Page 1889 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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Clearly, Canberra's young people will use these facilities if they are provided. They have to be near where the action is. Canberra's young people are no different to young people in any other city or of any other time; that is, they tend to be attracted to the centre of action. Where the bright lights and the big city are is where you will find young people wanting to congregate, so Civic is obviously a major area of attraction. Some of the skateboard facilities that we have in the old inner south and old inner north of Canberra - the old inner city area - are a bit far out from Civic. The kids want to come into Civic, have a chat with their friends and show off their various techniques.
De facto, the chess pit in Garema Place has become the skateboard and rollerblade centre. That is where the kids congregate; that is where they are engaging in these activities. In the long term, we want to redevelop that area. It is a bit of an eyesore; it is a bit run down. The problem with that area is the large concrete blockhouse which houses a major ACTEW distribution station. As has already been made public, when we get to the next phase of redevelopment of the commercial buildings that surround Garema Place - they are all pretty ripe for redevelopment - it will be a condition that in the basement and excavation for the first new project there be some space for that substation so that we can get rid of the blockhouse and redevelop the Garema Place skateboard pit.
We need something in the Civic area for the skateboarders. We have been doing some work and some thinking on this since this issue was first raised late last year. We have had a letter from a businessman in Civic indicating that business communities might be prepared to cooperate in providing a facility. I also had meetings late last year with the association in Canberra that looks after rollerblading and roller-skating, and we facilitated the holding of a New South Wales championship for rollerblading and roller-skating in the car park opposite the Lakeside Hotel. That was held earlier this year and was apparently a quite successful event.
We have been looking at providing in the car parks that surround Civic some facilities where the kids can congregate and engage in their rollerblading and skateboarding but be close to the bus interchange, to the fast food outlets, to the cinemas, to the other attractions that the kids want to look at. We are looking at the City Hill long stay car park, the area where they in fact held some State championships. There may be some problems there, in that it is a bit far from the bus interchange and the other entertainment facilities. We have been looking at the car park at section 56, the car park next to the Griffin Centre. That is certainly close to the Garema Place de facto skateboarding pit. It is close to the youth facilities at the back of the Griffin Centre; it is close to the cinemas; it is close to the fast food outlets; it is close to the bus interchange. However, it is a very heavily used car park. We have a dilemma, in that the car park that is not very heavily used is a long way away, while the one that is heavily used is very convenient.
We were looking at the area between the Boulevard and the car park at section 52. It is close to Civic and the fast food outlets. However, there may be a bit of a problem because it is too close to the Boulevard area and the pedestrian thoroughfare that is developing as people are going from the casino-hotel complex. We are looking at a range of areas throughout Civic. We were looking
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