An Open Letter to Ant Sharwood

What, this chestnut again?

Alex, I like what you wrote in the article – but I feel two things need to be said;

1) Ant is free to say whatever he likes about canberra, whether he was born here, lives here or not.
I thought that much of his original article, and his reply below, were fair enough.

2) Why on earth do some Canberrans worry so much about how the city is percieved? If people from elsewhere want to misguidedly talk about how boring/backward etc the place is, let them. After all, the last thing we want is to become a pale carbon copy of a big city.

Maybe Ant just had to write an article in a hurry in order to meet a deadline (maybe you did too? grin)
In which case, it’s pretty predictable clickbait in both (potential) cases, isn’t it?
And the irony is, even knowing it’s clickbait, I’m responding to it – and am laughing to myself as I do it 😀

Like everything else in life, there’s a balance. We can’t all live on giant half-acre blocks and expect light rail at our front doors. By the same token, we can’t expect to enjoy the increasing buzz and sophistication that comes with higher density housing without losing some of the peace and quiet.

Let’s all just (a) satisfy ourselves that we enjoy living in our city
(b) work together towards making it better over time, and
(c) appreciate both going on holidays to other cities to appreciate their special vibe and culture, and to appreciate coming home to Canberra again afterwards.

JC said :

AntSharwood said :

2. Bad city planning
Canberra is nearly three quarters the size of New York City. Yet it has just 4 per cent of the population. At some point, more medium density housing around the suburban shopping centres is desperately needed, both for convenience and for that urban vibe. Andrew Leigh readily acknowledges this fact

That is a matter of debate actually. Maybe New York City is the city this badly planned. I personally like Canberra being spread out and sparsley populate, to me that is what makes Canberra unique.

Not everyone wants to be living in the inner city, with no room to move, but yeah gee you get some nice restaurants being shoe horned in.

And yet many proponents of light rail and labor fanbois use comparisons with major cities in other parts of the world as evidence as to why Canberra needs to do something. (But that’s how they do it in Copenhagen, dammit).

FWIW, I agree with you.

I liked Ant’s response, too.

AntSharwood said :

2. Bad city planning
Canberra is nearly three quarters the size of New York City. Yet it has just 4 per cent of the population. At some point, more medium density housing around the suburban shopping centres is desperately needed, both for convenience and for that urban vibe. Andrew Leigh readily acknowledges this fact

That is a matter of debate actually. Maybe New York City is the city this badly planned. I personally like Canberra being spread out and sparsley populate, to me that is what makes Canberra unique.

Not everyone wants to be living in the inner city, with no room to move, but yeah gee you get some nice restaurants being shoe horned in.

That also brings me to cities like Sydney and Melbourne etc. When people look at the city they generally only look at the central area’s, but fact is get out in the burbs of those cities it isn’t too dissimilar to Canberra. Except of course all the agro that goes with living in a big city and people going about their business at a million miles an hour.

Madam Cholet said :

I think we need to get over trying to tell people and just let it go. Many reports back what we know so who cares who’s in and who’s out? Canberrans do need to move on a bit.

I last lived in Sydney in 2003. I left because I hated it for all the reasons you describe. I know that I still dislike it even though I only go there for work these days. I would never bother to go there for a break. Having to visit anyone in Sydney is a real chore (as much as I wish to see them), and it’s never a relaxing event. I know it’s a vibrant and sparkly city with many an attractive feature but it does not suit my sensibilities at all. And it’s obviously the same for this chap except he hates Canberra.

I can’t see the ‘thing’ with Melbourne, detest Brisbane, find Adelaide boring to be in but like Perth and Darwin. Each to their own.

Ssshh, being sensible is unexciting.

C’mon,
Everyone surely knows not to take Ant Sherwood’s articles seriously right?

He’s works for news.com and definitely writes for his target market.

I mean, the only people allowed to make fun of our public art are Canberrans. And the fact that he choose the “wide brown land” piece when he had a penis owl to choose from just shows how out of touch with modern day Canberra he really is.

Lazy writing Ant ….

I think you were trying to be funny but just came over as lazy – trotting out opinions we have heard before. Sorry – your article wasn’t balanced but our city is so lovely and spread out that there is room (even) for you!

Dear Ant

You’re mean and I don’t like it. I’m going to write a passive aggressive response on the internet and pretend I speak on behalf of ‘everyone else in Canberra’, that’ll show you how intelligent Canberrans are!

sickly sweet sign off to look like I’m a good guy,
Nail

AntSharwood said :

And my sixth point which read:

If one thing sums up Canberra, it is this giant poo-like sculpture on the hill at Canberra’s gleaming new National Arboretum. An arboretum, for the record, is basically a great big tree garden. The sculpture, on a bare hilltop, features a famous phrase from of Dorothea McKellar’s poem My Country. Point is, anyone staring at the view can tell that Australia is indeed, yep, a wide brown land. They don’t need a giant brown poo to tell them that.

Cheers – Ant

sixth point should have read – i have no appreciation of art.

there, fixed…

ffs, if this is what you have to use to ‘critique’ canberra, do stay where you are and keep your cronies with you.

oh, and an arboretum is a ‘collection’ of trees – not just a ‘garden’. there is a very real and wonderful and beautiful purpose to this ‘collection’, about which you may care to inform yourself.

AntSharwood said :

In particular I would stand behind points 1 and 2 in my list of Canberra’s flaws which read:

1. Hypocrites
You have never, ever in your life seen a city with so many greenies who drive solo to work. That’s because they are shocking hypocrites. For the record, when I lived in Canberra in 2004, I caught the bus to work with a blind colleague. If he could do it, so should the rest of Canberra.

2. Bad city planning
Canberra is nearly three quarters the size of New York City. Yet it has just 4 per cent of the population. At some point, more medium density housing around the suburban shopping centres is desperately needed, both for convenience and for that urban vibe. Andrew Leigh readily acknowledges this fact

1. Rubbish. Perhaps a Venn diagram would help here. Not all Canberrans are drivers and greenies and hypocrites. Besides, ask anyone in Sydney or Melbourne if they’d drive to work if they could (be there in 15 minutes and park for free) and I think most would.

For the record I’ve ridden my bike to school/work (and caught the bus) for over 20 years and it has nothing to do with being a greenie.

2. Completely irrelevant. Canberra’s going great guns – but surprisingly we’re never going to have a population of more than Sydney and Melbourne combined…

PS. I think your mum taught me at Weston Primary?? Only in Canberra eh?

I think the real question is: who the hell is Ant Sharwood, and why would anyone care, or listen, to what he/she has to say?

I like Canberra – it’s a nice place. The people who don’t like it, can stay away. That step alone would go a long way to making it an even better city.