The slow death of simple virtues
- Nick Tabakoff
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- November 12, 2010 12:00AM
CHERYL Townend remembers a time when Rydalmere residents could leave their house’s back doors open.
Not anymore.
The long-term Rydalmere resident lives just off Brodie St, a mere 100m or so from the centre of the suburb – and brothels are all around.
“I’ve got teenage daughters, and I’m scared,” she said.
“They’re nice-looking girls, and you worry about them just walking up to the shops, and walking past those places.”
Ms Townend and four generations of her family – including father Alan and her eldest kids Jason and Donna – are fighting the spread of brothels in Rydalmere.
Ms Townend said the influx of sex premises had changed the area fundamentally.
“It used to be really quiet round here,” she said.
“You used to be able to have your back door open. Now you see people driving slowly past the house or looking in. And there’s sleazy men hanging around.”
Other locals have been forced into drastic action to stop the spread of brothels.
A resident of Brodie St, Leon Berzekian, was forced to buy the property next door to stop it becoming a brothel.
The property at 8 Brodie St had been proposed to become a brothel earlier this year, which prompted local residents to hold meetings outside the property.
Mr Berzekian decided to take the fate of the property into his own hands. He declined to reveal what he paid, but said: “I had to pay more than it was worth to get it.”
Ms Townend said she had been forced to walk past Rydalmere’s sex products megastore with her grandkids: “They ask to go in there.”
She said Rydalmere used to be a more relaxed suburb: “You used to be able to have your back door open – but not anymore.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/the-slow-death-of-simple-virtues/story-e6freuy9-1225952352439
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