Only in Adelaide? Hardly!

[Maximus]

Here's another piece to put it all into perspective. Don't be put off by the title. I actually think this is quite a positive article... in a back-handed kind of way.

Australia’s most liveable city produces excellent whine

by David Penberthy
10 Jun 05:55am

In the exciting world of statistics and public policy, one set of findings often begets another diametrically opposed set of findings. For example, there appears to be a direct link between worrying about multiculturalism and living in those parts of Australia untouched by multiculturalism.

Take a trip up the Queensland coast to Caloundra or go to a hinterland town such as Gympie. Aside from lemon chicken at the local Chinese, there is no discernible non-Anglo influence in these communities. Most of their residents wouldn’t know a burqa from a beer mat. Yet these were the same places which elected One Nation MPs in bid to protect their gloriously monocultural lifestyle, despite that lifestyle being under siege from absolutely nothing.

Over the past 12 months there have been three different surveys which have all identified Adelaide as the most liveable city in Australia.

On every measure – housing affordability, quality of public transport, green space, congestion – South Australians are ostensibly the happiest people in the land. The flipside of these findings is that, despite the apparently overwhelming levels of contentment, Adelaide is well-represented and probably over-represented in the whining stakes.

Talkback radio and the letters pages of the newspapers can be an imprecise measure of majority opinion. The negative overwhelms the positive, squeaky wheels make the loudest noise. As an Adelaide friend said the other day, tune into 2GB in Sydney and you won’t hear people calling Ray Hadley to commend CityRail for delivering a morning train service which was clean, punctual and staffed by cheery guards.

Despite these qualifiers there are two special qualities which distinguish Adelaide’s whingers. The first is that they appear to have no sense or interest of how their lot compares to people in the rest of the country. The second is the remarkably low-level nature of some of their complaints, which are often so trifling that you’d think people would be embarrassed to give voice to them.

From a crowded field the best example of this mindset is the isolated but intense community backlash over a modest proposal by the SANFL football club Glenelg to install lights at its oval. The proposal has met all the planning requirements and been supported by council, and would let the club play a modest five or six night games a year. This is not Rio’s Maracana stadium. Even with lights the club would be giddy with excitement if it got 5000 people to a game. Yet some neighbours of the club –all of whom moved into the area well after the oval opened in 1898 – have taken legal action against the plan. One of their complaints is that kids will sit behind the goals and bang the advertising hoardings when their team scores, and have asked that cushions be placed along the fence to muffle the sound.

When an unremarkable $31million was spent extending the city’s tramlines west to service the University of South Australia campus and the Entertainment Centre, the project was hailed as a white elephant which would be shunned by commuters. Now people are complaining that there aren’t enough carriages. There have also been complaints about congestion – I remember seeing one photograph in which every seat was full and about five people were standing up holding the hand rails – with this scene of apparent chaos featured under a headline asking “Is this really good enough?” Anyone who doesn’t think it’s good enough should catch a train in Sydney where the carriages resemble Picasso’s Guernica as the sardine-like travellers twist themselves into odd shapes on their routinely abysmal morning commute. The people who ring 2GB have got every right to complain; those who rail about rail on 891 should probably get out more.

The opening of an underpass on South Road and Anzac Highway, which has smoothed the traffic flow at this once-congested intersection, was initially denounced for causing delays as the tunnelling was underway. It is difficult to see how else you can dig an extremely large hole under the city’s busiest roadway.

Within three years the city will get a brand-new sports stadium which, aside from being a boon for footy fans who must currently make the dreary trip to the soulless concrete monstrosity that is AAMI Stadium, will also turn the Torrens into a dynamic entertainment precinct. Complaints against this project have been manifold.

The parklands mafia – the same people who regard the Bicentennial Conservatory or the Wine Centre not as architectural marvels but an offence to green space – are ready to lash themselves with their pearls to the front of the Range Rover to stop any incursions into this sacred (if unused) territory. Cricket purists have moaned about drop-in pitches and the fact that Hills view - which no longer really exists anyway - will be obscured. It says something about the compelling nature of a five-day test match that people would rather be looking at the Hills. If it’s the Hills they really want to watch they should drive to Mt Lofty.

On Monday of this week talkback radio went into near-meltdown when a bunch of callers said they attended Sunday’s Socceroos-All Whites Game, on an uncharacteristically rainy day, and lo and behold got wet. I was at the game and I got wet too. It tends to happen when it rains. The fact that the new stand is not a hermetically-sealed moisture-free enclosure has prompted some spectators to demand refunds from the SACA for the horror which they and their kids endured. As one isolated logical caller told 891, given that it had been pouring all day, maybe these people should have taken their spray jackets.

