There will be a wedding-themed market at Oxford Square (corner Crown and Riley) with tunes provided all day long by Ricardo's Mobile Sound System.
Sat 24, nestled in between Fair Day and the Parade, is the middle weekend of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival and is the perfect weekend to explore and enjoy Oxford Street & Surrounds.
Bitcoin on the map in Sydney’s city
This month Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) had about 40 businesses attend an evening on crypto-currencies ahead of an influx of interstate and international visitors for Mardi Gras — almost all of whom were interested in implementing technology to allow them to accept bitcoin.
'Yes' vote means it is time for Taylor Square makeover
"Longer term, the Darlinghurst Business Partnership has ideas worth pursuing. They are calling on state government to legislate Oxford Street as an arts, culture and innovation precinct, predicated on improving transit and enhancing the night-time economy. Central to their plans is the renewal of Taylor Square as a "people place" by reclaiming the Supreme Court's forecourt and redesigning Taylor Square South."
Sydney Morning Herald - 27-12-2017
Push for pilot project to create an arts and cultural precinct to reinvigorate Oxford St
Heather McNab, CENtRAL - October 25, 2017 10:58a
A PLAN to turn Oxford St into an arts, culture and innovation precinct could give it a new lease on life.
The idea comes as community groups, City of Sydney council and local MPs have renewed calls to reinvigorate the strip and roll back lockout laws.
The late night precinct has sustained ongoing blows since the introduction of the Baird government’s controversial lockout laws in 2014.
Oxford Street Properties 03/08/2017
Local businesses are taking it upon themselves to fill vacant shopfronts on Oxford Street, as the City of Sydney continues to allow the streetscape to decline.
It has been reported that short-term tenants of 66 Oxford Street recently vacated the building impacting the profit of nearby café Greenhouse Coffee.
Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) chairperson Stephan Gyory said: “They’ve just left all the spaces empty, I believe the ACP [Australian Centre for Photography] are still in there and then there’s a little café next door and then it’s pretty much empty both sides until Crown Street, which is disappointing…there’s a couple of other empty shops on the street but I’ve noticed a few of those are filling in. Past Taylor Square it’s a bit grim. The whole stretch is a bit of a dead zone unfortunately.”
A City of Sydney spokesperson said: “There are currently 13 tenants occupying space within this property [66 Oxford Street].”
The anti-competitive lockout laws are so biased against local businesses, they should never have been enacted but once they were they should have been state wide. Oxford Street is not even a separate precinct according to the lockout laws; just part of the CBD :/
FEELING THE PINCH, GAY OXFORD ST RETAILER FORCED TO CLOSE HIS DOORS
Darlinghurst Business Partnership, said the NSW Government needs to give the precinct more attention with the impact of the lockout laws now trickling to daytime businesses.
“A lot of the businesses have managed to weather the lockouts,” Gyory said. “They were diverse, they weren’t reliant on the night time economy, but this change in behaviour with people now going to Newtown and other places is having an impact. If you’re not coming, drinking or having dinner in an area, you’re not window shopping at night so you’re not shopping during the day, and that’s starting to really pinch people out here.
“The lockouts that has taken the puff and wind out of the sails.” GNN
And another one. Sydney Central 07-09-2016
Someone likes our idea - 06-09-2016
Knights in Shining Armour 31/08/2016
THE Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) might be the knight in shining armour for Sydney’s fledgling Oxford St precinct as it unveils its ideas to revitalise the area.
The DBP’s plans were unveiled today after lengthy consultations with relevant stakeholders and now it wants to hear what you think of its ideas.
The partnership said it is clear that development will come to Oxford Street and if it is managed creatively and effectively it believed it does not need to “spell the end of the City of Sydney’s last arts, culture and entertainment precinct”.
“Sydney has suffered from a lack of coherent planning for the 24-hour, globalised gig-economy that major cities are moving towards. Laws have been made reactively and on the fly,” DBP president Stephan Győry said.
“We are not anti-development; in fact we expect and welcome it. We want to ensure quality development that enhances our local culture, rather than displaces it.”
East Sydney - Here We Come!
Oxford Street in the News Again 23/7/2015
“What we would like to see on a state level is a recognition that Darlinghurst isn’t the CBD, and have them carve it out of the area as well, and we would like to see it as a more sophisticated 24 hour economy, with movies that screen at midnight and shops that stay open late and wine bars – a late night economy that isn’t based on getting pissed and passing out.”
