Bridge Heart has no Hidden Agenda

The last day of the year and the one of the most annoying letters to the Editor I have read this year. Any eCouncillor reader will know that I am not the first to jump to the defence of our Lord Mayor Clover Moore, but for Ash Meredith of Birchgrove (Daily Telegraph letters page 31/12/05) to attribute this year's Harbour Bridge display of a beating heat (pictured above taken by me walking across the bridge on Christmas Day) as 'a canvas for Clover Moore to tell the world that she is gay friendly...' and that the theme and presentation is a 'Mardi Gras style pink heart' that belongs in Oxford Street and not on 'a national icon,' says more about the writer's issues than Clovers.

When the beating heart concept was presented to Councillors there was no mention of Mardi Gras or gay issues. Rather the heart is a wonderful and appropriate tribute to the generosity of all Australian's after a year of disasters and sadness for many at home and abroad. My only silent concern was that the iconic heart could be interpreted as the logo for Streets icecreams!

As to Mr Meredith's comments about what next '2007 NYE a safe sex message' on the bridge, he may be shocked to discover that the State government and RTA already display huge red ribbons on the pylons for World AIDS Day each year (1 December). Shock horror pandering to a minority!! - particularly in our near Asian neighbours where AIDS is killing millions of people.

That off my chest - and I am writing to the tele. Unfortunately the Daily Telegraph web site does not appear to host the newspaper's letters (unlike te SMH). If someone can find the letter on line then let me know. Page 16 of today's edition.

Now for a horticultural fireworks display of my own.

My favourite plants - Bromeliads.

Happy New Year!!!!

Changing Face of Kings Cross

Christmas is a funny time of year for newspapers. Everyone goes on holidays - the readers, journos and advertisers. The newspapers contract and the few unlucky journos left behind are often filling pages with a bit of puff. This was the case with the SMH's article below accompanied by two photographs of Kings Cross.

Unfortunately they purported to be pictures of 'then and now' promoting a new Fairfax picture book. It was 'then and now' but of two different sides of the street. In the article the SMH contended that Macleay Street is home to 'a large slice of Sydney's sex industry'. Unless I am mistaken the sex industry in the area has always been focused on the Darlinghurst Road area and terminated around Fitzroy Gardens and the fountain. No doubt though various bars and apartments scattered along Macleay Street hosted the sex industry during the years as did the gardens but not so today.

The article also reported that I had advocated Council purchasing the sex venues in Kings Cross and close them down. Not quite correct but a repeat of misinformation put about by the political left. I admire Rudolf Giuliani's clean up of Times Square using his powers of compulsory acquisition - but NSW Council's do not posses these powers unless agreed to by the State government (rae and usually only for new roads etc). What I suggested was a more cost effective and sophisticated developer bonus scheme that gave incentive to the property owners (eg FSR bonus) in return for them surrendering the sex use rights and approvals on their property. These uses could in fact be reinstated but under much stronger conditions and governance from Council. (Read about this idea here).

As a sign of the slow season today's letters pages of the SMH are either talking about Kerry Packer or the Macleay Street puff piece. One writer praises Clover Moore for trying to clean up the Cross. So far I have not seen her do a thing for Kings Cross other than ride to glory on other people's work. All the positive activity in the area has been the result of the vision and work of Lucy Turnbull (and dare I suggest Frank Sartor). The streetscape upgrade, heritage plaques, new Library and Neighbourhood Centre, floral displays, banner poles and the new Rex community centre - all Lucy's legacy. Clover has managed to derail the Wayside Chapel rebuilding and upgrade plans and has largely walked away from the Cross as too hard. I called for the FSR bonus to push along the upgrade and continue to call for a planning focus on the area to postively harness the area's changes.

The other letter published today accuses the Council of not facing reality that a city needs a red light district. I agree to a point, but not a red light district of the bad old days dominated by hard drugs, exploitation of women, wholesale violence and multi level corruption. 'Naughty but Nice' has been the catch phrase for the new Cross. A Kings Cross where the responsible adult industry has returned, exciting strip shows and burlesque and not heroin addled pole dancers looking after bus loads of drunk aggressive footballers to solicit.

Today the sex industry has massively decentralised and diversified. From the brothel in the car park of a suburban shopping centre to the ever present internet, the access and face of the industry has irrevocably altered. Council, the community and especially the industry has an opportunity to showcase Kings Cross as the top end of the adult entertainment industry.


