By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
A FIGHT by Melbourne small business operators to stop a council and government-sponsored bike lane in Inkerman Street, St Kilda, is far from an isolated battle. But if the traders play their cards right and hold their council corporation liable for losses incurred by the project, it could be world changing.
The seizing of car parking spaces by councils along business district streets is happening across the country, and indeed the world, under the auspices of United Nations so-called sustainable development goals (SDGs) and in this case SDG No. 11 covering “sustainable cities and communities”.
However, as Cairns News previously reported, a bike lane project in Geelong was abandoned after local resident Gary Oraniuk lodged a lawful notice informing the council it would be held liable for any losses suffered by businesses along the road.
The overall effect is to kill small local business for the benefit of big corporations and their centralised shopping malls and/or the “digital economy” operations like Amazon and Shopify, Uber Eats and DoorDash, which are clients of the World Economic Forum, the business arm of the UN.
Related to this “sustainable transport” scam is the global push for light rail projects that have the same effect as bike lanes – removal of street-side parking in main thoroughfares and encouraging clusters of China-style high-density apartment blocks.
A case in point is the Gold Coast Light Rail, which has torn a strip of business destruction along once thriving urban business districts consisting of shop-lined streets. This project is pushed by the council and state and federal governments and also comes under so-called “Smart Transportation” promoted by entities like McKinsey and Company.
Lnkerman St is St Kilda’s leading retail and restaurant strip. These “strip malls” were once commonplace until the big corporate developers like Westfield started the shopping mall trend. These shopping malls are now almost exclusively the domain of global retail brands, as few small, local businesses can afford the exorbitant rent.
In late 2023, the City of Port Phillip Council proposed removing 116 of 180 car parks to make way for a dedicated bike lane along Inkerman St between Hotham St and St Kilda Rd, estimated to cost rate payers $9m. Bike lanes, of course, are touted as a “green and clean” transport option to “fight climate change” and other such nonsense.
Quite simply, they take away trade from small business and allow a small minority of mostly young, fit bike-riders to zip along streets unimpeded by “evil cars”. They also encourage vehicle traffic to zip along at high speeds without regard to the local neighbourhood.
In the case of Inkerman St, the council’s two bike lane options would severely impact more than 50 businesses along the affected road. Many of these business operators had little or no idea that plans were being proposed, and include 12 medical-related businesses.
One such business is the Melbourne Kosher Butcher, which has been operating on Inkerman St home since 1978 and is one of only two kosher butchers in Melbourne. The owner Yaakov Unfanger supplies more than 120 customers a day, demonstrating the need for nearby car parks.
He also receives two meat deliveries every week week and because the business doesn’t have a driveway or permit zone for trucks, they are often forced to double park. Such practical needs tend to get swept away by councils dazzled by virtue-signalling green policies.
Local trader Jaz Bradley said the bike lane was originally proposed as a “sustainability project” linking the local bike lane to other suburbs but the neighbouring Glen Ira council rejected it due to a major community backlash.
Now the City of Port Phillip, under pressure from the highly organised and well-funded bicycle organisations, is calling it a road safety project because of two bike accidents over five years. One of those involved a cyclist colliding with a tram.
The City of Port Phillip, like many inner city councils, is stacked by Green-Labor types prone to pushing leftist ideology of which “sustainable transportation” is par for the course. Several years ago the council adopted a policy making all services inclusive of LGBTIQ+ people. “Inclusivity” comes under sustainable development goal No. 5 for “Gender Equality”.
However four of the nine councillors who had signed the Rainbow pledge before the October 2020 council elections apparently saw the light and voted against the policy.
Albury introduced electric bikes before Christmas.They are everywhere, dumped or sitting looking very lonely on street corners or in people’s drive-ways.
In a newspaper article a few weeks after they were introduced, a Councillor , when replying to criticism, announced that over 9,000 riders had used them in the preceding fortnight.
If that was so, it must have been in the middle of the night, because we have not seen ONE being ridden.
What we HAVE seen, are ordinary bike riders, riding their bike irresponsibly on foot paths, endangering anyone in their path!
God help us if electric bike are ridden in the same way!
Commenter Olly
The registration fee is mostly 3rd party insurance ie hospital tax for when the car smashes into people. If you watch channel 7 news every night you will see cars smashing into things constantly. However bicycles go at a lower speed and have lower mass and as if that wasn’t enough the rider of the bicycle is likely to come off worse than the victim.
However the registration fee hospital tax is wrong and should be applied only if you cause a crash, in that case you should have to pay 200% of the cost, half for now and half for security deposit against next time. Why should we have to subsidise other people’s crashes ??? But this is what’s happening. Every year we have to pay approx $1000 to pay for other people’s crashes. I have never crashed into anyone so why am I paying ??? It’s bullshit.
Make the crasher pay for the whole thing and LEAVE ME OUT OF IT – GOVERNMENTS YOU SUCK SO HARD YOU BLOW
“Inkerman St is St Kilda’s leading retail and restaurant strip.”
This is incorrect. Carlisle , Acland and Fitzroy Steet are St Kilda’s leading retail and restaurant strips.. I should know, our old family home was in a neighboring suburb of Elsternwick. Inkerman St is mostly residential rather than retail and has no trams lines, and was probably chosen for bicycle lanes because of this.
Oy Vey! of course the heavily Jewish Orthodox community of East St Kilda will kvetch because of lack of parking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaclava,_Victoria#/media/File:Inkerman_street_terrace_housing.jpg
“They have a lot of bike lanes in Copenhagen”
Yeah, prolly cause they’ve got a lot of swedes and turnips there too.
“sustainability” continues to evolve and develop in – particularly inner – Melbourne suburbs. Aka “eco-mobility” – another UN policy for controlling the world’s population through limitations on use of cars and then escalating revenue raising with exorbitant fines put upon motorists who are “over the limit” by the tiniest fraction of a second – as speed limits must be reduced because the “mobility” outcome causes un-safe conditions for the number of cars on the roads.
Liberal Labor Greens and Teals are all under the spell of sustainable development.
When I researched the Rainbow Flag hoisted over our Town Hall I found the ultimate goal is androgyny – well this would fit the final development for mateŕial evolution to re-create man in the image of Satan.
“Sustainable development ” means the “reorientation” of mankind’s thinking and education in this world. It covers everything … even the enjoyment of life on earth – a creation of God which God gave to the children of men. (Psalm 115:16; Isaiah 45:12&18)
They have a lot of bike lanes in Copenhagen and it seems to have the effect of driving a lot of old people out of the area. Well the injections will cull all the old people in Melbourne if they work as intended and the young people will own nothing and be happy so the anti-bike lane kosher crowd who are also connected to the kosher Lowy crowd are simply Luddites
Just like the Chinese went.from bycles to cars we are going from cars to to bycles
Why would anyone not want a bike lane in a 15 minute Smart City!
Without cars it’ll be the only way to get around unless they bring in rickshaws for the aged and disabled. Assuming the aged and disabled are not eliminated as useless eaters by that stage.
And you sillies thought it was all to do with the environment, right? 🙂
If they want bike lanes so much what about they all pay registration like any other road user. A motor bike is similar cost as a car per year. Why should my road tax be paying for something I do not use ?????