page_title: Parramatta Road
section_title: Urban blight
hierarchical_section_title: Parramatta Road / Urban blight
caption_attribution_description: former cinema in Homebush on Parramatta Road
context_page_description: Parramatta Road is the major historical east-west artery of metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting the Sydney CBD with Parramatta. It is the easternmost part of the Great Western Highway. Since the 1980s its role has been augmented by the City West Link Road and Motorway M4.
  The road begins as a continuation of George Street at Harris St Ultimo and as far as City Road is called Broadway. Its 23 kilometres distance is dominated by caryards and small marginally-viable shops. At the same time, however, it has over 100 abandoned and derelict stores. Owing to this and its abrasively noisy traffic, it has rarely been considered beautiful.
  Opened in 1811, it is one of Sydney's oldest roads and Australia's first road between two cities. Today, over 3 million commuters every year drive Parramatta Road. The road is the hub of Sydney's motor dealership industry - with 67% of the adjacent land used for motor retailing and services.
context_section_description: The road has been criticised by the community for its traffic pollution, congestion, and for its vacant shops and rundown buildings, particularly between Leichhardt and Concord, and local government has been accused of failing to adopt policies to encourage the redevelopment and regeneration of vacant sites.
  A local mayor described it as a "varicose vein". A NSW Business Chamber Executive Patricia Forsythe said that the road is "one of the least attractive commercial areas of Sydney". Former NSW premier Nick Greiner thought the road looked "like Beirut on a bad day". The Sydney Morning Herald writer Elizabeth Farrelly dismissed it as a "filthy hole". On a lighter note, Tess De Quincey, an Australian performer/director said, "Every chapter of Sydney's history has been written on Parramatta Road." A Sydney Morning Herald editor said that whilst the road is "ugly in parts, drab in others, and generally unpleasant", it is still "fundamental to the economic and social viability of the greater city".
  Since the 1970s many buildings fronting Parramatta Road, especially those in the prime locations of the Inner West (from Homebush to Newtown), have become vacant and fallen into disrepair, with many vandalised. Previously these buildings were a major part of local life for the suburbs along Parramatta Road, providing employment, retailing and other services. The buildings with graffiti and broken windows provide a sight that is sought out by graffiti artists and proficient urban photographers.
  Nicholas Munning, an owner of a music store in Annandale, described the road as, "A lost cause...You can see the hodgepodge of buildings - abandoned buildings, abandoned shops - [with people thinking] let’s just let this sit here for four years until we get council approval to knock it down and build apartments...They don’t care if it sits there vacant with broken windows...The problem is the whole road looks like that. So nobody is going to say, 'hey, this is a great area. I’m going to spend $x making a really classy looking shop or restaurant'.” 
  Furthermore, the NSW Government has proposed to allow up to 35,000 homes along the road by 2035. However, revitalisation is worth millions of dollars to developers, with such plans also being met with roadblocks from local governments, thus leading to prolonged court disputes as the buildings continue to decay.
caption: Homebush Cinema, built in 1925, is one of the many derelict establishments on the road, which operated until 1996 as a reception centre.
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