(Victorian Premier) John Brumby yesterday slammed Tourism Victoria for including graffitied lanes in a recreated cityscape of Melbourne at Florida’s Disney World, insisting the government did not want a display that “promoted graffiti”.
“The department made a mistake. They’ve apologised to the minister and they’ll be withdrawing the display,” Mr Brumby said.

The Premier said the “nice part” of Melbourne’s lanes was the “European-type” style, not the graffiti. “It’s the openness, it’s the little restaurants, it’s the flower pots, window pots, all of those things. I don’t think graffiti is what we want to be displaying overseas. We’ve put through very tough laws to discourage graffiti – it’s a blight on the city.” – The Age

Flowerpots?! In the “Paris” end of Collins Street perhaps, but down this side (Elizabeth Street) it’s either street art or dumpsters, that’s your choice… To say that Melbourne is all about restaurants and flowerpots is the same as saying Sydney is all about sports bars and fireworks. Which we all know is not true, Sydney is all about sports bars and bad coffee.

Also – why the hell was there an apology? I wouldn’t be apologising for displaying a real representation of this brilliant city over the censored and polished version that an out-of-touch politician wants us to believe is the true Melbourne. The same politician – may I add – who was opposed to the relocation of the State Museum to Carlton Garden’s in favour of a World Heritage listing for the Royal Exhibition Building… Now I’m not saying that the Exhibition Building shouldn’t have been heritage listed what I’m saying is that this is clearly a man who has a penchant for European styling and culture of a bygone era.

How could a privately educated, affluent, old fashioned person (who works up the fancy end of town.) ever see anything in Melbourne other than Flower Pots?

For those who don’t know, the Museum was built on the Carlton Gardens site and it’s brilliant, unlike the old and creepy Museum it replaced.

Hey Victorian Government – Get you head out of your arses and take a look around – if you still can’t grasp the fact that Melbourne is not Paris or Milan then it’s time to get a new job.

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Posted on October 2nd, 2008 by LoungeKat
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