OPINION: As the climate heats up so too does the anxiety and passion around development. Strange that.
About 100 years ago someone asked TFE in a former life to riff off a stream of consciousness about the future of property. Our take (then) was that the most important focus and value would be residential property – our homes.
The world would become more crowded, less safe, more prone to an angry climate, and we would inevitably retreat to the place that makes us feel protected.
Which is about where we find ourselves now. Residential property – our home (if we have one) – has become the touchstone for passion and fury.
(We price it with passion and guard it with fury.)
And the meaning of home is now hyper sensitised.
We got a taste of that hyper sensitivity last year when NSW’s Urban Task Force lived up to its name and forced the sacking of a brilliant planning minister in NSW over a planning policy that would deliver more liveable communities.
Ironically what that show of force did was unleash a backlash of passionate fury among those who are aware of what’s going on.
And that’s a growing cohort.
The SMH, which has given the Urban Task Force some generous free kicks in recent times seems to be running a smear campaign on the anti development crowd.
In some ways we utterly sympathise. If there is rabid objection to higher density around the new metro stations such as at Crows Nest or old stations and along the transport routes, we ask where exactly do the objectors think we should we put people?
There are a few hardened commentators on our own articles who keep claiming that “it’s the population stupid”. That we would solve our housing problems by having fewer people, by lifting the draw bridge.
That’s one way to go.
As climate change advances we say that’s an inhumane solution and a pyrrhic victory.
What’s missing from much of the argument is why the residents are scarred. We talked about this last week. Much of what’s dished out is ugly and uncaring about the hood.
Nobody complains about good design and great green spaces.
On the other side of the housing debate, it’s the lack of affordable and social housing that’s causing anger with those who are locked out of the market, while they watch blatant tax-free windfall support those already well endowed with this unique asset.
Mike Brown this week says the problem is systemic and part of “the financialisation of everything” in an excellent deep thought two- part essay on what we let happened, in broad daylight. Thanks to ideology.
Election due
With an election due on 25 March in NSW both sides of the political street are on notice to take We the People seriously on housing and environment and shift their besotted gaze from the string pullers.
In this edition of the newsletter Andrew Gardiner digs into the campaign of the teals, which is confounding the status quo with a powerful focus on environmental issues, especially fracking and other planetary abominations, as well as the integrity issue and housing.
Passion was there aplenty when The Fifth Estate attended a recent policy launch by Elizabeth Farrelly who’s pitching for the Upper House in the election.
There were farmers from the Pilliga, an independent candidate for the last federal election from Orange, who’d been schooled by that subtle political bulldozer Cathy McGowan, along with a bevy of supporters – all converged on Michael Mobbs’ sustainable house in Chippendale to vent frustration and, yes, deeply embedded anger.
Gardiner picks up on the tensions and does it well and entertainingly. Which is a very nice to have.
There’s the search for creative ways to make more housing available
As the poor old commercial sector is forced to reinvent itself, there are eyes on the possibility of converting city offices to housing.
But it’s not easy.
Suddenly the clever 1000+ square metre floor plates invented to make the office hum like a village – its residents bumping into each other at the well (water cooler) and exchanging bon mots or day dreams – doesn’t look so clever when landlords are staring at big vacancies and businesses can’t lure their staff back from home for much of the week.
The problem is that residential conversions need to overcome the lack of light at the centre of these vast floor plates.
And they need to fiddle with the centralised plumbing and making it more distributed because few of us want to go the village bath house to wash or to the community oven to bake our daily bread.
In New York we read that some landlords are attempting the task.
But it’s a necessary concept to at least consider because the lack of workers going back to CBD offices means something has to give.
A story in The Age on Thursday pointed out that while the Melbourne CBD is pretty quiet during the week, on Thursdays and the weekend it comes to life in a big way. Theatre, music food, strolling the streets. Sounds good, huh? Along with a steady rise in residents now at more than 100,000 people.
In Sydney, the struggle is still on to reinvent the CBD with injections of fun (and a lot of money) and a new thing called purple flag status.
This, according to 24-Hour Economy Commissioner Mike Rodrigues, also known as the night mayor, will designate areas that are open for business and keen as mustard day and night.
In a recent announcement from Investment NSW the area in the Sydney CBD bounded by York, Clarence and Kent Street (YCK) “has earned the international tick of approval as Australia’s first accredited Purple Flag district”. So, yes, it’s an international thing.
“The flag designates a rich mix of entertainment and activity for people of all ages, with safe access to high-quality amenities and services” a media statement said.
A pilot program is also running in the Parramatta CBD; Haldon Street in Lakemba and Marrickville.
But wait, is that a cavalry coming over the hill for commercial property owners? Nope, it turns out to be a few stray horses – in formation, at best.
According to the Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) before the pandemic era about two million Australians claimed deductions from the Australian Tax Office for working from home expenses – 52 cents an hour. When Covid hit, this jumped to about five million people with 80 cents offered for each hour worked from home and no need for an ongoing diary or calculations of running expenses.
But with the major drama over, we hope, a revised method cuts the kickback to 67 cents an hour and demands a fairly consistent accurate diary. All starting on 1 March.
Watch what happens to the burbs if our recent interview with UTS academic Shanaka Herath is any guide.
In a story that we’ll publish soon Herath talks about some of the evidence based work he’s doing that backs the need for services and amenities once found in the city to be brought to where people live – and now increasingly work.
It makes sense, he says, especially for people who have fewer resources.
This should be interesting to watch.