News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[Wayno]

Re nomination to Development Assessment Commission – that’s step 1. Next Step is to have LGA pick me as 1 of 3 names and then the Minister makes the final decision.

fingers crossed...

[Prince George]

You know, electric cars offer better benefits in places where the electricity isn't predominantly coal fired ...

[AtD]

Like South Australia, where it's predominantly natural gas!

[Prince George]

Like South Australia, where it's predominantly natural gas!

OK, so in terms of emissions natural gas produces about half as much as black coal, a third as much as brown coal - it's still a helluva lot. In the absence of vast quantities of emission free electricity, electric cars are just borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

[monotonehell]

Like South Australia, where it's predominantly natural gas!

OK, so in terms of emissions natural gas produces about half as much as black coal, a third as much as brown coal - it's still a helluva lot. In the absence of vast quantities of emission free electricity, electric cars are just borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

But it still has to be a good thing to consolidate a lot of small emission points into one so that more control can be exercised over that one point - and eventually replaced. It's also a lot more accountable to remove the means of pollution from individuals and place it in one hand. We can't wait for sustainable production to be in place before moving away from combustion engines. We need to start now (or preferably, last century ).

[Wayno]

From a hip pocket perspective, is an electric car cheaper to run than a petrol car (over say a 3-5 year timeframe)?

[Omicron]

I just made a point of going next door and telling my neighbour to fire up his '65 Thunderbird and emit as many noxious gases as possible.

[SRW]

Councillors, are you able to inform us of the status of the Victoria Square urban regeneration project?

As I understood it, public consultation on the TCL-drafted masterplan was to occur last August or thereabouts, signed off by the end of 2009, with the first sod turning in July. With that date approaching, and no masterplan to speak off (or at least publicly available), I'm left wondering.

I keenly await your response, either here or in the dedicated thread.

[Clr Yarwood]

Re electric cars and power being coal or gas – just by having electric cars that can plug into a smart grid (coming) we can increase the mix of renewable energy from 25% to nearly 40% - because cars can power up overnight and even feed back into the system at peak times.

Also – petrol will NEVER be carbon neutral – by moving to electric cars we drive demand for more green energy so the industry has a good reason to grow…have to think of the big picture and driving change in consumption patterns of energy.

Councillors, are you able to inform us of the status of the Victoria Square urban regeneration project?

As for Vic Sq – David and I are seeking an update…really about engaging the State and Feds because we really do not have the $ to go it alone…

[Prince George]

Also – petrol will NEVER be carbon neutral – by moving to electric cars we drive demand for more green energy so the industry has a good reason to grow…have to think of the big picture and driving change in consumption patterns of energy.

"drive demand"? Just how much demand for electricity do we need? We're already the 13th highest per-capita electricity user in the world, the 17th in combined energy use. And most of the list that's in front of us are either frigidly cold with long dark winters (Finland, Norway), or middle-eastern oil nations (Qatar, Kuwait). Between 2000 and 2005, Australia's per-capita electricity use increased by over 14%; by comparison, the UK's increased by just 2% (they use almost half the electricity that we do), and the US rate of energy use fell. (Data from http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/energy- ... e-574.html)

This is what I don't like about things like electric cars - they encourage a "business as usual" mentality; we'll build out this ever spreading city towards Willunga, Murray Bridge and Two Wells, and everything will be fine because the cars will be electric. Sorry, but that's simply not going to be good enough, especially when you're already as profligate as Australia is.

[monotonehell]

...This is what I don't like about things like electric cars - they encourage a "business as usual" mentality; we'll build out this ever spreading city towards Willunga, Murray Bridge and Two Wells, and everything will be fine because the cars will be electric. Sorry, but that's simply not going to be good enough, especially when you're already as profligate as Australia is.

But don't you see PG? They can only make 1Km long extension cords for electric cars. So development will not extend more than 1Km from any power point.


Speaking of Public Transport, has there been any recommendations or decisions flowing from the Tindo trial?

[david]

Councillors, are you able to inform us of the status of the Victoria Square urban regeneration project?

As I understood it, public consultation on the TCL-drafted masterplan was to occur last August or thereabouts, signed off by the end of 2009, with the first sod turning in July. With that date approaching, and no masterplan to speak off (or at least publicly available), I'm left wondering.

I keenly await your response, either here or in the dedicated thread.

- Council signed off on a design concept for the Regeneration of Victoria Square last December. This is the plan that would form the basis of the public consultation.
- VIctoria Square is featured in the State's 30-Year Plan and it has the support of Prof Laura Lee, Thinker in Residence and author of the IDS.
- Because the scheme will obviously need State Government support, Council was anxious that the Lord Mayor should brief the Premier before the plan was released for public comment.
- Unfortunately this did not happen before we struck the Christmas/summer holiday period and then the State election process was upon us and Victoria Square languished.
- I discussed this matter with the Lord Mayor just last week and expressed my disappointment that we had failed to deliver on our Victoria Square comittments. He agreed that now that the election is over, he should seek to engage the Premier and the new Minister for Adelaide and other relevant Ministers.
- If nothing happens in the forseeable future I will make a move in Council to precipitate an action on this important project which was a cornerstone project of the Council elected in November 2007.

David Plumridge (Councillor)

[rhino]

- If nothing happens in the forseeable future I will make a move in Council to precipitate an action on this important project which was a cornerstone project of the Council elected in November 2007.

David Plumridge (Councillor)

Thankyou David

[Queen Anne]

- Council signed off on a design concept for the Regeneration of Victoria Square last December. This is the plan that would form the basis of the public consultation.

Overseas, the move is towards public engagement that begins with the actual design process. The public consultation method used for Vic Square is old-fashioned and, imo, unsatisfactory.

[stumpjumper]

Two words: Nuclear power. The lead time is long and the infrastructure's expensive, but the relative advantage we would have as both a city and a state running on low pollution rods from Roxby would be very significant. Opponents should consider the amount and level of waste currently stored around the city, and the annual fatalities in the coal mining industry.

As to the city museum - it could be what we need to establish a focus for cultural tourism. Considered historically, Adelaide is one of the most unlikely and unusual cities in the world, both in its history and its physical form. But, as they say, you have to know what you're looking at, and that means effective and accessible education for the target market.

Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the world-wide tourism industry, up there with cruises in floating gin palaces but much cheaper to attract and service, and far more lucrative for us. Cultural tourists are older (think retired boomers); they stay longer and spend more, but they are hungry for information.

A city museum would help us position ourselves as what we really are: the last large scale attempt by the European philosophical movements of the nineteenth century to create the perfect society on (to Europeans) virgin territory at the end of the world. John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham were personally involved in the planning of our city-state, no less than the Duke of Wellington's young adjutant and in house guitarist, the brilliant but adulterous William Light and his drunken Irish deputy surveyor Kingston, led here by the sailing notes compiled from 1827 during the seal trading career of swashbuckling opportunist John Hart, first to employ indigenous men at full rates. Not only that, but we were the point of departure for much of the exploration of the last great unknown continent. We were also about the last port of call for commercial sailing ships, yet we played a serious role in beginning of the space age.

Then there's our social, mining and agricultural history, to name a few areas, much of it involving the city.

All of this is grist for the mill of cultural tourists. Sure it may not appeal to everyone, and it requires tourism planners to think of the broadest travelling demographic, and to investigate beyond food, wine and festivals. The regional focus is a start, but perhaps an untapped lode exists right on SATC's doorstep - the city and its old port, neither really promoted to the specialist but well-heeled market to which it could appeal.