Is the Inner West the California of Sydney?
Shouldn’t that be Bondi, you may say?
But this is not about beaches, vanity and vacuous people, but the California of the latest polemic Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Places like California practice progressive politics; they talk the talk, they do a lot of progressive things, yet when it comes to statistics about kindness and inclusion (all the things progressives say they value), the reality is the worst homelessness in America and little housing available to access the great jobs there. A central thesis of Abundance is that process driven progressive politics just can’t get anything done.
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It was with that background reading that I attended a community meeting on the Inner West’s “Our Fairer Future” housing plan to see how progressive communities like mine tackle these problems. Guess what everyone really wants – more process and less density, and more car parking (that surprised me).
The meeting appeared to be organised by the local Greens and was chaired by a previous Leichhardt Councillor, Maire Sheehan and others.
It was Abundance in real time, watching a cast of progressives, going through their muscle-memory complaints about density, housing, and changes. We don’t have enough open space, parking and general amenities. The Inner West lives density, we are already dense. It was that weird counterfactual response. We love the Inner West; it’s the best, but as soon as the prospect of sharing arises, the place becomes a dump.
There was a lot of, I support housing and density, but it must be done well. In general, I would have called this meeting a masterclass in “what aboutism”. Every problem was too hard, too complex, and while they acknowledged there was a housing crisis, the current Fairer Plan was not the answer.
There were the same old scares about developers coming to get you and erroneous statements about the IWC being in cahoots with the state government and extending current low and mid-rise (LMR) and transport orientated development (TOD) zonings, when in fact the IWC plan proposes to roll some of these zonings back.
(The rollback around Dulwich Hill Metro involves R2 zones all over the current TOD and LMR zonings, not mentioned and as big as Rose Hill in terms of lost housing opportunities.)
They don’t want TOD but COD – complaint orientated development, or rather check with me first, then again and again and if it’s all OK, maybe.
And their plan to action (not an action plan), announced at the end of the meeting:
- reduced density
- more open space and amenities
- mandate 40 per cent of three-bedroom units in all new developments
- more car parking
- more consultation
At that point, I thought it was time to go home and skip the Q&A. Feeling very Groucho Marx.
The Fairness in this plan is to get in early if it’s a COD, and be a near Metro NIMBY.
IWC R2 give away, bigger than the proposal for the Rose Hill racecourse, which did not proceed.
Philip Bull is the principal of Civic Assessment a development consulting business, focused on development and social impact assessment. He has worked in the planning departments of Woollahra, Botany, South Sydney, Randwick, the City of Sydney and Waverley Councils.
Car parking would be less of an issue if the current street parking was better managed. Currently streets in the southern wards of IWC are overrun with airport and city commuter parkers who can park unchecked all day or for weeks (the former). Plus every time a new building goes up, builders’ vehicles (and rubbish) fill surrounding streets for a year.
I’d like to see IWC work with NSW government on local loop transport options so that shoppers and other users of hubs can get to and from home without a vehicle or a “borrowed” shopping trolley.
I’m looking forward to seeing all the latent land stock turned into new housing, but with forward thinking about transport and other infrastructure.
The current iwc is beholden to residents that want free parking. That’s why there are so few resident only parking schemes, and too many cars etc every where. We need a parking policy like the city of Sydney, where the kerb is monetarised, rationed, managed and makes big $$.
We need to scrap community consultation beyond commentary. These free timers are screwing my generation, without any understanding of the harms they cause. The irony of doing the devil’s work when they think they are doing the lord’s.