Our Own Future: Yes Please!

Not just “me too!” Not just like the suburb next door. Not just another dormitory with a big box full of cheap shops. The idea horrifies me. This place is unique; let’s plan for a unique future. Let’s look to the needs of today’s residents and of those fifty years hence.

In South Perth we already see six hundred thousand visitors to the zoo each year, and this even with no rail station. Fresh, exciting plans show development of the Civic Triangle around the Post Office, with community facilities, offices and a residential spire with views to east and west. Nearby landowners want to get this patch moving, with coherent planning. Completion of the rail station will let this happen, and without more traffic too.

Recently I’ve seen architect’s plans for Mill Point, with a cultural museum featuring both Noongar and Colonial history, cycle facilities, coffee shop, a restaurant on the river bank, a marina facing UWA, a zip-slide ride down from Kings Park and careful preservation of the historic Old Mill. Perhaps we really can have a small but significant focus on Tourism. Some people even speak of a recreational area on Sir James Mitchell Park, akin to Brisbane’s Southbank.

For real imagination let’s look at who we are. South Perth has a large proportion of educated people, professional and managerial employees and business owners, a huge range of multi-lingual residents and proximity to the freeway, the rail line, light rail, three universities and the Fiona Stanley medical precinct plus links to the National Broadband Network, being installed right now. Surely this suggests that we can promote a much more knowledge-intensive economy.

With more intense zoning and development in areas such as at South Perth Station and Canning Bridge there is opportunity for Tri-generation energy (click) sources. These would reduce energy consumption, diminish greenhouse gas emissions and save money.  Tri-generation involves building a small gas turbine to generate electricity, using the surplus heat piped around the precinct to run air conditioning and floor heating, while maintaining a connection to the power grid only for emergencies. Lots of other ideas link with this, including grouped solar panels, smart glass, reduced energy transmission losses and co-operative design. This is already being done by Sydney’s CBD.

Preston Street is in a beautiful location but is drowning in Beige. Street art, sidewalk cafés, creative art fashion could thrive here. The business owners are keen but uncertain of Council support. Colin Stiles, owner of the Cygnet Theatre (click) says he’d like to propose imaginative projects but fears that Council would reject them. The restaurant owners too want to get the streetside busy.

Karawara is presently dominated by students, low-rent and social housing. Surely with its proximity to Curtin Uni, Bentley Tech Park and the Pawsey Centre it can be developed as a hub in the knowledge economy. Already Curtin University has exciting plans that include links with surrounding suburbs (click for the link).

Manning and Salter Point have been left behind. Here our population is especially diverse. We have very many people in older, rental places and who really deserve to share in the City’s future. There are numerous Noongar people who provide a link with the long and deep history of our riverbank City. More recent arrivals have built large and costly houses and would also like to feel part of a connected community. The Manning Hub development, which we’ve worked on for about six years, can be a place where all can share the library, sports facilities, shops, meeting places and conversation. Let’s keep this project moving.

Trains now run frequently between Canning Bridge and the City and mean that it is entirely possible for a person to get from their Como home office to a client’s City office more rapidly than they could from another City location. This means that we can already think of South Perth as an extension of the CBD; Similarly we have rapid links with Fiona Stanley Medical precinct and Curtin Uni. With Light Rail as well we can link east and west too.

We could benefit from development of intense, physically small but economically large business centres with diverse services available. Right next to Canning Bridge and South Perth Stations would be ideal.

South Perth has quite a lot of land occupied by large soakage pits. If these were filled with porous, strong cells we could build on top of them, providing land for community and commercial facilities such as medical centres, crèches, sports centres and gyms, etcetera. In total this is valuable land going unused. We’ve already done this in Angelo Street where the car park is constructed over one of these pits, while it still works for rain water to recharge our aquifer.