City leaders want less of a blue hue in red-light district

Plus ça change  Macleay Street, pictured in 1933, is home to a large slice of Sydney's sex industry, but the Lord Mayor wants to make the Cross more family-friendly.
By Bonnie MalkinDecember 28, 2005

FROM the neon signs inviting passers-by into dimly lit "massage parlours" and strip clubs, to the infamous characters who have populated its art deco apartment blocks, Kings Cross has always had a wild reputation.
Today the Cross stands at a crossroads between its loud and lively past and a decidedly more conservative future.
The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, is bent on turning the city's most famous red-light district into another urban village, akin to neighbouring Darlinghurst or Elizabeth Bay.
Ms Moore wants some of the Cross's infamous nightclubs and brothels, and the workers who spruik them, replaced by services for locals and a friendlier atmosphere.
The transformation has begun. Last year, the City of Sydney Council spent $30 million transforming parts of the Cross into areas of stylish apartments, cafes and restaurants.
A Liberal councillor, Shayne Mallard, suggested the council should buy the sex clubs, striptease venues, adult shops and convert them into more family-friendly businesses.
The clean and serene future Kings Cross seems destined for is a far cry from its former life as the bohemian heart of Sydney.
In the 1930s, when the suburb's iconic art deco apartment blocks were being built, the Cross hosted a thriving community of painters, actors, criminals, and madams and their prostitutes.
The area, as depicted in the above photograph of Macleay Street (one of thousands reviewed for The Big Picture: Diary of a Nation, the book celebrating 175 years of The Sydney Morning Herald), was widely known as a red-light district. Trams rattled down the main street every half-hour until 2am, ferrying gawpers, locals and punters in and out. Today Macleay Street is better known as a haven for backpackers and late-night drinkers, and as a reminder of glory days gone by.

More Public Transparency is Better

Hand in hand with the deployment of advanced military technology, comes advanced communication methods. Long gone are the letters from soldiers back to the family at home via the hands of military censors. Today's soldiers are blogging real time events from the field.

The SMH today reports the concerns the US Military in Iraq are expressing about this growing trend. I can see the downside with sensitive strategic information (eg where deployed etc) and potential undermining of military discipline - but the upside surely must be the advantage the harsh light of public awareness and opinion will have on the activities in the war zone. If blogs had existed in WW1 public opinion may have cut short the muddy killing fields of France.

My great great great Uncle did not return from France. My families surviving record of his sacrifice is a letter in his hand sent from a village in England three months before his death as he describes training to join the front line. No sensor's marker here but clear self censorship or most likely rules as he gives scant information on when or where he will be shipped to - or perhaps he didn't even know.

The Us military would be wise if it simply put in place guidelines for blogs from the front line and encouraged this openness with the American people.


US military finds soldiers' blogs too close for comfort

By Oliver Poole in BaghdadDecember 28, 2005

ANYONE wanting to hear daily insights into what it is like to be in a convoy hit by an explosion or ordered to pick up the body parts of comrades dismembered by a suicide bomber does not have to be there in person any more.
Instead they just need to log on to the internet from the safety of their home or office.
In a development that is worrying US military commanders in Iraq, a growing number of US soldiers - 200 at the last count - have set up their own blogs, or internet diaries, and are updating them from the battlefield.
The phenomenon, helped by internet cafes at almost all US camps to permit soldiers regular contact with home, has for the first time allowed personal reports of the reality of combat to be read as they happen.
In the past, public understanding of life at the front was limited to what journalists were able to see or governments told them. First-hand accounts by the soldiers involved had to wait until units went home or through letters, which were often censored and could take months to arrive.
But now someone wanting to learn what it was like to be in a lorry hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad - an incident the military considered worthy of three sentences - can consult www.sgtlizzie.blogspot.com.
"I started to scream bloody murder, and one of the other females on the convoy came over, grabbed my hand and started to calm me down," Sergeant Elizabeth Le Bel wrote a few hours after the attack from a computer at a military hospital. "She held on to me, allowing me to place my leg on her shoulder as it was hanging free. I learned the truck driver had not made it through Â…"
Most of the sites started as simple diaries intended to keep in touch with friends and family. But some quickly developed a fan base of thousands. Websites now exist to direct viewers to blogs from specific units or locations.
It is a phenomenon that has inevitably raised concern among commanders. In April the US military published its first policy memorandum on websites maintained by soldiers, requiring them to have official approval before starting internet postings.
In July the first soldier was punished for publishing information considered sensitive, which includes mention of incidents under investigation or names of servicemen killed or wounded.
Leonard Clark, a National Guardsman, was demoted to private after he had written entries describing the company's commander as a "glory seeker" and the battalion sergeant major an "inhuman monster". His last entry detailed how his fellow soldiers were becoming opposed to the US operation in Iraq.
There was heightened official concern last month when an US web journalist who first aired claims that US troops had used white phosphorous to attack insurgents in Falluja said he had got his information from a blogger.
Mark Kraft, of Livejournal, said one of his sources had subsequently been threatened, demoted and told not to maintain a blog or read or reply to any others.
Telegraph, London

