A Christmas wish: urban leadership

I can tell you, from the inside, there are good people working within TAMS maintaining median strips and public parks & other spaces. Unfortunately, any good idea or innovation is pretty much ignored or killed off by their bumbling senior managers. This in turn creates that vicious government employee feedback loop of ignorance, frustration and then apathy/helplessness. They can only play the hand they are given too – the expression “you can’t polish a turd” springs to mind.

I live on the edge of Central Belconnen and agree we need more greenery to create little microclimates, also cant work out why developments are built on the edge of busy roads without noise reduction measures. After renting for a while in Canberra I have lived in more than a few nice rentals that unfortunately were impacted by roaring traffic/lacked privacy. I lived in London for a while and found more quiet nooks to dine/walk/sit than urban spaces in Canberra. We have so much space here that is not used/designed well and unfortunately have to use cars too much. I don’t understand why in Belconnen public spaces (besides the lake) are sparse, sterile and desolate, too much plain concrete for a place that has a burgeoning population of people in apartments built/being built that need spaces that foster healthy, diverse communities and businesses that are sustainable. The plantings around the new Belconnen interchange were poorly designed and are full of weeds/have washed away and there is little life in Belconnen at night. I would say other parts of Canberra have similar problems.

miz said :

Totally agree with your views about greenery in particular. I find it astounding that so many politicians who claim to ascribe to climate change do not seem to understand the enormous benefits on the ‘look and feel’ (literally!) of encouraging well-chosen deciduous trees and plantings in our gardens, parks and reserves. Where are the most desirable suburbs in Canberra? Why, the ones with established gardens of a decent size and a good proportion of green space, which were planted when people knew about this stuff. Ie, the inner north and south. Whereas shoving loads of cramped housing into a small space is simply creating a massive heat bank. We need far better planning, with the inclusion of more urban forests to temper our temperature extremes into the future.

I’m with you on all those points.
We got by without air con very well when our houses were surrounded by greenery.
I often wonder if the hot winds from the north west are getting hotter because the loss of massive amounts of greenery from land-clearing is no longer tempering those winds.

miz said :

Totally agree with your views about greenery in particular. I find it astounding that so many politicians who claim to ascribe to climate change do not seem to understand the enormous benefits on the ‘look and feel’ (literally!) of encouraging well-chosen deciduous trees and plantings in our gardens, parks and reserves. Where are the most desirable suburbs in Canberra? Why, the ones with established gardens of a decent size and a good proportion of green space, which were planted when people knew about this stuff. Ie, the inner north and south. Whereas shoving loads of cramped housing into a small space is simply creating a massive heat bank. We need far better planning, with the inclusion of more urban forests to temper our temperature extremes into the future.

Isn’t this why the new sub divisions are condemned to bake? No room for any trees on those tiny blocks + Macmansions, so the only shade will be from the street trees. And the street trees will struggle because everyone parks on the nature strips…

Totally agree with your views about greenery in particular. I find it astounding that so many politicians who claim to ascribe to climate change do not seem to understand the enormous benefits on the ‘look and feel’ (literally!) of encouraging well-chosen deciduous trees and plantings in our gardens, parks and reserves. Where are the most desirable suburbs in Canberra? Why, the ones with established gardens of a decent size and a good proportion of green space, which were planted when people knew about this stuff. Ie, the inner north and south. Whereas shoving loads of cramped housing into a small space is simply creating a massive heat bank. We need far better planning, with the inclusion of more urban forests to temper our temperature extremes into the future.