About two thousand home businesses exist in the City. Some of these are small; others are huge. All Black and Decker tools distribution in WA ran for years from a home garage with internet connection. Many other quite large import and distribution businesses, design firms, games designers and data specialist operate from deceptively small home bases. These are often multi-million dollar operations. Such businesses need a very different support than that required by retail shops. Clustering of people with ideas always brings yet more imagination. Is it something in the air?

Through all these ideas there’s a common thread of the unique riverside environment we share. People worldwide like to live and work in a place that they enjoy and value. The rivers deserve our very best loving care.

Our weakness has been that we’ve usually planned for what we already have. Let’s look beyond today. I believe that we can step onwards from here to build a truly exciting future if we plan for the City that we imagine for the future.

Let’s get on with it. What are your thoughts? Click on Comments below.

Good People Doing Amazingly Good Things

Gee I love where I live. Here’s some of what’s been going on recently and more about events happening soon..

Neighbours looking after each other. Our Neighbourhood Watch group promotes this every day. You can help too. Click here to find out more www.spnw.com.au

Last weekend the Moordij Keila group and Lifestreams Church celebrated the opening of their new meeting place in Karawara.

There’s been a fair bit of sweat, a lot of humour and  people making new friends at the Community Garden. https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/McDougallPark

Just yesterday the Mosaic Group and the Craft people held a stunning Open Day. There were happy potters, whimsical painters, detailed lacemakers, skilled bookbinders and much more. Here’s one of the works:

Forthcoming Events:

Canning Bridge Structure Plan Community Workshop:  The latest on what’s happening and an opportunity to be part of the conversation about our City’s future.

The next community workshop for the Canning Bridge Structure Plan will focus on a series of options for the Structure Plan. Conference Room, City of Melville Civic Centre, 10 Almondbury Road, Booragoon, 6-9pm, Thursday 22 November, Contact: City of Melville 1300 635 845 or City of South Perth 9474 0777

Manning Community Hub: Residents deserve to have some of the wealth of South Perth directed to this end of town also. We've worked hard for years to renew the tired old Manning Hub. Hundreds of residents, all the shop owners and nearby businesses have been involved in the progress of this plan. In response to lots of consultation the plans have been improved several times. The centre will have new sports exercise facilities and change rooms, clean meeting spaces, fresh shops, a library,  parking and a Town Square for community events. The visual impact will be gentle. Very many residents, some Councillors and several community groups have brought this exciting centre to the stage where it's about to happen. It's so much better to be part of the group, not shouting from over the road. Come and join us while we make this place better for our today and our children’s tomorrow.

Public meeting Monday, 26 November at the Manning Community Hall. Please come along to make sure this goes ahead before Council amalgamation puts a stop to it.

Centre plans to be seen here http://www.southperth.wa.gov.au/Documents/Out-for-Comment/Manning-Community-Hub/ManningCommunityHub_brochure.pdf

Thank you everybody who’s done something for others this week.

Have your say. Click on Comments below. (Comments are now open but offensive material will be removed.)

Taking Back Local Authority

The State Government has ripped our local voices away. The big decisions about what gets built in our WA communities are now taken by appointed Panels of five people, with only two of them Councillors elected by us. And wait, it gets worse! The local Council briefs to the panels are prepared without any input from our Councillors. And there’s more! The two representatives are not even required to give the opinion of their Council, and can say just give their own views.

Any development in WA with a value of more than $7million ($15million in the City of Perth) must go to a Panel for permission to proceed. They bypass the Council. Additionally, any applicant with a project over $3million ($10million in City of Perth) can just go straight to the Panel, again bypassing the Council.

It’s time we did something about this. Let’s take back some strength for our local voices. There are things our Councils can do.

Council’s elected members give some of their decision-making roles over to the employed staff. This is called Delegated Authority and gives the power to process the thousands of procedural matters over to employees with the appropriate skills and training. Only when matters are large, contentious or in dispute do these decisions actually come to the elected members.

