Tribeca

I was working on Friday and Saturday so stayed in Lindsey and Ian's flat overnight on Friday. The flat is in the Tribeca complex of apartments, part of which, many years ago, was one of Melbourne's large breweries. It is made up of privately owned, privately rented and serviced short let apartments.

The company which ran the serviced apartments went, somewhat abruptly, into liquidation recently. This meant that holiday makers plus various workers, who rented the apartments on short term contracts while they were in Melbourne, suddenly and without notice found themselves without accommodation. People who were expecting to come over the Christmas and summer holidays are having to make alternative arrangements. 

I am surprised that the business has folded. It survived the lockdowns and the complex is in a prime location in Melbourne, close to the CBD, the hospitals, sporting facilities. It should have been a goldmine. I think it must have been well used - the car parks were much emptier than they are usually and not all of the permanent residents can have randomly decided to go away for the weekend.

It was a lovely evening on Friday. I bought some fish and chips from the shop in the plaza and then sat out on the balcony of the flat with my dinner, a glass of wine and my laptop. In the past, this would have been accompanied by a hum and buzz of merriment from down below. People frequenting the wine bar, the pizzeria, the fish and chip shop and, on pleasant evenings, sitting outside while they ate, drank and chatted. On Friday night there was a strange silence, broken only by people passing through the plaza, and a couple of kids messing about. I am worried about the future of the little businesses in the plaza.

Lindsey tells me that some of the permanent residents, on a social media group, are pleased that the serviced apartments have closed. They didn't like the short term visitors.  I think they should be careful about how pleased they are. Lots of jobs have gone with the closure of the business. And the residents of places popular with tourists are often more economically dependent on the visitors than they realise.  They might not have liked the visitors but they may miss the fish and chips, the pizzas and the mezze with wine if they close for lack of itinerant customers.