14 November 2008

Why Canberra is not like Wollongong

| johnboy
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The Chief Minister is on the air on ABC radio as I write. He is once again pushing the line that Assembly interference in the planning process of his precious power station will put us on the path to Wollongong Council.

Having spent the last year living in the Illawarra, and having met a few of the personalities thrust into the spotlight by that infamous corruption inquiry this confuses me.

It confuses me most because the problem at Wollongong was the reverse of elected representatives interfering in the planning process by public debate and vote. The (cough cough) Labor caucus on the council resolutely blocked any such interference.

The corruption occurred in the “proper planning process” with hidden officials manipulating the process. Transparency and accountability was then blocked by the permanent Labor majority.

Labor (or any single party) constantly getting it’s own way on planning is the road to Wollongong. Not open debate and votes on the public record.

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All the way north of Wollongong the sun goes down at about 3 pm in winter because of the escarpment …

Having lived in Wollongong, the racism is there.

Being Greek/Macedonian/Serbian/etc doesn’t stop racism against the Vietnamese, Lebanese and other, newer immigrants.

I think some of these statements need to be clarified JB – in particular, the one about them all being closet racists…

From memory, you lived closer to Kiama than to Wollongong proper, am I correct there?

Becuase, yes, Kiama IS very whitebread and middle-classish (and … potentially closet racist). Unlike Wollongong, which still has a large collection of greeks/macedonians/bosnians/serbs/italians from back in the steel-works days.

It’s also part of a different shire to Wollongong Council, which … you probably should have disclosed … I understand that, yes, this means that you were near enough to still hear and be in contact with a lot of info about the doings of Wollongong Council, but confusing the Illawarra region and Wollongong happens all too often (I’m originally from Wollongong myself…) and … well, accurate information is something that should be encouraged…

Particularly if we want to remove confusion between “Canberra” and “The federal government that meets here”… we may as well get details about other cities correct too…

Skid@30: Tourist attractions???? No, we don’t need none of them round here, thank you very much – especially none of them foreign-looking ones. I mean, whose country is this anyway?

I mean, foreigners show up, undertake a massive local construction project which will incidentally become an international tourist attraction entirely paid for by donations, fill it with foreigners and locals who are there to study, allow walk-ins and guided tours, hold cultural festivals where they give away free food and temporary gifts to everyone who shows up, and none of them are actually there to steal jobs or put people out of work, and instead employ a large number of locals…

And then when racists try and confront them about it, they just sit there, accepting the beating because they know its only temporary.
It must be a truly terrible thing to be -that ignorant-.

Yeah, almost makes you feel sorry for them.

It must be terrible for any racists living in the shadow of Nan Tien, too.

johnboy wrote:

johnboy said :

Culturally it’s a desert. The huge population growth they’re having is, in large part (IMHO), racists fleeing from all the differently coloured people who’ve moved into Sydney.

Wonder how the racists moving to Wollongong are coping with the rather large population of Macedonians and Greeks who live in Wollongong?

I thought the airport was all on Federally controlled land – so designated under the national capital plan. The genius of Snow was recognising that any development at the airport, such as office parks and factory outlets, would not require any Byzantine approvals from the ACT planning authorities, but rather the NCA and the (easily influenced) Territories Minister. So it’s all the Feds fault.

Holden Caulfield11:48 am 14 Nov 08

Yeah, nah, Canberra’s not a patch on Brisbane.

So I’ve been told.

I spend half my time in Canberra and the other half in Wollongong, for work. While I can live 5 min from a glorious beach with cheap rent in Wollongong, I still prefer Canberra. Wollongong is not well planned, it is cut into ribbons by a couple of freeways and the railway, meaning getting around often involves a complicated route of overpasses and on/off ramps, and it is an outright dangerous city to cycle around. The supermarkets are surprisingly lacking in fresh produce and in my area there is nothing like the IGAs in Canberra – the corner store seems to consider bananas an exotic food stuff. On the plus side, they are sensible enough to have their late night shopping on Thursday so it is actually useful, and the range of cheap-and-cheerful restaurants in the central city area is really good.

Holden Caulfield11:36 am 14 Nov 08

johnboy said :

…Cultural homogeneity (you never have to ask someone how they spell their name)…

I don’t believe that for a second…

Belinda – Belindah – Bilynda
Taylor – Taylah – Taillah
Michaela – Mikaylah – Mykala

ant said :

Is wollongong becoming a dormitory town for Sydney? We used to go up there from our coasat place sometimes… it’s on a gorgeous bit of the coast, and was thriving but very much its own town. Now I get the impression that people are living there and workign in Sydney.

About 10% of the population work in Sydney IIRC.

I understand that the airport is acquiring some public land, but it’s not as much as you were implying above. The old boundary of the airport extended beyond the fenceline, and included things like the servo – it went right up close to the old road.

It’s nonetheless pretty appalling that they’re able to get away with it (though I understand that they are having to pay for the additional land, and presumably its on a standard ACT Crown Lease). I just don’t think it’s a Conspiracy For The Advancement Of Terry Snow.

johnboy said :

Culturally it’s a desert. The huge population growth they’re having is, in large part (IMHO), racists fleeing from all the differently coloured people who’ve moved into Sydney.

With that population growth the schools are being built new at a furious rate. Cultural homogeneity (you never have to ask someone how they spell their name) seems to produce little conflict in the schools and anything bad that youth do is blamed on Warilla kids.

