Melbourne Street Place Pilot 2014-2015

ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO COUNTRY Adelaide City Council acknowledges the traditional Country of the Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains and pays respect to Elders past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna People living today.

2

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

CONTENTS Faces of Melbourne Street

4

Projects

Melbourne Street Place Pilot

6

2014 Projects

18

Melbourne Street Then

8

2015 Projects

20

Melbourne Street Today

10

7 Day Makeover

22

18

The Movement

12

Challenges & Opportunities

24

The Mix

14

Where to from here?

The Motivation

16

26

This document provides an overview of the Melbourne Street Place Pilot (2014 – 2015). It details our learnings, stories, and achievements. It serves to help identify opportunities and priorities for the Melbourne Street community and Adelaide City Council. It also provides some guidance in building on the placemaking work to date.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

3

Faces of Melbourne Street

4

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

5

The Melbourne Street Place Pilot In late 2013, Council adopted a Placemaking Strategy 2013-2015 with the aim to: »» Create unique districts and places »» Empower communities and form strong partnerships »» Operate as a best practice organization to better respond to placemaking initiatives. In January 2014 Adelaide City Council began a two year placemaking pilot on Melbourne Street. A Place Facilitator (Callum Prior) was appointed to the area to be available as a resource for the community, engage with the street, build relationships, and work as a

liaison between the community and council. Placemaking provides the opportunity to strengthen communities, drive economic and other outcomes, and improve the public space. It can help communities define their own priorities and develop or reinforce a sense of identity. It’s less about what happens, and more about why and how. It’s messy, flexible, agile, and comes by changing people first. Much of the work has been in trying to rebuild trust with the community. Without trust it’s unreasonable to expect we can get to action. It took a good 9-12 months before people in the street developed significant

relationships and built trust with Callum. To understand a community, Callum needed time to become a part of it. On Melbourne Street it plays out as an almost complete retreat from the public space. This gives the area the appearance of being empty and ‘unloved’. As a visitor to the street it can be quite difficult to work out what businesses were on the street, if they were open, or what they did. For a street with a reputation as a food and fashion main-street with a village feel it was startlingly absent of public activity or people.

JERNINGHAM STREET

STANLEY STREET

MELBOURNE STREET

MACKINNON PARADE

6

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

How we got to know the community: »» Working one on one with traders, residents, and the broader community. »» Facilitating workshops & action planning. »» Precinct wide mail outs (5,500 homes and businesses). »» Supporting the Melbourne Street Association to facilitate, workshops, training, & action planning. »» Door knocked every business in the pilot and set up the regular Melbourne Street e-news updates. »» StreetMeets – casual events providing an opportunity for the street to come together without an agenda or structure. These also featured guest presents such as Dean Hutton (Futurist) and David Engwicht (Creative Communities). Since the beginning of the pilot, workshop and meeting numbers went from 10 or less to 40-50. »» Callum working from E for Ethel’s on Melbourne Street a day a week. It was an opportunity for casual encounters, made the organisation more accessible, put a human face to Council, and helped integrate Callum into the community and build his networks. Amanda and Dan were always directing people to Callum or talking to their customers about placemaking and the street. There were days when there were queues of people lined up to talk to him!

Motivating Community Change by Ganga Harvey

Callum Prior, Place Facilitator for Melbourne Street

“Having Callum constantly in the street means that there is someone you can quickly tap on the shoulder “and ask a question. You know he will be in the street on a certain day, or you know you can quickly call him or email him and meet up for a quick chat or coffee. Before, if you wanted to speak with a council member you didn’t know what number to call, who to ask for or what person would be able to help with a small or large matter or concern. So you may have not even called at all.”

Ganga is a business consultant specialising in facilitating change and change management. She has lived and worked in Melbourne Street for 15 years and has been delighted to see the growth in community in the street due to the placemaking project. She’s the instigator and chief carer of The Living Room pilot project, part of the placemaking. Her business is Indra Process and Performance Consulting.

Justin Elder, Elder Fine Arts

“Placemaking is the catalyst or vehicle to bring life to an area” Ted Jedynak, Foot & Leg Centre

“Placemaking means generating a space or place that people want to be in, that people want to stay in, and that people will travel to be a part of. That the place comes first, obviously, but the people are paramount to that.” Sarah Watson, Clarity Massage & Wellness

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

7

Melbourne Street: Then Laid out by Colonel Light in 1837 as an urban satellite of Adelaide with 341 acre blocks surrounded by Park Lands, Upper North Adelaide soon became primarily a dormitory suburb for the well-to-do business and professional class. Lower North Adelaide, around Melbourne Street, by contrast was predominantly inhabited by labouring classes, artisans, and tradesmen who lived in cottages on small allotments. »» During the late 19th century the area around the eastern half of Melbourne Street was known as “Irish Town” which reflected the rough and tumble character of the predominantly working class population.

8

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

»» From 1909 to 1957 two-way electric tram lines ran down the centre of Melbourne Street, being the main public transport thoroughfare from the Adelaide CBD to the tram terminus in front of the Buckingham Arms Hotel at Walkerville.

»» Derek Jolly was a local businessman, entrepreneur, and a major force in developing the upmarket commercial character of Melbourne Street in the 1960s-1970s starting with the opening of Decca’s Place restaurant in 1963.

»» Continuing commercial encroachments, increasing subdivisions, and conversion of many houses to professional rooms, restaurants, and other types of entertainment venues, together with rising volumes of through traffic during the postwar years affected the precinct’s traditional residential character.

