“Oh my goodness, have you seen the sign?”, my friend asked me as we made our way to have a drink at a nearby bar. It was a sign declaring the imminent closure of the flower stall on the corner of Devonshire & Chalmers, to make way for a new cycle-way.
Even though I know there are some passionately held views about the City of Sydney’s foray into cycleways, I don’t actually have any strong opinions on the matter myself. I live close to Bourke Street, which has been the major focus for the debate so far. Those who support cycleways say they’re long overdue. Those who are opposed to them say they’re under-utilised.As someone who mostly gets around by public transport and by foot, I’m certainly sympathetic to the idea of cycle-ways, and I would dearly love to see more cycleways in Sydney. It’s all about the implementation, I think, and I’ll leave it to those with greater knowledge of all of the issues involved to come to conclusion.
That said, I was a little sad to see the sign about the closure of the flower stall. Even though I don’t actually buy flowers from the shop – mostly I buy them from my local shopping village – I’ve always thought the stall it was a lovely addition to the area. The nearby Devonshire Street tunnel is already pretty grim, and so for me, the flower shop always added a little “humanity” to my walk to and from work to home.