Adelaide boring, Canberra worse - NSW MP says

[Paulns]

Oh dear Mr Montgomery, your a jerk. This is obviously an attention seeking article put it a Sydney newspaper, cant get any low than that. I could write a negative article on every city in the world too if I wanted.
What I cant work out is that he said Adelaide used to be a great little city (maybe back in the 1960s when this guy wasnt even here), but if hes comparing us to the 1990s or 2002-2004, Adelaide is so much more vibrant and better today.

And our economy is so much more dynamic now. We used to rely virtually on white goods manufacturing and car manufacturing from 1960s to 80s, now we rely on all growing sectors. This article seems to be as unintelligent as the average letter to the Advertiser editor, yet hes supposed to be an urban planner.

I agree....

[UrbanSG]

So this Mr Montgomery went to the Central Markets and he didn't notice much development. IS HE BLIND! He is meant to be an urban planner for god sake! He was right at the centre of most of the construction at the moment. Coglin, Thomson Playford, SA Water, SGIC refurb, Bus Station, Gallery. Not to mention the recently completed City Central development, Santos, new SGIC office nearby. Plus a tram extension right outside and the Grote Street upgrade. What the hell? Open your eyes you idiot!

Last time I checked Sydney of all places in Australia isn't doing that well at the moment. They have a couple of developments but considering their size there should be a lot more. The city is far too overvalued with a continued housing downturn. Some of the stories comming out of western Sydney are terrible and a far worse than Adelaide. He can stay in Sydney, just keep away from Adelaide.

He is lucky one of those homeless blokes didn't do him in right there and then!!!

[Will]

To be honest I don't think this Montgomery person even came here. It is obvious from reading that detritus filled piece of writing that he is basing it on stereotypes and blatant lies.

But getting back to ads. I do not think we should be promoting our city by attacking other places. Just like the ads used to attack Staines in the UK, such tactics will only backfire. We don't like it when other places have a go at us, so why do the same? This reeks of the kid who was bullied at school becoming a bully himself when he is older.

[frank1]

Adelaide: beautiful one day, comatose the rest
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/adel ... 25886.html
John Montgomery
May 15, 2008

There is no thriving creative industry, although the potential is plain to see, and Adelaide's arts sector is largely welfare-dependent.

Dr John Montgomery is an urban planner and the author of The New Wealth Of Cities: City Dynamics And The Fifth Wave. He lived in Adelaide from October 2002 to May 2004.

WTF is this guy on . Adelaide's arts sector has never been better. No creative industry. Half the shit Australia uses was invented and still made in Adelaide

[No Clever Alias]

Oh dear!

I haven't heard of this guy, I might look him up. I wonder where he is from? Yes, he is a bastard but the crying shame is many people will probably be only too glad to believe him.

Leaving aside the stuff about drunks and a dingy Central Markets... he is dead right! That's the problem!

John Montgomery is a renowned consultant (Urban Cultures) from Scotland who worked on the revitalisation of Dublin. He lived here for a while and was ignored by those in power... who got Charles Landry in as a Thinker in Residence when John was already here! He knows what he is talking about.

[No Clever Alias]

Oh cripes!

I just looked him up. I do know who he is. He's that Scottish bloke who came to Adelaide to save us and left in a huff, isn't he? Holy moly, he sure can hold a grudge!

I wonder if this disgusting 'article' is more about sour grapes than his caring a hoot for our 'once great liitle city'?

He has just done us a great disservice, and sadly, we served him up the opportunity

He came out for the Festival some years back and was impressed enough to bring his family here... then he realised where he was and how Adelaide works... and left!

[crawf]

I checked out my old haunts. The West End, once a thriving hub of artists, was a ghost town during the day, and a wild west of binge drinkers at night. I visited Central Market early on a Saturday morning, picking my way through vomit and broken glass, and came upon about 15 drunks fighting over a taxi. This was at 7am, outside McDonald's and about 100 metres from the police station. There were no police in sight.

Since when is the Central Markets in the West End and near Hindley Street? . I agree with Will after reading that garbage it sounds like he didn't even visit here. Geez Sydney must be really going down hill these days if its getting low as having a go at a city 4 times smaller than Sydney, though unlike the Brumby attack it seems no one cares what this guy thinks of our city (and so they shouldn't). Though I am still quite disgusted at this article being written in a major Sydney paper, god if we wanted to we could write a article twice as long focusing only on Sydney's negatives.

