INNER CITY BLUES: Nick Greiner has previously described Newcastle as looking like 'Beirut on a bad Friday night' . Yesterday he called the CDB a market failure.
NICK GREINER
FORMER premier and state government infrastructure adviser Nick Greiner has described the Newcastle and Wollongong central business districts as ‘‘examples of market failures’’.
Addressing a business lunch in Sydney, Mr Greiner said yesterday both areas were in need of renewal and strategies to boost resident numbers.
He called for a proper debate on urban renewal and higher-density development in the state’s major cities.
Mr Greiner has previously said the rail line should be removed from Newcastle’s inner city, describing the area as ‘‘looking a bit like Beirut on a bad Friday night’’.
However, the revitalisation of the city centre was not among the projects recommended to the government in a recent infrastructure strategy from the independent advisory body Infrastructure NSW, of which Mr Greiner is chairman.
Mr Greiner said the state government was instead considering the issue.