Sunday, March 6, 2016

The Civic Theatre Debacle


The Civic Theatre Debacle

 
Too expensive

In his haste to push through the theatre before the next Council election Mayor Manning has left rate payers exposed to the full cost of the Civic theatre rebuild.

Because he did not lodge applications to State and Federal governments, ratepayers can expect to pay in the order of $76.5 million dollars. These costs will rise as this doesn’t include acquiring the Ergon land for car parking or costing works on the area between Munro Martin Park and the theatre site.

Wrong place

The key entertainment hub of Cairns is predominantly along the water’s edge with shopping and dining precincts (Pier, Esplanade) and Convention centre. Locating the theatre on the edge of the CBD away from this hub deters pedestrian traffic. It dilutes the vibe of the precinct and local businesses will miss out on passing pedestrian trade. Locating the theatre close to the waterfront would attract more people into a compact walkable hub. This has benefits beyond purely commercial ones by promoting people of all ages to walk or be wheeled and to socialise in a communal area. It also reduces costs associated with driving short distances around the CBD.

 No Vision:  a go-ahead city with a no-vision theatre

40 years ago Cairns was the first regional town to build a major theatre, Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton followed shortly after with larger capacity theatres. The proposed Civic theatre rebuild is proposing an auditorium with 940 seats which is less seats than Townsville (1014 seats), Mackay (1090 seats) and Rockhampton (967 seats). For a region with a vibrant tourist industry and projected population of 550,000 – 620,000 by 2050, providing an auditorium that will not accommodate large national and international shows is short sighted and lacks vision.

Mark Buttrose

No comments:

Post a Comment