We all love this city, but perhaps there’s something you’ve secretly wished was in Brisbane.
Perhaps it’s a particular store chain or service… a change to the city’s infrastructure… or something else other cities have, but is just missing here for some reason.
Don’t say ‘nothing’, that’s cheating! Every city can be improved upon, so what do you think is currently desperately missing in our city?
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
A decent public transportation system — ours is appalling!
I was actually discussing this with my partner and his work mates on our recent trip to Melbourne. Brisbane lacks ambient laneways with boutique shops and gorgeous restaurants that are in alleyways..
the expereience is melbourne is so gorgeous.. why cant we have some of that culture here is Brisvegas?
Proper pubs. Not fake English or Irish pubs, not souless suburban drinking barns with a bottle shop tacked onto the side, but small, friendly bars that have a good ambience, a variety of beers, characters and atmosphere. They can be a bit dingy and run-down, but they must have character, a random drunk who is in there all of the time and they must not have a 200cm plasma, piped music or pokies.
Daylight Savings.
Amanda – it won’t be too long before we have some laneways of our own. Isn’t Burnett Lane between the Queen Street Mall & Adelaide Street about to be redone?
Daylight savings and decent bloody public transport all the way!
It is now here…..a “City to Straddie” 4WD Eco Tour & Bush Tucker experience that will pick you up from your accommodation in Brisbane CBD and show you this Island Paradise we have just off the coast out from Brisbane. I guess 95% of people living in Brisbane have never been to Straddie!
Please click on web site or google Straddie Kingfisher Tours and you will agree with me that Brisbane IS the place to live when you have such a jewel just 40 minutes away.
Hope to see you soon.
A good pool bar and beer garden. We have the weather for it so why not!!
Decent transport?!!! The transport in this city is top notch! People are just too scared to try it themselves. The council has taken leaps and bounds to get a good system going and i think they’ve done a damn good job. Eg. On time & safe security patrolled trains, Efficient river City Cats, environmentally friendly buses & express busways, bicycle hire & bicycle lanes etc…
RJ_MP… are you in Brisbane Australia? I don’t drive and when I catch the train, it is ALWAYS late. Even outside of peak hour and when the train is half empty. Buses are ok if you’re on one of the quieter routes, which of course then you have fewer services running. For the busy routes, the buses sail past full, run late and miss stops.
As my bus sails past South Bank station every afternoon, I see hundreds of people standing there waiting for delayed trains. This is not “top notch”.
If New York City can get it right underground and with 7 million people in Manhattan alone, why can’t Brisbane?
That’s the word – ambience. We’re missing a friendly evening ambience to go with our sultry summer nights.
We’re also missing extended trading hours. It’s a ghost town after 8pm on a weekday.
1) Daylight saving time.
2) Supermarkets that are open after 5pm on a Saturday. You won’t find a Woolworths or Coles supermarket open in suburban Brisbane on a Saturday after 5pm – the CBD stores are open until 7pm. Many Woolworths supermarkets are open until midnight 6 or 7 days a week in Sydney & Melbourne and some Coles supermarkets are open 24 hours in Melbourne. Woolworths at Moree N.S.W (population of about 10 000) is open until 10pm on a Saturday which is 5 hours later than Brisbane suburban Woolworths supermarkets.
3) Public transport from the airport after 8pm. There are about 20 flights that arrive into Brisbane after 8pm each day. Why do we pay a hefty premium to use the Airport Line that provides a service that finishes about 4 hours earlier than other lines. Sydney has a rail service from the airport until almost midnight & Melbourne has a 24 hour bus service.
improved public transport infrastructure. current infrastructure is being ignored for other infrastructure that doesn’t address the problem at hand, rather pushes it in another direction or two. i’ve been through sydney and it’s tunnel: it’s worst than going over the bridge to get to the other side; and the burnley tunnel in melbourn is a shambles from 2:30pm til after 7pm, and yet we want to try the same stupid ideas that they haven’t made work.
entertainment districts that are spread out from the city. the folk who decided that a central entertainment disctrict was a good idea should be shot! it is because of them and increased population growth that we have such problems in the valley at the moment, and why the government is installing these curfews – which only hinder the situation not help it.
more attention to laneways. brisbane has heaps of empty laneways that people are scared to walk down and consequently, a lot of brisbaneites miss out on some of the most awesome places in melbourne because we’re of the natures that “laneway = bad”.
changes to licensing. make it so that smaller venues can have a license but not pay the ridiculously hefty annual fees that are currently in place. this can allow late night licensed cafes to run and provide more places for live (acoustic) music for people to enjoy. brisbane needs more culture and entertainment that it just doesn’t have.
more access to the airtrain after dark. i think it’s ridiculous that we have a train line from the airport that is quicker and cheaper than a taxi, but is not accessible after 7 or 8pm. i have to reorganise my travel to coincide with the travel times of the airtrain, which is horribly limiting. for the cost of the train, it should be available for ALL flights.
