BONZA BITCHES BREW FRAMERS

I consider Nigel and Ruth Goodman of BITCHES BREW framers in Fremantle High Street friends. I have known them for at least 25 years and they are just delightful people who care.

BITCHES BREW might be a strange name for picture framers but they have been successfully operating in Fremantle since 1987 when they took over a business in Pakenham Street, that moved to Cliff Street later. They are now at 62 High Street, in the same premises as the Adam Monk landscape photography gallery, and have been framing for some of Western Australia’s most famous artists for a long time.

They just started a Facebook page, so go like  and follow them.

Go check them out. They are very Freo!

Roel Loopers

DAMNED IF YOU DO, COUNCILLORS

It is a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation for Fremantle’s Elected Members who engage on social media. Councillor Andrew Sullivan gets attacked quite a bit on this blog while people accuse Mayor Brad Pettitt of not publishing or deleting comments he does not like from his blog and Facebook. I know that the Mayor comments less on this blog because he believes it attracts a minority group of people who like to engage in council bashing.

Elected Members like Pettitt and Sullivan at least take the time, and are brave enough, to engage with the public, and the risk of being criticised, unlike other Councillors who fly under the radar through their absence from engaging with the community on social media and blogs like this Freo’s View.

I personally think it is immature to have the us and them hatred toward Elected Members or the entire Council, as they are all trying very hard to serve our community. Some are inconsistent and could do better, others do o.k. but the reality is that it is impossible to please everyone and that Councillors were elected to make the hard calls and decisions. As long as they do that with impartiality we will have to accept that decision-makers are always going to upset large parts of the population.

I for one would love to see more Councillors taking part in the community engagement on this blog, but maybe they just can’t be bothered and believe they are wasting their time or would be in for unfair attacks. We might not agree with Andrew Sullivan but at least he has the courage of taking the flack, that is often addressed at the entire Council.

Roel Loopers

LOCAL JOBS FOR FREO PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK

LOCAL JOBS FOR LOCAL PEOPLE-FREMANTLE is a Facebook page to support the local community and help people find jobs, so check it out if you are looking for work or post something when you have job vacancies in your business. Great initiative!

There is a new DOME Cafe next to the Red Herring restaurant on Riverside Drive in East Fremantle. Not sure if they’ve got any vacancies, but pop in anyway to support a new business!

Roel Loopers

JOIN THE ROUNDHOUSE ON FACEBOOK

ROUNDHOUSE FREMANTLE has now got a Facebook page, so support the Fremantle Volunteer Heritage Guides and become a friend. Post comments, old photos, memories, etc. and make it an active and fun page to visit and engage with!

Roel Loopers

HELP FREO MIKE JUST GIVING

Mike Pauly, the amazingly dedicated 74 year old Fremantle man, who is walking around Australia, and already walked from Fremantle to Melbourne and back some years ago, is trying to raise funds for arthritis research TODAY on the JUST GIVING Facebook page. All you need to do is go to the FB page and ‘LIKE’ Mike’s short video. It’s only on today Saturday for 24 hours so do it now please!

Mike had to interrupt his walk around Australia at Fitzroy Crossing because he needed urgent hernia operations, but will continue his walk in March next year.

You are inspiring, Mike!

Roel Loopers

PURPLE CRAZE SELFIE COMPETITION

photo supplied by City of Fremantle

Great idea City of Fremantle! This could be the funniest Fremantle photo competition ever! Freo city is asking for the ULTIMATE PURPLE SELFIE to celebrate the Freo Dockers finals games. You can win $ 500.00 cash if your selfie gets the most ‘Likes’ within 24 hours.

Post them on the FREMANTLESTORY Twitter site, on Facebook or on Instagram, or all of the above and create a social media purple haze purple craze.

Roel Loopers

POLICE REFORM POSITIVE FOR FREMANTLE

W.A. Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan came to Fremantle with some of his senior officers yesterday, but for a while it looked like a rent a cop crowd, as the good burghers of Freo decided it was not important to them. Less than fifty people turned up at the Town Hall to hear about police reform and to ask questions.

The Commissioner told us the reform was all about “making it better” as far as the things that impact on our lives on a day-to-day basis are concerned. Last year the dispatch centre in Midland received 1.3 million calls for assistance and that has been rising by around 10 percent a year over the last years.

