Knowing that anything outside of Perth proper is a "suburb", in the early 2000s, Perth's population was 250. This means that the city was filling up during the day and everyone was leaving at night. The city figured they needed to do something about this. Tied in with an economic boom was also a high density housing construction boom. Now, Perth's population stands at about 50,000. Including the suburbs, the population is 1.9 million.
The solution to attracting people downtown seemed to be small bars and street art.
Historically, bar licenses primarily only went to big players. They went to sports arenas, casinos, and government run bars. Somewhere along the line, someone figured out this wasn't working - people weren't drinking, money wasn't being spent, and no one wanted to spend their time having government sanctioned fun.
Enter small bars. These are spaces in alleys, on rooftops, in store fronts, that can hold no more than 120 people at a time (often far less). Some of them brew their own alcohol, some buy alcohol from the government. At any rate, it is an astounding success!
With more people staying downtown came a lot of the expected social issues, including graffiti. Perth has a lot of blank walls and as such, taggers were using them and leaving unsightly tags. The city decided to commission some of the taggers and artists to make murals instead. There are many kinds of art represented. Some are beautiful. Some are not.
As I went through my pictures from this walking tour, I realized I had only one. It is called "The Conversation". Because Calgary and Perth are alike.
The alleys are very safe to walk through. They don't smell of pee or puke or garbage. There are no (daylight) vagrants hanging about.
Next: let's get out of town!
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