27 October 2006

The new direction of shopfronts and libraries

| johnboy
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As the public becomes aware of his closures, the Territory and Municipal Services Minister, John Hargreaves, has seen fit to put out a explaining what it is he’s up to with the shopfronts and libraries..

As with schools the plan is to have less facilities out in the community and new supposedly bigger and better facilities in central locations.

When the Romans withdrew the legions from Britain the justifications were similar.

In some consolation to those who use the civic shopfront the new civic library will have a counter offering some of the services.

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putting lightrail in canberra as a mass transit public tranport system would be a sound and logical project – it woudl ease road congestion, reduce parking problems, reduce the amount of familys who NEED 2 cars, allow planner and developers to build high and medium density residential buildings where they would not cause road and parking problems, and be impervious to fuel price spikes in budgetary forecasts.

Crunching numbers based on ‘cost’ does not always reflect the long term benefits.

action buses with their restrictive load capacity and unattractiveness to commuters, do not currently and will never offer a viable mass transit system to canberrans.

I thought you traded it for the Tharwa Bridge?

And where’s my fucking dragway?

youshould_knowthis10:38 am 30 Oct 06

So evidently youshould_knowthis, you’re the one who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.

Geez, areaman, did you see the Canberra Times on Sunday? Its on the front page, in case you missed it.

Despite the fact you work in the LA somewhere, you’re obviously out of the loop – are you Karin McDonald?

Hargraeves the loud-mouthed drunk is a twat for displaying Government stinginess. Role on 2008 mate and I’ll vote you last.

The busway had a cost-benefit study done on it (I saw the tender documents advetised). Corbell either says the study is not finished; wont release it; or says he cannot find it: it depends what time of the month you ask him. Must mean that the study showed how up-the-shit the whole pet project was going to be.

Wasn’t Simon the twat who was going to build a cappucino light rail to Manuka back in 2001? Now he has V. Dunne doing his biding by wanting to light rail Canberra.

This is terrible! The civic government shopfront is the only one I can easily get to. So much for that…

Bah!

Areaman,

Maybe gagging the Coroner was not a hippie, feel- good social engineering project, but it was classic Sonic.

He has the tendency to support his mates, unfortunately without thinking through the perceived level of incompetence demonstrated by these mates. ESB officials, graffiti sprayers spring to mind.

Not sure the ACT ratepayers should be required to contribute a red cent towards the defence of these clots.

The decision to close the Griffith Library is just plain bad. Here we have a little oasis of decency and civilisation, a place of beauty and serenity, a functioning government service, and they want to stomp it out. Get real, Mr Hargreaves, people aren’t going to bus through sleazy interchanges to go to the libraries at Civic and Woden. If they get more “clients” its because bored public servants, people waiting for buses and other vagrants go in and out. Griffith Libary functions as a library, people go there to read, to hear stories, for the peace and quiet. Why destroy what, through good fortune more than good planning, has been created there. If the Stanhope government hadn’t squandered the property boom windfall it has received on mad schemes like the arboretum and a bloated ACT government service, it could afford to provide the basic, decent services that ratepayers expect. If the government needs savings, there are disfunctional public housing slums that should be sold off and redeveloped before they collapse into complete disrepair – not so far from the Griffith Library.

barking toad4:55 pm 27 Oct 06

And, of course, the gay marriage project has surfaced again.

And wasn’t there a puffy chested press release put out in the last week or so that, among other things, mentioned setting up some new indigenous consulting body?

The hippies can’t help attacking the cat meat.

at this point is it also worth thanking Save The Ridge?

I didn’t call anything a “hippie, feel-good social engineering project”.

But bike lanes that no one uses cos they’re too dangerous for everyone involved come to mind when those words are used.

… and how much was spent on the busway plans before the Govt finally realised it was in financial shit?

I think somewhere around $500,000 to $1,000,000 from memory was allocated, over a couple of years, I’m not sure how much was spent. That may have also been for planning on the Gungahlin bus lane, is that still going ahead?

