Not so long ago I visited Valletta after basically not setting there foot for over a year. The amount of obscenities from a city planning point of view were to hard to swallow. This is not after a decade but just a year. These are a few:
– The Market place and Strada Merkanti are one load of crap. The eateries there are basically facades for grabbing tourist money. i think every so often the places trades there names and you have a complete aet of new ‘restaurants’. But the worst part was upstairs, the top floor, which by planning criteria if I remember correctly had to be scheduled for a community based orientation. Instead I found a mediocre games and arcade room with a half asleep security guy watching over this huge space. The road leading (Strada Metkanti) is probably the epitome of how shitty the space has become.
– The road cornering strada Merkanti leading to the Courts is another example where the Strada Merkanti vibe is leaking to other areas. Where once you had a row of shopping windows dedicated to jewellery, now you have the same bland restaurants taking over the space we always had for strolling and window shopping with their lousy plastic tables. What’s impressive is that half the street is dominated by one restaurant enterprise in particular showing how these ‘entrepreneurs’ are gulping whole areas. This I witnessed also with the Office restaurant (next door) to The Pub and the area close to strada stretta. This is land grab for business not capital city neighbourhoods.
– The arches area close to cafe cordina has become another strada stretta. There is that wooden facade bar, in blue, which screams of hamalli bil glekk u il pipa tal coke. Next door, where once stood jewellers and cloth shops, now you have Dr juice, CFC type eateries, all very kitsch, all very bright palettes and fancy umbrellas.
I stop here coz I start to vomit but there are more examples. basically for every junk eateries, we loose more space, we loose more walking opportunities and ability to enjoy exploring our city.
Leonid Mckay & Alfred Zammit you really a bunch of dilettantes masked under a suit. As my father used to say, if you didn’t have to pull yourself down, you wouldn’t be able to do anything else! 🤮🤮🤮
https://timesofmalta.com/article/valletta-energy-complex-franks-perfumery-valletta-retail.1123033
Posted by omegabag
5 Comments
It is indeed a shame, Franks is such a nice shop, and in reality, all the good shops seem to be closing (and the rest will close once their low rents are up).
In reality, it’s mostly the death of the high street though, quite a global phenomenon. Anzi, Valletta is touristic so there’s at least some shops which do well with tourists, but of course they rarely sell stuff we want as locals.
If the rents were adequate I am sure that the majority won’t close down. Valletta is a capital city which is also a harbour. There is a good chance that any essential / service can thrive. The high rents and the amount of stupidity of the entrepreneurs is driving shop owners out. I agree that some services don’t become as essential like knitting stuff.
The only 3 comments I have to this:
1. Most of Malta is basically becoming or have become a tourist trap of shit. Restaurants are overpriced for quality.
2. This country is falling for the same mistakes every country does, cater for American bullshit convenience, like Starbucks, McDonalds etc. Just because they are international brands, doesn’t mean it is good. FFS, DB Group (fucking assholes) want to have a Starbucks at Palazzo Santa Sofia. There is no protection to local or small businesses that have some form of soul and passion.
3. On Franks, they have gotten really expensive. Like, some of their products have increased by like 25 to 30% over 2 years.
Kemm konna ngħidu li l-monti kien ikerraħ Triq il-Merkanti … ikollok tgħid kemm konna aħjar meta konna agħar, għax għallinqas wara li jitilqu stajt timxi, toroq nodfa, u kantuniera għall-kwiet kont issib.
Not sure I get your comment about the food court. There’s quite a bit of variety and in my opinion at least most of it is quite good (not tried them all but the ones I tried I liked). What would you have wanted to see in a food court? The arcade has some decent classic arcade games like Outrun 2 which is always a plus to me even if it is small.
I’m sure they don’t need me defending them but I can’t say I get the hate.