Avoiding Responsibility

It's been over twelve years since I left my home town of Newcastle to begin my great journey. St the beginning of 1997 I set off to Armidale for to study, and even though I've been back a few times since then, I've never been back here in the mindset that I am living in this city. I was always visiting the place, and as such, never looked to hard at the place.

But having recently returned to Newcastle from Canada, I am have settled back here, at least temporarily, and as such my mindset on how I view this place changed. And I'm very dismayed.

When I left Newcastle, change was being foisted upon in this city. The BHP steelworks, which had dominated the economic and cultural landscape of this city for 84 years, was in its death throes, and the people were looking to the future for this city. With great change comes great opportunity, and it was a time of great excitement. A new chapter in the city's history was beginning, and it was akin to an artist having a fresh canvas to paint across - what did we want this city to be? Here we had an opportunity to remake this city, blessed with beautiful beaches, affordable housing and a strong community spirit into our own image. When I left, a great sense of optimism had swept up this city, and a vigorous debate enveloped the community, each with their own views on where the city should head.

In February 1997, I felt assured that whatever path my home city took, it was in safe hands. The people of Newcastle took pride in their city, and a bountiful supply of youthful energy, replenished each year with the thousands of new students coming into the city to study at its wonderful university, to my mind ensured that the future was bright.

How wrong I was. I come back to Newcastle to discover a city on its knees. A city centre that is deserted save for the occasional vagrant. Once thriving shops boarded up, pubs and clubs closed forever, and any sense of optimism long evaporated. The City Council now has to resort to painting cheap self-affirmation lines reminiscent of low-grade late-night informercials. When you need to be told by a sign on the wall that you should have 'Pride in Your City', there probably isn't much left to be proud of.

So what happened? Talking to my friends and family who still live in the city, three common themes emerge. Corruption, cronyism and self-interest on the part of the supposed civic leaders have gutted this once fine city of its self-esteem. Following swiftly behind these three were the media driven moral panics and nimbyism which kicked the city whilst it was down.

And the unswerving devotion of the community to a political party which has time and again showed this city that loyalty will only get you shafted, finally slit its throat.

If Newcastle was a faithful old working dog, we would take it out to the barn, give it a final pet between the ears to thank it for all its hard work, and then put the .22 to its head and put it out of its misery.

This city isn't the hard-working, boisterous, dynamic and energetic city I grew up in. It is a decaying corpse, riddled with the sicknesses of corruption and neglect. I just wish someone had had the decency to bury it.