Has Canberra's heart relocated?

davo101 said :

54-11 said :

(and what she calls “vibrancy”, whatever that is)

Apparently in Britain “vibrant area” is real-estate code for lots of knife crime.

Belconnen town centre is a vibrant area.

54-11 said :

(and what she calls “vibrancy”, whatever that is)

Apparently in Britain “vibrant area” is real-estate code for lots of knife crime.

“The plan includes increased city living, limited traffic and better connections both through the city and to the lake, encouraging a vibrant atmosphere. A number of projects are currently underway as part of this plan, including redevelopment of ABC flats and developing options to limit traffic impacts in the city centre.”

So, in practice, more of the same, with predictable results. On a purely anecdotal basis, I know people who have moved to Civic but still regularly drive to other areas for shopping – no reason, at all, why they shouldn’t do that, but it puts into perspective claims and assumptions about traffic and environmental benefits of concentrating more people in Civic and the town centres.

“Catherine Carter has called for Canberrans to maximize the opportunities available through the City Plan to revive our city’s heart and connect all our individual suburbs into one great city”

If we really want to do that, a good start might be to take a more realistic approach to some (note I said “some”) of the bush and scrubland laced through our suburbs and use it to create attractive medium density living options (e.g. decent townhouses that people would actually choose to live in). That could be an attractive option for people who don’t want or need a traditional suburban home, but aren’t interested in apartment living. We have a lot of older townhouse developments, but the recent supply does not seem to be all that good, and are often quite expensive because they are built on redeveloped blocks in the more desirable suburbs. Recent reports of the re-think of the Jamison Inn development seem to support the view that the demand for apartments is not unlimited, and that people want other options.

Finally, whether it’s apartments or townhouses, the widely-reported issues about building defects with recent developments will need to be dealt with thoroughly and convincingly if more people are to choose higher density living.

Catherine Carter is the building industry’s vuvuzela – loud, persistent and grating.

All she harps on about is how the government should make it easy for her members to destroy what we have, all in the name of “progress” (and what she calls “vibrancy”, whatever that is). And she wants us, the taxpayers, to pay for the privilege of developers to make super profits.

The sooner she moves to Sydney, rather than trying to make Canberra into Sydney, the better.

johnny said :

I would say as a new resident to Canberra that without good reliable public transport there needs to be better parking, free short term parking would be awesome (1hr or so) as I have no intention of going to the city, and avoid it like the plague, I find areas such as Manuka and Kingston more accessible with limited free parking around, and I am living in Gungahlin. When I do go to the shops I would bypass the Canberra Centre all together and go to Belconnen or Woden Westfield’s,as at least they have limited free parking, and if I need to stay longer I can either choose to pay the extra small fee, or move my car for another free 2 hours.

The other issue, is unless you want to drive all the way around to the outskirts, the only option you have is straight through the guts, if it were any other state I would suggest a tunnel (with a possible toll) so that you avoid Civic/City area, unless you are going there, but with a small population and budget for roads, this ideal solution will never happen. Even to travel east or west to go north, I have to drive sideways and backwards to get there, so I use more petrol getting around, and rarely actually save time, rather than going through the centre, streamlining traffic away from the city, whilst allowing people to travel closer to their destination rather than having to drive 100km southwest to be able to go north (okay slightly exaggerated…) is the only way you will alleviate traffic… I dread to see how Horsepark Drive will be when the Majura Parkway is done (hopefully before I retire),there traffic lights along there are just terrible…

What are you trying to say?

In your first paragraph you say that you would like to see more parking but then you say there is in the areas that you go shopping at? OK, there is no free parking at all in the city but if you dont shop there then its no issue, is it?

Manuka/Kingston all have car parking if you are happy to not park out the front of the shop you are going to, Manuka has an underground multi level park……

Can you please elaborate on your second paragraph, its confusing and I cant work out how you quantify that you will use more fuel on any trip in Canberra compared to other cities you have lived.

I would say as a new resident to Canberra that without good reliable public transport there needs to be better parking, free short term parking would be awesome (1hr or so) as I have no intention of going to the city, and avoid it like the plague, I find areas such as Manuka and Kingston more accessible with limited free parking around, and I am living in Gungahlin. When I do go to the shops I would bypass the Canberra Centre all together and go to Belconnen or Woden Westfield’s,as at least they have limited free parking, and if I need to stay longer I can either choose to pay the extra small fee, or move my car for another free 2 hours.