Really alot of wrote he wrote is just complete out of date garbage, I've lived here now for over 3 years and have noticed alot of changes in the city. Maybe not so much on the skyline, but the liveness and vibe has improved dramatically even in the last year. Such as the CBD is getting very busy during the day even past 6pm, more people visiting and living in the city, street revamps, more cafes, bars and restaurants, more events, tramline has made the CBD very accessible and opened up the southern part of the CBD for development and many more changes.

The three main areas we are going to notice alot changes are the West End, Hindmarsh Square and Southern KWS - which will be the biggest change in the city.

[Will]

I professionally analysed Mr. Montgomery's letter last night, and after having done that I felt much better. In essence, from the way he has structured the letter, the words used as well as the examples used makes it quite obvious that this artivle was written with a lot of contempt and bitterness.

I feel that such a situation arises from the fact that this man quite obviously has a very large ego. As such the way his perceived superior intellect was neglected during his stay in Adelaide has made him bitter and resentful. He is expressing his bitterness through that article.

We should not worry about the thoughts of a bitter and twisted old man.

What worries me is that his article will only add fuel to the fires of the Adelaide stereotypes.

[monotonehell]

I checked out my old haunts. The West End, once a thriving hub of artists, was a ghost town during the day, and a wild west of binge drinkers at night. I visited Central Market early on a Saturday morning, picking my way through vomit and broken glass, and came upon about 15 drunks fighting over a taxi. This was at 7am, outside McDonald's and about 100 metres from the police station. There were no police in sight.

Since when is the Central Markets in the West End and near Hindley Street? .

Read it again Crawf, he spoke about those as two separate entities... on second thoughts, don't read it again, it's a very unhelpful and bitter piece that should just be ignored. Although I think you might be referring to this:

I visited Central Market early on a Saturday morning, picking my way through vomit and broken glass, and came upon about 15 drunks fighting over a taxi. This was at 7am, outside McDonald's and about 100 metres from the police station. There were no police in sight.

If he was walking from his hotel on North Tce to the Central Markets he would have come through that way (Bank Street, Benthan Street etc). But seriously 15 drunks fighting over a taxi? I think not. I used to open the Central Market UPark on a Saturday morning (ack 5am starts erk) and the city was dead at that time.


Meanwhile, when has the West End ever been a thriving hub of artists? The Arts has made inroads into Hindley street, but only by taking up tenancies there. Outside of daylight hours it reverts to the haunt of the more violent of drunks. It's amazing that most of the seedy nightclubs and bars have vacated Hindley Street (or been redeveloped), but the drunks still go there out of habit.

The gentrification of Hindley Street is an ongoing process that has taken place over the past 10 years, with musicians, architects, artists and other professional creatives basing themselves in the offices; daytime eateries taking up residence at the KWS end; pavement and streetscaping; the development of side streets like Register Street and Peel Street; the closing of some of the more seedy titie-bars; and the redevelopment of some of the more run down buildings. Not all of it has taken though, a few steps backward like a couple of early adopter restaurants (eg Tapas) have since moved out and interesting experiments like the Berlin-style cabaret that didn't last long. But it's still on going and moving forward.


He's right about the downturn in Rundle Street East. A lot of the better restaurants have moved out or closed down (Tapas, Otterman's, Amici's) and replaced by supermarket style cafés. The notable exception being Sosta. I don't see the Exeter suffering from the smoking ban, it's as packed out as I remember it.


"the serial murderers and molesters for which Adelaide is becoming infamous" I wont even touch that one.


I vaguely remember when this guy came to Adelaide, there was a political ruckus with the old council or something and he went off in a huff. Perhaps he thought that he would wield more influence than an elected official at the time? Whatever happened he obviously likes to bare a grudge.

[jk1237]

Just a not so nice aspect of Hindley St, is there is a large group of young aboriginal party goers from the night before, that are kicked out of the Berkely or Woolshed as they close at about 7am, almost every Sat morning. I have to work every 3rd Sat (at EDS building on North Tce), and ride down Hindley St about about 7:30am, and without fail, they are all out in the street, drunk, yelling, doing whatever, and usually 2-5 police standing watching them from the other side of street. Its actually quite amusing. These are not the homeless ones, but skanky ones from the suburbs. I bet ya this is the same group who this Montgomery guy encountered, on his happy walk around the city.
I can imagine the fun of being on one of these early morning buses or trains out of town on Sat morning with this group of people.