It’s the new hospital which is the daddy of them all in the complaints department. Sure, the cost of the project has gone up, and the Government should have done a more candid and vigilant job in documenting the budget. But in comparison with lesser infrastructure projects interstate, the $400m cost overrun is loose change. And given the ferocity of the complaints you would think the State Government has been caught with secret plans to build a nuclear-powered brothel at the Burnside Village, as opposed to the most modern and well-equipped hospital in the entire nation.

The numberplates say “The Wine State”. At times this sounds more like a typo, given the apparently unyielding horror of living in Australia’s most liveable city.

[rhino]

Adelaide Now should post that article on their homepage (front page) and leave it there for a week with no option to "Have your say", just to make their habitual whinging commentors realise that they actually have things pretty damn good.

But they won't do that

[crawf]

Good article

Though the loud vocal whingers represent the minority, the rest of the population has a life and doesn't give a shit.

[monotonehell]

With all the kerfuffle (or possibly none) going on about where a pedestrian bridge should terminate, I thought this was amusing...

Launceston's clock ticks off tourists
Updated Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:50pm AEST

A move to stop Launceston's town clock chiming at night is receiving support from nearby businesses.

Alderman Ivan Deal will present a motion at today's council meeting, calling for a review to examine whether the chiming should be stopped between 11:00pm and 6:00am.

Rob Matson from Quest Apartments says they have had to sound-proof some of the rooms.

"We believe guests should be entitled to have a good night's sleep free from having bells wake them up all night, you can hear it quite clearly through most of the city in the small hours of the night," he said.

"We try and track them but I suspect there's a number of people that probably don't say anything and just leave and probably go away with a bad tatse in their mouth about Launceston."

But in a letter to Council the president of the Heritage Protection Society of Tasmania, Lionel Morell, says Launceston citizens do not want the clock silenced at night, and asked the Council not to waste anymore resources on the matter.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... 266585.htm

[Will]

From the Advertiser:

Brisbane 'needs more tourist attractions' to keep visitors coming


by John McCarthy From: The Courier-Mail July 18, 2011 7:26AM


Tourism boss says Brisbane just an events city
Call for more accommodation and attractions
Visitor nights in Queensland have fallen


BRISBANE has been warned it lacks the permanent tourist attractions to become the new world city that it claims to be.
Only weeks after the city was jam-packed for a festival of football matches and major conferences, the state's tourism boss said visitors weren't thinking about Brisbane outside of special events.

The city, devastated by floods in January, has struggled to maintain its visitor numbers despite an upbeat feeling fuelled by the Maroons' stirring State of Origin win, the Reds' Super Rugby triumph and the Surrealism exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art.

Tourism Queensland head Anthony Hayes said Brisbane was an events city and without major permanent attractions there was "no excuse" for tourists to visit.

Three years after a report recommended 10 major tourism projects to kickstart the industry, none had been completed.

Riverlife owner John Sharp backed the call for more accommodation options in Brisbane, saying business travellers and major events often meant it was difficult for tourists to find a bed in the city.

The investment and infrastructure plan was supposed to help guide the State Government's 10-year tourism strategy and called for two new five-star hotels and major piers in Brisbane and an aquarium on Moreton Bay.

The Bligh Government focused its recent Budget spend on an $83 million bid to lure more events to the state in the next four years.

Mr Hayes said interstate visitors needed more excuses to visit Brisbane and he said tourists loved the city once they arrived.

The malaise is affecting the rest of the state with the Tourism Transport and Industry Forum warning this month the Sunshine State was suffering from perceptions it was "either under water or had been blown away in the first three months of 2011".

The latest National Visitor Survey reveals domestic visitor nights in Queensland had fallen by a quarter compared to 3 per cent growth in the rest of the country.

Occupancy on the Gold Coast was down by 4 per cent (66 per cent) and at 52 per cent in Cairns.

International visits (January-March) also declined by 5 per cent.

Budding Brisbane must find ways to bloom
BRISBANE may have shaken off its "cow town" image but interstate people still need an excuse to visit, according to Tourism Queensland boss Anthony Hayes.

Even the travel books that once criticised the city as a backwater are now on board after Lonely Planet this week said Brisbane was redefining itself as a foodie destination with a vibrant cafe scene.

It's a far better review than Perth, "the home of cashed-up bogans living off the mining boom".