The other issue, is unless you want to drive all the way around to the outskirts, the only option you have is straight through the guts, if it were any other state I would suggest a tunnel (with a possible toll) so that you avoid Civic/City area, unless you are going there, but with a small population and budget for roads, this ideal solution will never happen. Even to travel east or west to go north, I have to drive sideways and backwards to get there, so I use more petrol getting around, and rarely actually save time, rather than going through the centre, streamlining traffic away from the city, whilst allowing people to travel closer to their destination rather than having to drive 100km southwest to be able to go north (okay slightly exaggerated…) is the only way you will alleviate traffic… I dread to see how Horsepark Drive will be when the Majura Parkway is done (hopefully before I retire),there traffic lights along there are just terrible…

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

KB1971 said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

+ a million. Bad planning is what has gotten us into the situation we’re in now.

Im not so sure about what is so bad about Canberra planning other than the lack of foresight when Gunners sprung up.

What situation are we in now?

If I commute by car I get a relatively hassle free drive into town. If I take the bus I can get from home to the city in one go and if I choose to ride I can use a bike path all the way that starts 500m from my home.

I am confused.

Gungers is a mess. Access to the city is bad enough we’re having light rail rammed down our throat (which, conveniently, will only be between Gungers and the city, hmmm…), and we have every bit of roadworks causing huge delays (and yet most projects take months if not years).

The inner south (no, I don’t live there) is a much better example of how things should be planned. Better infrastructure, good access, no silliness about how people actually live.

Mmm, I dont know. I dont see it “as a mess”. I see areas for improvement and yes Gunners was planned differently to the rest of the city which makes it look not as good. The only real thing I can fault about that is that major access roads were not built correctly to cope with expansion. It seems that they have fixed that faux pas in Wright and Coombs.

I travel a bit for work, that means I get to drive in all the other major cities and enjoy their efforts at planning around the fact that lazy people enjoy their cars rather than use the public transport. Places like Sydney are a complete nightmare and there seems to be no real effort put in to the original planning to help things along or in the re-jig planning.

Take the M5 tunnel for instance, it is the major feed from the fastest growing part of the city and when they put the tunnel in they made it two lanes (unlike Melbourne and Brisbane). I know they built this a while ago but where was the fore-planning for that? Then there is the M4….it just finishes 15 odd km from the city and puts you right into the clusterf*%k that is Parramatta Road…….

Places like that make the things that are wrong in Gunners look like perfect planning.

KB1971 said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

+ a million. Bad planning is what has gotten us into the situation we’re in now.

Im not so sure about what is so bad about Canberra planning other than the lack of foresight when Gunners sprung up.

What situation are we in now?

If I commute by car I get a relatively hassle free drive into town. If I take the bus I can get from home to the city in one go and if I choose to ride I can use a bike path all the way that starts 500m from my home.

I am confused.

Gungers is a mess. Access to the city is bad enough we’re having light rail rammed down our throat (which, conveniently, will only be between Gungers and the city, hmmm…), and we have every bit of roadworks causing huge delays (and yet most projects take months if not years).

The inner south (no, I don’t live there) is a much better example of how things should be planned. Better infrastructure, good access, no silliness about how people actually live.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

+ a million. Bad planning is what has gotten us into the situation we’re in now.

Im not so sure about what is so bad about Canberra planning other than the lack of foresight when Gunners sprung up.

What situation are we in now?

If I commute by car I get a relatively hassle free drive into town. If I take the bus I can get from home to the city in one go and if I choose to ride I can use a bike path all the way that starts 500m from my home.

I am confused.

miz said :

The geographic centre of Canberra is actually Woden. That’s why the main hospital is there. All the constant focus on north side (including Civic) gets very wearing for those in the south, where nothing ever seems to get done unless the govt nearly loses an election.

miz that’s true, but the other reality is that the population centre of Canberra as opposed to the geographic one is in Lake Burley Griffin near the Royal Canberra golf course and is steadily marching north, driven by the population growth in Gungahlin, Belconnen and even North Canberra.