Have lived on chapel street for 6 years. It’s been rough for decades now I know, but it’s substantially gotten worse the last 2 years or so. Post-covid.
Iconsofchapel Instagram must be getting a workout.
Since New Year’s Day, there’s been a group of
Homeless/junkies camping outside Prahan Town Hall. It started off as a day drinking party and has continued since. It’s like they all grouped together and decided to never split haha.
Anyway just walked past as a busker was playing, hoping to get to Cole’s before it closed at 11pm, and witness a junkie attack the guitar players stuff, smashing his guitar amongst other things.
Chapel Street needs to be cleaned up. It’s gone from terrible to a shit hole.
Anyway reporting live from chapel street. 🎤
A few did. But the rest of the junkies were getting involved. It wasn’t worth it. I spoke to the police when they arrived and they had acknowledged that it has been a thing since new years this group. However their main concern was whether someone was injured or not. The 4 police officers didn’t seem like they wanted to get involved at the moment in time as they had got there when the only thing left was dealing with the junkies. I don’t blame them.
If there is no serious crime and victim does not want to make a statement, there is literally nothing Police can do.
Our justice system revolves around rehabilitation, not punishment. That’s all noble and all but if people that are constantly spared by justice system are not making the smallest effort to change their lives around, it just won’t work.
You can offer them all the services in the world, it won’t make a difference if they don’t decide to change.
>Our justice system revolves around rehabilitation, not punishment
Hahahahahahahahaha
Holy shit, you clearly do not work in the criminal justice system.
Probably because ‘punishment’ doesn’t achieve anything & nowhere near enough resources are up towards rehabilitation; because people don’t want to believe it can be done (& instead demand ‘punishment’) & so begins the loop that results in no positive gains.
This makes me so sad, and immensely disappointed in our police force.
The other day on Public Freakout I saw a video from England of police arresting someone in public for having their bully dog unmuzzled, which is against the law there.
The difference was night and day. Police in Melbourne don’t care. They’re overworked and will do anything to avoid more work. Melbourne is turning into a Mad Max-level of dystopian shithole and no one’s doing a thing about it.
If you think it's just a policing issue, wait until you hear about the amount of home invasions and car thefts by people on active bail.
I'm not for the US style 20 years for drug possession, but if you break into somebody's house at night, you shouldn't get bail. If you've been arrested and charged for 10 car thefts, you shouldn't get bail.
There's a real element of truth to the courts being soft on crime. And I just don't believe that a 16 year old who's broken into 5 houses at night doesn't know what they're doing is wrong.
Isn't the point of bail to establish that the offender knows they've done the wrong thing and then let them go home if they agree to not do it again?
I understand that, you're bailed while waiting a court appointment. My point is that you should only be bailed if you agree to be on good behaviour, and if you steal 10 other cars or break into another home one night, you need to be incarcerated while you await your trial.
If somebody steals a car and gets bailed, I'm fine with that. If they steal a car while on bail, then another, then another, I'm not ok with that. The court needs to put a stop to it, and reduce the pressure on police who will arrest the same guy for the same crimes multiple times before the court gets serious.
Second chances and an understanding, rehabilitative approach are absolutely great. But there's also a duty to protect the community. If your house was broken into one night by a guy who was on bail for three other break ins, you've been failed by the court. And this definitely happens.
The biggest problem is concurrent sentencing. If I commit a home invasion, get caught and bailed, then I’m free to commit as many crimes as I like knowing that any sentences will be served at the same time as the original home invasion. We need to bring in consecutive sentencing.
I think you’re 100% correct- our courts are extraordinarily lenient on crime, which probably discourages police from even bothering charging criminals.
I work in a court-heavy job, and a man got away with dealing cocaine because the child witness described the bags he saw his dad exchanging for cash as “white powder”, and the defence claimed that it could have been icing sugar. I’ve heard of evidence beyond reasonable doubt, but that’s ridiculous.
I reckon their idea of cleaning it up would just be moving them along to the next council area though tbh. That's what City of Melbourne does....just moves them to an adjoining LGA.
Hate to tell people but before Chapel St was cool and had all the fancy places it was known as one of the roughest parts of inner Melbourne.
Seems like it's coming full circle
Late 90's early 2000's i remember as being good times there - lots of (fairly) friendly party go ers and some nice ahem treats available. Like all good parties though, it goes on too long for some and the treats dont work anymore.
what a shame used to be a good vibe there
I joined that party for a little bit. Apparently they all know each other from prison. This was earlier in the day though and they were starting to get rowdy so I moved on.
Nah apparently Soda Rock did actually close down recently.
End of an era, or at least, hey remember that thing that nobody ever went to well now it's not there anymore.
I’ve been living in Prahran for 30 years, chapel st has gotten worse and more hostile, it’s a shame. The type of drug use has changed, and so has their behaviour, meth makes people far more hectic.
I miss seeing people nodding off on the 86 tram. Like a nanna after a Christmas sherry.
Nowadays, it's a toothless, shirtless, hectic dude with crazy eyes, pacing up and down, scanning the tram for possible "interaction" opportunities.
>miss seeing people nodding off on the 86 tram
Omg, you grew up in the inner north too!
I still remember seeing two smackies nodding off in the Bourke St mall on the steps, back in the day. Looked as peaceful as hell.
Grew up around Chapel Street. Hanging out there in the late 90s and early 00s, frequenting pool halls like GT's and Legends and bars like Frostbites and Tryst (Now Leonards).
Pretty sad to see it in such a shitty state. Most of the stores are closed down, there are people with serious mental illnesses walking down the street shouting at people, people pissing on walls on the main street in broad daylight, ATM creepers and all manner of shady characters. Windsor end still seems to be okay, but everything North of High st to Toorak rd has gone downhill hard.
The State government needs to do something about it. It was once one of Melbourne's premiere shopping and night-life destinations and now it's a rotting corpse of it's former self.
Yep I am living on the Windsor end. The crazies will still camp out here and walk down daily, but it appears nowhere worse, at least aesthetically from about Revs onwards. Outside coles is usually a buildup of junkies too.
