I totally agree the mall needs a major over haul to clean it up and give it a real face lift to brighten it up. Get rid of the parking meters and people will start coming back especially now that the major shopping centres are starting to charge for parking.

The Russians got Chernobyl and uranium. Newcastle got alcohol and the inner city.

thats news? nobodys there and someone says its not popular? i hope that it did not cost a lot of money to get that advice. How about while there still is a rail (until government funding is available to remove it) we think about using it to get people to come to the top of town? Lets see- pay a consultant and he says -"you must get more people to the top of town for it to appear to be popular again" -money well spent as it is good advice. Next we do a survey and we find for another fee " people wont come as there no parking and theres no nice experience for the trouble getting there". OK another consultant is paid and asked and he says " make the trip a pleasant experience and have nice experinences available and people will come - as they do to have nice new experinence" OHHHH now we are getting difficult . the transport experience is a hard one -too many cars ,not enough road , rails in the way , too far to walk etc -- ohhh has anyone thought of making a rail trip a nice and beneficial way to travel to town? NAH why do that ? maybe because its there for a while yet, it can carry lots of people , it can be a usfull experinece . shopping vouchers ,tv,internet, lotteries etc ??

Everyone !! Its ok. The empty shops in the mall are being covered up with pretty stickers on the windows. This will make it all better and make the people come back ! Wake up NCC. Covering up the empty shops doesn't make the problem go away. Rip up the pavers and get that road through the mall. I am hopeful that things will begin to improve once this project is complete. The eastern end of hunter street doesn't have the same issues because it has a road. Shops and restaurants are thriving and it is a much nicer atmosphere. Shame NCC doesn't give a stuff about the old post office though.

The council paid consultants to determine that?

The Beach itself is most popular! Mall Management lack marketing expertise as the original managment did. When the Newcastle Mall was originally open there was a entertainment precinct in the the middle of the mall itself & was used on a regular basis to entice people to Newcastle City. The Entertainment area in the Mall was actually happening before the Mall was built, excatly across the road from where the Old Strand picture theatre was (The Strand was situated at food court in the mall). Newcastle Mall did many things years ago to get people into town with ie: Jazz bands, Busking, Dance Groups, Charity organisations, Sports organisations, tourist groups & even the Mattara festival March use to go down Hunter street before & after the mall was built until a few years ago. Any Festival Newcastle has, that the CBD business are involved in should be held on the City side of Newcastle CBD or Civic Park as that would entice people back into the City itself & not the park outside Newcastle CBD. Think about it, when was the last time something happened in the mall itself? Newcastle tap dogs actually danced (Busked) in the Mall many years ago before they became famous to begin with.

So people prefer beaches, harbourfront bars and parks more than a slightly run down shopping street? It's good to see that someone has spent time, money and effort to make that clear.

Newcastle centre died a long time ago. What could be a coastal jewel (Newcastle has more beach area than any other city in the southern hemisphere) has been left to rot by decades of uncaring leadership, a community that would still vote labour even if there was no labour candidate to vote for, and a filthy, ugly scar of a railway line that spreads it's decay like an infection. Look at every area surrounding the rail line and you'll see drab, overgrown, graffity ridden filth. Then look at the foreshore east of the line, beautiful. Look at the city a couple of streets away from the line, beautiful. Look at Hunter street ......need I say more?

south newcastle beach doesnt even rate a mention. and what about visitors from outside the Newcastle area?

Congratulations Newcastle City Council. For well over ten years residents have been telling you these problems. So you employ consultants to tell you what you have been told for years. NCC closed Hunter Street to traffic. NCC let garbage pile up. NCC gave wall space to the graffiti vandals. Yes NCC is opening Hunter Street to traffic!! Well how about cleaning and maintaining our footpaths and gutters. Stop this love affair with "graffiti art". Then mums and dads will patronise the remaining shops. At the moment all you have done is create a haven for the lowlife in our society, the muggers and thieves and vandals.