The Enmore Institute was formed in 2007 just prior to Kevin.  Our purpose is to provide a more accurate barometer of the state of the local economy – because as PM Albanese says “All Politics is local” – or perhaps ARE local depending on whether one regards “politics” as a collective noun or not.

Since 2007, we have refined, sharpened, distilled, and generally improved our econometrics and we have finally settled on one blindingly clear and comprehensible statistic –

The Enmore Institute Plebeian Confidence Index – the EIPCI or PCI for short.

The index is created using sophisticated sampling equipment –

• Two Clickable Counters – one black and one white – the reason for the colour choice will become apparent later.
• A pencil for just in case and
• A pair of well-worn RM Williams ding boots.

Our methodology:

• Starting at the Warren View Hotel, we walk up Enmore Road towards Newtown.
• We count only street frontage shops, pubs, hairdressers, cafes, restaurants, recycled clothing shops, art supplies, bookstores (yes, Virginia, they do still exist in our hamlet), the occasional minimarket, chemists, bakeries, and a seemingly endless parade of shops that we can generously say sell “floral arrangements, homewares and objets d’art”.  We do count the one church and the needle exchange / methadone clinic but we do not count houses of ill repute.  We are, after all a serious research institute and we are too tired to climb the stairs.
• We count enterprises that are clearly operational and others which are in the main as dead as a doorknob, under endless renovation or too tough to call – they could be dead businesses, or merely just given to operating with a patina of filth unusual in our economy.
• Some businesses have the kind of bland nameless ambiguity of illegal gambling operations and one business nominally advertising itself as a purveyor of fine meats, has opaque curtains and a large individual hovering by the door – presumably waiting for the next delivery of contraband meat in what is otherwise a bastion of veganimity.
• We walk all the way up King St, stopping when we reach Sydney Uni’s Moore College, then we cross the road and return back down King Street on the south side till we reach the last shopfronts at Lord St opposite the St Peters chimney stacks.
• We acknowledge that in constructing the PCI there is a margin of error implicit in the methodology, namely that some erstwhile establishments are difficult to classify because they choose to be that way.

Now to the PCI.  Being an index, it has no particular meaning attached to any actual numbers of live or dead businesses.  Its total value is in the extent of change from one collection period to another.  We aim to collect the data on at least a monthly basis or more frequently if the weather is pleasant.  Some of our researchers favour using his majesty’s bus services if there is a period of protracted foul weather.  Only time will tell, but to date no researcher has been fast enough to click their way through to a stable dataset -, possibly due to the sad state of the tarmac.

Results:

There is an astonishing number of shopfronts (pub fronts etc) in the Enmore Institute’s collection area – a total of 679 – some of which house more than one enterprise (like photography and pet suppliers !). In this our first formal collection period, 593 shop front businesses (87%) had a pulse.  Eighty-six  (13%) displayed no sign of life.  How many of the latter group were alive, but comatose is anyone’s guess, but we are confident that the number is likely to be insignificant.  The lights were not on and / or the windows were so dirty we could not tell.

Conclusions.

When we began the survey, we felt that the state of our high streets reflected an economy in trouble – but the predominance of operating businesses appears to give the lie to that.  However, an alternative assessment could indicate that the nearly 600 going concerns reflect the staunch tenacity of Inner West citizens and our skilful ability to live on a diet of brown rice and kerosene.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling PCI – more accurate and heartfelt than anything the RBA produces – and based on something quite close to reality.

• The Enmore Institute encourages other local research groups to have a wander up their own high streets and take the economic temperature of their own bailiwick.
• We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the patrons of the Pig’s Arms, Rosies’ Tattoo Emporium and House of Pain and the Cook’s River Sea Scouts for your generous financial support.