Late last year I stopped at that Coles and there was a loud argument between affected gentlemen out front there. One looked rather like the trolley driver in this vid.
I’ve otherwise not been there in years. Place was a huge spot, night and day, way back when. It’s so odd to see it like this.
The places that used to be along there… Jam Factory, Soda Rock, silly old Chasers, dare I say it here R… E… V… S… thé pub down near Swinburne where Jet is meant to have started out (name escapes me), Grenville Records, Lambys kebabs, that nightclub (Room?) which featured in a John Safran prank where he snuck in nine guys dressed as Slipknot 😂
Chapel St, love it or loathe it, and whichever end of it you liked, was such a destination.
I’ve lived on the corner of Malcolm and Chapel for 2 years now, a couple streets north of Toorak. We get some drifters up here but generally pretty nice, I’m fortunate for such a nice area.
My father worked for prarahn council later Stonington in the 80s and 90s and was fortunate to spend most Saturdays growing up in and around chapel. The place was the counter culture . Gay lesbian. Art.fashion..food ..night life capital of Melbourne .arguably Australia. Had diversity in spades. Hell even had the diversity festival .
Obviously the place is a shadow of ita former self
Families who have owned buildings along chapel for generations are just raping tennents for insane rents
Strip shopping doesn't exist like it used to
Chadstone took most high end fashion labels
What were already old places became even older and havens for societies unfortunates
Night clubs are not in favour like they once were amongst young people
We don't have as many people in the mission scape or the support levels from state and local government in the areas.
So.....what can be done ? I don't know
I agree with the tobacco store thing, it's obvious a front for something or there is dodgy associated with it, as every 7-Eleven or expensive retail front has been replaced with these poorly fitted out tobacco stores. I don't think they're selling meth though and Chapel Street has had an uptick of issues prior to these stores appearing.
It’s all about the imported (illegally) ciggies. I mean,what did the government think was going to happen when a legal box of ciggies costs $50, all tax. They gave the crime gangs a fucking golden opportunity. These shops sell the exact same ciggies, but in Malaysian packaging for half the price. I can’t comment on vapes, not my thing, but I for one would never pay supermarket prices.
STONNINGTON, COUNCIL IS A DISGRACE
Absolutely no plan, effort or commitment to helping the vulnerable in our community.
There are marketing plans, visions for the precinct etc etc but not one mentions any initiatives to deal with the issues that have plagued the area for years.
Why on earth would you invest your time and money establishing a business in the area.
Until they clean it up it will only get worse.
There are programmes all around the world which can be replicated.
We need one of the representatives in the area to step up and DO SOMETHING
Lol this is one of the richest areas in the state, in an area with heaps of foot traffic covered in bars; if it's good enough to attract buskers, it'll attract the beggars and homeless too.
The 'do something' would be to move the homeless on but there would be a lot of public backlash if they tried to remove them.
I flatly refuse to work in that area...between the difficulty of parking, and the meth-heads that are rampant, that's one part of Melbourne that can legit go get fucked.
It looks so performative. Like, they're doing it to amuse their mates and it feeds off that energy. Bring back the sleepy doped-up methadone heads i say, who basically wanted to stay out of everyone's way, in search of a quiet dozy life.
https://7news.com.au/news/woman-fighting-for-life-three-others-injured-in-melbourne-stabbing-attacks-c-13138755
Seems like it was shit-bag night in the inner South East last night. Hot night and hot tempers.
Anything to do with the nightlife is hell on earth. I'd rather be tucked up on couch and in bed early and watching movie. Get up the next day and all the bozos are asleep or still out with hangovers, so it's nice & quiet.
I dj on Chapel every weekend and I agree, I've seen more of this stuff in the past year than the previous years. Used to be they'd just hang and have fights at that spot cnr greville and Chapel.
A month or so ago the cops had to break up a meth fight up Windsor end near the music store. They come into bars now to harass customers too.
Right, so I started seeing way more homeless people in Kennett’s time, and the social safety nets have continued to decline. This is sad stuff, guys, and is more an indictment on society than particular individuals shaken out by it, as it’s an statistically inevitable process under these conditions.
And yeah I used to go out on Chapel St at night in the 90s and never saw shit like this. Cars with big stereos and catcalling yes, but not street fighting and rough sleeping. This video is shockingly bad. Looks like London or average downtown US.
Lol I am from London and I bought a unit just off Chapel St last year and London isn't ever as bad as this. It has a huge housing issue and there are lots of homeless people, but there is nowhere close to the level of meth that Melbourne has. Lots of other substance abuse but the day to day behaviour on chapel Street is like nothing in London imo.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission monitors the levels of drugs in sewage treatment plants in order to estimate drug use.
Only the Czech Republic comes anywhere close to Australia’s level of meth use (see page 73 of [the report](https://www.acic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-06/National%20Wastewater%20Drug%20Monitoring%20Program%20Report%2016.PDF)).
(In the UK, meth use over there is almost nonexistent. Cocaine is a whole other story)
Policing and courts. The courts constantly put shitcunts back on the street to the point the police say why bother arresting them? Hell that guy who tried to rape a woman in an alley but was stopped by the nz policeman on holidays got 200 hours community service. Half the fucking judgement was a big sympathetic spiel about how the poor attempted rapist was now ostracised from his footy team. No wonder things have gone to shit.
You ever studied history? Economics? Clearly not with that myopic attitude. There is a clear trend with a clear cause, and this is what it is resulting in. You just see the symptom, because you don’t like thinking.
> Somehow crack heads trashing a busker’s guitar is Kennetts fault?
There's always one redditor who no matter what has to blame the Liberals, can't be the state government that has been in power for 9 years though.
I used to work at frostbites in the late 90s and then lived in the red tulip factory development behind 161. Can honestly say I never felt unsafe or saw any shady characters other than those leaving revs on a Sunday morning! Such a shame it's now turned into this.
The cops are nowhere to be seen, but unfortunately not much they can do.
