Alcohol in the home

Paul Stanley has been on a campaign to stop binge drinking and residual violence associated with the act. Paul Stanley was faced with the terrible reality of losing his 18 year old son to a drunken assault at a party. A fatal punch was all it took for Paul’s son’s life to be cut short at the tender age of 18.

Since then, Paul has visited over 150,000 school students to educate them on the dangers of drinking and aggressive behaviour associated with binging on alcohol.

“I ask everybody in the room to close their eyes and to think about the person they know and love the most in their life,

“And it finishes with: ‘Think of that beautiful look on their face when you walked around the corner the other day and they were there, the look of happiness and the big hug you got. Now, open your eyes and just imagine that was the last time you ever saw them.'”

Stepping away from statistics and police scare tactics, emotional conditioning is perhaps a way to get through to our youth and to encourage them to drink responsibly. Kings Cross is a hotspot for binge drinking and it is time that more educational methods are in place to make sure the youth of Australia are not so thrilled at the idea of drinking in excess.

A flood of raging 18year olds into Kings Cross is hardly what is needed.

The French culture, for example, introduces alcohol to their youth at ages of 12 or even younger. This, although it might seem ludicrous at first, is allowing children to become used to the effects of alcohol. Due to age restrictions on alcohol consumption and strict rules about supplying alcohol to minors, it seems Australian laws dictate that until the day you turn 18, no alcohol should be consumed. Perhaps this is the wrong way to go about it.

If we allow our youth to experience alcohol in their homes prior to turning 18, perhaps we are reducing the risk of binge drinking and we are taking away the excitement of alcohol. This ‘off-limits’ attitude is doing more damage than good, as 18year olds are flooded the streets of Kings Cross and drinking past their limits, resulting in unnecessary violence and even leading to drug abuse.

Do you think minors should be introduced to alcohol in the home before they reach the legal drinking age?

To read more on Paul Stanley’s campaign, follow this link –> http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/dads-education-campaign-against-alcohol-fuelled-violence-dedicated-to-son-matthew-stanley-who-died-after-being-punched-at-18th-party-walk-away-chill-out-and-matthew-stanley-foundation/story-fndo45r1-1226435070823

You have the power!

After all this talk of social change, I think it’s time that we took it step by step. Person by person.

As an individual, we all have the power to provoke cultural and social change. Take it upon yourselves to alienate binge drinkers from the cross.

Let’s promote healthy drinking in small bars and lounges.

Let’s go out for late night dinners and enjoy a glass of red wine with friends rather than a shot of tequila and a late night maccas stop.

Get involved and help move Kings Cross towards a brighter future!

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE!!!

Brute Force: Have we gone over the top?

Roberto Laudisio Curti died in the early hours of the morning on March 18th. In recent stories it has been revealed that police used their taser guns 14 times and excessive force to take down the Brazilian born man shortly before his death. Curti was under the influence of LSD, a hallucinogenic drug. 

Currently undergoing trial it got me thinking about the methods of our police force and whether or not their actions are creating a nanny state, where individuals are childish and out of control in need of excessive policing. 

If the police are willing to use excessive force to control a single man who stole two packets of biscuits from the convenience store, what kind of measures are they willing to take to control the Kings Cross strip? 

This instance may be rare, but is it coming to a point where our Police are forcing us to act out in rebellion and continue the drug and alcohol fuelled violence within Sydney’s Kings Cross. 

To read more about Roberto Laudisio Curti click the following link:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/robertos-last-frenzied-moments-20121008-279hp.html

 

The repercussions of Hollywood

A little slow on the uptake, but the other night I watched the movie, Project X. After watching it I had two thoughts. 

1. Holy shit, that was awesome. 

and 2. Let’s go out. 

After eventually calming down and realising that this was just a movie, I started think about the repercussions of these glorified Hollywood films. Project X made me want to go and riot through the city with a million friends and shots of tequila. Are we too impressionable as the youth of this world and do we get caught up in the beauty of Hollywood?

I think it is time to tear ourselves away from the ‘cool’ stigma associated with binge drinking and drugs. What do you think? Take a look at the trailer and see what kind of emotions you get at the close….

 

Link

The Cross: then & now

This is a cool function I found on the SMH website which allows you to slide between then and now pictures of Kings Cross.

Interesting to note the amount of people in picture 4 of the Kings Cross Fountain. Once a daytime social outing, now quite empty in the day and a place for drunken visitors to make a fool of themselves at night.

Do you think much has changed between the photos and the attitudes surrounding Kings Cross?

The Golden Mile: are we attracted to the thug life?

We’ve all seen some, if not all of the Underbelly series which gave a glimpse into life in Kings Cross in the late 80’s to the late 90’s. We watched as big name gangsters came to life on the TV screen and we were transfixed by the drama that unfolded. But is all of this completely damaging the the Cross’s reputation. As we understand it, the media paints a rather tainted image of the cross and the drug and alcohol fuelled violence which occurs week in and week out, but is this constant media presence and the glorification of the gangster/thug life making it hard for the Cross to turn the long overdue corner?

Perhaps the media and the glamourous life of television is standing in the way of Kings Cross moving away from the thug lifestyle. After watching the video above I was blown away by the type of comments young YouTube users were posting and I couldn’t help but think that this television drama made the Cross appealing for all the wrong reasons and is the main standstill for change when it comes to cleaning up the streets of Kings Cross.

YouTube user comments on the Underbelly 3 fight scene with Danny

Are we enticing our youth into the Kings Cross strip with drugs and alcohol? ‘Monkey see as Monkey do’ – This is a continuous ripple effect throughout the generations and will continue to be a drug and alcohol hub unless we can change that train of thought. The above comments showcase that thug mentality – where the youth are in awe of gangsters and thugs thinking that they are ‘cool’ and that drinking and fighting in bars and clubs shows just how tough they really are. “Wata maad cunttt” – aside from grammar and spelling being uncool, it seems that our impressionable youth are more and more eager to jump on the alcohol and violence band wagon and run riot through Kings Cross. It’s time for change people!!! Let’s clean up Kings Cross.