There are two steps that Councils could take to strongly influence the way the local area develops. Elected members might not always realise it but they have the power to withdraw Delegated Authority. Council can take back this authority and require briefing papers for the Development Assessment Panels (DAPs) to be prepared jointly with our elected members. Next, Councils can insist that their two minority representatives speak on behalf of the Council, not as individuals.

This way we can ensure that our community voice is stronger and is heard. I know Julie Matheson in Subiaco Council has a similar view and that many Councils are feeling powerless. Do you support this? Are there other actions to keep our Councils strong? Can we still have a say in what happens around here? Click on Comments below. (Comments are now open but offensive material will be removed.)

Our City, the Census and Economic Development

Are we just a dormitory, a placed to sleep before we go to work, then come home, sleep and do it again? I think we can be much more. What’s it take to make this the very best place to be? What do we need? Where might we go?

Of course feeling safe is import to us, with respect to crime, graffiti and much more. It’s about road design, knowing the people in our street, trusting each other, having a good footpath, safe windows that still let the breeze in and so much more.

We want our city to be healthy for all of us, with good medical care, walkways and cycle tracks, social connections, places to meet, fresh air, light and space, trees, Black Cockatoos and a living river.

We also need a lively economy, that vital arm of a good community, so that our safe, healthy city endures and improves. What do we need to make this work? To the south is the extensive Fiona Stanley Health complex and Murdoch Uni. To the north is Perth’s CBD. On the east is Curtin Uni, with its plans for thirty thousand students soon. Next door we are building the most powerful computing centre on Earth. Light rail will very soon give us quick travel across the metro region.

The 2011 Census helps us think about the future by telling us what we are now. (Click for our info). There are forty thousand of us in South Perth. We average 36 years of age. We have 70% of a car each, including kids. A surprising 37 per cent of us are students. Not so surprisingly, our education levels are a little bit higher than average. About 60 per cent of us were born in Australia; after that we come from England, Malaysia, New Zealand and China. More than 60 per cent of us are immigrants or the first- generation children of immigrant parents. Nearly a quarter of us use two or more languages at home. Only 51 per cent of us live in separated houses. Forty per cent of us live in rented accommodation. More than half of us over 15 are not working; that includes students, parents at home and retirees.

Sooo, what’s this say about our potential? I suggest it means we have fabulous links to other countries and that our professionals, managers, new immigrants and students have friends and families around the globe and are multi-lingual. We have great education and are well connected. Some of us are a little more wealthy, many are not and many of us work hard to make a go of it in our new home in Australia. My family has been here since 1835 and I think it’s always been that way.

I think this places us well to provide worldwide services based around technology, that don’t require large infrastructure, that use high intensity professional skills and that thrive on diversity. We need fast internet, good links with the airport and universities and a lot of local services. We need support services that operate around the clock, spanning the time zones. Schools and universities right here can use technology to service all of the world, especially Asia. Local businesses can offer employment for people to work near their homes, making this a magnificent place to both live and to work.

Our city planning will think ahead, think beyond perceptions of traditional 2+2 families where Dad goes out to work and comes home to sleep. We’ll think about different styles of homes, of transport, communications and workspaces. We’ll plan too for the lifestyle of retired people and of students. Much of the change has already happened, we just need to recognise it and plan for the future we choose in the place we’ve already chosen.

Behind all this, to ensure that our city is still a wonderful place to live, we still need that safe, trusting community, healthy rivers and clean air. On a Perth spring morning we still want to breathe in and feel as though champagne bubbles are tickling our noses.

What’s your dream?

Landowners Win Lotto

Land near rail stations is worth more, all over Australia. On ABC 720 Mornings today John McGlue and his property adviser guest made this very clear. The Melbourne Age today had an article on the same point, headlined “Ticket to a Prize Location.”
As our freeway chokes and petrol prices go up, more of us walk a short way to the train station. And we love to do it; the trains are very well used. For people near Canning Bridge and the proposed South Perth Station this is good news. Leave the car until the weekend. Use less energy. And smile while your property appreciates. What a deal!
South Perth City Vision seems to have been right on the money five years ago when the community took the first steps of our Canning Bridge plans. When hundreds of residents put their heads together with the City Planners, good things happened.

