Labour candidate Michael Marra showed the approach needed if Dundee city centre is to be revitalised and reinvigorated.

He said: “It’s not the SNP’s fault that the internet exists and that people are shopping online.”

In uttering these words, he showed a mature and party-political-free response to the various problems besetting the City of Discovery.

Fixing the issues impacting us and other towns and cities, a top priority for voters, needs cross-party cooperation locally and nationally and some of it can only be addressed in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood.

It also must involve businesses and everyone else who want to see our centres thrum and thrive with life and with trade.

For starters, there are things which can be done immediately to make the centre a more attractive destination.

Begging should be banned and police resources redirected to ensure that violence or the threat of it is snuffed out instantly.

I confess to hypocrisy here in dropping some coins into the cap of some beggars in the streets out of a sense of guilt.

But I’m aware that – in some cases – all I’m doing is helping to perpetuate groups run by criminals who are also behind the drugs trade to which many of the individuals begging on the streets are hostage.

A Glasgow pal of mine recently told me Central Station is awash with folk begging so it’s not just a Dundee issue.

We need to make our streets feel safe and secure for visitors to the city centre.

A good deep clean with more regular sweeping and hosing of dirty streets would also be a welcome addition to give the place a fresh and clean look for locals and visitors alike.

The blame for the many vacant properties and the dilapidation of areas like the Murraygate, and the desperate decline of the once regal Reform Street, lies with us all.

Just like physical fitness, “use it or lose it” applies to shops and businesses in the city centre.

Last week, as I regularly did, I made a mental note to get down to Castle Street to buy some of JA Braithwaite’s fine coffee instead of my usual bang average supermarket blend.

My shock at reading at reading that Dundee’s second oldest city centre business would grind and roast no more, and had finished trading after 158 years, didn’t just sadden me – it caused me a deep pang of guilt.

The pungent aroma of java or blue mountain blend, which wafted like incense for 200 yards in any direction from the top of Castle Street, will be no more because I and no doubt many others had too seldom bothered to get our backsides into town to buy some coffee.

I know that the family are retiring but I’d have thought that such a well-established business might have a ready buyer.

The fact that it appears to be finished for good indicates the problems in trying to run a successful business in the city centre.

We need to decide what it is that we want from our city centres and ask some hard questions.

They can’t remain as mausoleums to our memories because nothing stays the same forever.

I have fond boyhood recollections of Saturday morning trips to the city arcade to buy my Superman and Green Lantern comics, and in later years to gamble my Lawside Academy dinner money on Lester Piggott on the horse racing machine.

In truth, though, the place was dank and smelly and not fit for purpose in a modern world.

‘Solutions to Dundee city centre issues’

Our city centres have to evolve and change and if they need repurposed for housing or for shopping to be concentrated in smaller areas and in selected streets, then so be it.

They must be attractive and convivial places to visit – hence my recently-arrived-at view that we can no longer accept shop doorways, bus stops and cash machines being blocked by beggars, whether professionals or just desperate.

And those under the influence of drugs and alcohol should be quickly removed by the police and not allowed to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm.

There are some potential solutions outwith the control of local powers, like heavier taxes on online shopping or even out-of-town shopping centres helping to cross subsidise city centre businesses.

And some kind of long-term rates amnesty to help small start-ups and creative industries establish a foothold and the time needed to grow and establish their businesses is required too.

Ultimately, though, unless we all use the city centre more frequently, the downward trend will continue, and one day the JA Braithwaite situation will become a commonplace event.

© The Courier