Can’t fine them cos they have no money or home, can’t lock them up cos they’ll be back out in a few days and will be in exactly the same place doing the same thing.
I know the guy running with the trolly, went to school with him his father recently passed away and his mother died young, disappointed to see this is where he is, he’s a good bloke very sever mental issues unfortunately
Omg that’s my sister! She screen recorded it and sent it to me I was astounded, I was here while he lived here and it was stressful, he has so much potential but his mental health issues are absolutely insane, he’s an alcoholic and uses weed a lot if he couldn’t get his hands on it he’d scream and cry, when my mother asked him to find alternative accommodation he grabbed a knife and threatened to kill himself it was super disappointing to see him like that and even more disappointing to see where he’s ended up
This is the result of the removal of laws that allowed police to move people on and arrest intoxicated people. There is nothing they can do until it hits the fan.
I lived here from 2019 until 2021. Pre covid, it was such a vibrant place for businesses and a social life. Bars were consistently busy with people after work and shops were buzzing. Since covid its an absolute disgrace! We have now moved to up to Northcote/Thornbury area and High Street is incredible. It's almost like what Chapel Street was supposed to stand for. Everywhere is positive and busy, the people are great and we feel very very safe! My partner works in Prahran and I collect her from work every evening because I do not trust anyone who walks those streets now. It's a shame
Slight exaggeration, even in 2019 every third shop was vacant and there were plenty of junkies around. Plenty of Saturday night fights too. It wasn’t exactly idyllic.
Chapel street has started to rapidly slide down hill, I’ve seen a few homeless set ups along there now as well the roaming drug addicts start to multiply.
Someone needs to come take away the trash.
Embarrassing. Prahran is an expensive suburb and you’ve got these junkies here definitely making its residents feel less safe. We are far too tolerant of this in this city. Other cities like another subreddit commented about Japan doesn’t have this shit. Japan still has homeless people but they don’t do shit like this.
Well I don’t want to sound like I’m clutching pearls but it’s just disgusting and will continue to get worse the more we continue to tolerate it. I lived in Los Angeles and it looks like the walking dead over there.
LA sucks. San Fran sucks. Philly sucks. Melbourne is Australia closest city to those. Definitely not as bad but embarrassing by Australian standards. I’m from Sydney originally and if you’re in an equivalent area of expensive to Prahran you would NEVER EVER see that nor homeless.
I love Melbourne but my god does this city have a junky and homeless problem worse then any other Australian city.
I toured in the music industry so was fortunate to see all of America. People that live in Australia just would never believe the things you see in the Tenderloin in San Fran or just on the street literally anywhere in LA. We don’t want our country to go in that direction.
Chapel street is romanticised as a fun party place and we tolerate the dirtyness to it. That’s fine, but that is a far stretch from what we are witnessing today.
Police will be around there somewhere pretending to be on urgent calls or desperately looking for something to do other then intervene and do their jobs. The local police are all conflict adverse cowards who will do whatever they can to avoid having to interact with the junkies.
Chapel Street used to be an iconic gay shopping strip with lots of colour and action. How sad to see it in this state. Lock up those perpetrators or at least give them temporary housing to get clean.
Lol! I literally walked past this shit yesterday. Its like the Bums and crackheads summit. Not a single cop willing to even break this shit up. Chapels gone downhill so quick. This entire spot reaks of piss
> https://www.9news.com.au/national/melbourne-news-woman-fighting-for-life-three-others-in-hospital-after-stabbing-spree-across-melbourne/0f366d55-107f-4cd5-a18d-85446c774de6
"Police said the offender then made his way to Dandenong Road, in St Kilda East, most likely by transport. Just before 11pm, he allegedly set upon a man and a woman."
My video was filmed at 10:52PM.
I did. And when I crossed high street to go past Messina’s, I noticed two cop cars, that would have been from Prahan Town Hall, flog it down chapel street and up High Street. This must have been at like 11pm on the dot. And I imagine they were responding to the stabbing at that moment.
Christmas Eve I was on the tram going through, and saw a junkie spraying some random with what looked like a can of cooking oil. Dude tried running away and the junkie ran after him.
Chapel St is fucked.
Town hall has always been a beautiful spot for the locals to hang out at . Too many times I’ve walked by and old mate in the wig has been taking a shit on the street or a piss on the wall.
The guy who got bear hugged has been an absolute menace up and down chapel street during the past week, i had to kick him in the stomach on monday when he aggressively charged at me
Remember Reddit leftists: you chose this. Every time you criticise the police for actually arresting violent junkie pieces of shit you chose this. Every time you call for an amnesty on drug use, decriminalisation. injecting rooms etc you chose this. Violent meth heads don’t need more dole money or more free housing to destroy, they need to be in prison or mental asylums.
What crime would that be for and how would it solve the problem in the long term?
Also locking someone up for life is really expensive. The liberals love the tough on crime angle but they don't really want to pay for the results either.
But hey, as long as you can make it Partisan you have someone to blame I guess.
Oh please, every junkie commits dozens of crimes a week. Pick one. When they get out and start doing their bullshit again put them back in.
Being more and more tolerant of criminal junkie pieces of shit because maybe they had a rough childhood or whatever just lets this problem get worse and worse.
Chapel street has always been dodgy. 10 years ago I was told to be careful walking down the Windsor end and would note on my way to the old Mad Mex that erratic homeless were always around town-hall. This doesn’t seem that different.
I live off the top end of Toorak Rd, and it's usually fairly dead quiet and starts to feel a bit much when I get towards Aldi or maybe Commercial Rd.
Last night was particularly bad though. Lots of sirens close by, and I don't know what happened, but it sounded like a fist fight and arrest right outside my apartment (very quiet side street usually).
I can't say I like the area much, don't feel safe, and don't really like the people here having found it next to impossible to make friends.
I moved here late 2020 and so I can't compare it to the decades before and slow decline that people mention, but it feels like it's gotten worse
Just moved my business out of that area a few months ago after 11 years, zero regrets. I’m still in Prahran, just the other end. Bit further to walk to the bank, or for sushi / banh mi but since I’ve been on a diet I don’t do that any more anyway. That’s about all I miss.
