00:02The shops at Richardson in Canberra's South have been boarded up for almost a decade,
00:07their demise sparked by the closure of the grocery store.
00:11We just started to see a rise in antisocial behaviour, windows smashed up,
00:14and when they boarded them up it was a pretty awful antisocial graffiti.
00:19Locals say the community has suffered.
00:21Without some kind of meeting point to kind of anchor people there,
00:25we really saw that loss of community amenity.
00:27The Territory Government's recent budget is funding upgrades for Chisholm,
00:31Coolman Court, Kingston and Kipax shopping centres.
00:35The upgrades will cost the government about $417,000 over the next four years
00:41and will go towards fixing pavement and paths,
00:44as well as landscaping, seating and bins at the four shops.
00:49Just a few kilometres from Richardson,
00:51businesses at the Chisholm shops say they prefer being in a small centre.
00:55We know the customer by name and we have our regular that come.
00:59If we were in a big Westfield, a classic Westfield, that will be a completely different shop.
01:05And I believe that it will not be the same thing here in Chisholm.
01:09Further north, in Mawson, some businesses say maintenance issues make it harder to attract customers.
01:15We do receive a lot of complaints about uncleanliness, rubbish, graffiti.
01:21A problem he says attracts little government help.
01:25They do a good job tidying up the leaves and that sort of stuff,
01:27but every time you call someone to clean up rubbish, you don't hear from them, nothing happens.
01:32The graffiti, again nothing happens, you make complaints, nothing's done about it.
01:36A call to keep local community hubs alive and well.
01:40And then rub that off by power 5be at chairing up home to a part of the street for working
01:40with other people.
01:42Whether it is a band of the multi-ös corner at ...
01:42As a band of The Bay Area, it's completely different.
01:43I know you can,
01:43Sometimes you catch math.
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