Joey L

PROS:
1. Public Transport central. Numerous bus routes pass by here. Hurstville is a major train stop and it only takes about 25 minutes to get to Central St Station. However, many people do get on board the train at Hurstville, meaning morning commutes (at least pre-COVID) quite packed.

2. Shopping Convenience. A large Westfield with major retailers like Coles, Woolworths, Big W, Kmart. However, parking in Westfield is super competitive once it passes 10:30am. There is also a Coles right in the train station. Numerous small business, medium business grocers/butchers are also present throughout Hurstville.

3. At least in my experience, local business owners/workers are quite good at remembering regular customers. It makes the community feel friendly this way.

4. Hurstville Public School apparently has a highly coveted Opportunity Class Program for primary school children.

5. Variety of food options (particularly Asian ones) available all around the Hurstville CBD.

6. Government entities have offices here so you can easily access their services e.g. Service NSW.

7. A place where you can get $7/$8 hair cuts.

8. Numerous (I mean numerous) Bubble Tea outlets and bakeries for scrumptious snacks.

9. Education hub. If tutoring for children is your thing, Hurstville has many tutoring centres available for primary and high school.

10. Medical infrastructure. There are a number of GP medical centres, allied health services, medical imaging etc in Hurstville. However, the large population in the area and surrounds does make it occasionally difficult to book appointments. There is also a Private hospital in Hurstville.

11. Library and Civic centre for cultural/community activities.

CONS

1. Rapid development of high rise apartments has resulted in a very noticeable increase in the number of people in the area. This has resulted in issues with the availability of parking and the sardining of people on trains (as mentioned previously). Access to popular businesses/restaurants may also be impeded because of more people.

2. Sometimes get some intimidating people who present themselves as troublemakers (usually large, noisy groups of high school kids who gravitate towards Hurstville after school since it has a Westfield/is a central area)

3. There does seem to be a little bit of a cultural divide with one side of Hurstville being predominantly Chinese shops and not noticeably frequented by non-Chinese people (Forest Rd side of Westfield).

4. The roads in Hurstville can be a bit confusing for newcomers. Some are one-way or really difficult to change lanes in if you aren't familiar with where the next turn is.