.
Finally, why are Councillors not seriously revisiting “move on” provisions within the Council bylaws. Move on provisions were defeated last year at Council but should be openly discussed and revisited. If it is a “civil liberties” issue that upsets some Councillors who do not support move on bylaws, maybe they are placing too much emphasis on the rights of the disenfranchised, aka anti-social element - at the expense of the rights of law-abiding citizens to enjoy a relative degree of safety and noninterference in their daily lives. Rights are very rarely absolute. Rights are co-joined with responsibility as well as subjected to modification through competing rights. The restrictions that ban alcohol over the summer on the St Kilda foreshore, do interfere with rights but they are there for a sensible reason. The same could be argued for “move on” bylaws over the summer period.
To those Councillors who say move on bylaw’s provisions are not workable – you will not know unless you at least give it a trial run. And even if move on regulations were rarely used in practice, they still provide another tool in the policing management toolbox when dealing with poor behaviour on our streets.
In summary, mediocre leadership by our elected representatives and a CoPP that seems unable or unwilling to take their responsibilities seriously in this regard, means they must both “cop” a fair share of the blame for the mess St Kilda now finds itself in. Sadly, in this new era of social media, leadership is often seen as “selfies” and photo opportunities. The challenging task of decision making and getting things done has been handballed and buried in a council bureaucracy (often working from home) and some of them unable as one businessperson figuratively said to me recently, to “tie their shoelaces” let alone enact meaningful change.
The message is clear. Nothing will be achieved in meeting the challenges facing St Kilda, particularly our high streets unless we admit frankly and openly that we have a real problem on our hands. The current prevalent attitude of “nothing much to see here” by our so called “leaders” can never be the solution to the problem. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and starting with facts, open discussions and truth is the only way to commence the process of resolution, even if it means a few facial frowns on some of our Councillors and their “chorus buddies” in the process.
And if you are looking for a Mad Max, you won’t find it amongst some of the “woke warriors” on our Council benches; all you will find there is a political collective bordering far from the middle ground, swimming in ideology and anti-rate payer sentiment. The perfect group to sing Kumbaya around the solar powered campfire!