On mornings like this one, the views are artistically hazy but our eyes and lungs don’t like the air. One more reason to get moving and get Light Rail going, now. With the news that people are buying into the area near the rail stations there’s even less reason to hesitate.
Next time I hear about a community forum on where we want our City to be fifty years from now, I’ll be there. Will you come too?
Please pass this message on as far as you like. Have your say by clicking on Comments, below, (log in as Name) or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

Heroes Come First, Others Later

Blue lips, no breath, floral tights, soft feet, lying beside Manning Road on a Saturday afternoon. Asthma, drugs, heart attack, who knows? A hundred cars whisper past, not seeing. Death crept closer.

Two off-duty coppers slow down and have a look. Quick, jump, mouth-to-mouth, no time to think. Colour returns, breathing again. Whew, that was close.

Thank you for caring. I don’t know any of the people involved. The bloke who gave his breath washed his mouth with hand-cleaner, for the next fifteen minutes. I sure wish more of us cared this much.

_____________

Same day, not far away. Beautiful day on the river. On the path at Salter Point. A local resident has donated big bucks for hundreds of trees. Built new steel steps for walkers too.

I sure wish more of us cared this much.

_____________

Same day, same place, same view. To the right is more river mercury than anywhere else in Perth. In front the dominant fish species is an import from the Gulf of Mexico. Underwater cane toad. Upstream, water hyacinth, just found. Covers thousands of square kilometres of lakes and rivers in Africa. Deadly to the river. Imported and dumped. Grows fast.

The SERCUL team is onto it. I sure wish more of us cared this much.

_____________

Same day, same river. Shiny wagon, deep tracks, our river bank, who cares?

I care. I sure wish more of us cared this much.

Please pass this message on as far as you like. Have your say by clicking on Comments, below, (log in as Name) or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

How to Choose a Council

Oh dear Professor Black, lecturer in Politics at Curtin Uni (quoted in the Southern Gazette), so you vote according to who lives nearest to you? Around here I like to believe that we vote for whoever best represents our values, shares our view for the future and is likely to promote the sort of community that we hope to pass on to the next generation. Isn’t that what participating in democracy is ...all about? So you don’t like the idea that compulsory voting would engage everyone in the issues of the day and would help people to take notice of their Councils?

Surely a more honest view is that Councils have a vital role in grassroots democracy, giving voice to all of us. In South Perth our City’s Mission is about “Working Together to Create a City for Everyone”. This everyone includes more than just special interest groups. It surely includes the forty per cent who live in rental houses, the thirty two per cent single parent families, the students who stay a few years, the Homes West tenants, the FIFO mine workers, the new arrivals who’ve escaped danger to share our wonderful country and even the homeless lady and her bicycle.

The real question is around what we see as the role of Council, representing our entire community, and how we come together to build a shared, safe and positive future for all of us and for the generations ahead.

Clean Up Australia Day

Sunday 4 March is Clean Up Day. We’ll be cleaning up around James Miller Oval in Manning, starting at 9:00 am. We’ll meet on the north side of the buildings, near Moorditj Keila and the club rooms. That’s behind the shops on Welwyn Avenue.

 

You can click here to see more details and to register your names. We have a Facebook event here too. Our group has challenged to Millennium Kids to see who picks up the most rubbish. They are working on the Como Beach shoreline.

If we get sufficient people we’ll move on and do some of the Salter Point shoreline too. Come and join us, (bring some water), have fun and make a difference in our neighbourhood.

Please pass this message on as far as you like. Have your say by clicking on Comments, below, (log in as Name) or just email me and I’ll publish for you. See you on Sunday!

