An innocent 18 year old was murdered last Friday.

Someone else was shot on some dance- floor.

The tribe of Ibrahims continue their trade under the noses of the police.

Some idiot-teenagers steal a car and drive it down the footpath and treat human beings as though they were nine-pins.

I say the place should be closed down. If people want to take drugs and behave like idiots they can start up stripshows and boxing clubs and injecting rooms and spewing rooms in an ugly but accessible place like Sydenham Station or Green Square for instance.




.

The only way it can be stopped is by becoming another Singapore. Which means abolishing democracy and having security squads sweep the streets and brutally punish offenders. I am O.K. with this, but of course most people are not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazzboy

…most people are not.

…most people are sheep.

Of course if it was shut down then all the people causing problems would just go to other areas

^ read the last sentence in my first post. It's better that do it nearby rather than spew on and destroy Surfers Paradise and Bali and Foo-ket.

Article in this mornings SMH!

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cross-mark...710-21u25.html

The owners at Fox Studios created an imitation Kings Cross at 'Bent Street' in their 'Entertainment Quarter'.

I don't know if it's a success but it does have high security, a six-storey car park and no bashings.

Sydneham and Green Square are getting a little close to my doorstep. If the nastiness is to be contained in one area why not keep it at the Cross? This bad reputation isn't new. I'm wondering why 'nice' kids like these are compelled to go there. Aren't there other places?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrin

Sydneham and Green Square are getting a little close to my doorstep.…

You NIMBYist! (Sydenham is close to me)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrin

…If the nastiness is to be contained in one area why not keep it at the Cross? This bad reputation isn't new.…

The place has had a bohemian reputation for a century but harder drugs and 24 hour licensing have made it now unacceptably worse.

Besides, a real estate agent like Doolander would say that this place so close to the city and the harbour with quadruple in value as soon as the mongrels are moved elsewhere.

Sydenham and Green Square are built on swampland and have no aesthetic or commercial value.

They tried to clean the Cross out and it moved to Surry Hills and Darlo. Parramatta is stirring up at the moment too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_

You NIMBYist! (Sydenham is close to me)

I'd call it sticking with the devil you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_

Besides, a real estate agent like Doolander would say that this place so close to the city and the harbour with quadruple in value as soon as the mongrels are moved elsewhere.

I moved to Newtown in 1996 and back then cab drivers would tell me that a few years earlier that had been a no-go area, just as bad as Redfern. Speaking of which, if they ever get rid of The Block that's another area that will quadruple in value. I think Frank Sartor tried.

It's okay aslong your not in a dark corner alone..

^ but do you actually walk along the footpath?

(I see so many new Eastern Suburbs 'housing units' with security garages and no front doors)

Barrin:If the nastiness is to be contained in one area why not keep it at the Cross? This bad reputation isn't new. I'm wondering why 'nice' kids like these are compelled to go there

Precisely - its become a bit of 'dodgy-tourism' durnig a window in the noughties when the more serious threats had calmed down and where it was 'fun' to go to the bad part of town. The impression I get is that there's a sort of Hollywood glamour in going into the rough territory, but a suburban naivete that misunderstands that this stuff is 'real' and not just there to create 'atmosphere'.

It seems to have been an unsuccessful forray of hipster gentrification during a calmed-down period and Now it just seems like the dodgy is reclaiming its own turf again.

The cross is probably unique in Australia in being an area where 'nice kids' dont and ought-not-to go. Such areas are taken for granted in most of the world's cities, but there may be quite a few growing-pains before Australians realise that we have one of these zones Right In Our Backyard.

The question remains however whether its better to concentrate all of the badness into certain hot-bed no-go zones or if its more desireable to have micro-pockets or individual 'bad apples' diluted and diffused throughout the city in a divide-and-conquer approach.

of course they could also close Oxford St. plenty of drugs and assaults there also. werent some of the hotels/clubs in Oxford St on a government list of hot spots of crime. didnt they try cleaning up some of the scum from the X a few years back? I'm sure Ive heard peeps bitch about the scum from the X being swept to Oxford St. you can close ANYTHING but while theres a market for it theyll find somewhere to have it

Exactly, close down one place and they will just move to another.....
Obviously the police presence there is insufficient to deal with this constant issue, either that or they are just doing a really bad job.

I live in the area, the really annoying & frustrating thing about all the violence in the cross is, it's all idiots from outside of the area that come into the cross looking for trouble. Another point that needs to be made is, alcohol is the main problem, drugs play a very small role in what going in the cross. I don't condone drug use, but we really need to be looking at how easy alcohol is sold to people, mainly the youth. I really do think local governments should consider raising the legal drinking age, it won't stop all the violence, but it will certainly help, youth just do not know how to handle alcohol. It is fact that the part of the brain which controls emotions & decission making, does not fully develop till 22/23 years of age, so When alcohol is involved its one of the first areas of the brain to be effected. To me, it's common sense to lift the age limit, like other countries.

