News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[Llessur2002]

Agreed.

New event in Victoria Square - people like it, people go.

Arguably the worst pub in the east end shuts down. Why? Because people didn't like it, people didn't go.

Our entertainment venues need to move with the times and create the vibrancy that will allow Adelaide to keep up with interstate and overseas competition and hence keep our youth and their innovation.

Places like the Stag in their existing form are not representative of a 21st century entertainment venue. Fringe or no Fringe it was an unfashionable place to go and destined to fail. A relic of the 90s/00s idea of what a pub should be like. Hopefully in its next incarnation it will be more in keeping with Adelaide's steadily developing vibrancy. If they do it right I can't see it having a problem with patronage in that location.

The Exeter, Austral, Botanic and Cranker all seem to do quite well in that area. Presumably because they have some sort of character and don't make you contemplate suicide immediately upon walking in the front door...

[Wayno]

The Exeter, Austral, Botanic and Cranker all seem to do quite well in that area. Presumably because they have some sort of character and don't make you contemplate suicide immediately upon walking in the front door...

Nail.on.the.head

The Exeter is one of the ugliest and most downtrodden pubs in Adelaide. I love it.

The Austral is loud and cramped, both inside an out. It's in your face. Excellent blended crowd. I love it.

I go to the Cranker to play pool and drink beer. They don't serve meals. It's grungy. It has loud live music. I love it.

The Stag is trying to be something, be everything, but isn't anything...

[Llessur2002]

The Exeter is one of the ugliest and most downtrodden pubs in Adelaide. I love it.

The Austral is loud and cramped, both inside an out. It's in your face. Excellent blended crowd. I love it.

I go to the Cranker to play pool and drink beer. They don't serve meals. It's grungy. It has loud live music. I love it.

Agreed.

The Cranker, Austral and Exeter have retained that 'real pub' feel - and that's back in fashion. Same thing that makes the Wheaty such a superb place. I bet many of the once characterful pubs which stripped out their original interiors for souless 'bistro and pokie' style refurbs (am thinking along the lines of the Holdfast in Glenelg, the Brompton etc) will go under long before the 'real' pubs do.

Haven't actually been to the Botanic in its current incarnation as cocktail-type bars aren't really my thing. But I know lots of people who speak pretty highly of it.

[crawf]

For once a good article from the tiser

Simon Wilkinson: The Stag Hotel closed because it didn’t move with the times
SIMON WILKINSON FOOD EDITOR THE ADVERTISER APRIL 17, 2015 12:00AM SHARE

THE sight of locked doors and a liquidator’s notice is desperately sad, no matter the business involved. Staff will be left without a job, suppliers in the lurch, owners facing financial ruin.

In the case of the Stag Hotel, where so many Adelaideans have some form of personal connection, the impact is magnified, particularly given the prominent location of the building with its gothic balconies and roof turret.

However, I’ll bet that in most cases those memories are distant and faded. We’ve moved on, but The Stag never did.

The Stag struggled against ‘pop-ups’
My fond memory of The Stag is cramming into the downstairs bar at about 2 or 3 in the morning to watch the Socceroos win a game in the 2006 World Cup. I might have had a random pint there since then but the last time I put my head in the door, during this year’s Fringe, I walked straight out. The smell of death, and of stale beer, hung heavy in the air.

Much is being made of the unfair competition presented by pop-up venues, particularly during this “Mad March” period, and some control over their numbers and duration is appropriate.

However, activity at the Garden of Unearthly Delights brought thousands of people to The Stag’s front yard night after night, many of whom I’m sure would have been happy to find somewhere else with a better drink offer or more comfortable seat before or after a show.

The sad fact is that, at least for the past few years, The Stag didn’t embrace what was going on around it.

The city’s drinking culture has changed dramatically in the past few years, and thank goodness for that. The genie is out of the bottle and there can be no turning back from the small bars that have added new vibrancy to a night in town.

But a good pub is part of the mix as well. Given its potential I’d be very surprised if The Stag doesn’t soon have a new owner, hopefully with the energy and investment so it can find its mojo again.

[Wayno]

Video update from Lord Mayor Haese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lez86CoVsLQ

Lord Mayor Martin Haese delivers the Adelaide City Council monthly meeting update for March. This month includes: a new initiative called the Shopfront Improvement Plan, the Adelaide Central Market Strategic Plan, and the Lord Mayor's Business Engagement Forum.

[Wayno]

Video update from Lord Mayor Haese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lez86CoVsLQ

Lord Mayor Martin Haese delivers the Adelaide City Council monthly meeting update for March. This month includes: a new initiative called the Shopfront Improvement Plan, the Adelaide Central Market Strategic Plan, and the Lord Mayor's Business Engagement Forum.

The first two topics are good, i think. The 3rd topic (business engagement forum), if not approached carefully, could be used by entrenched businesses (e.g. AHA and city pub owners, for example) to protect their interests and stifle innovation.