Welcome, and Happy Australia Day

Wow! Summer time in Perth is just so good. Cricket, the Arts Festival, blue skies, time with friends, a little travel, good conversation and Australia Day.

We live in a wonderfully safe country, we have jobs and businesses in a booming economy, our health and education services are very good indeed, our community is safer every year, our parks are green, our tap water is healthy, our transport systems flow freely, we are tolerant of others, our legal system works, our public services are excellent. There is so much to be thankful for.

On Australia Day I’ll do as I have for five years: join the volunteers, take a big bag of Council Welcome flyers and walk the foreshore from end to end all afternoon, welcoming people to South Perth’s free family events. It’s a marvellous way of meeting thousands of people, with smiles all around. On New Year’s Eve in Melbourne, when walking the whole length of the City area, with a total ban on public alcohol, through six hundred thousand people from six to midnight, I noted not even one aggressive incident. Perth: we’ve started a trend, we don’t need a boozy Australia day!

On Clean Up Australia Day - Sunday 4 March 2012 we’ll be working around James Miller Oval and Manning Hub in South Perth, starting at 9:00 am. You are very welcome to join us, to make our neighbourhood cleaner and have a chat too. Our event is on the web: click here to register or just turn up. With a few more volunteers I’ll even put on a free barbecue. Pickup bags are supplied free for you.

These are such positive events, where we get to connect with others, to make a difference around us and to help neighbours. We don't have to look far to find people much less fortunate, doing it tough, with physical and mental health issues, affected by discrimination or misfortune. Yet there seem to be numbers of ordinary people who are a little grumpy. My experience is that there’s a simple fix for a lot of this feeling - get out and help someone else, volunteer.

Our country is incredibly diverse in so many ways. Through events like these we can meet people from different backgrounds and rebuild some of Australia’s famous trust and friendliness. We have some inspirational community leaders. Can we join them in building our communities and connecting people? I feel really good when this happens, and hope you can too.

Please pass this on as far as you like. Have your say by clicking on Comments, below, (log in as Name) or just email me and I’ll publish for you.

River Care and Mosquitoes

"Poison the river! Drain the swamp!" These are the calls in South Perth for a public meeting about mosquitoes, tomorrow, Tuesday 17 January.

We love our rivers. They are where Noongar Wadjuk people lived, where the Swan River Settlement was formed in 1829. We swim, fish, sail and walk in and by the rivers most of our lives. In 1930 the City tried to drain wetlands and imported Gulf of Mexico mosquito fish. It didn't work; the fish just ate other stuff and are now the most common fish in the Canning River. In 1940 we built Canning Dam, reduced flow by 98%, stopped fresh water flow and left wetlands around Wilson, Shelley and Manning permanently salty. By the 1960s mosquitoes drove families indoors at sunset.

A group of residents wants the City to fog wetlands and lay bait for young mosquito larvae. Fogging chemicals kill all insects, including bees, dragon flies and moths. Larvicide kills all larvae, of all types. Species that naturally eat mosquitoes are eliminated; our rivers are poisoned and natural balances disrupted. The effect of fogging on mosquitoes lasts only a few hours.

We love our rivers; they belong to all of us. We love watching moon rise over the water, pelicans skimming low at sunrise, swans nesting. We are horrified about dead dolphins and disappearing birdlife. These rivers are at the core of our lives and we want them managed with the depth of appreciation that we all share.

Even during the recent, spirited debates about Canning Bridge development, residents, the Como Action Group and Ward candidates spoke and wrote of a desire for “pristine rivers.”

On 7 p.m. 17 January, tomorrow, Tuesday, South Perth is hosting a public meeting at the Civic Hall, corner of South Terrace and Sandgate Street, South Perth. A group is attempting promote an argument to poison the river. Please be there to provide a voice to speak up for care of our beautiful waterways and their complexity, to say that this is just not on.

Please feel free to add your thoughts for all to see, by clicking on Comments below or by emailing me. (Anonymous comments might be edited.)