»» A popular footpath street market was held on Saturday mornings during the 1970s to 1990s. »» From 1965 to 1979 the RAA had its Road Services headquarters, workshops, and roadside assistance fleet located at 41-59 Melbourne Street next door to the Meridian Lodge Motel which was built in 1988.

Melbourne Street Remembered

by Mary Ann Santin

Mary Ann Santin is a long time resident of the Melbourne Street precinct and artist. From 2008 Mary Ann had an artist-run gallery and studio known as ARI Space on Melbourne Street. In August 2015, Mary Ann co-ordinated five artists for a month long SALA event in and around Melbourne Street. Mary Ann also took part in the 7 day makeover where she learned valuable placemaking skills.

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

I arrived in North Adelaide with my family at the age of seven and Melbourne Street was a very exciting place to be. My sister had her 21st at the Magic Flute which was a ground breaking French restaurant. My brother went to Stanley Street Art School and I rode my bike around the area including stopping to watch Pro Hart do an ice sculpture at the petrol station on the intersection of Melbourne and Jerningham Streets. My year 12 formal outfit was a 2 piece by Byblos of Paris from the boutique TGI Friday (now The Cut House).

Fashion boutiques still reigned supreme with Witchery (now Bliss Pizza) ,Country Road and Va Bene shoes in Melbourne Street Gardens, and antique shops dotted the area. My father restored antiques for the antique shop that replaced TGI Friday and McKenna’s (now Australia’s Pizza house) plus of course Jimmy Elder, FollowMe, Trudy Pohl’s Ski Hub, Deccas, and the Leather Warehouse were all ‘under the vines’ which was the slogan for Melbourne Street. Door stops, pate and quiche was the plat du jour served up and down the street such as at Gingers’ (now Rodney Twiss’ BnB ).

Melbourne Street took a downturn and many antique and boutique shops relocated to Unley Road or King William Street. Country Road quickly became a Sportsgirl and then a Sportsgirl outlet.

Two boutiques had a crack at Melbourne St; p.smith (Flight Centre) and Platinum (Fresh Hair) introducing Sass and Bide, Gorman, Zimmerman, and Tigerlily to Adelaide for the first time. All those brands now have their own shops on Rundle Street. I remember sitting in Bocca (Primo) and waiting for the Store, the Lion, and shortly after Cibo to open. The original Store had a fantastic deli section and fresh produce that the cafe itself used. We still miss that!

1970s street market

One shining light was the advent of Zambracca where diners cued at the counter to pay and staff just served and cleared tables. This was a massive shift in dining at the time as silver service fell to the mercy of the Food and Beverage tax. BMG upstairs hosted my son’s christening, held earlier at St Cyprian’s. Both my children were christened at St Cyprian’s. We paid for a lovely Jewish Canadian man to paint the fence as a gift to the church and it hasn’t been painted since!

Derek Jolly’s Futuro house at 58 Provost Street

I joined 3 other artists to form ARI Space and studios, which ran for 3 years on 'peppercorn rent' until the developer sold the building and it was developed into flats. It was one of the first Art Run Initatives in Adelaide that received funding to host emerging art shows and didn't charge any commission. We enjoyed studios out the back.

Pro Hart Ice Sculpture

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

9

Reflections on Melbourne Street Today Melbourne Street is no longer the iconic retail and food destination it once was. Overall there’s a lack of engagement by businesses in their shopfronts and the public space. This gives the impression that the street is tired and unloved. It feels disconnected not only from the wider city, but also within itself. There’s very little apparent reason to explore the street or linger. The basic physical environment is pleasant but there’s no sense of the street’s unique characteristics, characters, or history. The experience offered is incomplete. Issues in the street include: »» Poor clustering businesses

of

complementary

»» A low number of retail traders »» Mismatched opening hours »» High volume of vehicle through traffic »» Lack of opportunities for social connection and exchange for traders, residents, and visitors has eroded its community and village feel. For instance, many of the traders did not know each other. »» Lack of pedestrians on the street. An absence of community leadership has left the street without a clear vision, identity, or curation and little capacity to respond to

10

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

change. The Melbourne Street Association, which had struggled for several years to gain traction in the community, finally collapsed mid-2014. “Having placemaking mixed up with the committee meetings was probably a mistake because I didn’t know the difference to begin with. And those meetings just went on and on and nothing ever happened.” Melbourne Street has for the most part failed to adapt to broader social and economic changes across the city and broader Adelaide. O’Connell Street has entrenched its main-street role and appeal for North Adelaide and beyond, which is likely to be further enhanced by the eventual Le Cornu development and other large sites. Despite the challenges there remains an incredibly strong sense of pride and identity in Melbourne Street. The local community truly love their street. Since the beginning of the place pilot we have seen it’s community grow and become more connected through the initiatives of the pilot program. Melbourne Street’s local community is predominantly young families and students (69%). High quality, unique, and character businesses on the street attract a wide variety of people. A younger generation of business owners are active on the street, keen to connect to the local community, and create a destination.