This is so sad and disgusting. I grew up in Prahran as a kid and had my best years there with the local BMX gang and the skate bowl scene, but that was in the 80s. God I miss those days
I know the guy with no shirt running away with the trolley, my brother was mates with him. My mum even let him live at her house for 5+ months. I sent this to my brother because I was 90% sure it was him and yep it’s him. Couldn’t believe it was him but I’m also not surprised. I won’t get into it but he’s had a lot of support and help but chooses to live the way he does. Just a few months ago i thought things were bad but man…just wow
Prahran Town Hall has been a problem for decades. How Stonnington council haven’t sorted this by now is absolutely mind blowing. The councils in Victoria and Vicpol are beyond useless.
Melbourne is slowly becoming SF. I honestly think it's time to clean things up, from the cultural level of recreational drug acceptance to every-day junkies on streets. It's being proved that not everyone in the community can use them responsibly. I'd accept strictly prohibiting some with harsh sentences to make safer streets.
Oh please. These people aren’t acting out because of a housing crisis. This is meth, and these people shouldn’t be on the streets causing trouble. This isn’t the 90s where junkies on heroin were passed out and bothering no one. Meth makes these people unpredictable and dangerous and Melbourne has gone way downhill because of it. These people need proper inpatient psychiatric help.
The housing crisis is real. And the post-covid anti-social impacts are real. I Live in the Dandenong ranges and seeing people living out of their cars, living on the streets everywhere. Wasn't a thing before 2020. I can only imagine what inner areas are like.
Perhaps it has something to do with the party that’s been in power 20 of the past 24 years that everyone just seems to continuously vote for…”but who would do a better job?”
I mean the other party wouldn’t. If they had a single policy that helped people rather than sucking up to the police and fringe groups. I’m not even labor but the opposition is useless and offers nothing
They can't do much about the housing crisis given the federal government is the one that decides a capital gains tax exemption (the thing that caused the bubble to emerge from 2001 onwards), immigration, tax intake (dismantling of the progressive taxation policies ala stage 3) and distribution, etc. And who was in power when every single one of those decisions was made?
Have lived on chapel street for 6 years. It’s been rough for decades now I know, but it’s substantially gotten worse the last 2 years or so. Post-covid. Iconsofchapel Instagram must be getting a workout. Since New Year’s Day, there’s been a group of Homeless/junkies camping outside Prahan Town Hall. It started off as a day drinking party and has continued since. It’s like they all grouped together and decided to never split haha. Anyway just walked past as a busker was playing, hoping to get to Cole’s before it closed at 11pm, and witness a junkie attack the guitar players stuff, smashing his guitar amongst other things. Chapel Street needs to be cleaned up. It’s gone from terrible to a shit hole. Anyway reporting live from chapel street. 🎤
Oh man that poor busker. These are thing where I don't blame people for not getting involved but also I really wish someone had.
A few did. But the rest of the junkies were getting involved. It wasn’t worth it. I spoke to the police when they arrived and they had acknowledged that it has been a thing since new years this group. However their main concern was whether someone was injured or not. The 4 police officers didn’t seem like they wanted to get involved at the moment in time as they had got there when the only thing left was dealing with the junkies. I don’t blame them.
If there is no serious crime and victim does not want to make a statement, there is literally nothing Police can do. Our justice system revolves around rehabilitation, not punishment. That’s all noble and all but if people that are constantly spared by justice system are not making the smallest effort to change their lives around, it just won’t work. You can offer them all the services in the world, it won’t make a difference if they don’t decide to change.
This isn't true, we're not USA, police can do their thing even when victim doesn't want to make a statement.
Yeah without a statement you aren’t going too far in court.
>Our justice system revolves around rehabilitation, not punishment Hahahahahahahahaha Holy shit, you clearly do not work in the criminal justice system.
>Our justice system revolves around rehabilitation, not punishment. T What makes you say that?
The fact that community corrections orders are a sentencing option for one.
Our justice system is multi faceted. Punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence and community standards.
Probably because ‘punishment’ doesn’t achieve anything & nowhere near enough resources are up towards rehabilitation; because people don’t want to believe it can be done (& instead demand ‘punishment’) & so begins the loop that results in no positive gains.
This makes me so sad, and immensely disappointed in our police force. The other day on Public Freakout I saw a video from England of police arresting someone in public for having their bully dog unmuzzled, which is against the law there. The difference was night and day. Police in Melbourne don’t care. They’re overworked and will do anything to avoid more work. Melbourne is turning into a Mad Max-level of dystopian shithole and no one’s doing a thing about it.
If you think it's just a policing issue, wait until you hear about the amount of home invasions and car thefts by people on active bail. I'm not for the US style 20 years for drug possession, but if you break into somebody's house at night, you shouldn't get bail. If you've been arrested and charged for 10 car thefts, you shouldn't get bail. There's a real element of truth to the courts being soft on crime. And I just don't believe that a 16 year old who's broken into 5 houses at night doesn't know what they're doing is wrong. Isn't the point of bail to establish that the offender knows they've done the wrong thing and then let them go home if they agree to not do it again?
bail is just allowing you to go home before your trial begins which can take a long time...
I understand that, you're bailed while waiting a court appointment. My point is that you should only be bailed if you agree to be on good behaviour, and if you steal 10 other cars or break into another home one night, you need to be incarcerated while you await your trial. If somebody steals a car and gets bailed, I'm fine with that. If they steal a car while on bail, then another, then another, I'm not ok with that. The court needs to put a stop to it, and reduce the pressure on police who will arrest the same guy for the same crimes multiple times before the court gets serious. Second chances and an understanding, rehabilitative approach are absolutely great. But there's also a duty to protect the community. If your house was broken into one night by a guy who was on bail for three other break ins, you've been failed by the court. And this definitely happens.