Alt Media
DoDarlo in June
DoDarlo, an initiative brought to life by the Darlinghurst Business Partnersship, will see small businesses in Darlinghurst team up to create a number of unique events. The month of June will see small businesses in the vibrant inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst transform. Businesses will be partnering up with their neighbours to bring their customers totally unique, one-off, collaborative events. Rather than create one larger festival, the organisers thought that since Darlinghurst means so many different things to so many different people, a single event could never do the suburb justice. Activities and events throughout the month will be varied, and include game prototyping, community garden building, late-night shopping parties and arts workshops, amongst other exciting things. And being Darlinghurst, there'll be plenty of scrumtpious food and drinks to keep you satisfied. - See more at: http://www.thebrag.com/arts/darlinghurst-introduces-new-month-long-program-events-dodarlo
KNOWN for being one of Sydney’s busiest shopping precincts, Oxford St has fallen on hard times — but shop owners hope to turn it all around with the launch of DoDarlo.
The Darlinghurst Business Partnership is encouraging the working community to band together for a month-long program of one-off events in an effort to bolster the precinct’s appeal.
Positioned just five-minutes from the CBD, Darlo, as it is colloquially known, is home to a collection of shops, bars, restaurants, galleries and creative venues.
However, for the past five years the precinct has lost significant foot traffic due to the implementation of bus lanes which have turned the once bustling Oxford St boulevard into a six-lane mini-highway.
RETAILERS and businesses in the LGBTI-centric suburb of Darlinghurst are ramping up efforts to attract visitors this month after the popular Vivid Sydney light festival once again overlooked the inner-city neighbourhood.
Tomorrow night, travellers and locals will be encouraged to eschew Vivid in favour of tours of the art, food and fashion that can be found just off Oxford St.
Last year, an estimated 1.5 million people attended Vivid — billed as a “festival of light, music and ideas” — which has grown to become the city’s largest winter festival.
Originally centred on the Sydney Opera House, the state government-run festival has steadily expanded and can now be found in suburbs including Erskineville, Chippendale, Pyrmont and even Chatswood which is about 10 kilometres from the CBD.
However, moves to bring the festival’s striking night time projections and light sculptures the few kilometres from the harbour to Surry Hills, Potts Point or Darlinghurst have so far failed which a local business leader claims is due to the high cost of becoming a “Vivid festival precinct”.
With these figures in mind, the Australian Council For The Arts has begun funding video game based arts projects. One such project is by Catherine Fargher, who was given a grant to help develop her highly successful childrens’ theatre show into an interactive multi-platform gaming format. “I’m working with a screen director and multi-platform producers to create a games platform, TV episodes and an interactive storybook,” said Fargher. As part of the month-long DoDarlo festivities, Fargher and her collaborators at Hero Videogames are running Game Prototyping With Dr Egg, an event for children to come along and get a small insight into the games development industry, whilst also testing out the prototype of their new game The Dr Egg Adventures.
The Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) has announced the first 'DoDarlo' this June.
DoDarlo will see Darlinghurst small businesses teaming up to create a month full of unique, one-off events for everyone coming through their doors.
With the aim of supporting and nourishing local small business, DoDarlo is all about maximising the Darlinghurst experience, and will feature a multitude of local businesses hooking up with neighbouring businesses to bring their customers a series of collaborative events.
Some of the venues and businesses involved in the inaugural DoDarlo include: Ching-a-lings, Zoo Emporium, The Old Growler, Little Zara Café, Baby Likes to Pony, Jason Moss Jewellery, Brad Ngata Hair Direction, Black Eye Gallery, Radio Free Alice, The Record Store and Café Lounge.
From game prototyping to community garden building, from late night shopping parties to arts workshops and everything in between, DoDarlo will see a wide range of events on offer, as well as a multitude of top quality food and drinks. Link.
TSQ Rainbow Flag to stay :)
"Darlinghurst Business Partnership president Stephan Gyory said it made no sense to remove the flagpole now it was installed.
“I’ve got one word: perplexed,” he said.
“Who spends $50,ooo on a temporary flagpole? Why would you pull it down? Who’s it harming?”
Asked about Moore’s preference for an artwork, Gyory, who owns Darlinghurst’s Record Store, said: “Can’t you have an artwork and a flagpole?”
“I don’t think anyone has come to Australia to visit the flagpole but I reckon anyone who gets to Taylor Square goes, that’s a pretty cool flagpole,” he added."
Sydney’s Lockout Laws Have Hurt Business
Interviews with some of our licensed members, who comprise less than 5% off our members base.
Sydney's lockout laws were enacted to combat alcohol-fuelled violence in the city's CBD. People on the street after 1.30am are now locked out of bars and clubs, while last drinks are called at 3. These laws — which came into effect February last year — were largely in response to the king–hit deaths of Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross.