“Melbourne Street has gone through phases of popularity or downturns – it hasn’t yet claimed its personality or presence of being known for something.” Ted Jedynak

“Evidence of Melbourne Street’s status as a high-end destination still exists, but almost solely in the memories of the area’s older residents.” CityMag Issue Ten, Spring 2015

“It’s about creating those connections with other businesses and through that, it is a natural networking arrangement… you’re creating these really authentic connections with people in a similar situation, so it fosters that sense of growth.” Sarah Watson

Examples of how Melbourne Street has disengaged in the public space: ground floor shopfronts with no interaction with the street, shop windows as billboards, poorly maintained benches and planters, and faded signage.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

11

The Movement

Change in number of hospitality and retail businesses 2008-2014

Between 2008 and 2014 Melbourne Street lost a third of its retail businesses, including half of its clothing retail and fashion businesses (Adelaide City Council Land Use Survey data).

Number of hospitality and retail businesses

25

At least a further ten retail and hospitality businesses have left the street since the most recent Land Use Survey in 2014. This doesn’t take into account any changes in ownership or similar businesses on the same site (the bakery becoming Butterfingers or Manna Café becoming Primo [now vacant], for instance).

20

15

10

5

0 2008

2011

Land Use Survey Year

Data: Land Use Survey 2008-2014

12

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

2014

Hospitality Retail

Hospitality or retail businesses that have left the street since 2014: »» Wild Thyme »» The Whisper Shop »» Primo »» Hebe Fashion »» Magic Mike »» A Cup Full of Flowers »» Diamante »» basiConcepts »» Tara »» Bad Boy Burger Bar »» Brocante City Studio

Work on street

Dining/social

Shopping

Wou the

Shop with family

The movement: what’s been happening on the street?

6 vacancies became offices

1 vacancy became hospitality

5 vacant for over 2 years

3 service businesses became vacant

2 retail businesses became vacant

ve

Data: Adelaide City Council survey 2014

The myths: what do we believe about the street?

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Hospitality

2006

13

200

What’s actually happening on Melbourne Street? The Mixmix: The

what makes up the street?

Businesses

Retail

Hospitality

Other services

Vacancy rate Data: Adelaide City Council survey 2014

The motivation: why do people visit the street? Described themselves as a city shopper Shop alone

Shop with friends

Work on street

14

Dining/social

Shopping

Shop with family

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot The movement: what’s been happening on the street?

Wouldn’t recommend the street to others

Data from 2012-2014

Businesses open on weekdays vs weekends (2014)

Land Use Mix: Hospitality and Retail (2014)

100%

Tuesday Saturday

Number of businesses

80%

60%

Hospitality businesses (restaurants, cafes, bars, etc.)

40%

20%

0% 6am

9am

12pm

3pm

The bulk of activity on Melbourne Street is 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday. The offering from the street is significantly reduced on weekends and in the evenings. There’s also a poor transition between daytime and evening activity. One exception for the street is the core area focused on the Old Lion Hotel and the Store

6pm

9pm

12am

3am

at the intersection of Jerningham Street and Melbourne Street. When we measured pedestrian behaviours the number of people involved in ‘staying’ activities was quite low. It peaked at 35 people 8:00pm to 9:00pm on Saturdays. Both measurements reflect a poor experience in the public space on Melbourne Street.

Retail businesses

Here you can see how disconnected the street is, particularly when looking at retail businesses. Clustering is generally poor and complementary businesses are scattered. This translates to large gaps in people-centred activity and makes it significantly more difficult to retain or attract visitors to the area. Data: Land Use Survey 2014

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

15

The Motivation Why are you visiting Melbourne Street? 24%

Work here Professional services

15%

Shopping, browsing

15%

Dining, eating out

15% 7%

Other Passing through

6%

Business meeting, work

5%

Meeting friends

5%

Having coffee Buying food/drink

16

What else will you do in Melbourne Street today?

4% 3%

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Have coffee

31%

Nothing else

22%

Shop, browse

21%

Eat out

21% 20%

Buy food/drink Sit on a public bench

7%

Walk dog

6%

Other

6%

Work here

4%

Meeting friends

3%

Park my car here

3%

What is your favourite thing about Melbourne Street? Food, restaurants

35%

Particular store

20%

Coffee place, coffee

10%

Other

8%

Easy to get to, accessible

8%

Atmosphere, vibrancy Trees, greenery

Who have you visited with today?

6% 4%

Bar, night venue

3%

Nothing, no favourite thing

3%

65% of people identified a specific hospitality or retail business on the street as their favourite thing on Melbourne Street. Only 6% identified the atmosphere or vibrancy. A few individual businesses may benefit from visitors but there doesn’t appear to be much value to the street as a whole. A way forward is to move away from those individual transactions to a broader positive experience on the street.

Just me

39%

Friend(s)

24%

Family

15%

Coworkers, business partners Other

Partner, spouse

11% 5% 4%

20%

wouldn’t recommend the street to others

One of the great opportunities for Melbourne Street is that most people come to the street are there by themselves. One version of Melbourne Street could be as a family friendly street. Make it easy and interesting for families to be in the area and it could significantly increase the number of people visiting the area.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

17

Solvitur ambulando. It is solved by walking.

What do you think could be improved in Melbourne Street? Greater variety of shops, more unique

27%

More parking

25%

Other

25%

Better atmosphere, more vibrancy

23%

More shops

19%

Art, sculptures

13% 12%

More trees, greenery Renovate, update buildings Reduce/calm/block traffic

9% 9%

Public toilets

8%

Bike lanes

8%

Nothing, don’t know

8%

More restaurants, places to eat

8%

Shops open longer

6%

More open space

6%

Improve footpaths

6%

More signage

5% Data: February 2014 Place User Survey

18

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Melbourne Street doesn’t have a parking problem.

