00:02Foot traffic keeps the city businesses ticking over.
00:05We get a lot of bucking in CIS restaurants.
00:07But the number of pedestrians in Adelaide CBD is dropping sharply,
00:11from nearly 140 million visitors in 2023 to 121 million last year,
00:17and traders say they're feeling the pinch.
00:20Just keeping our heads above water, but we are really struggling.
00:23The property sector blames the city woes on its council.
00:26There's a majority of councillors who don't have the sophistication
00:30to be running a several hundred million dollar budget.
00:35Arguing Town Hall hasn't done enough for the vibrancy of the city,
00:39and claiming the cost and availability of parking is keeping shoppers away.
00:44The council has had a war on car parks.
00:47They're removing car parks for bike lanes.
00:50Paid parking can be, you know, there goes someone's lunch, I guess, at the end of the day.
00:54The council says parking in Adelaide is cheaper and more plentiful
00:58than in other capital cities, and also claims it's strategic.
01:02We manage our parking in order to get turnover in locations,
01:07because we certainly don't want staff in restaurants
01:10to park outside the restaurant they work in and spend the whole day there.
01:13Another key is getting more people living in the city,
01:16with the council trying to boost housing supply in the CBD.
01:18But a program to transform vacant spaces above shops into homes has been stalled.
01:24In 2024 is set a target of delivering 50 new homes annually under the scheme,
01:29but so far only six have hit the market.
01:33We've moved from shop top developments into multi-storey developments,
01:37and I'm optimistic that we'll exceed our targets easily in the future.
01:42The council wants to grow the CBD's residential population to 50,000 by 2036.
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