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On Thursday morning between 10am and 12 noon PTV, Yarra Trams and Vic Roads held another public viewing and question and answer session at which around 100 or so people ventured down to have a look and engage in some very vigorous discussion.
Serge Thomann attended this information session but sadly the options that council had put forth as alternatives were not on the table for discussion so it was again a bit of a mismanaged furphy.
One has to question the timing of putting all this on the table during an election year and now especially with the elections so close it seems a deliberate attempt to assure that this story will get as little air as possible.
95% of people I spoke to were convinced these proposed changes would ruin Acland Street and all recognised once done there will be no turning back.
I was speaking to Glenn Ross who has lived in the area since the early 90's and he recalled a series of weekend experiments that turned Acland Street into a mall. A great deal was done by Council to prepare including the bollards now in the streetscape, the leveling of the road and footpath profile and building of carparks in the back streets.
The experiment was closed after 3 weekends and declared a disaster by all the traders, it turned Acland Street into a dead zone with traders standing on the footpaths shrugging their shoulders at each other.
A lot more thought has to go into this plan to again remodel Acland Street, more time is required before these modifications are just forced upon us.