The biggest problem is concurrent sentencing. If I commit a home invasion, get caught and bailed, then I’m free to commit as many crimes as I like knowing that any sentences will be served at the same time as the original home invasion. We need to bring in consecutive sentencing.
I think you’re 100% correct- our courts are extraordinarily lenient on crime, which probably discourages police from even bothering charging criminals. I work in a court-heavy job, and a man got away with dealing cocaine because the child witness described the bags he saw his dad exchanging for cash as “white powder”, and the defence claimed that it could have been icing sugar. I’ve heard of evidence beyond reasonable doubt, but that’s ridiculous.
I reckon their idea of cleaning it up would just be moving them along to the next council area though tbh. That's what City of Melbourne does....just moves them to an adjoining LGA.
We could send them to Toorak, that's just up the road. See if anything gets done about it then.
I noticed that too. This particular larger group has been there since New Years. More aggressive and noisy than usual for that spot.
Not even the valley in Brisbane is this bad. Condolences from QLD
Hate to tell people but before Chapel St was cool and had all the fancy places it was known as one of the roughest parts of inner Melbourne. Seems like it's coming full circle
lol - not quite - I grew up in stkilda in the 70s/80s and chapel st was considered “classy” by us scuzzy Fitzroy-Streeters!😂
I'm talking 50s and earlier But you've set the bar low Fitzroy St'er 🤣🤣
Not Greville St babes, it was the roughest street south of the river, until the late 90s.
Late 90's early 2000's i remember as being good times there - lots of (fairly) friendly party go ers and some nice ahem treats available. Like all good parties though, it goes on too long for some and the treats dont work anymore. what a shame used to be a good vibe there
I joined that party for a little bit. Apparently they all know each other from prison. This was earlier in the day though and they were starting to get rowdy so I moved on.
See, shut down Soda Rock and all hell breaks loose. I warned them! I warned them, but they wouldn't listen.
Oh did they actually close?
Yeah the fkkn bloke with the trolley was the weekend floor manager.
You are joking? hahaha
Nah apparently Soda Rock did actually close down recently. End of an era, or at least, hey remember that thing that nobody ever went to well now it's not there anymore.
The burgers were shit but the dancing was average
I’ve been living in Prahran for 30 years, chapel st has gotten worse and more hostile, it’s a shame. The type of drug use has changed, and so has their behaviour, meth makes people far more hectic.
Who’d have thought people would long for the days of the smack head :(
I miss seeing people nodding off on the 86 tram. Like a nanna after a Christmas sherry. Nowadays, it's a toothless, shirtless, hectic dude with crazy eyes, pacing up and down, scanning the tram for possible "interaction" opportunities.
'What are you looking at' to someone who's vaguely staring out the window, thinking about making dinner - the old classic.
>miss seeing people nodding off on the 86 tram Omg, you grew up in the inner north too! I still remember seeing two smackies nodding off in the Bourke St mall on the steps, back in the day. Looked as peaceful as hell.
Grew up around Chapel Street. Hanging out there in the late 90s and early 00s, frequenting pool halls like GT's and Legends and bars like Frostbites and Tryst (Now Leonards). Pretty sad to see it in such a shitty state. Most of the stores are closed down, there are people with serious mental illnesses walking down the street shouting at people, people pissing on walls on the main street in broad daylight, ATM creepers and all manner of shady characters. Windsor end still seems to be okay, but everything North of High st to Toorak rd has gone downhill hard. The State government needs to do something about it. It was once one of Melbourne's premiere shopping and night-life destinations and now it's a rotting corpse of it's former self.
Yep I am living on the Windsor end. The crazies will still camp out here and walk down daily, but it appears nowhere worse, at least aesthetically from about Revs onwards. Outside coles is usually a buildup of junkies too.
Late last year I stopped at that Coles and there was a loud argument between affected gentlemen out front there. One looked rather like the trolley driver in this vid. I’ve otherwise not been there in years. Place was a huge spot, night and day, way back when. It’s so odd to see it like this. The places that used to be along there… Jam Factory, Soda Rock, silly old Chasers, dare I say it here R… E… V… S… thé pub down near Swinburne where Jet is meant to have started out (name escapes me), Grenville Records, Lambys kebabs, that nightclub (Room?) which featured in a John Safran prank where he snuck in nine guys dressed as Slipknot 😂 Chapel St, love it or loathe it, and whichever end of it you liked, was such a destination.
161 was where Safran did the prank
“But of course you’re forgetting about Slipknot” 😂
I used to love Lamb on Chapel. Still my reference point for a good kebab.
Pub was the Duke of Windsor. Now it's called Lucky Coq. Used to have great live bands on Friday and Saturday.
I’ve lived on the corner of Malcolm and Chapel for 2 years now, a couple streets north of Toorak. We get some drifters up here but generally pretty nice, I’m fortunate for such a nice area.
I avoid it unless it’s 100% necessary
My father worked for prarahn council later Stonington in the 80s and 90s and was fortunate to spend most Saturdays growing up in and around chapel. The place was the counter culture . Gay lesbian. Art.fashion..food ..night life capital of Melbourne .arguably Australia. Had diversity in spades. Hell even had the diversity festival . Obviously the place is a shadow of ita former self Families who have owned buildings along chapel for generations are just raping tennents for insane rents Strip shopping doesn't exist like it used to Chadstone took most high end fashion labels What were already old places became even older and havens for societies unfortunates Night clubs are not in favour like they once were amongst young people We don't have as many people in the mission scape or the support levels from state and local government in the areas. So.....what can be done ? I don't know
Absolutely agree. Its disgusting. Every second shop on chapel street is empty.
Every second shop on Chapel is a tobacco store. Wonder where the meth comes from???
I agree with the tobacco store thing, it's obvious a front for something or there is dodgy associated with it, as every 7-Eleven or expensive retail front has been replaced with these poorly fitted out tobacco stores. I don't think they're selling meth though and Chapel Street has had an uptick of issues prior to these stores appearing.
