My suburb gentrified decades ago. Now the people who live here are afraid to walk the streets

OpinionContributorAugust 23, 2026 — 6:30pmOn Thursday morning, I get a text message.“Heard there’s some nasty crime in your hood. Radio going off about it!”It’s Steve, whom I tease about living in Glen Iris. My “hood” is Footscray, where I’ve lived for 30 years.Victoria Police detectives at Footscray Mall on June 15 last year after an assault that later resulted in murder charges.Penny StephensMe: “What’s being said?”Steve: “Antisocial chaos, apparently. Big spike in crime.”I’d like to text “Nah, it’s a beat-up” but can’t.The central business district of Footscray is chaotic and has become increasingly so over the past few years. The name “Footscrazy” has long been used affectionately around the place, but the term feels complicated right now.Whatever the nature of the discussion Steve heard on the radio, this much is true: Sirens, people crazy with meth, street closures, security guards employed at the local Vinnies where I used to volunteer. A couple of weeks ago, our popular shopping and restaurant strip Barkly Street was closed. A mentally unwell man with a toy gun was having an episode on a rooftop near the high school. On a recent Wednesday night the windows of the pizza shop where my daughter’s boyfriend works were smashed in. Police figures from March show Footscray station is one of Melbourne’s worst for incidents of violence, while data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows that crime rates in the suburb have been trending upwards for some time, especially during the past four years, when there’s been a rise of more than 60 per cent.Police and emergency services respond to an incident in Barkly St, Footscray last month that led to the busy cafe strip being shut down. Nine NewsThe woundedness of central Footscray hurts and not because I’m squeamish. This is not about hatred, blame or judgment. It’s about loss. The place where I’ve lived for almost three decades feels like an open sore. And the care that needs to be shown to reverse the situation requires thought and resources, more than those looking the other way appear willing to invest. Footscray’s CBD streets – beloved and sometimes gritty, but which have offered home to so many from diverse places and for so long – feel abandoned by all but people on the edge. Beyond this central area though, people continue to live, garden and chat in the renovated Victorian homes in streets which began being gentrified in the late 1990s, around when I moved to Footscray.Footscray was never perfect, but those of us who love it are deeply affectionate about the place. Known for being a colourful suburb that’s welcomed migrants from around the world, central Footscray hosts social services that draw those who need them. This includes people I love – I have no interest in demonising anyone needing these services. I’m glad the needle exchange is there; grateful for the gentle volunteers at the op-shop, who offer clothes to those who’ve been robbed while sleeping in the mall.Western Bulldogs player and artist Cody Weightman at a new Salvos cafe offering social services that opened in Footscray in May. Jason SouthBut Footscray has become an expanding sinkhole for suffering since COVID – land squatting, people without homes, insufficient services for those experiencing mental illness and addiction – and all underpinned by fear and racism.Previously though, the contours of human pain – mental illness, homelessness, addiction, unemployment – co-existed with a joyous, sometimes edgy but always lively and interesting diversity: Vietnamese hairdressers gossiping out the front of the chemist, lanky Sudanese men discussing politics near Maples Café, creative-looking teenagers at the record shop. And mums trekking to Coles and Savers for another round of nappies or discounted toys, or in my case, the day before Steve’s message, an excellent $27 suit for my 17-year-old’s school formal.Footscray is a still a place of great possibilities, as seen by the crowds out enjoying Good Fest in the mall in February 2025.Tom YauNow though, those of us with money and health and choices tend to do our shopping elsewhere. Sometimes, when the human suffering feels like too much, we head to the overpriced supermarkets in the neighbouring, but less interesting suburb of Seddon. It feels wrong, but it’s easier. Leaving for Seddon, Yarraville or even – god forbid – Brunswick to avoid the horror is a long way from laughing at the “F---ing Brunswick” T-shirt I once saw hanging in a shop in Irving Street, Footscray.The afternoon before the pizza shop windows were smashed, I was in there chatting to Tom, who works alongside my daughter’s boyfriend. He’s seen so much, responded so many times to the distress and violence that plays out in front of the shop, in the heart of Nicholson Mall. Stabbings, being threatened, watching his fellow employees find other work because they’re exhausted. Seeing him in his spunky shorts, adeptly pulling pizzas out of the huge ovens, I want to give him a hug, but can only listen sympathetically.Police tape in Footscray’s Nicholson Street mall on Sunday June 15 last year.Penny StephensMy neighbour, too, Rosa, an Italian woman who’s lived in Footscray all her life. She holds Footscray stories in her heart. Rosa tells me I can’t remove the pink roses in my garden because they were planted by the former owner as a tribute to the daughter she lost to cancer. Now though, she won’t go to central Footscray because, as she told me, “It breaks my heart.”When I and other people I know who love Footscray go elsewhere, we feel a bit ashamed. It doesn’t take being a cultural geographer to know that to thrive, places need to perform a diversity of functions and be comfortable for a range of people. If the Toms and Rosas abandon the place, it’s only those who can’t leave who remain.There are many good, passionate and active defenders of Footscray who are working to restore the central streets for everyone. Chief among these is Jorge Jorquera, the co-ordinator of Borderlands Co-operative, a local activist organisation, but whom I know as a dad from school. The Maribyrnong City Council tries too – erecting some great art, setting up lively events in and around the Mall. But the problems are bigger than Jorge, than Borderlands and other local organisations, and bigger than local council.Though I understand individual avoidance of the Footscray CBD it’s wrong for those responsible for providing care and solutions to abandon the place. It’s time the Victorian government did more to support local efforts to save this treasured but struggling suburb. It affords belonging to so many – long may it continue to do so.Associate professor Ceridwen Spark conducts research on urban and social change at RMIT University.The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.From our partners