Fears of Intolerance Grow World Wide

In an increasingly Conservative world climate largely triggered by events surrounding 9/11 the emergence of politically aligned conservative religious groups has raised alarms in mainstream and traditional liberal communities. The greatest western democracies have been secular in nature, tolerant and understanding of diversity, whether that be religious, political, lifestyle or cultural. These tenets of Liberalism are today under threat across the world and here in Australia as some seek to mould political parties to their own narrow religious dogma. At times of fear and uncertainty people are attracted to authority and a sense of control and certainty. We have witnessed the disgraceful racial riots in Sydney over the past few weeks. Mobs motivated by prejudice and hatred fueled by difficult climate in which we live across the world today. For liberals the challenge is to continue the advocacy and representation of the strength in diversity, a genuine plurality and secular government. The New York Times reports that liberal Jewish leaders in the US are concerned about the rise of religious intolerance.

Jews fear growing religious intolerance

US Jewish leaders are increasingly worried that Christian conservatives want to turn America politically and culturally into a country that tolerates only their brand of Christianity.

"There is a feeling on all sides that something is changing," said Abraham Foxman, director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.

"The polls indicate a very serious thing - that over 60 per cent of the American people feel that religion and Christianity are under attack.

"Some are saying we are attacking [Christianity]. This whole movement is not anti-Semitic or motivated by anti-Semitism. But sometimes unintended consequences are much more serious than intended," he said.

Mr Foxman recently arranged a meeting in New York involving six Jewish organisations to discuss the problem. While participants did not agree on the exact level of the problem, they felt a strategy was needed, he said.

Jews are a people of faith but are opposed to anyone who would say only they know the truth and want to impose it on everyone else, he said.

The issues raised go deep into US society, ranging from challenges to teaching evolution to bans on abortion and same-sex marriage or deciding what kind of people should serve on the US Supreme Court.

Rabbi James Rudin, former head of interreligious activities for the American Jewish Committee, said he had met pastors "who say that Jesus Christ is the ultimate leader of America and that God's law trumps the constitution Â… I'm very concerned".

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Vale West Wing's only credible White House character

West Wing fans mourn the sad loss of an intelligent character and actor with the sudden death by heart attack of John Spencer.

The actor, whose world-weary countenance was perfect for the role of McGarry, mirrored his character in several ways: both were recovering alcoholics and both, Spencer once said, were driven.
"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol, was acting." Read more

Polling Day Denmark or Iraqi style

Back to northern Europe and Denmark DK reports the great leap forward for election day - on line voting. Or is it? In Denmark voting is not compulsory and distributing election material on polling day is prohibited. So the great Australian tradition of compulsory voting and the how-to-vote festival at the polling booth gates is threatened by cyber-voting (and don't forget the A-frames pictured from my 2003 Bligh campaign). With some polls suggesting as many as 20% of voters do not make their decision until at the polling booth, one wonders what they would do in a cyber ballot. Maybe eCouncillor would have an on-line head-start with the eVoters?


Cyber election a click away

Voters in Ãrhus Municipality will be able to click on a candidate from home instead of having to journey to the polling booths at the local school and tick a box in upcoming school board elections
The education department of Ãrhus, Denmark's second largest city, announced that it would be making use of a Ministry of Education directive that allows school districts to make use of electronic voting or absentee ballots instead of traditional polling stations.
Research institute Gallup is responsible for organising the electronic election, which will take place in March, reported daily newspaper Urban on Friday.
The initiative would offer more convenience and boost voter participation, according to school official Lone Nielsen.
'Most parents have access to the internet, so we feel the time is right for an electronic election. Both because of the administrative and economic benefits and also to improve traditionally low voter turnout numbers,' she said.
The technological development might have major effects on democracy, according to Klaus Levinsen, a political scientist from the University of Southern Denmark. An electronic election might not necessarily increase voter turnout, he said.
'I'm afraid that the ritual surrounding voting - that we join forces and move out into the public sphere will be weakened if we just have to press a button at home,' said Levinsen. 'In Denmark, we have a strong norm that one ought to vote and this is strongly based on rituals.'
If the school board election goes well in Ãrhus, the technology might be used in larger municipal elections, according to Anders Hjorth Madsen, a project leader with Gallup.
'It should be possible in principle, but we would encounter completely different challenges, because a municipal election is bigger and more important,' said Madsen.
One of the major challenges of setting up a system that involved internet voting would be to ensuring that voters did not cast more than one ballot.
'It would require a system that is exceptionally stabile as well as the possibility to hold a test election to try out the system,' Madsen said.
/ritzau/


Meanwhile Denmark and Australia's soldiers hold firm to build a fledgling democracy in Iraq. The Sydney Morning Herald's resident Iraq critic Paul McGeough reports that millions of Iraqis have turned out to their polling booths as the country struggles towards democracy. Go to the link for the full article and a very powerful photograph 'Border no barrier'.