»» 23% of users overstay car parking time controls

It’s not unusual for streets experiencing stress to think of parking as being the solution. This is often accompanied by traders focusing solely on their business rather than the street’s overall offering to the community.

»» 37% of car parking users are workers from the precinct

Melbourne Street in its heyday did not have more parking.

This turns the discussion from ‘we need more parking’ to ‘how can we better use the resources we have and what other opportunities are there’?

Cars and car parking prohibit social interactions, take up useful public space, increase the level of visual pollution from signage, and turns the experience on Melbourne Street into a series of transactions instead of an experience. The key issue identified from the Melbourne Street Parking study was insufficient long term car parking provision for workers of the precinct. As the street has shifted away from hospitality and retail the demand for longer term parking has increased.

»» 64% of spaces are 1-3 hours In general, few visitors to the area reported difficulty parking

For instance, the free City Connector bus on Jerningham Street has seen incredible growth in use. From 2013 and 199 passengers weekly to 2015 and 1,240 passengers weekly. A six-fold increase in just two years! How can Melbourne Street take advantage of such potential visitation?

»» 33% of car parking spaces in the precinct had or have an occupancy rate of just 40%

“No travel writer I have ever known has written about the importance of parking.” - J.G. Ballard

What the experts were telling us In 2013, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) gave retail advice to the Council regarding the three mainstreets – Hutt Street, O’Connell Street and Melbourne Street. Included in that advice were the following comments regarding Melbourne Street East (the place pilot area): »» Melbourne Street is highly dependent on attracting trade from beyond its local catchment. »» The area has a small local catchment, with Lower North Adelaide surrounded by Park Lands and the proximity of O’Connell Street providing an extensive range of local services. »» The daily needs of local residents are adequately catered for, although a more extensive grocery offer such as a small IGA, may be appropriate.

»» The area needs to develop a market niche of specialty shopping to attract people from a far wider catchment. »» Melbourne Street is a busy road with high traffic volumes at peak periods that are viewed by retailers as a negative aspect of the street. »» There is only modest demand for increased retail floor space in the future given the low population growth expected in its primary catchment. »» The demand for commercial offices and consulting rooms in Melbourne Street (West) may cause such uses to consider Melbourne Street (East) as an alternative location. Ground floor uses east of Jerningham Street should remain for active retail uses and ‘shop front’ services.

Since that time It is unclear whether the eventual relocation of the Womens and Childrens Hospital (announced after the above advice) will have on Melbourne Street. Its replacement uses could potentially prove a new source of attraction to the street. The trend of small bar venues establishing in the City has not, during the place pilot, made a presence in the street. Planning restrictions in the street limit patron numbers for licensed premises to 120 people per establishment, which is the maximum number allowed for small bars. A limited number of small bars could help to activate Melbourne Street into the evening hours, add to the restaurant/café offer, and introduce a new clientele to the street.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

19

The Wishing Tree

PROJECTS: 2014

This project came out of Council’s Community Arts in Place program. The artists wanted to gather ideas from the community for projects that would help rejuvenate Melbourne Street. Every wish formed part of a recycled art and light installation in one of the local trees. They collected aspirations for Melbourne Street from over 200 people in the local community.

Melbourne Street Place Pilot

9 7

3

6

4

10

2

1

Dunn Street Car Park

6.

The Cut House Garden

2.

The Wishing Tree

7.

Hotel Minima Facade

3.

Cibo Lights

8.

Halloween on Melbourne Street

4.

Planter Mosaic

9.

Working at E for Ethel

5.

Parade to Plate

10. North Adelaide CWA Markets

Melbourne Street Association

University of South Australia

We began the year working with the Melbourne Street Association to start putting together a vision for the area. They’d brought together a group of local businesses, residents, students, visitors, and academics all keen to see a more vibrant and active Melbourne Street.

In second semester we had two streams of urban design students whose coursework had been attached to the Melbourne Street place pilot.

The Association however disbanded during 2014 and the place pilot needed to adopt a different approach to working with the community of the street. 20

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

They looked at visioning for the area, as well as opportunities for community gardens, Dunn Street car park, nature play, and assessing co-design projects.

Recognising many of the businesses are time poor and wanting to help kickstart some placemaking projects, we called in a little help. We organised some Council staff to volunteer their time to help get the street’s placemaking ideas up and running. Over an afternoon we set up the Cibo lights, Mackinnon Parade lemon trees and vege patch, The Cut House Garden, repainted and retrained the arbor next to Raffi’s, and did a whole bunch of general maintenance.

5

1.

Melbourne Street Blitz

Dunn Street Car Park We were tasked by Council to investigate design options for the Dunn Street car park. Rather than coming to the community with pre-generated concepts, we took a step back and asked the local residents and business owners to help develop a possible design framework for the site.

Cibo Lights A really simple, but very effective idea! This was one of the blitz projects we helped with. Cibo bought the lights, we brought the ladders and helped create an outdoor canopy of lights. Big change doesn’t need big dollars when we work together. They’ve gone on to use them for different street events and theme the colours for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc.

The Cut House Garden

North Adelaide CWA Markets

Justine from The Cut House had an idea to create a pocket garden as part of the street blitz. We helped out with the planters and soil, Justine took care of the picket fence and plants. She’s also added some astro turf, decorative planters, furniture, and a piano! It looks amazing when it’s out, and it’s been used as an event space for the street.

