Rhetoric alone is not climate action
Once upon a time, Canberra tourism included views of tree-lined suburban streets. That was Canberra as we knew it – a city in a landscape. The ambience was greenery and open spaces.
Category Archives: housing
Cherry picking your values 2
follow-up on a community groups choosing their values
Proposal to answer queries – a follow up piece
More on Bill Pye Park Ainslie and the YWCA
An article was published this week about the proposed building of social housing on a site now leased by the YWCA on the corner of the block that is largely Bill Pye Park in Ainslie.
Cherry picking your values
Community Group as developer chooses to ignore basic values
When the ACT government announced it had approved the development application by the YWCA to build social housing on the corner of Bill Pye Park in Ainslie*, there was a collective sigh of frustration from residents.
Watson community knows about planning
The ACT Government is a planning failure
When the Watson Community Association (WCA) puts forward the community’s views about a proposed development, it does a really thorough job.
Margaret Timson Park Belconnen
ACT Government fails on parks again
The last couple of years has been bad news for parks in Canberra.
ACT Government stuffs up social housing
And that’s being polite
Canberra’s community groups are increasingly having to argue for a rethink on the placement of social housing within their suburban areas.
ACT Government planning mess
How planning went wrong in MacGregor
In 2010, Dickson residents lodged objections to a unit development and eventually took the developer and the ACT Planning Directorate through the appeals tribunal and won.
Signage wars in Kingston
More about Geocon in Kingston
When the spin doctors for Geocon published the proposal for an eight-storey tower in the middle of Kingston (where two is the norm and three/four nearby), the locals were not happy.
Stephen Bartos tries to respond
why do people make a fool of themselves?
A couple of week ago I posted on Common Ground and mentioned the chair Stephen Bartos.
More about Geocon, Purdon and Kingston
Before the last election there were promises of how planning was to be made easier to understand (the Ponton planning review that did not happen), planning was to be more people focussed (pigs might fly first), and new agencies to ensure good design and better urban environments (it has got worse).
Argyle Housing and the Dickson Land Swap
ACT Government entangles Common Ground in Land Swap
Stephen Bartos, chair of social housing provider Common Ground, said his organisation wasn’t involved in the planning processes around the planned Dickson site and certainly didn’t want to be, when he spoke to “CityNews” on June 3.
ACT Government allows excessive noise
ACT Government fails to listen about noise
Many Canberrans have the luxury of living in established suburbs and until recently had some confidence that the nature of the suburb probably would not change radically during their lifetimes.
The degradation of Canberra by the ACT Government
Canberra’s lack of good design
After any neighbourhood auction, the conversations usually follow a similar line: will the property be occupied and the garden maintained or will it be up for demolition for yet another large, grey box with the established greenery taken away as rubble?
Continue reading The degradation of Canberra by the ACT Government
Canberra Brickworks and Doma
The suburb where common sense took 32 years!
The Yarralumla Residents Association (YRA) is 32 years old.
The association was formed because of the first proposals to redevelop the Brickworks site on the western edge of the suburb.
Heritage ignored in Reid house approval
The suburb of Reid in Canberra is one of the oldest and residents accept that there are heritage values to be considered for most of the suburb. When a house was demolished and plans were approved by the ACT Government that paid token attention to these heritage values – residents were not happy. To make matters worse the ACT Heritage Council approved the development application. What were they thinking! Click here for my opinion piece on this in the City News.
The NCA and towers to dominate national capital
Some stories about planning in Canberra are simply unbelievable. This is one of those and involves the National Capital Authority not doing its job.
more CRAPP planning in Canberra
How sad! Yet another glossy ACT Government planning document that is a waste of time and effort – click here for my piece on this CRAPP in City News
Mischievous elves dump on Downer
THE ACT’s muddle-headed bureaucrats keep coming up with planning brochures laden down with alternate facts and marketing spin. Ministers then blindly sign letters to residents based on the bureaucrats’ gobbledygook and then wonder why people get upset. I wrote about what is happening in Downer in City News.
ACT Minister plays games with housing
Social housing in Canberra as overseen by the ACT Government is not something seen as being well done. Here in Canberra’s inner north residents are involved in a long running battle to save some precious community land being rezoned for residential use – with social housing being used as the Trojan Horse. Here’s my piece in City News
Traffic chaos delivered by Canberra planners
Unfortunately what has been happening for years in Canberra, being bad planning and development, looks to continue given the on-going bad decisions by the ACT’s planning minister and his bureaucrats in the planning directorate. Click here.
Open Space vs Social Housing
ACT Government plays dirty
When your government plays dirty and is not transparent – things get really tough for the local residents.
Remember they are people
The ACT Government and public housing
This is a slightly revised version of a previous post of mine previously written as the government moved to close the public housing along Northbourne Avenue in Canberra as part of its Urban Clearances programs
contracts for buying an apartment
When I was first alerted to the issues below – sadly my response was: Why am I not surprised?
post-truth planning
Dr Elizabeth Farrelly is outraged
Dr Elizabeth Farrelly sets the scene for how planning might navigate the post-truth political landscape – click here.
Changing architecture of Dickson
Talking to locals in the last weeks there were stories of that knock on the door and the offer to buy the house. The reactions were a little different and also similar.
developers rule the day – again
Sad story from Manchester. Lesson? – watch out for the spin when developments are announced. click here
The tricks governments play
a story of Architecture, social housing and parklands
Local politicians, like our federal friends, love to take a key social issue and link it to another in order to wedge the residents.
Remember they are people
A lot has been written about the ACT Government’s announcement to establish small government housing estates on community-zoned land in Weston Creek suburbs.
Architecture – on local TV
Do we have examples of good residential architecture in Canberra?
Caroline Le Couteur MLA
Canberra’s planning system remains super complicated and out of reach of ordinary citizens.
Photographing Singapore’s public housing
Photographing Singapore’s public housing
There’s an article in Straits Times about photographer Koh Kim Chay and his decades of photographing the ubiquitous government flats of Singapore.
Another Dickson auction
The Australian suburb
Reinventing density: overcoming the suburban setback
Grace Mortlock, University of Technology Sydney and David Neustein, University of Technology Sydney; republish from The Conversation
Dickson – a surprise house sale
A curious thing happened last weekend in the Dickson neighbourhood when a house went up for auction. This was a very ordinary house.
Architecture
Two stories on the state of architecture..
UK Farrell Review
Report: The Built Environment
In January 2013 Ed Vaizey, the UK Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, commissioned Sir Terry Farrell to undertake a national review of architecture and the built environment. The report is now available online.
Terry Farrell undertook this Review independently with his team at Farrells and advised by a panel of 11 industry leaders with a breadth of experience that covers education, outreach, urbanism, architecture, property and philosophy.
Urban Trees and Heat
Opinion Editorial: Urban Trees and Heat
A case study of neglect and willful blindness?.
(cross posted from our other blog)