Jubilant Iraqis turn out in millions to vote

By Paul McGeough Chief Herald Correspondent in Baghdad
December 17, 2005


Border no barrier … an Iraqi Sunni shows her ink-stained finger after casting her absentee vote in Amman, Jordan.Photo: Reuters

THEY came by the million, but it was the dramatic Sunni turnout for an election billed as the last piece in America's Middle East democracy jigsaw that turned heads from Baghdad to Washington.
Many of the Sunnis echoed their candidates' campaign spiels - anti-US, anti-Shiite, anti-constitution. But most of them came on a day on which most of the insurgents stayed away from the polls.
In a vice-like security clampdown, which banned movement by private vehicles for more than 72 hours and closed borders and airports, it was a relatively quiet day as Iraqis walked to vote. Read more

Smell lingers over Belvoir Street Theatre Affair

A consistent political theme that Clover Moore hammers is that 'independents are not like the other major party politicians' and that 'independents do not engage in back room deals'. It was therefore disappointing to learn of the events surrounding the Belvoir Street Theatre development application that were exposed at Council this week and reported in the Sydney Morning Herald today.
The Belvoir Street Theatre affair has all the hallmarks of a grubby political deal. The actions (outlined by SMH article below) may contravene the ICAC recommendations contained in the 'Taking the devil out of development' report. The ICAC inquiry was a result of caucusing and corruption at Rockdale Council and recommended Councillors not caucus on any active DA's.

The allegation that the Lord Mayor's office intervened behind the scenes to have a newsletter pulped because it criticised Clover Moore raises concerns about the extent of bullying and coersion that appears to emanate form the Lord Mayor's office.

These serious concerns gave rise to Council passing a resolution at Monday night's meeting concerning the Lord Mayor's dealings with the Belvoir Street Theatre. Council has required Moore to provide a written report outlining all her dealings with the theatre for the next meeting scheduled for February. Only then can Council consider whether an independent inquiry into this affair is needed to clear the air.


Moore accused of $300,000 theatre deal

By Bonnie MalkinDecember 14, 2005

THE Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, made a secret deal with the operators of the Belvoir Street Theatre this year, promising them $300,000 in special grants as compensation for refusing to approve their renovation plans, opposition councillors have alleged.
The Greens councillor, Chris Harris, who recently declared his intention to stand against Cr Moore at the next state election, said the Lord Mayor offered Belvoir St the money because she feared members of her team would vote to approve the application if it appeared before the council again.
"Two of her team made it pretty well known that if that [development application] came back to council they would vote for it," he said.
Cr Moore yesterday strenuously denied all the allegations, labelling them as "mischief making" by one Belvoir employee who had worked on the development application and was angry that it had been withdrawn.
At a council meeting on Monday night an alliance of Liberal, Labor and Greens councillors accused Cr Moore of holding private meetings with the theatre and promising five grants of $60,000. They said the money was offered to cover the cost of drawing up plans to extend the theatre that Cr Moore said would not be approved.
The Lord Mayor later told the theatre to reprint a newsletter that blamed her for thwarting development plans or she would scrap the deal, the councillors said.
Cr Moore said she met the theatre operators but had not promised anything. "I said Belvoir was an important institution and I would be supportive of a request from them but I couldn't speak for the rest of the council."
Cr Moore said she had asked the theatre to change a factual error in one newsletter but did not know it had been reprinted.
"The office of the Lord Mayor raised concerns about accuracy and suggested corrections to the text Â… the final newsletter did not follow the suggestions made."
Cr Moore has agreed to give councillors a report outlining all her meetings with representatives of Belvoir St. The Liberal councillor Shayne Mallard told the meeting that a member of Belvoir St's management had told him, Cr Tony Pooley and Cr Chris Harris that Cr Moore had offered the theatre a grant to cover the cost of its aborted development application - estimated to be $300,000.
Cr Mallard said staff from the Lord Mayor's office threatened to withhold the money if the theatre did not pulp and reprint a newsletter that criticised her.
The allegations arose after the Labor deputy mayor, Verity Firth, asked the council to investigate giving a $300,000 grant to the theatre and the independent councillor Marcelle Hoff moved a motion to delay it.
In October last year Belvoir St submitted an application to refurbish the theatre and add two floors. Council staff recommended it be approved but Cr Moore and her team deferred their decision because of concerns of overshadowing and density.
In September the council approved a new plan by Belvoir St to refurbish the theatre building without adding two floors.
The theatre's general manager, Rachel Healy, had no comment.