The North Adelaide Country Women’s Association is an incredibly positive and dynamic group active in the area. Late in 2014 they tested a market stall with the help of Elder Fine Art. A couple of trestle tables, some bunting, and a whole lot of food and crafts ‘made with love’ really started to change the dynamic of the street.

Parade to Plate A simple idea with a big result. Recently moved to Mackinnon Parade (and a Melbourne Street business owner) Ted wanted to do something for his neighbourhood to bring people together, provide more greenery, and recognise the historical and cultural significance of Mackinnon Parade. The street bought the plants, and we brought the dirt and shovels. They also formed the ‘Lemonaiders’ and each of the trees have been adopted out.

Hotel Minima Façade Planter Mosaic Local resident and North Adelaide CWA president Barb revamped the planter box in front of 116 Melbourne Street, brightening up the streetscape immediately and creating a point of interest for kids and families.

Already a hothouse of innovation with their rooms curated by local artists, The Minima has now brought that same aesthetic to the street with a massive (and excellent!) mural on their facade.

Rediscover Lower North Adelaide One of the community leadership projects (and the group Callum mentored). A family event encouraging people to get out, explore Lower North Adelaide, and learn about some of the stories and historical aspects of the area.

Halloween on Melbourne Street A great example of how easy placemaking can be, working together within the resources and people you have available. The Adelaide Chocolate School on Melbourne Street have wanted to do a Halloween event for a couple of years but hadn’t had the time or resources to run something themselves. They put a call out on the place pilot website and were able to connect in to other businesses keen to get involved. They had such a great response they went on to run an Easter event. Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

21

PROJECTS: 2015

Street Meet

Melbourne Street Place Pilot

Adelaide Art Walk

1 7 2

3

4

5

6

8

1

1.

Fringe on Melbourne Street

5.

The Planters

2.

Adelaide Art Walk

6.

The Flags

3.

Street Eats & Last Friday

7.

CWA Mother’s Day Market

4.

SALA on Melbourne Street

8.

SALA on Melbourne Street

Fringe on Melbourne Street (The Store, E for Ethel) One of the bigger changes for the street was the addition of E for Ethel and The Store as Fringe venues. A great opportunity for businesses to work together and promote the area. 2014: 0 Fringe shows 2015: 112 Fringe shows.

22

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Another Fringe activity for Melbourne Street. With eleven venues up and down the street it not only invited new visitors to come into the area but also opened up a number of unused spaces and encouraged exploration of the street. Many traders working together for a common cause, including turning the laundromat into a performance space!

Fun Stuff on Melbourne Street Initially set up by four or five traders who were working together on an Easter event. They enjoyed the experience so much they wanted to find a way to keep on doing… fun stuff on Melbourne Street. It’s now grown to almost 80 members, is an amazing resource for the community to keep in touch with each other, and has become something of an informal governance group. You don’t need a traditional structure to make things happen.

Street Eats & Last Friday South Australian artist Emma Hack teamed up with the North Adelaide Precinct Association to look at how the businesses in North Adelaide could take advantage of game days at the stadium. Last Friday occured once a month and proved very successful an arts & events focus. Street Eat was two hours before every game and aimed to showcase local food businesses.

A series of monthly events to help bring the street together. A mix of social events, workshops, and skill development, the placemaking event with guest presenter David Engwicht had 50 traders, residents, and visitors attending. It was so popular we were able to bring David back to help us out with the 7 Day Makeover.

The Planters Justin from Elder Fine Art put together a plan for the planters along the street. He worked with other traders to think about how we could consolidate, renovate, and replant the planters. We put together a team of volunteers from the street, placemaking team, and council depot and spent a lazy Sunday helping retile them. The change is incredible, the street want love them and want more, and we all got some new skills out of it. What was a blight on the street has become a loved asset.

The Banners A number of traders are currently putting together a plan to take ownership of the cross street banner point on Melbourne Street. They’d like to use it as an opportunity to celebrate their street, promote local events, and help create an entry statement. They’ve also be looking at whether we can install additional anchor points along the street.

Country Women’s Association Mother’s Day Market A follow on from last year’s craft stalls, they again worked with Elder Fine Art to test a market space on the street, this time with Colleen the Caravan and setting up a small, informal café in an unused alley.

SALA on Melbourne Street

The Flags With some of the flags proudly announcing Christmas 2010 and others virtually in tatters they were doing very little for the area. We’d found some money to reprint them, but instead of just rolling out the same design we put the offer out to the street.

Mary Ann, a local resident and artist who attended the workshop with David Engwicht took the idea of ‘rooming’ the street to heart. She got together with some other artists and worked on a series of creative interventions along Melbourne Street for SALA 2015. Keep an eye out for the pebbles and Melbourne Street Owls! We started out with ten owls, but they proved very popular with local businesses and now there’s 30. They’re already thinking about what they could do for 2016.

They set up a small project group and used the Facebook group “Fun Stuff on Melbourne Street” to talk through their ideas and create a series of new designs. Now we have some bright, smart-looking flags that better reflect Melbourne Street today. Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

23

PROJECTS: 7 Day Makeover Over the course of the pilot Melbourne Street did not have any external projects with significant public or private investment. Without those external drivers it’s really easy to feel helpless and unable to effect change. The 7 Day Makeover was a great example of how much change you can bring about using only the resources you have.