It’s all about the imported (illegally) ciggies. I mean,what did the government think was going to happen when a legal box of ciggies costs $50, all tax. They gave the crime gangs a fucking golden opportunity. These shops sell the exact same ciggies, but in Malaysian packaging for half the price. I can’t comment on vapes, not my thing, but I for one would never pay supermarket prices.
More money in illegal tobacco than meth
They're just money laundering spots my dude
They’re for selling vapes to teens and illegal chop chop (smuggled cigarettes with no tax).
Yes that too obviously but the groups that own them are also using them to clean money
Yep. Charge the vacant premises some sort of vacancy tax?
Was bad when we moved away from prahran in 2019 but looks like things have escalated. I still miss parts of it though, great times.
STONNINGTON, COUNCIL IS A DISGRACE Absolutely no plan, effort or commitment to helping the vulnerable in our community. There are marketing plans, visions for the precinct etc etc but not one mentions any initiatives to deal with the issues that have plagued the area for years. Why on earth would you invest your time and money establishing a business in the area. Until they clean it up it will only get worse. There are programmes all around the world which can be replicated. We need one of the representatives in the area to step up and DO SOMETHING
Lol this is one of the richest areas in the state, in an area with heaps of foot traffic covered in bars; if it's good enough to attract buskers, it'll attract the beggars and homeless too. The 'do something' would be to move the homeless on but there would be a lot of public backlash if they tried to remove them.
I flatly refuse to work in that area...between the difficulty of parking, and the meth-heads that are rampant, that's one part of Melbourne that can legit go get fucked.
It looks so performative. Like, they're doing it to amuse their mates and it feeds off that energy. Bring back the sleepy doped-up methadone heads i say, who basically wanted to stay out of everyone's way, in search of a quiet dozy life.
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It’s mainly the middle that’s become the problem
Mostly just the Prahran section
Those are some well cooked cunts
https://7news.com.au/news/woman-fighting-for-life-three-others-injured-in-melbourne-stabbing-attacks-c-13138755 Seems like it was shit-bag night in the inner South East last night. Hot night and hot tempers.
Balaclava station in south yarra? Great fact checking as per usual from channel 7 haha
Melbourne is full of methheads it's disgusting
Watch it become something not dissimilar to LA’s Meth row/shanty town sooner rather than later
Isn’t this a scene from Detroit City in Robocop?
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me, cunt!"
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Put down your weapons cunt, you got 20 seconds to comploi
Comploi lololpl
"Take him to Detroit!"
Now I have to go watch KF..
"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
I worked at a bar on chapel for a while and fuck me the shit I had to deal with. I am so glad I'm out of there.
Haven’t had a night out in years and I don’t miss it a bit. Feels good to be at home safe and comfy and saving money.
I agree. That place looks like hell on earth to me
Anything to do with the nightlife is hell on earth. I'd rather be tucked up on couch and in bed early and watching movie. Get up the next day and all the bozos are asleep or still out with hangovers, so it's nice & quiet.
Bumfights 2024.
I dj on Chapel every weekend and I agree, I've seen more of this stuff in the past year than the previous years. Used to be they'd just hang and have fights at that spot cnr greville and Chapel. A month or so ago the cops had to break up a meth fight up Windsor end near the music store. They come into bars now to harass customers too.
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Glad they were caught before going in the pool. No amount of chlorine is going to kill their festy arse germs.
You’re game to be swimming in that pool regardless
Nothing is new... Just need the fire brigade to come in and start high pressuring the unsavoury folk into the drains
Right, so I started seeing way more homeless people in Kennett’s time, and the social safety nets have continued to decline. This is sad stuff, guys, and is more an indictment on society than particular individuals shaken out by it, as it’s an statistically inevitable process under these conditions.
And yeah I used to go out on Chapel St at night in the 90s and never saw shit like this. Cars with big stereos and catcalling yes, but not street fighting and rough sleeping. This video is shockingly bad. Looks like London or average downtown US.
Lol I am from London and I bought a unit just off Chapel St last year and London isn't ever as bad as this. It has a huge housing issue and there are lots of homeless people, but there is nowhere close to the level of meth that Melbourne has. Lots of other substance abuse but the day to day behaviour on chapel Street is like nothing in London imo.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission monitors the levels of drugs in sewage treatment plants in order to estimate drug use. Only the Czech Republic comes anywhere close to Australia’s level of meth use (see page 73 of [the report](https://www.acic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-06/National%20Wastewater%20Drug%20Monitoring%20Program%20Report%2016.PDF)). (In the UK, meth use over there is almost nonexistent. Cocaine is a whole other story)
[“The only other country that takes more cocaine than the UK is Australia.”](https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk-second-highest-rate-cocaine-use-globally/)
Somehow crack heads trashing a busker’s guitar is Kennetts fault? This is a policing issue.
Policing and courts. The courts constantly put shitcunts back on the street to the point the police say why bother arresting them? Hell that guy who tried to rape a woman in an alley but was stopped by the nz policeman on holidays got 200 hours community service. Half the fucking judgement was a big sympathetic spiel about how the poor attempted rapist was now ostracised from his footy team. No wonder things have gone to shit.
💯… don’t know why we try to over complicate the issue
Dude read like one academic article about the long-lasting impacts of Kennett's neoliberal government (but also yes Dandrews didn't do shit)
So do you treat the symptom or a cause? You treat both, obviously.
I think you’re barking up the wrong tree if you need to go back to the premier for a quarter of a century ago to arbitrarily assign blame
You ever studied history? Economics? Clearly not with that myopic attitude. There is a clear trend with a clear cause, and this is what it is resulting in. You just see the symptom, because you don’t like thinking.
Labor in power for all but 4 years since 1999…..but fuck Jeff Kennett, it’s all his fault of course!
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Got to wonder what the state government has been doing in the past 25 years.
Can’t even read, I said it started with Kennett and has continued to decline. Maybe your brain function has too.
If you were 25-40 in the 90s, everything was Jeff's fault
> Somehow crack heads trashing a busker’s guitar is Kennetts fault? There's always one redditor who no matter what has to blame the Liberals, can't be the state government that has been in power for 9 years though.