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Connecting Cycling 2005

Connecting Cycling 2005
Report on the Brisbane Conference 5-8 October 2005
Organised by the Bicycle Federation of Australia
http://www.bfa.asn.au/conference/
City Hall, Brisbane

Report by Councillor Shayne Mallard

In his opening welcome to the conference the outgoing President of BFA, Dr Rod Katz noted the unique circumstances and opportunities that present themselves to ‘active transport’ planners at this time. The hike in oil prices, community awareness of greenhouse gas emissions, growing obesity crisis and traffic congestion in our cities present a unique opportunity to active transport advocates; “Australia and indeed the world, faces some crucial decisions for the next generation,” Katz predicted.

In acknowledging the government support for the conference Katz singled out the Federal government departments of Transport and Regional Services and the Australian Greenhouse Office for their ongoing commitment to sustainable transport planning. At the State level, Queensland Transport was acknowledged for their huge commitments to cycling in that state. All were sponsors and speakers. Clearly absent throughout the conference were delegates or engagement from NSW State government and aside from two Councillors, the City of Sydney was also lamentably absent. In a climate where many States and indeed the Federal government are ensuring sustainable transport is an integral part of transport and community development strategies the NSW government was held out for strong criticism throughout the conference.

The keynote address was from Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, the President of the Australian Medical Association. His attendance set the major direction for the conference being the growing obesity crisis in Australia and the western world. Amongst many facts presented during the conference, one that highlighted the challenge was that the average carbohydrate and fat intake for Australians has not increased over the past 40 years, however our level of activity has dramatically decreased. Dr Haikerwal noted that “time saving technologies and changes in lifestyle have reduced our aerobic and incidental activity levels…our increased car use, longer working hours and even the use of the humble remote control have reduced our physical activity.”

The conference put into perspective the regular (and easy) scapegoat for our obesity crisis – fast food. Whilst fast food is a contributor the dramatic reduction of activity in our daily lives is responsible for the obesity health crisis, particularly for children. Studies were presented demonstrating that in less than one generation the percentage of children either walking or cycling to school each day has collapsed by approximately 80% - replaced by car trips to school. The reasons for this include growth in both parents working, increased income and affordability of a second car, the over-estimated fear of the crime against children and poor design of contemporary urban areas with inadequate direct pedestrian and cycle links to local schools often remotely located. Speakers presented strategies to counter each of the obstacles to active school transport including in the United States figures that many more children are killed around school gates by cars dropping off children than abducted and murdered by the ‘big bad wolf’. In fact Sharon Roerty a speaker from the USA described how she has the FBI attend parent meetings to help put into perspective the fear of ‘stranger danger’ around schools as they work to implement active transport programs.


Speakers and presenters at the conference canvassed the following topics:
Planning a Healthy Community
Public Health- the Key to Public and Political Support for walking and Cycling
Odense – Denmark’s National Cycle City – case Study
Hatching Healthy Communities – USA program to reverse inactivity in children
Health Benefits of Increased Physical Activity
Creating Child-Friendly Cities
Better Planning – Who is Responsible?
Sea Change in Cycling – It’s about Public Transport
The Best Path Forward

Workshops included Cycling Tourism, the Safe Routs to Schools Programme and Ride to Work (where the City of Sydney was congratulated by the presenter).

I presented two papers in workshops. The first ‘Planning new or repeating success stories; Is it better the devil you know?’ where I case studied the difficulties COS has confronting a community, media and bureaucracy (at both local and state levels) that are historically and culturally not sympathetic to increasing cycling policies. I commented it is better to take the small steps forward with a longer-term strategy in mind and stick by and large with the ‘devil you know’. Evolution rather than revolution in implementing increased bike usage in Sydney. The second workshop I presented was on ‘Cycling infrastructure: are we getting the best bang for our buck?’ In this workshop my thesis was that if you build political support the resources would follow and again I set COS as a role model. In preparing my PowerPoint presentations I want to acknowledge the assistance I received from Adam Fowler and Allan Saxby.

Conclusion:
The BFA Conference was an excellent opportunity for attendees to learn what is being developed and implemented not only in Australia but also across the world. For COS I was able to learn what Marrickville Council were doing right next door with their active transport mapping project, through to Odense in Denmark where the national government has selected the city for investment and role modelling for innovative cycling strategies and infrastructure.

Clearly health benefits were the key theme from day one. The upward trend in obesity in the western world was linked to the dramatic decrease in physical activity. The statistics led one presenter to ask: “Does speaking English make you fat?” as this phenomenon is unique to English speaking western countries. Aside from speaking English the common statistic amongst the top 10 fat nations was car dependency. We need to walk and cycle more. As little as 20 minutes of vigorous walking or cycling each day can dramatically reduce the mortality rate or extend the life expectancy in the population. We have an obligation to push forward on active transport planning for the next generation and in particular need to make communities accessible and safer for children. There are many things that can be done to encourage more cycling including the acceptance of multi-modal methods; eg ride from home to the train or from the bus to work.