The Hospitals are terrible, basically just rehab centres for procedures performed in Sydney.

Transport on the other hand… the railways are superb.

Pubs are, with a very small number of exceptions, dreadful. Cooper Pale is their idea of a rare posh boutique beer.

On the other hand we were living 2 minutes walk from Seven Mile Beach, with glorious views, in a 3 bedroom house for $250 a week, which included a gardener. There was an excellent cafe at the bottom of the hill, a licenced club at the top of it, local shops 5 minutes drive away and major shopping centres 30 minutes drive.

As for coming back, the chance get paid to do something I really love. Plus family, friends, and decent pubs and kebabs.

Right so the cheap rent and sparkling beaches are the only things going for it in your opinion!?!?!

Now I’m confused!!! Maybe I need some time down the gong to straighten myself up!?!?

Is wollongong becoming a dormitory town for Sydney? We used to go up there from our coasat place sometimes… it’s on a gorgeous bit of the coast, and was thriving but very much its own town. Now I get the impression that people are living there and workign in Sydney.

Oh and rental listings frequently have “Pet friendly” on them.

Which is a good thing when you have a Kelpie Of Few Accomplishments.

Caf, the airport is acquiring what was public land, this is a fact and a matter of public record. All the land between the new road, and their OLD boundary, will now be theirs. The land where the old road was, the roadside, all of it. The desire to maximise the amount of land they could get clearly influenced the plan for the new road, too.

The ACT government was very happy to have the airport take on the entire road project (the section that paraellels the airport), and Hargreaves is on the record expressing his pleasure about this, as they “get on with it and get things done” ie, they’re not hampered by things like accountability and the need to consult.

> At least try and be funny when talking about bogans.

You did say “try” to be funny…I was trying! Failed, obviously. 🙂

Culturally it’s a desert. The huge population growth they’re having is, in large part (IMHO), racists fleeing from all the differently coloured people who’ve moved into Sydney.

With that population growth the schools are being built new at a furious rate. Cultural homogeneity (you never have to ask someone how they spell their name) seems to produce little conflict in the schools and anything bad that youth do is blamed on Warilla kids.

The Hospitals are terrible, basically just rehab centres for procedures performed in Sydney.

Transport on the other hand… the railways are superb.

Pubs are, with a very small number of exceptions, dreadful. Cooper Pale is their idea of a rare posh boutique beer.

On the other hand we were living 2 minutes walk from Seven Mile Beach, with glorious views, in a 3 bedroom house for $250 a week, which included a gardener. There was an excellent cafe at the bottom of the hill, a licenced club at the top of it, local shops 5 minutes drive away and major shopping centres 30 minutes drive.

As for coming back, the chance get paid to do something I really love. Plus family, friends, and decent pubs and kebabs.

justbands said :

Too many bogans. WAY too many.

Justbands, mate you’ve gone down a notch in my book with that comment man… At least try and be funny when talking about bogans.

Housebound is right, not all bogans are bad… I’m proud to represent…

Bogans have way more cultural signifigance than Emos or Wiggers (and there’s nothing wrong with either of those groups either! Well actually we could all do without the wiggers!!! haha!).

A bogan beats a bigot any day!!!

Classist comment. Not all bogans are bad, surely.

Too many bogans. WAY too many.

Illawarra: Beaches + housing.

The hospitals aren’t too bad (saved my mum’s life by diagnosing something her non-Illawarra specialist said didn’t exist). But what’s the public transport like, or can you walk to the beach? And do they have schools

Would Illawarra be a reasonable second choice to Melbourne?

johnboy said :

AngryHenry said :

You spent a year in the Illlawarra?!?!?!

No wonder you’re confused dude.

Cheap rent and sparkling beaches, it was dreadful.

Then why come back!?!?! You must be have been REALLY confused.

Holden Caulfield10:44 am 14 Nov 08

It’s not near the coast.

AngryHenry said :

You spent a year in the Illlawarra?!?!?!

No wonder you’re confused dude.

Cheap rent and sparkling beaches, it was dreadful.

ant, there’s no love lost between Terry Snow and the ACT Government, so I doubt very much that there was anything different they could have sensibly done. (and I think the land the servo is on was always part of the airport).

You spent a year in the Illlawarra?!?!?!

No wonder you’re confused dude.

I don’t think the Greens will be a quiet rubber stamp. They don’t want to be disruptive for teh sake of it, but they have a very clear agenda and I think they will pursue it.

The ACT gov’ts relationship with developers and private entities is a real worry. they contract out big projects, and they claim that they have nothing to do with whatever happens next, go talk to the contractor. This is so wrong.

They rolled over and let the airport conduct a massive land-grab of prime PUBLIC land. See the airport entrance grandification project? the airport is running that. And all that land between the airport fence and the new road (where the servo is, etc) will become the airport’s land, they want it for a carpark. This was public land. The airport did up the plans for the roadworks, and pushed them over as far as possible so they are right up against the fences of the local residents, as far from the airport’s fences as possible. Conflict of interest? And the government didn’t say boo.

Got to give them a chance Thumper…how long have they had…a few weeks? Probably still in shock over just how well they did in the election & need to get their heads around their newfound responsibility. I’d rather that than see them jump in with both feet without testing the water first.

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