But three years after a report recommended 10 major tourism projects to kick-start the industry and provide a catalyst for up to 80 more projects in Brisbane, none have been done.

Mr Hayes says interstate people don't think badly of the city, they just don't think about it at all.

He said Brisbane was now a "new world city", but without major attractions like the Gallery of Modern Art's Surrealism exhibition there was no reason to visit.

However, once people came, their attitudes changed, he said.

"A lot of people have not formed an opinion (of Brisbane), but a lot of that negativity of the past, like it was trapped in 1974, has gone, but they don't know what it is.

"We need to give them an excuse. The events (like the Surrealism exhibition) are the excuse to come here, otherwise why would you come to Brisbane for a weekend?"

Mr Hayes also said he was disappointed that none of the 10 catalyst projects had been achieved, but he said some were not realistic.

Former lord mayor Jim Soorley said Brisbane could never be criticised as boring but admitted it could be better advertised.

"Why doesn't (Brisbane) pull their finger out and do an advertising campaign like Melbourne's?" Mr Soorley said.

"I was there last week and it was cold and miserable but they have had a very successful campaign."

He said the Gold Coast's law and order issues were also a problem for Queensland tourism, an issue Mr Hayes recognised but said was being overcome.

"If you asked five years ago I would have said we have some work ahead of us, but now we are halfway through the work. There's a lot of good stuff going on."

Gold Coast tourism has also been slashed by a dramatic change in habits, with Australians scrapping the idea of a long holiday.

Mr Hayes said visitations to the Gold Coast were still strong but spending had been slashed by 11 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March, probably because people feared losing their job or were concerned about finances.

"The traditional two-to-three week holiday is not happening. People are coming for shorter breaks, whether it's because of uncertainty or there's a focus on putting more money in the bank."

SUGGESTED 'MISSING' ATTRACTIONS
1. Internationally significant indigenous visitor attraction on South Bank;

2. Aquarium and Marine Discovery Centre on a centrally located river frontage site;

3. Story of Brisbane at Mt Coot-tha;

4. Development of Brisbane River Piers;

5. Relocation and redevelopment of Cruise Terminal;

6. Two major international brand 5-6 star hotels to be built at Victoria Park and a downtown CBD location;

7. Ipswich Railway Heritage precinct development with convention centre;

8. Developing a major walk with associated huts and high quality lodge accommodation infrastructure in the Scenic Rim;

9. Creation of a new ferry terminal for Moreton Bay Islands on Brisbane River; and

10. Creation of an eco-resort on Moreton Island

[Prince George]

It's a story we're all too familiar with - a property owner seeking permission to build on their own land has been blocked for more than 30 years by complaining neighbours. But while that may sound like a very Adelaide story, the names in this one are rather more famous the likes of Con Makris or Anne Moran …

George Lucas’ Development Woes: When NIMBY Goes BANANAs

For 25 years, George Lucas has had a problem. He’s been the Darth Vader of an evil developing empire.

Or so say his wealthy California neighbors. Since 1978, when he set up his corporate headquarters, Skywalker Ranch, on his property in Lucas Valley, Lucas has been attempting to get plans approved for a 300,000 square foot movie studio (which, while massive, would preserve 95% of the acreage and include plans to restore the topography). He’s been blocked by his anti-business, NIMBY neighbors every step of the way.

…

Thus last month, after years of frustration, Lucasfilms pulled its application for a studio facility and started conversations with The Marin Community Foundation to help them build an affordable housing complex on the site – which Lucas surely knows will raise more hackles. In the words of Peter Hall: “if there’s one thing rich people will hate more than having movie magic made in their backyard, it’s poor people moving in.”

[Maximus]

Here's another driving example. Seems like it's now Canberra that has Australia's worst motorists. Comments section is the best...

Canberra motorists being driven to distraction

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... 23ezm.html

Police are calling on Canberrans to drop the eye-liner pencil, mobile phone or half-eaten sandwich while behind the wheel or risk a serious or fatal crash.

ACT Policing is this month targeting distracted drivers on the territory's roads, warning inattention could have tragic consequences.

Those distractions could range from eating, drinking coffee, talking on the phone, listening to loud music, fiddling with a GPS, or a combination of mistakes.

Sergeant Rod Anderson, officer in charge of Traffic Operations, yesterday recalled a memorable road hazard from earlier in his career.

''When I was on the bikes 10 years ago, I pulled over a fellow who was smoking, had a cup of coffee and his windscreen was frosted up,'' he said.

