{"id":3821,"date":"2026-05-03T09:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3821\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:44:08","slug":"from-most-liveable-to-mean-melbourne-is-in-the-grips-of-a-civility-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/3821\/","title":{"rendered":"From most liveable to mean: Melbourne is in the grips of a civility crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not since a bloke wielding a sword on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets almost 30 years ago have we encountered so many main characters in Melbourne. <\/p>\n

These are the occupants of our city who have little consideration for others. <\/p>\n

Fools ignorant of the unspoken laws of high-density living.<\/p>\n

Those who fail to ever think about the impact of their actions. <\/p>\n

Back in 1998, our swordsman declared himself immortal, held traffic up for hours and dared police to shoot him. <\/p>\n

He was eventually dragged away.<\/p>\n

But three decades on such pompous displays seem far more common. <\/p>\n

Last week in Essendon, a woman was spotted smashing plates into the face of a busy waitress<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The culprit barely skipped a beat, flouncing down the footpath, leaving a victim to second-guess her safety.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile an elderly pharmacist in St Kilda, punched in the face by a customer who refused his request to leave<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Extreme examples? Maybe. <\/p>\n

But they underscore the precipice toward which we creep as a capital set to emerge as the nation\u2019s largest. <\/p>\n

For the consideration of others has become far more fickle on the streets of the world\u2019s once-most liveable city. <\/p>\n

Sitting on the same scale of comparison are the idiots who listen to music without headphones and walk between train carriages mid-journey. <\/p>\n

Those who knowingly jump a queue, take phone calls on loud speaker or sit on their car horns at hook turns. <\/p>\n

When basic consideration erodes \u2013 when we stop acknowledging the people around us as fellow participants in a shared space \u2013 we slide from rudeness to something far uglier.<\/p>\n

It is exactly why a shattered pizza shop owner has been forced to close his doors <\/a>to his business in the city, just four months after he opened it. <\/p>\n

Amir Morkos says he made the heartbreaking decision after relentless daily abuse and violence. <\/p>\n

Critics would argue it comes with the territory. That per capita, we are bound to encounter more examples of the erratic behaviour capable of emerging from both ends of the gene pool. <\/p>\n

But not so in cities like Tokyo, where despite the sardine sprawl, basic courtesies remain intact. Residents even look out for one another.<\/p>\n

One could argue it is only within the sloping walls of the mighty MCG where that same unity is on display here. <\/p>\n

Within that great cauldron of competition, we celebrate and commiserate collectively. <\/p>\n

Beyond it, lies a city where civility is on life support. <\/p>\n

Where men stagger and spit in streets, women relieve themselves in alleys or innocent everyday Australians become victims of the most heinous actions of others. <\/p>\n

It is framed by the wider population \u2013 the majority of us \u2013 who are increasingly engrossed in our own stories and now step around a situation or sometimes don\u2019t see it at all.<\/p>\n

Melbourne has lost its manners.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken the advent of free public transport \u2013 less a genuine cost-of-living measure and more an election-year sweetener \u2013 to really showcase how far we have fallen.<\/p>\n

But the ability to put the needs of others first is an invisible infrastructure as important as roads and rail. <\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t built with budgets or ballots, but with small and deliberate acts.<\/p>\n

If Melbourne wants to reclaim its standing as a global destination, it won\u2019t be done with slogans or subsidies, but with a collective decision to lift our standards and to stop excusing those who refuse to meet them.<\/p>\n

Aaron Langmaid is a Melbourne writer and a producer for Sky News Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not since a bloke wielding a sword on the corner of Flinders and Swanston streets almost 30 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5028,297,23,133,5017,5024,5033,5027,2288,5032,5021,945,5025,5020,5022,5026,5031,5029,5018,5019,2416,5030,260,120,5016,893,5034,212,5023,502,568,986,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-3821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-aaron-langmaid","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-capital-set","13":"tag-car-horns","14":"tag-carriages-mid-journey","15":"tag-civility-crisis","16":"tag-eastern-asia","17":"tag-election-year-sweetener","18":"tag-erratic-behaviour","19":"tag-essendon","20":"tag-extreme-examples","21":"tag-flinders","22":"tag-gene-pool","23":"tag-genuine-cost-of-living-measure","24":"tag-global-destination","25":"tag-high-density-living","26":"tag-hook-turns","27":"tag-invisible-infrastructure","28":"tag-japan","29":"tag-life-support","30":"tag-melbourne","31":"tag-oceania","32":"tag-once-most-liveable-city","33":"tag-phone-calls","34":"tag-pizza-shop","35":"tag-queensland","36":"tag-sardine-sprawl","37":"tag-sky-news-australia","38":"tag-st-kilda","39":"tag-tokyo","40":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}