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August 6, 2012
Whilst working on my Adelaide book I started noticing how shallow the commentary on cities and urban life in the mainstream media is. An example is this editorial in The Australian Financial Review and it is yet another example of the downward trend in the quality of mainstream journalism.
The editorial refers to James Packer’s Crown Group spending $568 million in Perth to build a “six-star” hotel near the Burswood casino and convention centre, with that centre also to undergo a $750 million revamp; Lend Lease investing $6 billion in the Barangaroo waterfront project in Sydney that will include a trio of office towers; and In Brisbane, the $700 million One One One project in Eagle Street, Brisbane, which is now the city’s largest office tower. It comments that these:
and several other projects, such as the new 45-storey office tower in Perth that houses 3000 BHP Billiton employees, and Melbourne’s Docklands developments now under construction, are reshaping our cities.A great deal of national wealth comes from this continual remaking of our cities, as developers react to market forces, including the resources boom, and the need to renew ageing office building stock.
The AFR's argument is that the capitol cities in Australia are being reshaped in line with the resources-boom-led remaking of our economy. It's all about corporations and profit, not about the people living in the cities or how they envision a more liveable city. It is not obvious how Packer's “six-star” hotel near the Burswood casino and convention centre with its increased tourism and gambling will make Perth a more liveable city for its inhabitants.
What is even more astonishing is the silence about improving city cores, containing sprawl, and reinforcing transport spines. There was nothing about the sustainability of urban life and changing weather patterns, or the possibility that an entire city framework is threatened when climate change alters rain, heat, and sea levels. Yet cities around the world have grown and retreated as climatic conditions changed.
The AFR only sees the boom, not the suburban sprawl. They have no awareness of the bust---eg., New Orleans---the history of cities going bust, or the implications of the earth warming on Australian cities.
As city expansion increases with wealth, this leads to greater suburbanization in the form of continuous outward development. Car dependency increases with new outer suburban residential developments. There is a correlation between extensive low-density suburbanization and subsequent metropolitan collapse. The reason is that our cities are built to survive in the most benign weather regimes.
Our cites are premised on the expansion of low-rise land use patterns require continued expansion of roads, water, and energy resources. The roads, sewers and the other infrastructure of the modern suburb are based on an assumption of mild weather and cheap energy. If the weather becomes more extreme--eg., system failure in Brisbane---or the energy becomes more expensive, then the infrastructure cannot cope.
Our cities ought to reshaped during boom times to make them more sustainable so they can cope with the changing weather patterns more effectively.
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The world of Big Business in Australia doesn't see the connect between climate change, a warming earth, or the sustainability of cities. All they see is the great big tax damaging the economy and their profits.