[[Shuz]]

You mean the very business interests which Haese was backed by and got elected on the votes of such organisations.

Something smells really fishy there. Sounds like a case of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".

[Patrick_27]

Video update from Lord Mayor Haese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lez86CoVsLQ

Lord Mayor Martin Haese delivers the Adelaide City Council monthly meeting update for March. This month includes: a new initiative called the Shopfront Improvement Plan, the Adelaide Central Market Strategic Plan, and the Lord Mayor's Business Engagement Forum.

Was the shopfront improvement initiative not already a thing? I recall Yarwood creating a similar scheme.

[Patrick_27]

For once a good article from the tiser

Simon Wilkinson: The Stag Hotel closed because it didn’t move with the times
SIMON WILKINSON FOOD EDITOR THE ADVERTISER APRIL 17, 2015 12:00AM SHARE

THE sight of locked doors and a liquidator’s notice is desperately sad, no matter the business involved. Staff will be left without a job, suppliers in the lurch, owners facing financial ruin.

In the case of the Stag Hotel, where so many Adelaideans have some form of personal connection, the impact is magnified, particularly given the prominent location of the building with its gothic balconies and roof turret.

However, I’ll bet that in most cases those memories are distant and faded. We’ve moved on, but The Stag never did.

The Stag struggled against ‘pop-ups’
My fond memory of The Stag is cramming into the downstairs bar at about 2 or 3 in the morning to watch the Socceroos win a game in the 2006 World Cup. I might have had a random pint there since then but the last time I put my head in the door, during this year’s Fringe, I walked straight out. The smell of death, and of stale beer, hung heavy in the air.

Much is being made of the unfair competition presented by pop-up venues, particularly during this “Mad March” period, and some control over their numbers and duration is appropriate.

However, activity at the Garden of Unearthly Delights brought thousands of people to The Stag’s front yard night after night, many of whom I’m sure would have been happy to find somewhere else with a better drink offer or more comfortable seat before or after a show.

The sad fact is that, at least for the past few years, The Stag didn’t embrace what was going on around it.

The city’s drinking culture has changed dramatically in the past few years, and thank goodness for that. The genie is out of the bottle and there can be no turning back from the small bars that have added new vibrancy to a night in town.

But a good pub is part of the mix as well. Given its potential I’d be very surprised if The Stag doesn’t soon have a new owner, hopefully with the energy and investment so it can find its mojo again.

Should reconfigure the building for multi-purpose.

Restaurant on ground-level Rundle Street side, a bar on the upper level, and a live music venue on the East Terrace side, a building of that size could comfortably fit a 500 capacity room which would in some ways solve HQ's departure from the live music scene.

[mshagg]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 7317827574

Mr Haese fronts a commercial for Royal Car Wash, on West Tce, praising the company’s service and attention to detail.

“I’ve been coming to Royal Car Wash in West Tce since soon after it opened, and I come back for a lot of reasons,” Mr Haese says in the advertisement.

In what universe did he think that was appropriate? I dont think we're at risk of becoming beholden to the car wash lobby but jeez, dont they have advisors that stop them from making such obvious mistakes?

[Brucetiki]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger ... 7317827574

Mr Haese fronts a commercial for Royal Car Wash, on West Tce, praising the company’s service and attention to detail.

“I’ve been coming to Royal Car Wash in West Tce since soon after it opened, and I come back for a lot of reasons,” Mr Haese says in the advertisement.

In what universe did he think that was appropriate? I dont think we're at risk of becoming beholden to the car wash lobby but jeez, dont they have advisors that stop them from making such obvious mistakes?

Is this the same car wash that has changed names more times than most of us have changed underwear, and have in the past resorted to group coupon sites to drum up business...

[[Shuz]]

Haese should resign. If he cannot keep his business interests impartial to, and separate from his council interests, he is showing poor judgement, lack of respect for objective and transparent due process, lack of respect for the role of Council and his role as Lord Mayor.

This is not the first time he has established a clear conflict of interest. He has been in the role.only six months and has proved himself to be a ineffective, incapable and incompetent person for the role of Lord Mayor. He must stand down.

[Dvious]

He certainly isn't doing a good job. I had some hope for him, but its slowly and quickly diminishing.

[Waewick]

because a conflict only occurs if money changes hands.

it is an interesting position, I mean if we say Jay Weatherill in a commercial for an sa business (if he remember they still existed) would be be concerned? or would we consider it to be promoting SA?

[mshagg]

I resoundly disagree with the notion that a conflict only occurs when money changes hands. Potential conflicts are still matters that need to be managed, regardless of whether there's a free cut and polish involved or not. A the head of a level of government, I would have hoped Haese would understand such a basic governance concept.

The perception of conflict alone is an issue which governance bodies strive to avoid.

Jay doing it would be significantly worse, given his much broader sphere of potential influence, and I'd be surprised if any parliamentary code of conduct permitted a sitting MP to appear in commercial advertising for a business - regadless of whether there was a fee involved or not.