At the political level the powerful message is the overall public health benefits as well as positives for the environment, economy and social cohesion. Evidence was presented that children who walk or cycle to school have better social skills and arrive at school more alert and prepared for learning and emerge better adjusted young people.

Cycle groups need to form both horizontal and vertical alliances, not only with each other but with environmentalists, health advocates, sporting groups and even developers (Lend Lease presented a popular workshop and were widely credited for active transport planning in their new suburban green-field projects in Queensland). Best practise from overseas should also inform our work. Our Danish speaker, Troels Andersen was aghast that Australians think 50 or even 40kmph is cycle and pedestrian friendly! In Denmark the national speed limit for residential streets is 30 kmph. Finally the point was made that cycling should be seen as ‘normal activity’ and not be seen as a cult. That ‘lycra’ is the exception and not the norm on a bike!


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Questions to the Lord Mayor

Clover Moore graciously allows Councillors to as two questions without notice at each meeting (Council meetings are approximately once a month). Whilst her 'team' of Councillors usually ask 'Dorothy Dixers' - I pursue issues, information and support on various matters. Here are two I recently asked:

CROSS CITY TUNNEL

Question to the Lord Mayor. Community anger and resentment continues to build over many street closures associated with the Cross City Tunnel contract. The latest to cause uproar is the dramatic reduction of lanes on Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross Road and Craigend Street at the intersections of Darlinghurst Road above the Kings Cross Tunnel. Craigend Street has been reduced from 3 lanes to 1, Darlinghurst Road south of Kings Cross Road has been reduced from 3 lanes to 1, Craigend Street Ramp down to William Street has been reduced from 2 lanes to 1. The result of the narrowing of these roads has been dramatic traffic snarls over the past few weeks. On the weekend queues of cars forced into one lane stretched back at times 20 or 30 cars. Surely these constrictions of local traffic are not to service the CCT contractors? They serve to dramatically inconvenience local residents going about their day to day activities and who cannot use the tunnel for these purposes. Can Council urgently review the lane changes in this area and advise of any steps that Council can take to reduce the excessive nature of the lane reductions.

Answer by the Lord Mayor: The answer is yes, Councillor Mallard. I think Councillors need a briefing and I think we need to bring in the RTA.


BICYCLE COURIERS

Lord Mayor, last month during question time Councillor Michael Lee took the opportunity to single out bicycle couriers for the focus of CouncilÂ’s attention. My question to you LM is an opportunity to work more closely with the Bicycle Messengers of the City. From the 27th to 31st of October 2006 up to 300 International Bicycle Couriers and their family and supporters will descend upon Sydney for the International Cycle Messenger World Championships. These will be held at Sydney Olympic Park -The Olympics of Cycle Couriers. This year it was held in New York City and in previous years Copenhagen, Budapest, San Francisco and London. There is a tradition though not always taken up for the host city to provide a welcome breakfast for the competitors and their supporters. Would the City of Sydney be prepared to host a breakfast BBQ at Martin Place for the Cycle Messenger World Championships in 2006.

Answer by the Lord Mayor: Thank you Council(lor) Mallard we will take that on notice and investigate.


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Tunnel road rage turns on bikes - enough is enough!!

The emails and frustration fill my in-box as someone who should know better - at a publication that should know better - blames cyclists for Sydney's traffic problems. When will some frustrated motorists comprehend that a bike in the traffic is one less car. The only point Duffy manages to make is that we all agree bikes should have their own lanes just like Berlin or Copenhagen. But we come to accept the small steps forward as advances.

From today's SMH a reply to the bike bashing. (The bashing and other blog links are lower down the blog)

Cycling is a healthy way to break the iron grip of the car

In Europe and North America the benefits of bike riding are obvious,
write John Pucher and Adrian Bauman.

IT WAS rather amazing for a United States professor of transport and urban planning to come to Sydney and read the bike-bashing article by Michael Duffy in the Saturday Herald. Federal, state and local governments in both the US and Canada have been vigorously promoting cycling, through generous funding and pro-cycling planning regulations. The result has been considerable growth in cycling in both countries.
We are yet to hear any transport expert in North America complain that bikes generate roadway congestion or air pollution. On the contrary, cycling is widely viewed as complementary to improved pedestrian and public transport facilities. It is an essential part of an integrated strategy to offer everyone a more viable, more environmentally friendly and healthier alternative to the private car.
Of course, the contrasts with Europe are much greater. In the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark, for example, more than a tenth of all trips in urban areas are by bike. Even among people aged 75 or older, more than 5 per cent of trips are by bike. Cyclists are not a fringe group. They comprise all ages, professions, incomes and both sexes.

There is a clear health benefit as well - rates of obesity are only a third as high in the Netherlands and Denmark, where cycling is universal, compared to North America and Australia. If we are to take the worsening obesity epidemic in Australia seriously, then even small increases in our active travel, such as biking to the shops or with the kids to school, help to meet our daily needs of half an hour of moderate physical activity.

