Sad? Tired? Depressed? Whatever it was about the city, I had to admit the nostalgia for a Fremantle that no longer exists can't get me across the line any more. It wasn't just the 50 minutes in the car driving around looking for a park, it wasn't just the overcast weather, it wasn't just the empty storefronts. Fremantle, something is wrong. It's not exactly the "socialist hellhole" imagined by One Nation MLC Charles Smith for a bit of attention, but Fremantle does have an unfortunate Soviet-era eastern-bloc vibe.

For a start, much of the built environment seems worn-out and run down. The city's retail industry – still one of Fremantle's biggest employers – seems tired. Shopping malls that were interesting in the 1980s feel sad in 2018. And it makes me sad to say so. The entire city feels like it's crying out for private investment. A surveillance camera watches over the Kings Square redevelopment, Fremantle. Credit:Nathan Hondros

So why isn't it happening? The biggest reshape of the city centre for years is the City of Fremantle's $220 million revamp of the Kings Square precinct, which is centred around a new council chamber and City offices. The City's website for the renewal project promises "a retail and dining experience designed with Freo people in mind, unlike anything seen before in Australia" and "office accommodation for more than 1500 state government employees relocating to Fremantle". Well that's something, isn't it? I suppose, but I'm yet to be convinced the pall that has settled over the city can be cured by a government-led makeover.

And all the strategy documents and focus groups in the world will not make light rail a reality, which city planners have been talking about for years. I'm not complaining because I do not understand or love Fremantle. My grandfather was a waterside worker and union man with deep roots in the city and generations of my grandmother's family owned a menswear store on Market Street. I am old enough to have stayed up late as a kid worrying because I knew the port was a Soviet nuclear target during the Cold War. I am also no stranger to the complaints people have launched about Fremantle over the years.

I remember my dad and his friends complaining about the 1987 America's Cup makeover and how the old buildings were painted pink or sky-blue blue so they looked like "ice-cream cakes". But Fremantle on Sunday didn't remind me of the old days, even the ones people used to complain about. As we walked around the city – from one end to the other – I wondered if a solution to Fremantle's problems could be found in imagining a relationship with Perth similar to that between the centre of Paris and its La Défense business district. The centre of Paris – the Paris we know from films – is for living. But its "CBD" – La Défense – is about three kilometres out of town. You go there to work. Maybe Fremantle should be for living and Perth should be for working? Is it as easy as that?

Fremantle Town Hall on Sunday. Credit:Nathan Hondros But I'm no professional and, to be frank, I don't know much of anything about town planning. Or if town planning is even the issue. But I do know governments don't have the solution. And I know Fremantle has to change. There's too much to lose – too much history, too big a part of our state – if it all goes wrong.