The dire state of heritage in Canberra
I have a new piece on City News that goes part of the way to addressing the sad state of heritage under this ACT Government.
Category Archives: URBANITY
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
George Monbiot on the signs of change
George Monbiot writes about the signs for change. Please make it happen.
Trees and smart planning
Smart city planning can preserve old trees and the wildlife that needs them
Mature trees have horizontal branches that are attractive to wildlife and birds.from shutterstock.com
corrupted government planning
Seeking a new generation to step up
Once you realise how corrupted the ACT Government is – it would be so easy to get depressed and walk away.
Canberra Planning
There’s still little trust in Canberra’s planners
I have an opinion piece published in the City News based on the experience of attending a recent Woden Valley community meeting.
Planning battles
A win for inner Sydney
Lorrie Graham has posted on her blog about a win within her area of Sydney.
Dogs
Jenna Price on Dogs and Dog Parks
Could not agree more with this article. We have had some bad experiences in our local wetland park.
ACT Government stupidity
Where to put a rubbish dump
Canberra once had a reputation as being a planned city. Not so any more.
Threat to democratic processes in planning
Henry Rolland Park in Canberra
A walk through a new Canberra park
#01
Here’s the official spin on this new park – click here. Watch this space for my thoughts on this park when they are published in CityNews.
Planning in Canberra
the sage continues….
Trees and the ACT Government
Planning in Canberra
Residents vs Bad Planning
Dickson Residents win over bad design
Chief Minister gouges strata title unit owners
It is now part of our daily lives that people bear the brunt of increased charges brought on by large corporations inventing more ways to gouge consumers.
Continue reading Chief Minister gouges strata title unit owners
2020 ACT Election forecast
Observing the current government and its attitude towards the electorate, it does make you wonder about the 2016 election results and whether this will be repeated in 2020.
Signs of intrigue within the inner north
First an update on the 2016-2017 ACAT appeal about the proposal to remove the carpark in front of Woolworths and to build an apartment and supermarket complex.
Where to for Civic in Canberra?
I can only guess how many committee meetings have been held to discuss some aspect of how to improve Civic– the traditional urban centre of the city of Canberra.
ACT Government makes a mess of consultations
The Dickson Parklands is an important site for the inner north of Canberra.
Continue reading ACT Government makes a mess of consultations
ACT Chief Minister fails urban basics
Downtown Singapore.
I have just spent three weeks in Singapore.
Good café – bad café
It only usually takes a moment to gauge what sort of service you are to receive when you enter a café.
Smart Cities
ACT Ministers: sustainability and housing
Dickson Residents Group
Update from Jane Goffman
Here’s Jane’s January 31 2018 update on goings on with planning and developments around Dickson:
Northbourne Avenue
A new year and already the look, the aesthetics, and the whole nature of what will be the new Northbourne Ave gateway to the National Capital is up for discussion.
Bad design spreads like a disease
My post last week on the lack of good design and planning that is evident in the more recent parts of Gungahlin definitely caught a lot of people’s attention.
Gungahlin – urgent climate adaptation required
A couple of weeks ago I wrote on the threats to biodiversity caused through inappropriate developments across Canberra.
Continue reading Gungahlin – urgent climate adaptation required
Respect and Responsibility in planning and development
Someone needs to ask the ACT Planning Minister why the planning directorate continues to encourage local residents to form residents’ associations to oppose inappropriate developments.
Continue reading Respect and Responsibility in planning and development
Put landscape and biodiversity first
This post starts with being in front of our house at 6.15 am listening to the cacophony of sounds coming from what must have been a rowdy Christmas Day gathering of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos at end of the street (near the Dickson Drain).
Social Housing vs community spaces
With Canberra having such an informed and aware community, one would have thought that a community-focused government planning minister would have surfaced by now – one being committed to development and the future growth of the city while simultaneously embracing the enhancement of (rather than reducing) the city’s amenities that are admired internationally.
Problems with school parking
Comments have been published about how Deakin residents have raised doubts about the development application for a 102-bed aged care facility on the former gallery site near the shopping centre.
