No one goes hungry on the 2020 hungry mile
Outsider has been heartened to hear the news that NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian wants people back in their offices in the Sydney central business district as soon as possible.
He imagines that it is only going to be a matter of months before the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, offers similar encouragement to the habitues of Melbourne’s office towers and he imagines that in the COVID-19 free capitals of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia no-one ever really needed to leave their desks.
But the real question on Outsider’s mind is whether Sydney’s Barangaroo financial quarter will ever be the same again given that the last time he ambled through the precinct he saw more tumbleweeds than people and many of the better eateries along the waterfront appeared to have closed.
Of course, at least some of the problems for those with offices in Barangaroo is that they are within exceedingly tall structures and social distancing means you can’t fit more than four people in most lifts which means that getting people up to their desks is going to be a challenge before you even start worrying about how they’re going to get them down again for lunch.
It should serve as a reminder that before it was Barangaroo, the plush office precinct was a gritty workplace for waterside workers loading and unloading ships and taking shifts where they could find them.
In those days it was aptly named the “Hungry Mile” but Outsider feels sure that the chaps and chapettes at the likes of KPMG and Mercer will order in UberEats before they go hungry.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
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