For too long, the centre of Civic has been neglected in favour of other parts of our city. The centre of the Canberra should be obvious, inviting and viable. Instead, Civic has been snubbed in favour of other precincts.

In 2010, Jon Stanhope announced that City West would be the focus of redevelopment in the city through the ANU Exchange project. Separate from this, the Molonglo Group has created a superb precinct at Acton that demonstrates what can be achieved through entrepreneurialism. To the north, Braddon is quickly taking off as a sought-after area for entertainment and residences. The government has also announced ambitious and expensive plans for "City to the Lake", to Civic's south, and the government's redevelopment of ABC will pull the City East over Cooyong Street for the first time. So, in a city serving 400,000 people with several competing town centres, the CBD is being pulled to the north, south, east and west. With so much off-centre focus, it is no wonder that the heart of the city, City Walk and Garema Place, is not as good as it could be.

The heart of the city, including Garema Place, is not as good as it could be, Alistair Coe says. Credit:Emma Macdonald

I am cautious about governments that have grand bureaucratic plans about where people should go. While a framework and broad land-use planning are required, especially in a leasehold system, we should not be overly prescriptive in trying to pick winners. Where possible, we should define the threshold and allow creativity from there onwards.

I believe that part of the reason for the decay in the city centre is due to government's move towards getting rid of vehicular traffic and installing pedestrian malls. Such malls can work well in very busy cities, but even then, they have their problems. In a city such as Canberra, to have a near 50-metre wide mall along City Walk, the width of the Bourke Street or Pitt Street malls, with a fraction of the people movement, is questionable. This is evident at any time of the week other than weekday lunch hours, but even then, pedestrian traffic is light.