''So he clearly didn't have control of the vehicle, and it was quite dangerous.''

Anecdotally Canberra police have found driving while distracted sits alongside drink driving, speeding and not wearing a seatbelt as a cause of serious or fatal crashes.

Sergeant Anderson said in the colder months motorists needed to be aware driving with the windscreen iced over was an offence and a real danger.

In the past few weeks a driver crashed into the back of an ACTION bus in Conder because she couldn't see out her windscreen.

''It's not uncommon to have frosted windscreens at this time of year in Canberra and it's a very dangerous practice to be driving on our roads if you can't see properly,'' he said.

Driving with an obscured windscreen can incur an on-the-spot fine of about $100; using a phone incurs a $280 fine and the loss of three demerit points.

''But this is more about road safety,'' Sergeant Anderson said.

''If people can't see where they're going, that could have been a driver or a pedestrian on the road and the consequences could have been a lot more serious.''

Police have also warned against assuming taking a call on loudspeaker will leave a driver in the clear.

''What we'd encourage people to do is if they do receive a call, even if they have a [hands-free] device fitted to the vehicle, is that they make the phone call short, they pull to the side road,'' he said.

[Will]

The Vics like to talk about how civillised and cultured their capital city is....

From news.com:

Mob's racist tirade against bus passenger caught on camera

by: Andy Burns From: News Limited Network November 20, 2012 2:55PM




A PASSENGER has posted video of a racist tirade against a French woman on a Melbourne bus.

The YouTube video shows commuters on a late-night bus on the Frankston route verbally abusing the woman, yelling at her to "speak English or die".
One of the passengers then allegedly hurled a rock through the window of the bus, smashing glass inside the vehicle.
Passenger Mike Nayna, who filmed the incident and posted the video on YouTube, said the mob started yelling at the woman when she began to sing in French.

A man yells at a woman to get off the bus after she started singing in French.

He said one of the abusive passengers even threatened to "fillet these c---s" with a fishing knife.
One of the men, who had a child in a pram, allegedly smashed the window nearest to the girl after hopping off the bus.

"One girl started singing in French, and a girl up the front started telling her to shut up and chanted "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie'', most at the front of the bus joined in, that's when the passenger in the video on his phone joined the abuse,'' Mr Nayna said.
The shocking incident took place at approximately 10.30pm on November 11.

A woman screams at a fellow passenger after she started singing in French.
Young male passengers "egged on" the man to abuse the girl, offering him beer, cigarettes and even a fishing knife, Mr Nayna said.

"The young guys up the front were egging him on, they gave him a beer and a smoke and even offered his a fishing knife, and then he went off saying 'I'll fillet these c---s,'' Mr Nayna said.

"The French girl started to sing louder and they didn't like that so started the f--k off to your own country type of thing,'' he said.

The man who allegedly smashed the window was pushing a pram with a small child and can be heard in the video ordering the girl to get off the bus.

"There was a large bang and a few screams about the bus, then I saw he had smashed the window, the one right near the French girl,'' Mr Nayna said.

Passengers were shaken and afraid for their safety as they shouted at the bus driver to drive off.

Mr Nayna said he yelled at the bus driver to leave the scene.

"The main thing was to get away from the danger, I just said 'close the back door and drive off!'" he said.

[Will]

From the Courier Mail in Brisbane:

High density not wanted

by: Douglas Estwick, City South News
From: Quest Newspapers
August 29, 20129:56AM

West End building height limits have been raised to 15 storeys along the Brisbane River. Source: Quest Newspapers

THE president of the West End Community Association has labelled a State Government decision to reinstate building heights of 12 storeys in the suburb as "anti-democratic".

The controversial move will affect sites in a section of West End between the Brisbane River and Forbes St, Montague Rd and Vulture St, allowing construction of high-density developments.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the area was the right place for higher-density residential living given its proximity to the Brisbane CBD, public transport and essential services.

But West End Community Association president Darren Godwell has lobbied against the change and said the decision was counter to what local residents wanted.

"They're going to ignore community submissions and ignore the overwhelming concerns of local residents," Mr Godwell said.

"It's anti-democratic."

Cr Quirk said 127 formal submissions were received during community consultation in favour of the increase to 12 storeys versus just 11 against.

But Gabba Ward councillor Helen Abrahams rejected the reliability of the council's consultation.

"That was the consultation, and it was minor consultation, the second time the Lord Mayor went to the State Government with a 12-storey proposal and already the State Government had rejected that and said no," Cr Abrahams said.

