By George Street!
Now
Sydney’s main drag is just that: a drag. Cramped footpaths, smog-caked shopfronts,
streets clogged with vehicles emitting noxious clouds of carbon fumes and locals choking
at the bottom of the food chain. George Street, once a walking track for the Gadigal people, is an embarrassment compared with the Champs-Elysées in Paris, Broadway in New York or Oxford Street in London.
Future
Under audacious new plans drawn up by City of Sydney council in consultation with town planners and modern architects from around the world, George Street will be transformed into a vivacious and dynamic retail strip to match the grandeur of Town Hall, Queen Victoria Building and the bejewelled Harbour at which it culminates – a main drag where pedestrians rule. Footpaths would be widened into promenades, street furniture and retro lamp lighting installed and small oases created for trees, grass and benches for resting and lunching. George Street itself would be hemmed by hardy indigenous trees, narrowed to two lanes dedicated to public transport and two for bicycles (with room for light rail too), and feeding a thriving network of public squares, al fresco restaurants and bustling side streets bearing public art and busy little bars humming with busy little bees.
