Recently we discussed watering the grass in Kingston’s Green Square.
Yesterday a medical appointment took us to Canberra and I took the opportunity to fill in some time wandering around Kingston shops in general and the Green Square in particular.
The purpose of this post is to let those who were in favour of watering said grass know that it would be an absolute waste of ,water, time and money.
Kingston shops are suffering badly from urban decay. They are dying, in other words. and so is what little grass is left. The shopping precinct is dirt, drab and uncared for with many vacant shops and one even hoarded up with timber and chain and padlock. The areas that used to be grassed have no chance have become a rubbish dump for cigarette butts, bottle tops, paper and other bits of rubbish indicating that those who use that area have little or no regard for the environment there. The big tree in the so-called lawn area would also soak up any water intended for the lawn which doesn’t really exist anyway. It’s very sad to see actually as The Green Square used to be an attractive, pleasant place to have a coffee and lunch.
A trip across to Manuka revealed a different situation and a different atmosphere altogether. Reasonably clean and tidy with quite a few people having a mid afternoon snack and a chat. Plenty of active shops without any dead ones. Maybe Kingston comes to life later in the day/night as there certainly were plenty of liquor outlets there. I couldn’t really understand why they were in this condition in view of the large number of flats and units in Kingston. Maybe those people work in the town centres and do their shopping where they work.
I do believe that something needs to be done with the Green Square to brighten it up and make it look a bit tidier. Crushed brick would improve the look of it in place of the bare dirt and ciggy butts.
The term”Urban Decay” was not mine but came from a shop owner with whom I had quite an interesting chat about the state of things. She was equally saddened about the plight of the shopping centre.