Singing the Hill Street blues

LOOKING back 30 years, central Pinetown was a thriving business district. Hill Street was the main commercial hub. The center of small town life.

There were clothing stores, department stores, a speciality baby clothes shop, tea rooms and restaurants, fascinating arcades and alleys, banks and building societies – all the tenants of a modern day mall set in a pretty street.

Between the two roadways with an avenue of Umdoni trees much loved by Indian mynahs. It was the shopping precinct, the meeting place of family and friends, the place to go out for dinner or to visit the doctor.

Pinetown was so quaint back then, but its one major problem was the lack of parking in Hill Street at peak times.

The solution was simple. People left their cars in the road, double parked, and rushed in to the chemist or the bank, or where ever, and nobody seemed over anxious to leave hastily when found to be parked in .

The meter maids and traffic wardens turned a blind eye to this typical small town habit, but that was all to change.

The death of the Hill Street CBD was precipitated by the building of Pinetown’s first shopping mall. Sanlam Centre was a huge novelty and the place to where everyone flocked, particularly on Saturday morning.

Hill Street was near deserted and many shops, such as Edgars and Miladys made the decision to move to the mall. In an attempt to counteract this, the council had the idea to turn Hill Street in to an open air mall.

The road was reconfigured, kiosks built, a water feature installed and then the town fathers sat back to watch the growth of a market style cafe society, but it never happened.

The building of the Pavilion shopping Centre on the border of the town was the final blow to Pinetown ever being a shopping mecca, and its heart stopped beating.

As a result the central area of Pinetown is a very dangerous place. Hill Street is a litter-strewn disgrace.

The surrounding roads,once also bustling with people and shops, a bakery, a church, are now distinctly tacky.

The vacuum created by the exodus of the stores and their customers was quickly filled by some really undesirable characters, and it remains so.

The ills of the section of Crompton Street that runs from the post office to the library have been well publicised and yet people still drive in this area with their car windows open and doors unlocked.

Don’t!

There are two (or more) men in this area at present who are accosting daydreaming drivers with guns and knives.

They are aided by drivers who think bad things will never happen to them.

They are wrong. Lock your valuables in your cubbyhole; yes, your gold chain too, plus your cellphone.

Be wide awake, pay attention and close your windows. Even slightly open is asking for trouble.

Also ignore anyone who tells you that one of your car tyres has a puncture. It is simply a ploy to get you to unlock your doors and get you out of your car.

Old Main Road (Josiah Gumede Road) is another hotspot. Please stop being careless, because sometime soon, somebody is going to get hurt. Make sure it is not you.