Makeover projects:

Generally speaking the process achieved exactly what we set out to achieve:

»» The Fairy Garden: With stepping stones through a garden, secret doors and windows on trees, gnomes, hand-made mushrooms, a letter box and chalkboard. This area was an instant hit with the children (and playful adults).

»» 25 people participated in the 2 day Ideas Workshop.

»» The tight time-frame of seven days meant people were in action mode and didn’t get bogged down in endless talk and planning.

»» Himalayan Kitchen face lift: Prayer flags above the footpath, new lights installed on the outside that help light the footpath at night, decorative painting of the shopfront, and elephant footprints on the footpath.

»» Approximately 50 people participated in the Makeover.

»» The short time-frame did not give the naysayers time to organise.

»» Animal and human footprints stencilled onto the footpath at various locations.

Makeover Projects »» The intention was to makeover one small area, then address other areas in future makeovers. However, ten projects were completed.

»» The final design emerged from the process and was better than anyone could have planned.

»» Certified Eccentrics Discount Card: Businesses will be encouraged to give their customers a Certification Test questionnaire to see if they qualify as an eccentric. Those who pass are give a discount card to be used at participating businesses.

Outcomes: Participation »» About 40 people attended the Info Night.

»» The quality of work was generally very high. There were a couple of elements that needed post-makeover fixing, but this is normal, even for professional makeovers.

»» Participants stayed agile. »» Having Project Teams manage their own project worked extremely well.

»» The Lounge Room: A relaxing space, complete with bathtub of plants, were people can read, chat or share a cup of tea. »» The Games Room: A space where you can indulge in a game of draughts, or make felt shapes. »» The Plant Exchange / Utilitree: Take a plant or leave a plant. »» The Pencil Sculpture. »» Kites in the Trees art installation. »» The Movable, Interactive Wall: Designed to go in front of hoardings, blank walls or in front of construction sites, this modular wall encourages people to interact.

24

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Himalayan Kitchen face lift

Bathtub planter at the Lounge Room

Footprints

Fairy Garden

The Movable, Interactive Wall

The Pencil Sculpture

The Plant Exchange/Utilitree

Launch Party

The Lounge Room

Challenges & Opportunities Melbourne Street is changing. The loss of retail combined with an increase in professional or personal services, has had a profound effect on the street. As more hospitality and retail businesses are lost, the street becomes less attractive to new hospitality and retail businesses.

Opportunity: Shopfront Improvement Program Adelaide City Council has developed programs for small business such as the Shopfront Improvement Program which has benefitted several Melbourne Street businesses in 2015-16. The goal of the program is to improve the visual presentation on the street by encouraging small physical and visual improvements. Fresh paint, new signs and doors, and a small vertical garden have already had a great effect. All serve to lift the presentation of the street overall and have encouraged other traders to think about what they could do for their own business.

Before

The street business community and Council are largely responsible for the ‘look and feel’ and function of the street. There are many questions that remain unanswered through the place pilot: How do we reflect what we want the street to be in our own businesses? How do we interact and relate to other businesses on the street? How do we create a social environment where creative and unique businesses are welcome? How do we best respond to what the community wants? Perhaps Melbourne Street functions quite happily as a professional, wellbeing, and personal services street? Perhaps its hospitality and retail offer is about right? On the other hand, existing hospitality businesses could better draw from these visitors if that offer and marketing is well promoted.

UR Caffe After

26

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Opportunity: Public realm improvements The road is currently programmed for reseal in upcoming years which is one element in the many layers of street function. The physical elements of the road, footpath, kerb, trees and benches are assets to the street but the businesses and residents are the pulse and voice of the street. The commercial heart of Melbourne Street begins at the intersection at Jerningham Street and continues eastwards to Mann Terrace. The street is punctuated by the variety of businesses, shopfronts and uses which is also its biggest challenge, being spread over a long distance. The mix is neither homogenous or contiguous - yet clusters exist along the street which people could feel compelled to explore, visit and return.

Map from City Design

The challenge is to build this street experience to strengthen memory and attachment. It may be that the future of Melbourne Street is to reinforce such clustering of services, particularly of hospitality and retail so as to strengthen a number of foci along the street rather than viewing the street as a whole entity. An initial analysis of the public realm on the following two pages highlights these clusters and their existing features as well as opportunities and challenges.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

27

Public Realm Analysis: Jerningham Street - Dunn Street 0m

10

20

40

Cohda Wireless

Hypoxi

Da Gianni ’s

Tea Time

West Pallant Street

Mediterranean Mezza Cafe

106 Elder Fine Art

Heavenly Delights

Lotus Chinese Resteraunt

Public C / P

Public C / P

»» Dining and coffee related businesses within small walking catchment »» Build pedestrian experience between venues to promote street activity / browsing / loop »» Raise consistency between shop front appearance / signage / outdoor dining »» Complementary trading hour alignment »» Attract children / families to outdoor dining spaces »» Canopy trees at build out (UR caffé) offers shade and lush feel

»» Cellars and Raffi offer cascading grape vines and shady footpath »» Laneway offers potential for pop-up / activation / events / buskers / wine tasting »» Northern side of crossing opportunity for greening / furniture / activity / street promotions »» Signage opportunities to capture pedestrians and passing traffic »» New cascading vegetation to high level planter boxes on balconies

