We learn to be civilised in our cities and alter them to express our values and increase our wealth. Short of direct human interactions, who we are can be ascertained by examining our cities.
Cities are social artefacts. In a two-way relationship, good cities attract and retain populations because they promise succour to develop full lives, which in turn are expended on making those cities more attractive.
What is the Adelaide experience? Here’s Part five…
Cities are agglomerations of compromise, between the comfort of isolation and the joys of the crowd, between our conflicting desires for stability and novelty.
Great cities are attractive because they wrangle these conflicts positively to promote creative, social and economic growth. They strike a balance between individual freedom and collective interests that captures the imagination of all their inhabitants and help each to become their best possible selves.
MORE FROM MIKE BROWN’S SERIES ON PLANNING IN ADELAIDE:
- Myeh-delaide – Australia’s emerging capital of urban mediocrity
- Naffelaide: “…time for Adelaide to just grow up”
- Radelaide – the worship of cars in the City of Churches
- Radelaide – from “big country town” to the towers of “Sad Gimignano”
Very few cities remain static, unchanged over time. The few that do might be comfortable yet are often thought dull. Even the overly-contented towns of British crime drama are only rendered tantalising by disruptive wrongdoing.
The particular significance of cities in Australia
Urban qualities have been recognised, analysed, and codified as significant indicators of global fortune.
These analyses spring from the recognition, first described some three decades ago, and more recently here, that modern economies are deeply embedded in our cities.
No longer places of incidental convenience for the oppressive efficiency of capital grinding against labour, the qualitative attributes of cities are now important for the very simple reason that the most productive work is now mental work, which can be located anywhere, but is dependent on skilled people who prefer attractive places in which to live.
Thus, cities that entice and accumulate young, talented, creative, highly productive, and globally-mobile staff then draw in highly productive businesses that depend on those individuals.
The reverse is also true. Cities that encourage these people to leave will struggle. If its well-educated globally-mobile young depart for more attractive locales, they take their talent with them and grow their experience, expertise, and personal economies elsewhere – and rarely come back.
Furthermore, places with a reputation for mediocrity are less likely to attract – and retain – extraordinary replacements.
Significantly, more than any other nation, most of Australia’s population lives and most of our wealth is generated within our cities.
This is why the business of intelligent city making has become so important over the past two decades and why urban reputations now matter so much in Australia.
Leave to succeed
Yet Adelaide-born talents generally – but not exclusively – excel elsewhere.
Adelaide’s universities are genuinely world class, yet Adelaide born Nobel Laureates all did their award-winning work outside the state: the Braggs and Florey in the UK; and Warren in Western Australia.
Progressive, conservative, and independent Adelaide politicians – Julia Gillard, Christopher Pyne and Nick Xenophon – all achieved national prominence; but only after they left Adelaide.
The comedian Sean Micallef now lives in Melbourne, the actor Anthony LaPaglia lives and works in Los Angeles.
Though the Adelaide-born painter Jeffrey Smart commenced his career in his hometown, his national fame followed his relocation to Sydney and, eventually, Italy.
His painting “Keswick siding” (1945, see title image) depicts the main rail lines leaving Adelaide for Melbourne and Sydney.
Adelaide born principals head interstate architecture practices that have claimed national and international awards and commissions.
Three internationally renowned architectural practices started in Adelaide. Some have done remarkable work in Adelaide – consider the recently completed SA Health and Medical Research building on North Terrace – but in the main they obtained their distinction elsewhere.
Adelaide projects rarely feature in national architectural awards nor in progressive design related media.
Now a Melbournian, Paul Kelly’s famously bitter ode to his original hometown sums up the ex-Adelaidean resolve:
All the king’s horses, all the king’s men
Wouldn’t drag me back again
Adelaide, Adelaide, Adelaide, Adelaide
Apparently, for many Adelaideans seeking to shine, the surest first step is to purchase a ticket out, and then to stay away as long as possible.
This is no criticism of those that stay. Rather, it underscores how remarkable their local achievements are for withstanding Adelaide’s apparent apathy towards merit.
Despite recognizing the problem many years ago, the departure of Adelaide’s young still seems to be an accepted condition, little anguished about, yet crudely celebrated when on rare occasions the trend is reversed, such as recently reported when other Australian cities became so financially hostile to young homebuyers.
Does urban mediocrity drive people away?
In previous iterations of this series, we compared aspects of inner-Adelaide’s urban form with interstate and overseas counterparts, and then invited readers to ascribe relative merit to the Adelaide examples.
If this merit fell on the mediocre side, then we are entitled to ask if it bears any relationship with Adelaide’s reported exodus of talent.
At a guess, it is not likely that a direct causal connection exists.
Urban mediocrity is more probably an expression of a wider malaise that motivates Adelaide-born talent to leave, but is then incidentally expressed in its urban form.
Let’s explore this a little further in the next iteration of this series…
MORE FROM MIKE BROWN’S SERIES ON PLANNING IN ADELAIDE:
- Myeh-delaide – Australia’s emerging capital of urban mediocrity
- Naffelaide: “…time for Adelaide to just grow up”
- Radelaide – the worship of cars in the City of Churches
- Radelaide – from “big country town” to the towers of “Sad Gimignano”
MORE FROM THE FIFTH ESTATE ABOUT URBAN PLANNING IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA:
- SA has a lot to crow about with power – but faces some sustainability challenges beyond the “Stobie” poles
- Heritage or higher density: Peter Malinauskas’ big dilemma over South Australia’s planning laws
- Now he’s PM, Anthony Albanese can help Malinauskas get Adelaide’s tram plans back on track