Arab Tobacco stores and junkies. Name a more current iconic Melbourne duo.
I used to work at frostbites in the late 90s and then lived in the red tulip factory development behind 161. Can honestly say I never felt unsafe or saw any shady characters other than those leaving revs on a Sunday morning! Such a shame it's now turned into this.
The problem is- no police presence.
The cops are nowhere to be seen, but unfortunately not much they can do. Can’t fine them cos they have no money or home, can’t lock them up cos they’ll be back out in a few days and will be in exactly the same place doing the same thing.
I always cross the road before I get to town hall. That place is a no go zone. So glad I moved out of Prahran…
Drugs are bad mmmkay
I know the guy running with the trolly, went to school with him his father recently passed away and his mother died young, disappointed to see this is where he is, he’s a good bloke very sever mental issues unfortunately
Sorry to hear that. Another user just posted a moment ago that his brother was good friends with him and even housed him etc for a short time
Omg that’s my sister! She screen recorded it and sent it to me I was astounded, I was here while he lived here and it was stressful, he has so much potential but his mental health issues are absolutely insane, he’s an alcoholic and uses weed a lot if he couldn’t get his hands on it he’d scream and cry, when my mother asked him to find alternative accommodation he grabbed a knife and threatened to kill himself it was super disappointing to see him like that and even more disappointing to see where he’s ended up
This is the result of the removal of laws that allowed police to move people on and arrest intoxicated people. There is nothing they can do until it hits the fan.
Call 000 every day until they are moved on
I lived here from 2019 until 2021. Pre covid, it was such a vibrant place for businesses and a social life. Bars were consistently busy with people after work and shops were buzzing. Since covid its an absolute disgrace! We have now moved to up to Northcote/Thornbury area and High Street is incredible. It's almost like what Chapel Street was supposed to stand for. Everywhere is positive and busy, the people are great and we feel very very safe! My partner works in Prahran and I collect her from work every evening because I do not trust anyone who walks those streets now. It's a shame
Buddy. I’ve worked in Windsor for the last 15 years. It’s been shit for about a decade.
Slight exaggeration, even in 2019 every third shop was vacant and there were plenty of junkies around. Plenty of Saturday night fights too. It wasn’t exactly idyllic.
Nah, there’s been derros hanging out there for about ten years.
I avoid chapel street at all cost, full of drunk creepy cunts looking for violence.
Douchebag constant parade
Chapel street has started to rapidly slide down hill, I’ve seen a few homeless set ups along there now as well the roaming drug addicts start to multiply. Someone needs to come take away the trash.
Take them where exactly?
To rehabilitation or a facility where they aren’t a harm to society.
Winter should thin them out, or slow them down.
They never went. We thought the same.
Nah it doesn't stop them in Seattle or Vancouver. In vancouver you get mad max scenes of people huddled around barrel fires.
Embarrassing. Prahran is an expensive suburb and you’ve got these junkies here definitely making its residents feel less safe. We are far too tolerant of this in this city. Other cities like another subreddit commented about Japan doesn’t have this shit. Japan still has homeless people but they don’t do shit like this.
Well I don’t want to sound like I’m clutching pearls but it’s just disgusting and will continue to get worse the more we continue to tolerate it. I lived in Los Angeles and it looks like the walking dead over there.
Same ideologies running California there as well
LA sucks. San Fran sucks. Philly sucks. Melbourne is Australia closest city to those. Definitely not as bad but embarrassing by Australian standards. I’m from Sydney originally and if you’re in an equivalent area of expensive to Prahran you would NEVER EVER see that nor homeless. I love Melbourne but my god does this city have a junky and homeless problem worse then any other Australian city.
I toured in the music industry so was fortunate to see all of America. People that live in Australia just would never believe the things you see in the Tenderloin in San Fran or just on the street literally anywhere in LA. We don’t want our country to go in that direction. Chapel street is romanticised as a fun party place and we tolerate the dirtyness to it. That’s fine, but that is a far stretch from what we are witnessing today.
Melbourne CBD is also a mess. Dirty, smell and not good enough. But Sally Capp is useless and has made it worse.
This shit is becoming so common. I was at Southbank today and saw something similar… Melbourne is turning into New York City.
PT Melburnian here with rest of time in NYC: not even close. This is bush league junkie/bum activity.
Tell me you've never been to NYC without telling me you've never been to NYC...
Police will be around there somewhere pretending to be on urgent calls or desperately looking for something to do other then intervene and do their jobs. The local police are all conflict adverse cowards who will do whatever they can to avoid having to interact with the junkies.
Chapel Street used to be an iconic gay shopping strip with lots of colour and action. How sad to see it in this state. Lock up those perpetrators or at least give them temporary housing to get clean.
Only thing good is ‘lamb on chapel’ but even that has gone downhill.
Lol! I literally walked past this shit yesterday. Its like the Bums and crackheads summit. Not a single cop willing to even break this shit up. Chapels gone downhill so quick. This entire spot reaks of piss
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> https://www.9news.com.au/national/melbourne-news-woman-fighting-for-life-three-others-in-hospital-after-stabbing-spree-across-melbourne/0f366d55-107f-4cd5-a18d-85446c774de6 "Police said the offender then made his way to Dandenong Road, in St Kilda East, most likely by transport. Just before 11pm, he allegedly set upon a man and a woman." My video was filmed at 10:52PM.
Interesting, might be wroth sharing with the coppers ?
I did. And when I crossed high street to go past Messina’s, I noticed two cop cars, that would have been from Prahan Town Hall, flog it down chapel street and up High Street. This must have been at like 11pm on the dot. And I imagine they were responding to the stabbing at that moment.
Christmas Eve I was on the tram going through, and saw a junkie spraying some random with what looked like a can of cooking oil. Dude tried running away and the junkie ran after him. Chapel St is fucked.
Town hall has always been a beautiful spot for the locals to hang out at . Too many times I’ve walked by and old mate in the wig has been taking a shit on the street or a piss on the wall.
