Perth / Western Australia

The last time I visited Freo, it was a shadow of its former self. 20 years ago, it was a place worth visiting. Now frankly, it's sad. I don't know how much is the pandemic, or just decay from other areas making themselves more attractive. Whatever it is, if I didn't have family in Freo I would have no reason to go there any more.

Is that the vision for Freo? To no longer be a place to go? To only service its local population? I can't think of anything that would make it more like every other suburb in this town than that.

It feels like Freo and most suburbs are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We desperately need more places to live in, and NIMBYs are usually blamed for opposing this. But when you look at the absolute shite that developers are building for people to live in, I find it hard not to empathise with them somewhat. Once heritage is destroyed and replaced by a concrete jungle, that cannot be undone.