Christmas Puddings and Mince Pies
I am not sure when my desire for mince pies and Christmas cakes and puddings started.
Dear Minister for Town Cramming
Why are we so unfortunate here in Canberra to have a string of planning and urban development ministers who feel that it is their duty to say something regularly to upset those who enjoy a fantastic ambience within inner Canberra?
Gardeners at war with possums
This story starts with standing outside the Museum of Sydney taking in an outdoor display of a cottage garden – complete with vegetables and herbs.
The ACT Government allows planners to plan
Surprising things can happen when you are involved in advocacy with the ACT Government on urban environment issues.
Pedestrians be aware – be very aware!
Life for pedestrians in Dickson is not as safe as it should be. Here’s a few events to illustrate my point.
Marea Fatseas and Community Councils
The 2016 ACT election was just over 12 months ago (how time flies) and the hot election topics back then included planning, development, community engagement and a host of issues around the ACT Government’s dealings with residents.
Dickson auctions
Just months ago a Luton’s auctioneer stated that the property going under the hammer was the only house for sale in Dickson.
Danger to dogs from the ACT Government
Some issues just do not go away. Dogs that are dangerous or potentially dangerous is such a topic.
Thanks for Flu
Here’s a message from me – and the many others who suffered through the flu recently:
This goes out to those thoughtful people who insisted on going out into public areas when they had the flu.
Selling off the Parliamentary Triangle
for Wednesday 27th
There’s nothing new about governments across Australia selling of assets, infrastructure, land, buildings or anything that they can put on the market to make instant cash.
Urban Destruction in Canberra
Same old spin in new clothes
There is no doubt that the spin doctors within the ACT Government worked hard to get journalists to take a positive spin on the establishment of the City Renewal Authority and the appointment of their CEO, Malcolm Snow
architecture and constitution ave
Back in 2013 plans were announced for the next stage of Canberra’s Constitution Avenue.
Dickson house sales
The neighbourhood had their answer. The signs went up – and yet another original style (AV Jennings) house was about to be put on the market.
contracts for buying an apartment
When I was first alerted to the issues below – sadly my response was: Why am I not surprised?
Cultural Landscape
The Cultural Landscape Foundation wants to connect people to the places of culture around them. click here
Cascadia subduction zone
Maybe not going to Portland for a holiday – with this disaster waiting to happen.
no way to treat a coffee
draft 9 August
There’s been an increase in conversations about avoiding the use of plasticized mugs for take away coffee.
culture, arts and city planning
backyards
Vanishing Australian backyards
leave us vulnerable to the stresses of city life
the Dutch Reach
a Telstra NBN story
Another mess made by Malcolm Turnbull
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154819656957544&set=p.10154819656957544&type=3
architecture
“Call us dull, call us sellouts, call us gentrifiers – just don’t call us copycats”
Our lust for originality is wrecking the city, delivering a rash of formally new but ultimately anti-urban hideous skyline baubles reducing city-making to a spectacle of super-size billboard branding gestures while inhibiting the multiplication of good ideas. Click here
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.
Will your house burn?
As I watched the horrifying footage of the London Grenfell Tower fire, I remarked that this is what could have happened in Docklands, Melbourne, in 2014.
architecture
Good article by Miguel Córdova Ramírez on the teaching of architecture.
Architecture
Architecture and all that spin
If there is one occupation that I could not imagine doing, it is being an ACT Government planner who spends most of the day looking through development applications (DA) for commercial developments.
Parliamentary Triangle, Canberra
A tour of the good and not-so-good
Have you taken a stroll around the Parliamentary Triangle recently?
Urban Bites
GANG GANG arrives in Downer
Always good to celebrate when a suburban centre rises again.
Architecture
The Problem Isn’t Architecture, It’s Urban Design
Interesting read – but I think they let the architects off too easily. Click here.
Places for Children
click on image for article
FLIX’N DICKSON – invite
Everyone is invited to the next Flix’n Dickson “Christmas in July” Party
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.
inflammable clading
Nothing wrong here!
oh how we wish we could believe the Minister and the building industry spokespersons – of course here in Canberra we have the laws in place! But – we all know better than that.
