This article about a "crackdown" on retailers in Civic (Canberra's "city" heart) who dare to display their wares on footpaths without a permit - even though there is no such permit they could apply for - is the sort of thing that really irritates me.
Canberra is famously neat. Not quite Swiss, but rivalling Singapore. There is no outdoor advertising permitted, and land uses are strictly zoned and segregated. There is very little mixed use in Canberra.
Decades ago, the now deceased but still famous Gus Petersilka battled the bureaucrats by putting tables from his cafe on the footpath, single-handedly bringing al fresco dining to Canberra. His long-fought and hard-won battle is now the stuff of Canberra legend, celebrated even in official government plagues around the place. He brought cosmopolitanism to the capital, and not before time. The area around his cafe, which still operates under his name, is now a lively strip filled with popular cafes and year-round outdoor diners and coffee drinkers.
So why oh why are today's bureaucrats hassling the independent music retailers and bookshops that are displaying their goods on the footpath, not very far from Gus's cafe? They add much needed life and colour to Civic, an area now dominated by a grotesquely over sized indoor shopping mall. These activities ought to be encouraged, not persecuted.
If it weren't all so counter-productive it would be pathetic; as it is, I just find it all very sad. The ACT government does little to help Canberra shrug of its "boring and lifeless" labels with this sort of overly vigilant bureaucratic behaviour.
