In a decade, Sydney will be home to an extra 1.3 million people. How we accommodate them is causing angst in our suburbs and presents a huge challenge to government.
This is how they plan to tackle it
Also worth a read: The radical plan to split Sydney into three different cities
What kind of changes / improvements would you want to see in Sydney by 2030?
At the rate we’re going it’s going to be fucking hot.
I barely even want to think of 2020, never mind 20-fucking-30. But for what its worth …
At the rate Australia is going, those of a different political persuasion and opinion to the Liberal Party are going to be in their crosshairs on a daily basis. It’s already happening to an extent now. I shudder to think how it will be in 2030. With any luck, I will be a long, long way from such a thing in 2030.
I really don’t get the argument that we have to have so many more millions of people. It’s just going to fuck everything up and make the place a shithole, even more unlivable than it is getting now. Less is more. I think we should try to be leaner and greener. Less Mumbai and more, well Sydney 20 years ago
Our economic system is a giant Ponzi scheme. If we do not keep feeding in at the bottom it will collapse.
The frightening thing is that the longer it runs the greater the eventual crash will be.
From a quick google, looks like Sydney took in about 70,000 new residents last year. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but allow for that number to grow 1 or 2 % per year and extrapolate for 10 years, makes it seem a bit frightening.
Do we have the infrastructure? Housing? Or at least competent planning?
Sydney is going to be so fucked by then.
All these planning ideas that come out sound great but nothing ever happens.
Politicians can’t think that far ahead. They only care about the next election.
I dont think the problems Sydney is facing are any different to the problems many other major cities face.
I work as a consultant in engineering and construction and worked on many infrastructure and rezoning projects in Sydney before moving to New York 4 years ago. The same things are discussed in New York as they are in Sydney, as well as other cities.
However, 1 key difference is the hostility in Sydney towards developers and high rise buildings. Im not sure if this statistic is still applicable, but for population centers of 50,000 or more, Sydney ranks outside the top 500.
Sydney needs to be building up, rather than out. Inner Sydney councils, especially City of Sydney need to remove their ridiculous limitations on building heights and build enormous towers. Alternatively, we will continue to sprawl out, putting us further away from hubs, continue to build in bushfires prone land and deprive animals of habitat.
I agree with some of the comments in those articles, Australians also need to give up on the house and backyard dream, particularly in inner city suburbs. I’m aware that this means the character of those suburbs is going to change, but I dont really see any other way.
Also, 30 minute commute to work time is pie in the sky stuff for the majority. I’m not sure of many cities that have that. Maybe Tokyo, but have a look at their density statistics to see how that might be possible.
One thing that always shits me, is you have people talking about how Europe has all these bikes friendly roads, amazing public transport and the rest, yet they complain that Sydney is becoming skyscraper city… they don’t realize that most European cities are a quarter of the sprawl of Sydney, have 4x the population and they all live in apartments. Europe has always done it smart in that respect. They pack em in, but make sure moving around is significantly simpler
Large parts of many major and minor European cities had to be rebuilt post WWII as well. Meaning a lot of places essentially started from scratch again and we’re able to plan, rather than just adding on to what was already there pre modern transport.
War! That’s what it’s good for.
You get that attitude out in here in Bathurst. You see an article suggesting that the town centre should go up and someone will write in say that we have all this land, let’s use it! Most of which is on a flood plain and is productive agricultural land …
While that’s true, it was like that for centuries in Europe. Constant war and fighting meant cities had to be defended by walls, which meant a need to cram people into a small area for safety. Take Warsaw for example, city was rebuilt identical to what it was before the war, it’s filled with apartments etc. You tell a person from Europe that you went for an hr drive and hadn’t left the city yet, they’ll think you’re am idiot
Try telling them it takes two days of driving to get to the state border.
I still remember my shock, in Gdansk, when our family invited us for a drive to Berlin
A teammate in high school was of Scottish descent. Had family out from Scotland one year. So they took them to Jenolan Caves.
That was apparently the most epic road trip they’d ever done.
Mate lived in Leura …