Often the same centres in need of more care workers are those with high local unemployment.
Public protests forced a backdown on a proposed merger of university art schools, but their value to cities is still being underestimated.
Joel Carrett/AAP
Art schools are emerging globally as very powerful instruments of urban renewal. In a time of transformation, Sydney must learn to tap into the value of having multiple art colleges.
The Queensland government’s interpretation of public housing transfers conflicts with that of Labor colleagues federally and in some other states.
AAP/Dan Peled
Given its flagship status, the Logan public housing project’s abandonment could be a serious setback for Australian housing and urban policy.
The Western Distributor project announced by the Andrews government will benefit Melbourne’s suburban residents in the west and north, but inner-city elites are mobilising against it.
AAP/Melissa Meehan
It’s a project that creates benefits for Melbourne’s western suburbs and the state as a whole. But the inner-city elite don’t like it and recent experience suggests their opinion holds sway.
With foresight, we can steer our cities closer to the future we want instead of the futures we fear.
In a citizens’ jury, difficult issues are passionately but respectfully discussed by a cross-section of people from the community.
NHS Citizen Assembly
A citizens’ jury has been working to refresh the Future Melbourne strategy. It’s part of a broader shift from government decision-making for communities to decision-making with communities.
China has the most extensive high-speed rail network in the world, which has helped reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Jason Lee/Reuters
High-speed rail is now a well-established technology and Australia needs it, as long as the project ticks all the boxes needed to deliver both private and public benefits.
In Australia, a small but growing cadre of residents is experimenting with hacktivism in planning. Giving a voice to real people living in everyday places can help ensure planning meets public needs.
From its earliest days, the influx of outsiders created the distinctive urban character that has driven the development of Shanghai into a modern metropolis.
Wenjie, Zhang/flickr
From its earliest days as a haven for refugees, Shanghai developed a distinctive character and urban identity that have driven its emergence as one of the world’s great metropolises.
By persuading some drivers to travel a different route or at a different time, congestion charges can dramatically improve the flow of traffic.
AAP/Andrew Brownbill
Bigger cities increase wages, output and innovation, but also problems of congestion and pollution. Congestion charges can minimise these problems by dramatically improving traffic flows.
Changing a centuries-old format will take some big thinking.
vittoriocarvelli/DeviantArt
With the one-city format no longer viable, an Olympics expert proposes a radical new vision for the format of the Olympic Games. It actually makes a lot of sense.
Planting trees can make cities more desirable and safer places to live in.
Joe Castro/AAP.
Not only do healthy, well-maintained trees provide shade and benefit the ecosystem, they can have a meaningful social impact: people in newly greened neighbourhoods start to look out for each other.
Three more years for Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition.
AAP/David Moir
Have you thought about usable space, re-engineering, structural integrity, contamination, insulation and comfort? If not, you need to before jumping into building a home from shipping containers.
Uber may open cities from taxi oligopolies, but ultimately it closes them off to the possibility of more meaningful alternatives.
Scott L/flickr
Millions of people need to be confident that suitable public toilets will be available when they leave their homes. A shortage of such facilities is a serious problem for an ageing population.
Green and cool (reflective) roofs are effective tools for cooling overheated cities. Research in Chicago shows that their impacts depend on local conditions, so planners should site them carefully.
It’s critical to protect London’s European connections from Brexit’s isolationism - could independence be the way forward?
Melbourne is powered by the coal-fired stations of Gippsland, which illustrates the problems with any urban strategy that neglects regional roles and interests.
AAP/Julian Smith
City-centric thinking arguably obscures connections between ‘humans’ and ‘nature’, and ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ or ‘wild’. Growing evidence of the depths of these links is testing the concept of ‘urban’.