Dunn Street

The Vines Apartments

Australian Immigration Consultants

Fine Wine Cellars

Raffi Gallery

Cafe 99

109 Food Park

Dunn Street Car Park

»» Arrival point to Melbourne Street central with high on-street activity with outdoor dining, pedestrians and hospitality »» Establish business / marketing / brand synergies between hospitality uses »» New tenant at former Café Primo, or a series of smaller tenancies »» Bus stop at intersection as key gateway / information hub »» Furniture for outdoor dining and edges to public space to build soul and new identity

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Veneziano

UR Caffe

Old House Chinese Resteraunt

Shop Five

123 Karibu

The Banana Room

Impulse Boutique

The Whisper “NewShop Bar”

Sato

Monsoon Indian

Bower Street

Beauty Vibe

Diamante Fashion

Flights Centre

Public car park

28

Tita Kay

120 Melbourne St Auction Centre

120 Melbourne Street Gardens

Tiger Lilly Cafe

Montezuma ’s

The Cut House

Intimode

Fresh Hair & Body

Minima Hotel

Dr Francis Nathan

EVEA Luxe Space

The Store Resteraunt

Jerningham Street

The Old Lion Hotel

“New Nail Parlour”

Cibo

Chemplus

E for Ethel

Outdoor Dining Awnings

Public Realm Analysis: Dunn Street - Mann Terrace 0m

10

20

40

»» Selected vibrant frontages and personality »» Increase graphic nature of shopfronts and interest »» Outdoor dining and greening opportunities to build street presence »» Hot exposed ‘gap’ in tree planting and street vegetation at bus stop »» North south pedestrian movement / better connection

»» Zapata / Chocolate School / Takumi Yakitori build links with Adelaide Meridien / Grand apartments guests »» Facilitate pedestrian flow and experience from hotel to businesses and street »» Adelaide Meridan outdoor dining / signage / edges to build greening and soul »» Many ground floor windows / tenancies are blocked out offering little to street vibrancy

Arthur Street

13 Keogh Consutants

17 Choice Strata Management

Adelaide Meridian Hotel & Apartments

Takumi Yakitori

Build It Construction

KABA

The Grand Apartments

Dentist

LORD Melbourne Hotel

Club Rhythm

Himalayan Kitchen

Clip Joint

Dunn Street

Lotus Chinese Resteraunt

The Vines Apartments

Mann Terrace

Foot & Leg Centre

East Pallant Street

22 - 28 Stirling House

32 - 38 Melbourne Street Mews

Zapata ’s Mexican

Adelaide Chocolate School

50 Physio One

54 Arlene Hume Lan Andersan

62 Podiatry

64 Network

Lewis & Turner Travel Associates

Anglican Church of Australia

Dress Circle

Bliss Pizzeria

Elephant Walk Cafe

Comfort & Fit

Hypoxi

Cohda Wireless

Melbourne St Laundromat

Outdoor Dining Awnings

»» Eastern Gateway to Melbourne Street »» Heritage properties with variety of fences and cottage facades »» Garden theme emerging in ‘foot’ related businesses! »» New paint work to all property frontage and fences would bring freshness »» Refresh to all front gardens in residential properties great first impression / parting message for street

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

29

Where to from here? A strategic vision is required for the street, one that can be used to collectively promote and market the area. The vision shouldn’t necessarily be about restoring the street’s past role as a boutique retail/hospitality hub but one that builds on its village feel, family friendly, green (physically and environmentally) credentials and nodes of activity. The street needs to find its niche. In support of the street, the following list of Callum’s parting ideas and suggestions could help to build a sense of place consistent with the above approach. Activities by Council: Keep Melbourne Street as a particular focus of the mainstreet program of Council. Support the community to continue to trial and test their ideas, particularly those listed below that have been commenced or have been identified: »» Help the street to run a second 7 Day Makeover in 2016. »» Work with the retailers to manage and roll out the Certified Melbourne Street Eccentrics program. This currently sits with Amanda & Dan at E for Ethel. »» Help the traders put together a public art plan for the street. »» The Shopfront Improvement Program was fantastic for Melbourne Street. Make this available again. It created a great deal of interest on the street. A number of businesses made successful applications, and there are more businesses who either weren’t involved or weren’t successful who have gone on to make their own improvements. A small investment has brought about a big change. »» Consolidate parking signs & remove unnecessary visual clutter. For example there are flagpoles rendered useless due to how close they are to trees, benches that do not perform a social function (or actively prevent social activity), and mystery poles that go nowhere and hold nothing. »» Help the street set up an Engagement HQ2 portal. They currently use the Fun Stuff on Melbourne Street Facebook group to organize themselves, but they’ll soon outgrow that. Engagement HQ2 has a huge range of useful tools at no additional cost to council. 30

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Aspirations Top 10 Community Aspirations

Top 10 Trader Aspirations

Markets: Sunday morning markets, street markets, kids market, a market street.

Identity: What is Melbourne Street? Who are we? How can we show our pride in our history?

Public art: Art linked to the history of the area, local street art, Melbourne Street to be known as an art precinct, more creativity on the street.

Street art: Beautifying Melbourne Street, temporary street art, creative paintings on side streets, fake doors & books.

Events: More street events!

The Yellow Brick Road: How do we connect to other areas of the city? The stadium? Enliven footpaths , create a trail.

Activities: Fun venues for Fringe, more vibrancy, more life on the street, a theme for Melbourne Street

Cycling and alternative transport: Funky bicycle stands, cycle friendly street, bike events.