The reform is about getting a better response for the local communities and is no longer a police station centric model that needs smaller local stations like the one in Hilton and the old one in Cockburn. From September there will be Local Policing Teams, so residents get to know the cops on the beat and vice versa. Contact with police will also be through the same officers one has spoken to before, rather than having a new officer each time one needs to talk to them. It’s really about old school policing where we know our local cops and where we can inform them about issues, or give them tips about drug dealing, obnoxious drunks, anti social behaviour, etc.

The reform was tested in the SouthEast Metro region and considered a success, O’Callaghan told us. Crime rate went down by 8.4 percent while the satisfaction rate went up by 13.8 percent. Rapid Response Teams of 75 officers will be stationed more locally and supplement the stations and will no longer be centralised in Perth.

It was also suggested that using Twitter to inform police on what is going on in the suburbs will be very effective, so let’s give that a try. The WA Police Facebook page has proven to be a success with offenders apprehended fast after their photos were posted on FB.

It was a really good opportunity to find out about reform, getting to know our local Freo cops, and just having a chat, so one has to wonder, as the Commissioner did, where all the people were. Good to see the Member for Fremantle Simone McGurk, Mayor Brad Pettitt and Councillors Rachel Pemberton, Bill Massie and Andrew Sullivan there.

Roel Loopers

POLICE REFORM POSITIVE FOR FREMANTLE

W.A. Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan came to Fremantle with some of his senior officers yesterday, but for a while it looked like a rent a cop crowd, as the good burghers of Freo decided it was not important to them. Less than fifty people turned up at the Town Hall to hear about police reform and to ask questions.

The Commissioner told us the reform was all about “making it better” as far as the things that impact on our lives on a day-to-day basis are concerned. Last year the dispatch centre in Midland received 1.3 million calls for assistance and that has been rising by around 10 percent a year over the last years.

The reform is about getting a better response for the local communities and is no longer a police station centric model that needs smaller local stations like the one in Hilton and the old one in Cockburn. From September there will be Local Policing Teams, so residents get to know the cops on the beat and vice versa. Contact with police will also be through the same officers one has spoken to before, rather than having a new officer each time one needs to talk to them. It’s really about old school policing where we know our local cops and where we can inform them about issues, or give them tips about drug dealing, obnoxious drunks, anti social behaviour, etc.

The reform was tested in the SouthEast Metro region and considered a success, O’Callaghan told us. Crime rate went down by 8.4 percent while the satisfaction rate went up by 13.8 percent.

Rapid Response Teams of 75 officers will be stationed more locally and supplement the stations and will no longer be centralised in Perth.

It was also suggested that using Twitter to inform police on what is going on in the suburbs will be very effective, so let’s give that a try. The WA Police Facebook page has proven to be a success with offenders apprehended fast after their photos were posted on FB.

It was a really good opportunity to find out about reform, getting to know our local Freo cops, and just having a chat, so one has to wonder, as the Commissioner did, where all the people were.

Good to see the Member for Fremantle Simone McGurk, Mayor Brad Pettitt and Councillors Rachel Pemberton, Bill Massie and Andres Sullivan there.

Roel Loopers

ONLY COWARDS ABUSE WOMEN

Women are very close to my heart, I just adore them, and with three sisters I learned early in life to respect them totally. So I just want to copy a Facebook message I posted about author Tara Moss‘ participation in this evening’s Q&A on ABC TV. What an outstanding woman!

Tara Moss I love you! What a great, eloquent and brave appearance on Q&A this eve. You are a remarkable person and your remarks about misogony and violence against women just need to be heard and heard and heard, until society yells and screams so long and loud that those men who believe they are the alpha males with a right to abuse women will finally get the message!

Roel Loopers

EMBRACE SOCIAL MEDIA FREO!

There is an article about the impact of social media in today’s West Australian newspaper that should make Fremantle business operators sit up. The article is about Margaret River tour bus operator River Discovery Tours that was doing so badly that the owner contemplated closing it down, but then social media magic happened, with some positive comments about the tours on Trip Advisor, and the phones have not stopped ringing since.

Red River Tours has a Facebook page and regularly uploads photos there, and FB is linked to Twitter as well, so that covers a broad section of social media followers.

There are still far too many traders who want to keep doing things the old way and who can’t see the benefits of social media, but I know from comments to this blog that people do take note of what is written and will try out a new business or go to events because they read it here, or on Facebook or Twitter.

It takes a bit of work, but I urge Freo traders to become social media savvy and active!

Roel Loopers