La Ramblas, Barcelona and Kings Cross (Part Two)

After many long-winded conversations with friends about the places that should inspire change within Kings Cross I have come up with a list.

Below are the top 4 places that should enlist change within Kings Cross to diversify cultural activities and to reduce the risks of drug and alcohol fuelled violence within the area.

Number One:

Union Street, San Francisco!

Union Street, San Francisco

Union Street is notorious for its nightlife in San Francisco. It is not only  hot spot at night, but also during the day much unlike Kings Cross. The need for cultural diversity in terms of mixed-use neighborhoods is dire. Union Street features a large range of cafes, restaurants, street markets and shopping as well as night clubs and other nightlife venues – a must for Kings Cross to disperse the drunk and disorderly crowds.

Number Two:

Carnaby Street, Soho, London

Carnaby Street, London

The shopping hot spot for London has expanded into the ‘it’ place for drinks and dinner. Although the street itself is packed with shops and boutiques, there are a large amount of pubs, clubs and restaurants and bars that sit in the streets which run off the main drag. Carnaby Street has a large nightlife but the culture within the area is vastly different to the drinking culture within the Cross. Another example of how the strip can be changed due to infiltration of alternative activities into a binge-drinking hub.

Number Three:

La Ramblas, Barcelona

La Ramblas, Barcelona

As mentioned in my previous post, La Ramblas Barcelona is an all pedestrian area filled to the brim with nightlife, street markets, restaurants, shopping districts and masses of other activities. You’d think the council would get the picture by now? Kings Cross needs a change in lifestyle!

Number Four:

Manly Corso, Manly

Manly Corso, Manly

A local favourite. Not too few years ago the Corso encountered it’s problems. Manly, although similar to other examples of lively daytime activities, does present itself in a similar fashion to Kings Cross Nightlife. Recently an influx of small bars and restaurants have managed to keep the raucous activities of the drunk and disorderly to a minimum and assault and violent acts have drastically reduced due to this shift, as well as due to an increased police presence.

Should band-aid solutions be tossed out the door? We need to focus on long term solutions like a cultural shift and we need to start acting now! What are your thoughts?

What do you think?

 

And as always, feel free to leave comments!

To Press The Button.

Kings Cross must be stuck in the middle of this. And by ‘this’ I mean a social and cultural conundrum, and it needs to break free. On one hand, its wading through a plethora of relentless media scrutiny surrounding its contemporary issues of alcohol/drug fueled violence. All the while on the other, having a responsibility to maintaining a historical providence over its importance to Sydney’s east, its identity and past time.

It’s no easy task, and being caught in the middle is essentially being caught in no mans land – a cultural and social void of friction transactions of services, our virtuous vices and the like.

Recently, when the El Alamein Memorial Fountain was reopned after just under 6 months under restoration, a community gathering in July this past winter, met the water swtiched on with glee and enthusiasm, much like when it was first opened in 1961. Its signifiers of community here that doiminat the cuktural and social relevence of this precinct. perhaps its not stuck in this no mans land after all? perhaps all it needs is to rebadge and debunk the past, bring the community and the past of Kings Cross from behind the clogging of inferior copies, dust and grime and let Kings Cross History dictate a degree of diversity. It’s this kind of historical relevence of the precnintc that shouldn’t get lost around the haze of irrelevancy as blogger Violet Tingle puts it “a proliferation of kebab shops, Chinese massage places, tobacconists, hairdressers and chemists…”. It was great to read her account and documentation of the El Alamein Memorial Fountain being re-opened after its refurbishment and her accompanying time capsule stories. A grab of this in 1971 where journalist Carol Henty quoted the Fountain designer Robert Woodward,

“You can know, of course, that it’s going to work. But until you press the button you never know whether it will have that extra touch of magic.”

Prophetic for the fountain, its memorial, its eternal symbolism and perhaps even commentary of the Kings Cross conundrum. One will never know about the potential of change until you press the button. Thats the aim of this forum and blog, to spread ideas, to stimulate the malignant, to activate the benign amongst the negativity and red-taped stuffed mechanisms of government measures. To get us thinking about pressing that button, to seek that ‘extra touch of magic.’

Setting the Wheels in Motion

Finally, some change is coming to Kings Cross, a massive three months after the death of Thomas Kelly, when drastic change was first called.

As of Friday 28September 10 additional late night, weekend bus services will operate in the Cross. These include six additional bus services from Kings Cross to Central and four from Kings Cross to Town Hall. The main objective of these bus services is to get people out of Kings Cross during the hours of 1am-5am when public transport options were previously non existent.

The routes are as follows:

• Route 999 to Central – Operate express every 15 minutes between 1am and 5am.

•  Route N100 Town Hall express – This express service will operate in one direction from Kings Cross to Town Hall and then to Central every 30 minutes between 1.15am and 4.45am.

• Route N100 Bondi Junction and Central- Route N100 will run every 30 minutes between 1am and 5am in both directions between Bondi Junction and Central.

More info about the bus service can be found at the NSW transport website

 It’s great to hear that there will also be a new and improved taxi rank as of the 12^th of October in the Cross.

Hopefully these are a step in the right direction to bringing some much needed change to the Kings Cross area. However, as good as these changes are, a lot more needs to be done and hopefully the government starts looking to more permanent, long term solutions that will bring about the social change we are after.

Did you see or use the new bus service this weekend? Let us know your thoughts.