Europeans produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of Australians, and almost all the difference is due to greater car dependence in Australia. Increasing cycling, as well as walking and public transport use, are essential strategies to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But it is also crucial for Australians to increase their daily physical activity, simply by integrating active transport into daily routines. That would directly help all Australians by improving their health, but it would also reduce congestion, air pollution, energy use, greenhouse gases, parking problems and the inherent danger of motorised travel.

One wonders upon reading the article by Duffy whether he would like to turn Sydney into the endless sprawl of Detroit or Atlanta, where there is virtually no alternative to the private car. Evidently, he feels that the car is the only acceptable way to get around, and that all other modes should be eliminated, thus forcing everyone to drive for all their trips. Surely, he must feel that buses and pedestrians get in the way of cars just as much as cyclists. In short, he wants to eliminate choice in means of travel. It would be one sure way to destroy the liveability of Sydney. That sort of car-dependent sprawl would be completely contrary to the newly released metropolitan plan, which calls for enhancing the viability and safety of cycling, walking and public transport. All three are essential alternatives to the car.

It is unfortunate that cycling in Sydney has such a marginal status, so marginal that a piece such as Duffy's is even possible. In the highly liveable cities of Europe and Canada, cycling is an essential part of transport systems. Contrary to Duffy's assertion that cycling is inherently unsafe, cycling in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany is quite safe indeed, with clear cycling infrastructure within and between cities, and less than a third as many cycling fatalities per bike trip as in Australia.
So, it's "On year bike, or feet, or the bus". An integrated transport system with choices for Sydneysiders will be consistent with the Government's long-range policy, good for our individual health, and make Sydney the liveable, bikeable, walkable city it should be.

John Pucher is professor of urban planning at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and visiting professor, Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Sydney. Adrian Bauman is professor of public health at Sydney University.

popular previous blogs on cycling:

The Politics of Cycling

Sydney falls behind Melbourne

CCT Bike Lanes not Safe


And the offending 'Opinion Piece'...


Off year bike - for the sake of all of us on the roads

By Michael DuffyDecember 3, 2005


IT'S TIME to get bikes off our roads. As a mainstream form of transport, the bicycle has proved itself the equivalent of communism: a lovely idea that failed dismally in practice. Bikes are dangerous to ride and slow traffic, which creates more pollution. For the good of all of us, we need to ban the bike.
When Government started to encourage bike riding a few decades ago, it was like the balmy days after the Russian Revolution: the future looked golden. It was hoped that a significant proportion of all trips made in Sydney would soon be by bike.
Where it all went wrong was that almost no one showed any enthusiasm to get on their bikes. Today, fewer than 1 per cent of all trips in Sydney are made by bike. The bike activists blame this on the paucity of bike lanes and tracks, but this is like Marxists excusing the failure of communism in the Soviet Union by blaming the nature of its regime. The sad truth is that in both cases a vanguard tried to impose a new form of behaviour on the populace and was rejected. The only difference is that the bike lobby hasn't accepted this.
Every week I travel 10 kilometres down a crowded, four-lane, inner-city road. Read more here.

Sign of the Times

Stay in Touch today picks up on my 5 year old nephew Nicholas' observation on local government rules and signs.

VERBATIM
"Shayne, where are all the 'yes' signs?"
The City of Sydney's lone Liberal councillor, Shayne Mallard, tells us his nephew's reaction to the profusion of 'no' signs at Bondi Beach - no dogs, no alcohol, etc.

Weekend Art

Mitjili Napurrula

latest art addition - thank you Jesper.

Edmund Burk lost in localism

P.P. McGuinness makes sense about the rise of nimbyism in our electorates and laments the departure from Edmund Burke's approach to government and representation.

"a modern version of one of the oldest dilemmas of democratic politics: whether the elected member is to act in the manner Edmund Burke insisted on, as true representative of the electors and acting in accordance with his own judgment of their, and the national, interest; or whether to be simply a mindless delegate whose job is to vote according to their instructions and self-perceived interests without exercising independent judgment."


