Has Subiaco lost its urban cool as rivals cash in on small bar and food culture - and lower rents? Credit:Erin Jonasson She might feel a little better about herself, as she sits at the dressing table but the make-up is not fooling anyone. The vertical cracks that her lipstick bleeds into are getting deeper. And the eyes look like kicked-in windows. What happened to old Subi – it used to be a hub of entertainment, especially around the iconic Subiaco Hotel on a Friday night after work? Many an adventure I had there. It was the only show in town if you were a 20-30 something. It was like a pre-internet Tinder, only real. Instead of swiping images, you just kept swiveling your head until you got eye contact. And – boom! – it was on. Of course, the Subi Hotel has recently been made over with plenty of redevelopment and now has an upstairs and venue rooms etc. All very nice.

The Station Street markets fell by the wayside in favour of big development. The food still wins awards and draws a good crowd, but these days when you're tucking into your bangers and mash, you're feeling like a cheating lover, out with an old girlfriend that you no longer have anything in common with. And you're just wishing you were with the new love of your life. There were plenty of edgy restaurants around in the old days. I remember showing off how worldly Subiaco was when I introduced my visiting mum to the delights of a sandwich made with focaccia. She'd never experienced anything so exotic. The joys of autumn in Subiaco Common. And I still highly rate the sizzling garlic prawns at the Witches' Cauldron.

People kept being drawn to Subiaco for two reasons: it was vibrant then. And, sadly, there was little other choice – unless you wanted to risk your life in Northbridge. The impending move of football away from Domain Stadium adds to the melancholy Subi feel. In that sense, Subiaco was somewhat of an artificial market, a bit like a potato marketing corporation for getting drunk and scoring. We had to frequent Subiaco because where else were we going to go – at least if we wanted to stay out of trouble? As soon as the world turned, we were going to be off and, maybe, never return.

And it did all change with the introduction of small bars - patrons are now spoiled for choice. The other revolution was in food culture. This led to an explosion of new venues with greater culinary experimentation; variations on tapas became the cuisine de jour that quickly moved from sizzling chorizo and cod balls to "Dude Food" sliders, ribs and jalapeno poppers. Inner suburbs like Leederville, Highgate, and North Perth and a revitalized Northbridge (as long as you're home before midnight) now offer more edgy, cooler food and drink choices that have made Subiaco look positively suburban. The biggest challenge in these re-energised urban areas is trying to find a parking space. In Subiaco, it's trying to find one that won't break the bank. Of course, one of the other problems facing Subiaco's commercial tenants is the high cost of leasing premises. That's a barrier to new small bars and restaurants.

Earlier this year, well-known chef and restaurateur Alain Fabregues who owns Bistro des Artistes staged a protest over exorbitant leases after he was advised his rent was going up by a third to nearly $300,000 a year. Another victim of property greed was the iconic Station Street markets, closed in July after 30 years. Apparently, they will be replaced by a $96 million four-storey commercial and retail precinct which will have stores including Coles and Target. Nice, but sterile. Maybe in an effort to cash in on its appeal, Subiaco has actually over-gentrified itself into anonymity. That might explain why Subiaco building owners, landlords and property agents continue to delude themselves into believing that it is still the jewel in the crown – or at the very least, the market is cyclical and will eventually come back and meet their price demands. Maybe it will, but that tiara has been badly dinged, a few stones are missing and it's not sitting straight.

I understand that the City of Subiaco, a Subiaco Town Centre Network and the Western Suburbs Business Association are all concerned with the development of a vision that will re-energise the old girl. Good news: it deserves it. The other day councillors knocked back a proposal for light rail down Rokeby Road. That probably wasn't an answer in and of itself, but it does suggest some right brain thinking. And we can give the thumbs-up to the Markets on Rokeby Road initiative that sees the retail strip closed on weekends between Bagot Road and Hay Street in favour of market stalls.

People do like a good market and I'm told they have been coming in droves. I'm sure the permanent commercial tenants appreciate the boost in trade, but they usually end up having a whinge about stallholders poaching their business on a lower cost base and no lease commitments. Then they've got to survive the other five days of the week on less foot traffic and those eye-watering rents. But as far as an over-arching vision is concerned: are the Subi councillors fiddling - not so much while Rome burns – but more like as it sits on the backburner on low while its vibrant competitors continue to sizzle and win new converts. Another threat on the horizon for the suburb, is the loss of football from Domain Stadium in 2018 after footy moves east to Burswood.

Eagles and Dockers home games had traditionally provided a welcome weekly injection of cash into the local economy over the footy season – and that was just from parking tickets. Whatever happens to the stadium site afterwards had better help arrest Subiaco's slide from jewel in the crown to an unfortunate fresh title – our new Dullsville. Follow WAtoday on Twitter