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.
A tale of two parklands
Very strange things happen in the urban design planning space in Canberra.
Being Negative
The message from ACT Labor friends
There’s definitely something evil being played out locally.
ACT labor and the need for new leadership
Very strange events have been unfolding since the local ACT elections in late 2016.
Nicole Lawder, a Liberal who has your back
We expect a lot of our politicians. People rightly expect their elected representatives to do just that – be representatives of the people who elected them. That’s not always a success story.
Frank Hurley and Australian Native Plants
INFORMATION CALL-OUT: FRANK HURLEY
Searching for Frank Hurley along our northern beaches
Did you know that Frank Hurley was a very keen gardener and photographer of wild flowers?
In April 2018 The Manly Art Gallery and Museum will be launching a very special exhibition titled: Frank Hurley – Sydney Harbour photographer: From Circular Quay to Collaroy.
Canberra Park Resort
Popping up on the northern edge of Canberra is a new set of buildings – known by its gateway title as Canberra Park.
Dickson on Northbourne
There’s significant redevelopment underway on Northbourne Ave in Canberra.
Tram stop design
There are not too many places that have tram (light rail) stops that are exciting designs. Most are functional and are usually simply places marked where you stand to catch the tram.
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?
Architecture – addressing the climate
Real sustainability arrives in Canberra
A wonderful sign of things to come.
Architecture
a note to the ACT Chief Minister
About the architecture along Northbourne Avenue
Architecture
How to waste public money
The saga of the proposed Garden Bridge over the Thames in London has been well covered in the UK press. It is indeed a saga. It is about a folly.
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
Heritage yes – but some stuff should go
Two things to consider: One is that heritage is about to be celebrated here in Canberra with a festival from 18 April till 7 May 2017.
Woden planning
When the government says one things but does the other…
The press release from the Woden Community Council points to the problems with planning in Canberra.
Weston Creek Community Council
Weston Creek Community Council – in the news
click on the image for the piece in the Canberra Times.
Weston Creek Community Council
Weston Creek Community Council – Media Release
A group of Community Leaders met late last night to discuss the outcome from last week’s Weston Creek Community Council Meeting, which had to be postponed due to an overwhelming attendance.
Urban Bites
Bureaucrats doing what bureaucrats do..
The other day we ran a set of small stories on urban issues – one being about student parking and how it has become a nuisance in the streets near the school.
Inappropriate letterboxes to be replaced
Following the resignation of their highly paid CEO, it seems that our postal services need to recover some of the revenue it has been paying out in the last few years.
Dogs
This post will probably upset a few dog owners. Unfortunately, that is also part of the story – being that whenever you raise the problems you have with dogs, many dog owners (not all) go into denial.
Suburban life– you have to chuckle
Land Development – who should fall on that sword
When a system is broken, how easily it is to point the figure at one person and say “It wasn’t me, it was that person over there.”
Continue reading Land Development – who should fall on that sword
Braddon and that Bowling Club
Braddon is cool – well not quite yet
Braddon should be cool. I said something similar two years ago.
Holy Crime!
Architecture
Bland heralded as exciting
The local press has done its usual things and come on board with the government and the developers to spruik the imminent construction of buildings in the centre of Canberra.
Climate change – it’s happening
Climate change’s signature was writ large on Australia’s crazy summer of 2017
photography
one of the pleasures of life – relaxing and watching the birds..
Footpath recycling takes over Dickson
As a person who walks for exercise around the local area, I get to observe the changes through the suburb.
ACT politicians and planning?
It was several months ago that the suburbs were being infiltrated regularly by ACT politicians trying to get attention – anyone’s attention.
ACT Chief Planner – to be or not to be
Following a couple of pieces in the local press, one would think that the ACT Government’s planning was in turmoil because key people are on the move.
Online Surveys
I have said elsewhere about online surveys – they are useful but caution needs to apply if anyone intends to use them to inform planning. They are not reliable for that purpose.