'We are almost out of business. If you're borrowing from people to pay the rent, you are already out of business.' (Photo: Justin McManus)
By Adam Carey
Abeselom Nega stands outside his shop Queen of Sheba, one of a clutch of small African restaurants on Nicholson Street in Footscray, a stretch dubbed ”Little Ethiopia”.
Business is deathly quiet. In the 75 minutes Fairfax Media spends with Mr Nega and five other local restaurateurs on a midweek afternoon no customers come or go. Not a single pedestrian or car passes by and the shop phone doesn’t ring.
Aside from us, the only sign of life is the din of heavy machinery on the other side of the temporary fence 50 metres up the street towards the railway line.
The Nicholson Street bridge closed two months ago as part of the regional rail link project and will stay shut until mid-next year, but already Little Ethiopia is dying.
Read more at The Age.
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