Areaman, how about the money spent trying to gag the coroner?

Wether you agree with that or not, I wouldn’t describe it as a hippie, feel-good social engineering project.

… and how much was spent on the busway plans before the Govt finally realised it was in financial shit?

Areaman, how about the money spent trying to gag the coroner?

Arboretum > Massively reduced, the only money being spent is what they would have had to spend to rehabilitate the land anyway.
Busway > On indefinite hold.
SIEV-X memorial > Cancelled (and I don’t think it was ever going to get ACT gov funding anyway).

So evidently youshould_knowthis, you’re the one who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.

If you wear the hijab, does that mean you don’t get raped by excessive ACT Govt charges?

If so, even I’ll be getting a veil.

barking toad3:51 pm 27 Oct 06

And I meant to say :

“Like a cat presented with uncovered meat outdoors, they can’t help but eat it”

barking toad3:49 pm 27 Oct 06

Areaman, while the mayor has had to trim some of his gay projects to demonstrate he can make cuts (to hold on to the AAA status) they’re still costing.

In any case, I was actually suggesting there will be new ones. They can’t help it.

Lots of funds squandered on other unnecessaries though – like getting huffy about Maria Doogan’s coronial comments and the subsequent blow out in legal costs; maybe also the implementation of the Human Rights Act – while I am all for human rights, it seemed fairly wasteful and pointless to spend time and money on it when all ACT legislation can be constitutionally trumped by the Feds . . .

Meanwhile they are cutting services, closing schools etc. I for one would quite like to see the (insert swear-word of choice here) functional review they are basing all these things on. Whatever happened to whistleblowers?!

I have heard the Arboretum is cancelled – but i have also heard it is only reduced from 12 million to 6 million in funding – anyone know for sure?
Also the SIEV-X memorial was not approved.

Last I heard the busway was on hold.

Absent Diane of the Imminent Present2:58 pm 27 Oct 06

well they have approximately 68 minutes to duke it out before everyone stops caring and starts heading towards their various pubs and beer fridges to quench that well earned thirst. A thirst that could drive someone like me crazy, and that my friends is not a good sight -me running around like a headless chicken because I haven’t had my friday juice of life. (go areaman)

yeah – benchmark my rates against other jurisdictions PLEASE!

youshould_knowthis2:38 pm 27 Oct 06

Are you f*&^ing kidding areaman?

Arboretum
Busway
SIEV-X memorial

Need I go on……….

that’s just bizarre. dickson is only 4km away from civic, it states. as if that is somehow convenient! so when they close the civic shopfront all those civic workers who currently use it are supposed to make their way to dickson during their lunch hour?!

But, despite the parlous state of govt finances, they’ll still find funds to throw on hippie, feel-good social engineering projects.

Bullshit, what programs?

youshould_knowthis2:34 pm 27 Oct 06

Benchmarking against other states or places is absolute rubbish!!

The best thing about Canberra for a long time has been the fact that it is better than those other places we benchmark against.

And to say no-one is prepared to pay for it is crap – look at the increases in rates and taxes since Stanhope took over – we pay more every year, our rates are through the roof, and we keep getting less and less for it.

We are being royally screwed……

barking toad2:34 pm 27 Oct 06

The bottom line is what all this is about.

The mayor and his cronies will be cutting back on paper clips too, not just services. More local taxes (in the guise of “levies”) and ongoing increases in all charges

There must have been a shit load of lunches and lobbying to retain the AAA credit rating.

But, despite the parlous state of govt finances, they’ll still find funds to throw on hippie, feel-good social engineering projects. They can’t help themselves.

Because the community will want everything. And they don’t want to pay anything for it.

Benchmarking is about making sure that people won’t be better off going somewhere else, not about giving the best service to your clients.

instead of benchmarking against other jurisdictions, why not ask the community in which the facilities reside what they need.

arrogant fucks.

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