Continuing demise of the NCA

Check out yesterday’s House of Reps Hansard for the lowdown on the NCA. It all seems pretty reasonable to me…
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr190208.pdf

FWIW guys, ever since the National Museum opened I thought it looked a lot like a Nod construction yard. Anyone agree with me here?

National Capital Development Commission. Used to do what the name suggests. The past! Its always the past.

Yo Sepi – traffic at the aiport.. right on. Having come from another small town that was ruined by lack of transport planning and lack of a good public transport system, I reckon the traffic is going to get FAR FAR worse here because the town isn’t going to stop growing, and bigger and better roads are NOT the answer. They tried that in Brisbane, they tried that in Gold Coast, they tried that in Sydney. The answer is to integrate mass transit into the heart of the city right now while the cost is still reasonable.

Yeah – now if the NCA had been serios about their role of protecting the ‘gateways to Canberra’ they should have got their teeth into the airport traffic disaster.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors to Canberra would have noticed the loooong taxi wait and congested traffic. Far more people than would have noticed the ‘green spaces at the entrance to northbourne ave’ that the NCA used to insist on.

and we had a local gov’t power, and a federal power, and yet neither could prevent the mess that has happened at the airport.

Since Xmas, something new must have opened because the traffic is at a standstill from Russell to the airport, every goddam morning! And it’s just going to get worse.

What a disgrace.

If the FEDS don’t trust local govt to maintain Canberra, they should get rid of local govt altogether. but it was never going to work having local govt looking after most of Canberra, and NCA acting for the FEDs in parts. At best it would mean a gorgeous parliamentary triangle, and the rest of Canberra going down to pot. In reality it has been worse, with the NCA sticking their fingers into all sorts of random things, from banning the Pierces Creek settlement, to greening Northbourne Ave, to having input into rural leases on the way into Canberra, and allowing some high developments within the parliamentary triangle despite going against the Canberra plan.

At least if our elected govt stuffs things up it is our govt.

Who cares which bunch of bureau-droids does the planning for this town? All the biggest stuff-ups in planning have already been made viz:

1) No integrated public transport. No rail system for the suburbs. The coach terminal is completely divorced from both the long distance rail station and the aiport. The long distance rail station will likely be shut down completely in the near future by property developers seeking to extend the apartment complexes. In short, all the development revolves around cars, which is seriously stupid.

2) All of the pubs/restaurants/cafes etc are in the residential suburbs where the drunken people should not be – these things should be by the lake where the views are sweet, and close to where the people work, so that they can go and hang out after work and blow off steam. There should be good public transport and from these places so that they don’t have to drive home afterwards.

3) The place has no soul. By this I mean there is no local culture, and the cultures that have been transported here are not cherished, but are treated with an cold disdain for much of the time.

4) Parliamentary Circle dominates the place far too much. Fair enough it’s a national capital , but the people here shouldn’t be slaves to it. The town needs to have its own throbbing heart as well.

5) The disdain for Queanbeyan/Jerra is seriously wierd. Even Gold Coast/Tweed Heads has largely gotten over that sort of childish nonesense and is moving on. State borders are stupid left-overs of colonialism. Canberra is not better than Queanbeyan, it’s just as bad because it’s also in the middle of nowhere.

6) It’s in the middle of nowhere. 🙂

I am not the nerdiest nerd who ever nerded, but I am a limited nerd.

Perhaps I’ve just drawn the nerds with my cunning nerd trap.