A year on, Kings Cross LAC Superintendent Michael Fitzgerald told VICE rates of alcohol-related violence and crime in his precinct have significantly decreased. "From a Kings Cross perspective the lockouts have been hugely successful," he said.
But business owners in neighbouring Darlinghurst say they're being unfairly penalised. When the lockouts were brought in, there wasn't a violence problem in their local area. And since then takings are down by up to 40 percent, employees' shifts are being cut, and patron numbers are in decline. Rather than blanket legislation, they're calling for better policing.
Call to Expand Lockouts before Election
Earlier today, the Darlinghurst Business Partnership – a City of Sydney lobby group comprising the owners of businesses like Ching-a-Lings and The Record Store – called on the state government to either repeal the lockout laws or expand them statewide. The group condemned the laws as unfair on small businesses in the Darlinghurst area. “We must find a way to move beyond legislating for all based on the lowest common denominator,” the group declared in a press release
Read more at www.inthemix.com.au
Livid, not Vivid
A PLAN to boost the numbers of visitors to Sydney’s LGBTI-friendly neighbourhood of Darlinghurst by expanding the popular Vivid light festival appear to be in tatters with local traders claiming they were asked to stump up $250,000 by organisers — an amount they say they simply don’t have.
Bringing Vivid to Darlinghurst could have led to light projections around Taylor Square, artworks in laneways and talks in local shops and bars.
However, at a special meeting of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) last week, members were told discussions with the state government-backed festival faltered when local businesses were asked to fund the event’s expansion themselves.
DBP President and owner of Crown St’s Record Store, Stephan Gyory, told the Star Observer the financial hurdle was simply too high for the group’s members, most of whom are local independent shop owners.
“It’s outrageous that it’s a quarter of a million to buy into the Vivid festival as a precinct,” he said.
“If you don’t have a lot of money you can’t get a lot. We’re trying to build our villages but these festivals are only open to corporates.”
Business groups accuse Shooters Party, NSW Liberals and Clover Moore of hijacking business vote reform
"“Over the course of our experience as an advocacy group with the council we just came to the conclusion we weren’t being listened to in the same way residents are being listened to,” Mr Gyory said.
“The Shooters & Fishers politicised the issue for their own gain and they’ve handed a fight to Clover and now she’s using it.
“Because they’ve politicised the issue, what they’ve done in the process is try to divide the community.
JESSICA CLEMENT - WENTWORTH COURIER - SEPTEMBER 03, 2014 11:04AM
Support gathers for removal of Oxford Street clearway
The Daily Telegraph’s Miranda Devine has directed harsh criticisms at Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s plan to remove a clearway on Oxford Street.
“Clover Moore lives in a fantasy world where people spend their time sitting around cafes drinking chai or riding pushbikes,” Ms Devine wrote.
In response, long-time resident, business owner and chair of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership, Stephan Gyory told City Hub: “Miranda [Devine] and the Telegraph have no idea what they’re talking about, they just hate Clover and want to oppose everything she does.”
Time to Wean Sydney off the Festival Crack
The Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP), which represents traders in and around Oxford St, cautiously welcomed the proposal but called for it to be more “nuanced.”
DBP president and co-owner of Darlinghurst’s The Record Store Stephan Gyory said Sydney needed to be “weaned off its festival crack,” whereby all events were in the CBD or harbour.
“We are doing a disservice by having everything in the CBD,” he said.
“I trade 355 days a year and [CBD-focused] festivals tend to suck the life out of Darlinghurst so we’re dead.”
While cultural festivals along Oxford St were welcome, Gyory said markets and food festivals actually encouraged people to stay away from local traders.
“Vivid would bring people to the area but food and wine festivals empties us,” he said.
Culture Change Needed at the RMS
The Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) refuse to see Oxford St as a popular destination for shoppers and consumers, he said. “Unfortunately, the RMS continues, to this day, to consider Oxford St a ‘gateway’ to the CBD [central business district], not a destination in its own right.
“The lack of sense of place on Oxford St could be ameliorated by a 40kmh speed limit and the wholesale removal of clearways.
Alt Media 12-6-2014
Central Sydney Magazine 21-04-2014
Should the City of Sydney even own property?
Mr Gyory said his part of the city had been left behind.
“No-one ever talks about East Sydney. From Woolloomoolloo to Waterloo to Darlinghurst there is a massive untapped quarter,” he said.
“It will be very unfortunate for council not to look at the bigger picture which is trying to improve our daytime economy to draw traffic from across the city. This refurbishment is a small step, but we need help.”