ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
SMART CITIES
NEED
SMART MAIN
STREET CENTRES
BY STEPHEN SULLY
MAIN STREETS IN SMART CITIES
Smart Cities, according to the Smart City Plan
prepared by the Federal Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet 2016, 1 rely on the “successful
concentration of industries and organisations
in particular locations” and that the “City Deals
program will position our Urban Centres, whatever
their size to realise their potential through
governance, strategic planning and reform”.
Given that our network of traditional street
based main streets are accessible, well served
by existing information and communication
technology, transport systems, business
investment, have a history of nurturing start-up
businesses and contain decades of embedded
public and private investment, they would appear
to be well placed to play a key role in any Smart
City. Main streets have a track record of evolution.
Why should they not be able to embrace digital
change, smart technology, smart transport and
communications? However digitally based and
“smart “our society becomes people will still crave
physical places to go, to meet, to celebrate, to
relax and simply be. Main streets have fulfilled
this role for the past century and would appear
eminently well equipped to continue to fulfil this
basic human need, provided they, their businesses
and activities, receive appropriate recognition and
support.
WHAT IS A MAIN STREET?
Main street is a term that can apply to any
collection of small businesses or community
services, that are located along a street. They
are typically comprised of individual ownerships
and referred to as local shops, high streets, town
centres or city centres.
Main streets have always been a part of urban
life and are proving to be one of its most resilient
components. There are often reports of the
impending demise of these old traditional centres
but they typically adapt and evolve rather than
disappear. When I commenced working with the
sector in the 1980s these centres were said to be
doomed as the huge wave of private, enclosed,
mall based mega centres and stand alone
supermarkets swept through our cities. Later there
were concerns about the centres being overrun
by hairdressers, followed by concerns over too
many real estate agents, $2 shops and more
recently it is too many cafes that have been seen
as the problem, not to mention the ever increasing
impact of online shopping and Uber style “digital
disrupters”. Main streets’ capacity to adapt and
evolve is one of their greatest attributes. The main
street of today contains a very different range of
goods and services to those of the 1980s and in
turn, the 1980s centres were very different to the
1960s versions. Similarly, the 2030 version will be
different again.
This resilience cannot however, be taken for
granted. Each cycle of evolution is having an impact
on the centres and eating away at their fundamental
strengths. Their future potential will rely on ongoing
recognition and support of the centres and the
businesses and activities that they contain.
Given the locational, accessibility, and embedded
infrastructure attributes of main street centres and
the relationships they enjoy with their communities,
it is vital that they continue to play an important
economic and social component in any “smart
city”. They have the capacity to provide local
employment, local access to goods, services
and facilities and deserve ongoing support from
local and state government agencies. I consider
that traditional main street centres that also
incorporate coordinated management, marketing
and a spirit of collaboration through a business
association and work in partnership with the local
council, community and property owners should be
regarded as “Smart Centres” and be promoted as
such as part of a Smart City agenda.
VOL.12 NO.3 2019 | 23