My god, Brisbane needs to get with the rest of the world and have fresh food available 24hours a day. Supermarkets that is. I have people coming over tomorrow and looks like I cant give them any food apart from month old snags. 24 HOUR SUPERMARKET PRIORITY NO1.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Train to the airport that runs more often… finishing at 8pm is a joke.
– daylight savings
– extended trading hours suburban supermarkets
– increased train frequency on weekends
– more non-Asian casual places to eat around Toowong/CBD
Definitely the supermarket trading hours, 5pm on a Saturday & 6pm on a Sunday are ridiculous.. I have just moved up from Newcastle & they trade until 10pm on weekends!?
Bike lanes…. proper ones that don’t just disappear randomly….please!
Footpaths. It is so bizarre that some streets have a perfectly good footpath, which suddenly stops half-way down the street. Some streets have no path at all, while others are only on one side of the road. With all the hills & lack of walkways, it doesn’t really encourage me to go for a walk (especially with a baby & stroller).
To comment on a few things said so far.
Public Transport big issue. But in the other hand the tunnels and generally empty and you getca great run :).
Re laneway. Burnett Lane in the cbd has Brew cafe & wine bar. But there is also construction at the mo of another bar and resturant in the lane as well.
We are slowly developing a bit more of a small bar culture as well. Canvas, junk bar etc are fantastic places to go.
Oh and bike lanes. More Please! And a more cycle friendly community would be great.
Decent hotels, awesome resturants and day light saving!
Inner light rail eg to cover west end gabba breakfast creek mayne Milton
As much as I love laneways I don’t think we can pull it off like Melbourne has. That being said, there are a lot of sub-street level spaces that aren’t being used – there used to be some cool shops underground and now they’re nearly all gone.
Totally agree with the comments on supermarket and airport train hours.
We could also do with more shops, spread out so you haven’t seen everything in five minutes, and more one-of-kind stores selling quality local goods instead of dime-a-dozen franchises selling cheap overseas rubbish.
Coffee shops that are open afer 5pm or 6pm so that you can have a coffee after work. Do coffee shops cater for the unemployed? Their opening hours seem to suggest so.
Even if you knock off at 1pm or 1.30pm and go to the gym, hoping to rehydrate after gym (around 4pm) you are hard pressed to find a coffee shop in the suburbs that will be “alive”. Can’t have rural style opening hours but pretend to be a city.
There needs to be more under aged venues for gigs that we can mosh in. There’s already two that are getting shut down. It’s not fair!
AMBIANCE! – Brisbane closes its doors at 5pm….Why? So many people love the evening to go out and enjoy but the streets are empty here. No where else in the world is that the case, apart from small cities. Brisbane needs to invest in its AMBIANCE similar to Melbourne, Tokyo and New York.
We need Brisbane to recognise the “Jewel in the Crown” over at North Stradbroke Island. Very accessible (only 20 minutes away), natures playground with plenty of wildlife to view.
We also don’t need daylight saving in Summer we need it in Winter when the extra hour would be more appreciated.
Better roads and public transport. Commute is hell is brisbane.. probably the number one reason I left that place. Daylight savings would help too during winter months, not seeing the sun at all during the work week is a bit unsettling.
Daylight saving – Brisbane, most easterly city in Australia. Sunrise at 4.30 am, sunset at 6pm. Really. Off to bed at 8pm, to be able to sleep at “night”. Can’t kick a ball ith the kids when I get home from work at 6.30pm because it’s dark. Suppose I could wake them at 5am! Missed meetings due to inter-state confusion, extra overnight accommodation cost & time away from family when travelling to Melbourne for morning meetings. All to keep the minority in north Qld happy, when they’re west longitudinally to Brisbane & inherently enjoy later sunrise & sunsets to Brisbane. About time the politicians had a reality check.
I want to see an improvement in the running of public transport. Buses I have to catch for work are NEVER on time they vary between being 10 minutes early and 20 mins late, rarely arriving close to its scheduled time. Despite translinks apparent commitment to on time services.
And like everyone else is saying 24 hour (or at least late running) supermarkets.
I don’t really see the point in daylight savings in summer time because the days are at their longest then anyway. If you’re going to have daylight savings have it in winter.
1) Trams (which we once had) that run up and down the major roads
2) Buses that have some logic in their route and direction
3) Life. The city just dies after 5pm 6pm
4) Daylight Savings, Please, Please, Please.
Daylight saving in Winter only when you need the extra daylight hour.
Nothing
Good government and a vision for the future.
After many years and several exhibitions it s obvious there are many supporters of motor sport and motoring in general. I still believe that a heritage motor museum is missing in Brisbane. We ran theColour of Motorsport Exhibition, a cooperative effort with the Ipswich Art Gallery that was teh most successful regional exhibitionin Australia with over 20,000 visitations over the 12 weeks. All we need is a building and some fundingto proceed.
daylights savings – but in summer please! Too cold in winter to be outside and quite nice to snuggle up inside with bowl of soup – but in summer it would be great to be able to work in the garden or play with the kids after work. Plus would be good not to be woekn so early by the sunshine and the birds!
Daylight saving. light at 4.30am, and dark at 6.30pm in summer. Hopeless!