"So there weren't the large number of objections because the community had already got the support of the Labor State Government.

"When the community was able to have a say first up, there were 394 individual written submissions protesting the heights and over 3000 signatures on a petition.

"I know that's the level of opposition that Lord Mayor Quirk would have got if he had gone back out to the community and I'm calling on him he has to."

The amendment to the South Brisbane Riverside Neighbourhood Plan is expected to come before a full council meeting in coming months for final approval

[Maximus]

Controversial goings-on in Canberra lately. One unusual feature of Canberra is that, generally speaking, you're not allowed to have a front fence. Which means that a lot of people have front hedges instead. Which means that people don't maintain their hedges and they start to over-grow the footpath. Which means that pedestrians' groups complain about having to walk/run on the adjacent grass, while the owner of the hedge objects to pruning it on the basis that the hedge is of 'heritage value'. Solution? Council builds a new path around the hedge. Yes, I'm not joking. Click on article link for photos.

TAMS creates path to peace in hedge war
Date: December 7, 2012
Noel Towell

It's been a war with no winners...until now.

The Beast of Braddon, a hedge on Chapman Street that had overgrown the footpath, has been spared the hedge clippers and a new path paved around it.

Today workers from Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) laid a fresh path around the Chapman Street home, whose overgrown hedge provoked fierce public debate last week.

The work is TAMS' end of a bargain struck with residents of the upmarket inner-north street in 2008 when the department agreed to move the pavement rather than force the householders to trim the front yard beast.

The homeowners made a small contribution to the cost of the footpath-moving job.

But not everyone was pleased to hear of the deal, with residents in Griffith and nearby Ainslie up in arms over the tough enforcement of the hedge trimming rules on their streets.

TAMS has confirmed to The Canberra Times that more pavement-moving agreements were unlikely and that a hard line would be enforced with any more errant hedges impeding the pavements of the city's inner-suburbs.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... z2Ebsn4l6w

[SRW]

How absurd! That truly takes the cake.

[rhino]

One unusual feature of Canberra is that, generally speaking, you're not allowed to have a front fence. Which means that a lot of people have front hedges instead.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... z2Ebsn4l6w

[/quote]

Interesting that there is a photo of a guy sitting on a stone wall right next to the hedge. Is a stone wall along the edge of a private garden/property, seperating it from the street (public property) not a fence? Apparently not.

[Maximus]

Interesting that there is a photo of a guy sitting on a stone wall right next to the hedge. Is a stone wall along the edge of a private garden/property, seperating it from the street (public property) not a fence? Apparently not.

Good question. And you prompted me to do some more research on this. Turns out the official wording of what's permitted at the front of your property is "boundary demarcation", which includes hedges and "demarcation treatments such as earth mounds, walls or structures 0.4m high or less above natural ground level". By the looks of that photo, the stone wall is a bit higher than 0.4m, but perhaps it's something to do with its function as a retaining wall.

Also, in case you're wondering, the rationale for no front fences is "to encourage residents to maintain their property presentation through their front gardens with low hedges or even lower walls on front boundaries, so that suburban street verges would merge with private front yards giving Canberra’s streets an open, tree lined character". In that respect, I think it's actually quite successful.

[peas_and_corn]

It looks like a retaining wall to me.

[Maximus]

Yet another example from Canberra... (sorry if this is getting tiresome ).

With all the discussion about public transport over in this thread, the following article seemed relevant. Government-owned open-air car parking fees usually go up at the start of the new financial year, but this year they waited until after the ACT election (October) before implementing the rise. Not only that, but the most expensive car parks are $13.50 per day and the machines only take coins. I'm not sure why anyone would park there -- I park nearby undercover for $9. (And, just for the record, I'm not a public transport snob. I drive to work some days, and walk on the others. ) Anyway, happy reading.

Commuters angry over wait for 'smart' parking fee machines
Date December 20, 2012 - 11:26AM

The days of lugging around spare change are far from over for Canberra commuters with the ACT Government revealing its promised smart parking machines are at least 12 months away.

As motorists prepare for parking fee increases of as much as 12 per cent from January, the government has said its promise to install machines that accept notes and cards will not happen until 2014.

Commuters have reacted angrily to the 12-month wait, describing it as “ridiculous” and “absurd”.

From January 2 the fee for an all-day space in Civic will rise to $13.50 and a short stay four-hour space will cost $12.50, with drivers still expected to carry the exact amount of change.

continues...