I watched that press conference on news24 yesterday that the NSW police held jointly with tom kelly's parents - it was terribly sad to watch. The kid's dad was saying they were still in the same clothes that they were wearing at 10pm on saturday night when they got a call from st vincents hospital, then they drove the almost two hours to sydney (where they have been ever since) from bowral (where they live), to wait for their son to come out of surgery so they could see him, pleading for a positive outcome, only to reach the point, a day later, where they had to switch off his life support, and make the decison to donate his organs. His parents were recounting how he had finally started to get his life on track and really start to enjoy his life, after what they called, "a very tough childhood and high school life". They appeared to allude to the fact that he was consistantly bullied throught this period. Terribly, terribly sad.
However the suburb of kings cross didnt kill this poor young man - a truely ghastly human did, and unfortunately they reside in many and various suburbs throught any city. When things like this happen, we always ask "whats the answer? How do we prevent this from happening again?" well im not sure if there is an "answer" as such. I know that simplistic solutions like shutting down kings cross certainly isnt the answer though. Much like the guns dont kill people, people kill people argument. But i do agree that its woefully inadequate that the best that we can offer tom kelly's shattered family is to vow to catch the person who did this, and then remove them from free society for a very long time (hopefully)

spot on Local/Anthony/Dougster.

Closing down the Cross is way simplistic. They will just move to another suburb. If closing it would solve the problem it would have been done long ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony Mahera

Exactly, close down one place and they will just move to another.....
Obviously the police presence there is insufficient to deal with this constant issue, either that or they are just doing a really bad job.

I used to go to the cross regularly a few years ago and I can say there is always police presence in the area, especially on Friday/Saturday nights. There is more of a police presence in KX than there is on Oxford St, at any time of the day or night.

In fact KX is usually safer at times to walk through during the day than Oxford Street can be.

The problem is that the police are limited in what they can do in preventing assaults and crime happening, they can only respond to an incident.

The solution needs to be a multi-faceted approach between the State Govt., City of Sydney council, the police, licencees and the KX/Potts Point community.

What they need to do is cordone off a few blocks, put a wire fence around it and tell people, you go in there and you'll get no help from police or ambulance services. It's a free for all with drugs sex bashings etc but taxpayers won't pay to stitch you back together (nor come in and rescue you).

I wonder how many people would go into such a free for all zone?

if they were able to help Cabramatta get turned around, they can surely do something similar for one of the big destination areas of sydney for locals and tourists alike. closer to the CBD, a strong $$ spinner, and a major part of Sydney's face to the world, there would seem to be a lot more at stake than a distant western suburb

If I had my way, they'd erect a huge statue of Abe Saffron the "Boss of the Cross".

Seriously though, just closing it would spread it to other suburbs. I'd suggest a greater police pressence, however I'd ask how many are on the payroll of someone, and how many are just straight up fuckin lazy. So perhaps new AFP recruits (under the guidance of senior officers obviously) should be sent there at maybe at 3 month-6 month increments before bing sent elsewhere, more than likely the territories, or whever the feds go.

Btw I'm serious about the Abe Statue of the Kross!

yes lets close KX so all the criminals can transfer to Oxford St

ha ha was thinking of Abe when I read this thread Marko.

Virtually every city has its red light area and Sydney is no different. Been there a long time and if they clean it up then the Saffrons/Ibrahim
types will just open in another suburb.

Its like a right of passage that most go through as growing up. Most move on after a year or so and some just remain.

I'm sure for some in their younger days if the Police/Community tried to close down their venues they would have protested.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HubbaHubba

What they need to do is cordone off a few blocks, put a wire fence around it and tell people, you go in there and you'll get no help from police or ambulance services. It's a free for all with drugs sex bashings etc but taxpayers won't pay to stitch you back together (nor come in and rescue you).

I wonder how many people would go into such a free for all zone?

theres a part of me thats really attracted to that

i guess whats really sad is that in another week or so this young kid will be forgotten about, and in another year people wont remember cos he'l have been replaced by another 'tragic senseless loss of life'

already the young guy who was stabbed and died @ parramatta interchange th nite before has been relegated to th background in terms of media coverage

its a sad inditement on where we are as a society, and i guess there are multiple and causal issues, none of which have a simpe answer

its just sad imo

Quote:

Originally Posted by longhornie

if they were able to help Cabramatta get turned around, they can surely do something similar for one of the big destination areas of sydney for locals and tourists alike. closer to the CBD, a strong $$ spinner, and a major part of Sydney's face to the world, there would seem to be a lot more at stake than a distant western suburb

Cabramatta turned around by pushing it all down the road to Lansvale.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneakos

… the young guy who was stabbed and died @ parramatta interchange…

Well at least his killers have been arrested. They were aged aged 21, 18, and 16!

But young men do like to take drugs and bash each other. The Herald says 60 teenagers were brawling outside a bar last night. One of them had to be taken to hospital because he was headbutting a wall and a door! He was 18 years old. Der!


http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/scores-fig...712-21x2r.html
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-1226423786313

So -out of curiosity - does anyone recognize any sort of link between both the X and Oxford street going to shit? (and frankly even Bondi seems to be on increasingly shaky grounds)

What connections/causes {proximate as well as ultimate} might be driving these declines in prime spots of the city? Drugs, alcohol, and testosterone have been mentioned, but I'm uncertain that everytime these combinations occur that the same result comes out of it - for example, random stabbings are generally not characteristic of gay clubs where drugs, alcohol, and testosterone are frequently and regularly in high supply.

If it is a larger systemic problem, how can that problem be articulated? For example do these issues arise from economic pressures and long term residents feeling displaced? Do they arrise from frustrations recent migrants might be feeling between the dream and reality they find in Oz? Has the australian economy just priced itself out of existence for many people and is starting to implode?

And most importantly can anything been done to shift the broader motivators for these problem areas so that the on-the-streets manifestations can be brought more into lines of a quality place that offers a life-worth-living? Or is it really a matter of authorities being paid more by certain vested interests than by their salaries that seems to be turning parts of Syndey into a third-world free-for-all of unchecked crime and corruption? A notion which strikes me as particularly 'un-Australian'.