The Australian Financial Review today wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece on Mosman Village Community’s fight to stop Woolworths and over-development in Mosman, suggesting our opposition ‘is a form of retail snobbery’.
Are we being parochial or protective in our efforts to stop dozens of extra trucks and hundreds of extra cars every day on the already-congested Military Road?
“This is one of the few remaining village-type high streets in Sydney,” says Colin Gunn, a spokesman for the group. “A major shopping centre would change the nature of the village.”
Read of the story here and decide for yourself.
Supporting local business is not snobbery. It’s actually about keeping the essence of a village. We bought in Mosman for the quiet village feel. It’s something we treasure in our community. As it is traffic gets congested on a Saturday and during the week. There simply isn’t the infrastructure to have even more cars on the road.
Appreciate the tone the article was going for, but it sorely missed the mark in my opinion. It’s not retail snobbery to want to support local businesses in the face of big chains. But further, as you rightly point out, the impact it will have on the community more broadly, inclusive of traffic (on an already congested road). It will change the face of a village community, for the primary gain of big business. We strongly oppose the proposal.