More than 130 years ago, Melbourne’s so-called spine was called a ‘troublesome and unhealthy hollow’. Drugs, violence and homelessness have kept it that way.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Inderjit Longia keeps a tub of chili powder behind the counter of his small takeaway shop at the increasingly tense lower end of Elizabeth Street. The chili powder is his last line of defence against attackers.
“I’m scared. I am a human being, I’ve got a family to look after, too many bills, the mortgage has gone up. We have all that stress and additional stress with all those junkies around here.” Walking the block or waiting for a tram after dark also induces dread among those who say they have no choice but to travel that way.visited the street mid-morning on an unremarkable Thursday, it seemed as a gathering point some of the city’s forsaken.A group of men knocked back cans of beer outside a tobacconist to the beat of music spilling from the store. Next to the group, a teenager who appeared to be intoxicated danced on the footpath, unbothered by passersby.
“Demonising people who are experiencing homelessness and mental health issues only pushes them further away from the help they need.”visited the troubled pocket at the southern end of the street several times over the past month and spoke to a dozen shopkeepers and security guards, who say they work in daily fear of thieves, vandals, and even groups of rampaging youths.
“I think our sector needs to be resourced not just to give people accommodation, but to actually address the drivers of their Elizabeth Street shopkeepers said they regularly called the police, but officers often arrived after the assailants had run away from the scene. In some instances, they were arrested and later released without charge.
The street is also a natural watercourse, an irregular floodway in a depression of Melbourne’s CBD, its flanks rising to Queen Street in the west, through Swanston Street, and up to Spring Street in the east.State Libary of Victoria “The true and absolute Bohemian detests fixtures of all kinds, and prefers to take his meals standing, or walking, or lying, or in any posture but sitting,” wrote Clarke.
“Dead-end spaces always tend to attract less desirable activities because most of the traffic is avoiding them.”
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