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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OZDUCK" data-source="post: 2302900" data-attributes="member: 26437">While the Covid crisis has undoubtedly affected hotels & restaurants etc. the CBD has been dying since the early 1970's. St Georges Terrace once had an attractive Victorian/Edwardian streetscape which the government of the day in the 1960/70's allowed/encouraged to be torn down and replaced by soulless and boring concrete boxes. This has resulted in the "sterile" feeling kookaburra75 noted. The inner city cinemas died out during the 80's and a number of large Department stores were closed or bought out reducing the attractiveness of shopping in the city.The construction of major centres like Joondalup and the decentralisation of State Govt. offices plus electronic access has reduced the number of people who need to go into the city - I would be lucky to have visited the CBD once a year over the last 10 years. The shopping in Perth is worse than in the large suburban shopping centres and there are no parking hassles at most of these. The growth in the suburban rail lines over the last 20 years or so has also made it easier to get to suburban centres rather than just the centre of town. There is also certainly a problem with a growing view, possibly exacerbated by sensationalist reporting, that the CBD is unsafe.</blockquote>