P. P. McGuinness: The Australian
The rise of localism

The parish-pump politician who kicked Baywatch off a local beach represents a growing trend: the triumph of nimbyism, the not in my backyard syndrome

CONVENTIONAL wisdom in the press describes electoral outcomes such as the result in last Saturday's by-election in the NSW seat of Pittwater in Sydney as a punishment of the political party that normally holds it. In this case, however, the result indicates a far more profound shift in our voting patterns. It is the triumph of localism and parish-pump politics over the wider concerns of federal or state politics.This has been an emerging and increasingly serious trend in the motivations of voters during recent years. It is not just that electorates are tending to vote more and more for independents on account of their personal qualities and popularity. Even though these attributes may be useful, far more important for a growing section of the electorate is that a local representative should be seen to be placing themselves at the direct service of their electorate and locality, placing its interests and concerns above those of the wider polity and community.
That is, the trend represents the triumph of nimbyism, the not in my back yard syndrome. For it is not just a matter of advancing one's own local interests but of defending them to the exclusion of the interests of the wider community, or simply narrow-minded selfishness.
Thus, while the filming of episodes of Baywatch on Avalon beach hardly represents a great contribution to the welfare of the nation (although considerations of overseas tourism should not be forgotten), the opposition to this led by Alex McTaggart, the newly elected member for Pittwater, was what kicked off his political trajectory. This was a purely selfish response: it's our beach and how dare anyone who doesn't live around here get any benefit from it or interfere in any way with our enjoyment of it.
This is only a particular example of the nonsense that goes on all the time in local government politics when roads are closed or narrowed to close off "rat runs", a derogatory term for the use of minor roads as alternative links between trunk roads. The residents are claiming that the roads belong to them and no one else.
The same is true of insistence that development of multiple dwellings in spaces hitherto occupied by single-family houses ought to be prevented: "there are enough people here already".
An aspect of this is the intention also to preserve the use of local roads for existing residents only. The standard complaint about any new development is that it will create traffic and parking problems for those who got there first.
It is but one form of the phenomenon noted years ago by John Paterson, an outstanding analyst of the economics of urban planning. He pointed out that the steady rise in required standards of housing was one of the chief means by which the relatively rich excluded lower income groups from "their" suburbs.
Far from being embarrassed by such manifestations of selfishness, they are asserted more and more vociferously, with a resulting pressure on the standards of political life and representation to fall. If an important qualification for being a lower house parliamentarian is to have lived in a particular electorate and been involved in its local affairs for years, then the opportunities for highly qualified and able people to find a place will be greatly limited. Yet one of the reasons most often given by those normally Liberal voters who this time voted for McTaggart was that the Liberal candidate was not a local; indeed, he was barely known in the electorate.
It may be considered that such a preference at least limits the power of the party machines; we saw what happened in the NSW south coast electorate of Cunningham in 2002 when an unpopular head office candidate of no distinction was parachuted in to contest a by-election for Labor. An unknown local Green was elected.
There was considerable local discontent at the parachuting of Peter Garrett into the Sydney federal electorate of Kingsford Smith last year, which was muffled by the context of an imminent election with a new, apparently promising, Labor leader.
It is usually at by-elections that discontent with the established parties is manifested by the election of independent locals, often to be reversed at a general election. But the growing number of local heroes serving as independents even after a general election shows that a more fundamental force is operating. The supra-local parties are being challenged by the local activists and interest groups.
This partly accounts for the growing influence of the Greens in the inner-city electorates. While some of their vote comes from ideologically committed supporters, more of it is local support as a result of their unhesitant embracing of all the local nimby causes. The Greens, like other nimbies, are purely cynical in their campaigning regardless of merit on local issues. And many nominal Labor supporters in these areas are far more interested in local concerns, such as traffic, parking, parks, dog facilities and suchlike than in any traditional left-wing causes.
In effect, the voters everywhere are becoming more and more like the traditional supporters of the Nationals. Country Party politics - that is, the politics of cynical self-advantage, of pork-barrelling and local advantage at the expense of the national interest - is becoming a more general model. This kind of thing is typified by the behaviour of senator Barnaby "Bjelke-Petersen" Joyce, who quite shamelessly declares that he answers only to his own voters, in his own state, and is prepared to sell his vote for the highest return to them he can extract. Many of the local heroes regard him with envy because of his strategic position.
This is a modern version of one of the oldest dilemmas of democratic politics: whether the elected member is to act in the manner Edmund Burke insisted on, as true representative of the electors and acting in accordance with his own judgment of their, and the national, interest; or whether to be simply a mindless delegate whose job is to vote according to their instructions and self-perceived interests without exercising independent judgment.
Increasingly the demand today is that the member should be a combination of welfare worker, lobbyist, ombudsman and friend and servant to local interests.
Ability and knowledge of the world, or any special expertise, are discounted more and more. No longer can we imagine a Bert Evatt or a Garfield Barwick, coming from the highest levels of the law, stepping into parliament and serving their country. They would not, these days, find a local seat. All the places are reserved for local heroes or party hacks imposed on the locals or cluttering up the Senate benches. Even the occasional, unusual, parachuted drop-in, such as Garrett, is recruited not because of any apparent ability but in the hope of garnering more votes from the ignorant or winning back a few Green votes.
The reality is that the Pittwater result has little to do with Liberal factionalism (much exaggerated in the media). It has a lot to do with the victory of nimbyism over serious policy considerations and good government.
P. P. McGuinness is the editor of Quadrant magazine.