Artists

Markets: Local produce swap, potted plants for the nearby apartments, fresh produce, monthly markets, fundraising and community markets.

Variety of stores: More fashion boutiques & clothing stores, galleries, more shops open on Sundays, op shops and factory seconds.

Kids activities: Activities and events for kids. Involving kids groups in the street.

Parking & traffic: More free parking, better car parking, paved roads and restricted speeds, less traffic on Melbourne Street.

Live music venues: Buskers, Fringe.

Evening economy (food & wine): Small bars, more things to do in the evenings, create a nice atmosphere in the evenings.

Family friendly: A family friendly activity centre, sustainable playground, outdoor cinema, kids spaces in store setbacks.

Live music: Buskers, music events on the street.

Pop up food stalls by local eateries: Moveable feast, alleyway dinners with long tables, food trucks, Fork on the Road, progressive dinners.

Play spaces and activities for children

Greening & productive gardens: Community garden pot by pot, street plants & colour, greening the Cibo/Lion intersection, vertical gardens, secret produce trail. Data: 2014 Place Pilot Engagement

Activities by Melbourne Street community: Keep talking to each other. For Melbourne Street, any potential physical changes are going to pale in comparison to the benefit of greater interaction and support between businesses. Whenever they have worked together on something, great success has been achieved. Do it again. Run another 7 Day Makeover. You don’t need to do it in exactly the same way, it doesn’t even need to be over seven days. Do think about staying agile, the resource bank, and how you can work together. Apply for a City Makers Grant. Celebrate what you have. Use the media and good news stories to promote the street. Share these with council and elected members. E for Ethel have ‘pay it forward’ meals and coffee, Butterfingers get involved with Oz Harvest, Montezuma’s have an amazing recycling program, are Green Table Certified, have an excellent Zero Waste rating, and make their tortillas and corn chips on-site. Grow those and get more businesses involved. If all the food business on the street were involved in Oz Harvest what a fantastic contribution that would be. Use these to build a reputation as a green street and a street that cares about its community. Find more stories! Program the street. You’ve made some physical changes, now think about how you can use them socially. Building on the idea of a family friendly street could you make a kid friendly map showing the fairy garden, pebbles, owls, utili-tree, loungeroom, Mackinnon Parade vege garden, the laundromat library, etc.? Give people a reason to be in the area longer and explore. Make it easy for families to be in the area. We know trail events have worked really well for you. We know families will come to the street. Use thematic elements to connect the street. During the makeover an informal black, white, and red theme kept coming out. Use that! It could be as simple as a small black/ white/red pot either side of your doorway with black/white/red flowers. Look for ways to reflect back on the history of the area. Create another layer by making these productive spots.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

31

Secret Produce trail. Green and productive spaces have been a consistent theme for the street. Did you know Travel Associates have mint bushes and a quince tree, there’s a passionfruit tree upstairs at E for Ethel, The Cut House have a lemon & lime tree, the Provost Street park has a massive grapefruit tree, or the Dunn Street Carpark has a cheeky white nectarine tree? Add that to the Mackinnon Parade lemon trees and vege patch or the Utili-Tree near the Foot & Leg Centre and you’ve got the start of something pretty interesting. Theme each spot. Grow pizza herbs in one location, salad greens in another, and pop a sign in each pointing to each other. Set up enough for a Melbourne Street fruit salad. Set up a walking group open to anyone. Grab a bottle of wine from the cellars (or do it at the same time as their tastings), walk and chat, check out what needs maintenance, pull some weeds, drop in to businesses that are new or aren’t yet involved, look for opportunities, talk about what’s next, act! Be a host. Wave to people on the street. If you’re quiet bring a chair out to the street and talk to your neighbours or passers-by. Make a point of welcoming new businesses. Sponsor buskers to come to the street. You’ve already tested this at the Adelaide Art Walk, Street Eat, and Last Friday events and it works at a relatively small cost. Buskers in the Balcony. The Adelaide Art Walk showed us a lot of underutilized or hidden spaces along the street. Create a trail of buskers playing on the different first floor balconies along the street. If you want to make it a little classier, do Baroque in the Balcony and link it into the wine tastings and bring those out into Raffi’s alley.

32

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

Think about your spaces differently and look for opportunities. For example, Justine’s garden at The Cut House looks amazing when it’s out. Tony next door at Montezuma’s has just updated his outdoor area and removed a lot of the barriers and vinyl walls. Is there an opportunity for Tony to use Justine’s space in the evenings as a family area? Instead of two separate spaces active at different times you would have one large space active much longer. Use social media better. Across just a few key businesses there are more than 65,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook alone. That’s huge. Work together and use that effectively. Use it to share each other’s success and build a community. Don’t forget to use #MelbourneStreetADL. Fun Stuff on Melbourne Street. You’ve done such a good job with this group. Without any kind of promotion you’ve grown from 5 to 80 members. Keep using it to share stories, help each other out, and get to action. Don’t forget you’ve already got quite a bit of work stored in the documents section. Working across the community. Let’s think about Melbourne Street as a green, productive, family friendly street. Montezuma’s do great work recycling waste and organics. The Lucy Morice Kindergarten around the corner on Sussex Street have 150 families through each week that could become more connected to Melbourne Street.

Melbourne Street Placemaking Pilot

33

Adelaide City Council February 2016