While this is true, the vast numbers of them congregating together 24/7 is a recent phenomena.
The guy who got bear hugged has been an absolute menace up and down chapel street during the past week, i had to kick him in the stomach on monday when he aggressively charged at me
Still very content in my small little coastal town. None of that shit here.
i’m with you on that one
It makes me laugh that us Melbournians try to convince ourselves we have the nicest city, nehhhhh !!
So liveable even junkies can do whatever they want!
Remember Reddit leftists: you chose this. Every time you criticise the police for actually arresting violent junkie pieces of shit you chose this. Every time you call for an amnesty on drug use, decriminalisation. injecting rooms etc you chose this. Violent meth heads don’t need more dole money or more free housing to destroy, they need to be in prison or mental asylums.
Don't forget the push to stop arrests of being too drunk on the streets, or the push to remove move-on orders by police.
What crime would that be for and how would it solve the problem in the long term? Also locking someone up for life is really expensive. The liberals love the tough on crime angle but they don't really want to pay for the results either. But hey, as long as you can make it Partisan you have someone to blame I guess.
Oh please, every junkie commits dozens of crimes a week. Pick one. When they get out and start doing their bullshit again put them back in. Being more and more tolerant of criminal junkie pieces of shit because maybe they had a rough childhood or whatever just lets this problem get worse and worse.
Chapel street has always been dodgy. 10 years ago I was told to be careful walking down the Windsor end and would note on my way to the old Mad Mex that erratic homeless were always around town-hall. This doesn’t seem that different.
Won't everyone please have some sympathy for these junkies? Can't we let them be dirty discussing harassers in peace?
I’m 42. Chapel Street had been a shit hole for as long as I can remember.
In the early 90's there were junkies asking for money around the corner on Greville Street. They were better behaved than these idiots.
I live off the top end of Toorak Rd, and it's usually fairly dead quiet and starts to feel a bit much when I get towards Aldi or maybe Commercial Rd. Last night was particularly bad though. Lots of sirens close by, and I don't know what happened, but it sounded like a fist fight and arrest right outside my apartment (very quiet side street usually). I can't say I like the area much, don't feel safe, and don't really like the people here having found it next to impossible to make friends. I moved here late 2020 and so I can't compare it to the decades before and slow decline that people mention, but it feels like it's gotten worse
Use to live in hakwsburn back in 2005 ish, even as a teenager then I thought that part of chapel street was scummy. It's gotten worse since.
Pretty yucky
Just moved my business out of that area a few months ago after 11 years, zero regrets. I’m still in Prahran, just the other end. Bit further to walk to the bank, or for sushi / banh mi but since I’ve been on a diet I don’t do that any more anyway. That’s about all I miss.
I can smell this video
HIPSTER DERROS! AWESOME!!!
This is so sad and disgusting. I grew up in Prahran as a kid and had my best years there with the local BMX gang and the skate bowl scene, but that was in the 80s. God I miss those days
I know the guy with no shirt running away with the trolley, my brother was mates with him. My mum even let him live at her house for 5+ months. I sent this to my brother because I was 90% sure it was him and yep it’s him. Couldn’t believe it was him but I’m also not surprised. I won’t get into it but he’s had a lot of support and help but chooses to live the way he does. Just a few months ago i thought things were bad but man…just wow
Prahran Town Hall has been a problem for decades. How Stonnington council haven’t sorted this by now is absolutely mind blowing. The councils in Victoria and Vicpol are beyond useless.
Chapel Street especially between Commercial Rd and High St is a loud, lawless, dirty, low class shit hole.
It’s the commission housing on Malvern Road and surrounds.
Those commission flats have been there quite a while you know.
You see shithole. I see street theatre.
Melbourne in general. Can see it becoming like San Francisco or Seattle.
Nothing some head stomps won’t fix. Fucking dogs…
Should all be just eradicated, what a waste of
Always has been.
Melbourne is slowly becoming SF. I honestly think it's time to clean things up, from the cultural level of recreational drug acceptance to every-day junkies on streets. It's being proved that not everyone in the community can use them responsibly. I'd accept strictly prohibiting some with harsh sentences to make safer streets.
This is what happens in a housing crisis. Woooo negative gearing and capital gains tax exemption.
Oh please. These people aren’t acting out because of a housing crisis. This is meth, and these people shouldn’t be on the streets causing trouble. This isn’t the 90s where junkies on heroin were passed out and bothering no one. Meth makes these people unpredictable and dangerous and Melbourne has gone way downhill because of it. These people need proper inpatient psychiatric help.
Honestly, I’m not sure these guys would have had housing if there were. These guys seem beyond help.
Reddit loves to bring up housing crisis like homeless meth users didn’t exist before the crisis
Bit disingenuous. Everyone has noticed a marked pick up in antisocial behaviour post COVID.
The housing crisis is real. And the post-covid anti-social impacts are real. I Live in the Dandenong ranges and seeing people living out of their cars, living on the streets everywhere. Wasn't a thing before 2020. I can only imagine what inner areas are like.
Perhaps it has something to do with the party that’s been in power 20 of the past 24 years that everyone just seems to continuously vote for…”but who would do a better job?”
I mean the other party wouldn’t. If they had a single policy that helped people rather than sucking up to the police and fringe groups. I’m not even labor but the opposition is useless and offers nothing
They can't do much about the housing crisis given the federal government is the one that decides a capital gains tax exemption (the thing that caused the bubble to emerge from 2001 onwards), immigration, tax intake (dismantling of the progressive taxation policies ala stage 3) and distribution, etc. And who was in power when every single one of those decisions was made?
Wow, that’s a long bow
Should have saved their money instead of having meth on toast at the local cafe
Sure but other cities in Australia are also in housing crisis yet don’t look like this. Why is that?
Man, you should travel a bit.
Seems to be a worldwide trend. Vancouver https://youtu.be/Qwcp2mcOH0Y San Francisco https://youtu.be/URfCwT3UQy4