The Turnbull government sees the ‘City Deal’ as a way for ‘smart cities’ to drive innovation and growth. But what is the value proposition behind this UK concept and how might it work in Australia?
As machinery demolishes houses behind them, Jakarta police evict residents from the settlement of Luar Batang in April.
Reuters/Beawiharta Beawiharta
The world’s informal settlements are growing at an unprecedented rate, with about one in four urban dwellers living in slums. We need to rethink how we view and deal with these people and places.
Continued development of our cities is putting pressure on urban green spaces.
AAP/David Crosling
Achieving green cities will require more than just canopy cover targets and central city strategies. It will need new approaches to urban planning and development.
Clinging on: Carnaby’s black cockatoo has already lost much of its habitat.
Georgina Steytler
Plans for managing Perth’s rapid urban growth have been touted as green. But they still look like robbing the iconic Carnaby’s black cockatoo of yet more crucial habitat.
The new assistant minister for cities, Angus Taylor, has expressed a ‘deep belief that consultation and proper public debate gets to wise outcomes’.
flickr/Crawford Forum
Effective development planning must anticipate where growth might occur and its wider impacts. So, if the federal government is serious about cities policy, it needs a proper settlements plan.
Sydney Harbour is arguably the city’s only truly great public space.
flickr/Duncan Hull
Under pressure to be a global city, market-led infrastructure provision is shifting the focus from public to private interests, from government as promoter to government as client, with mixed results.
Mandurah is an example of built density without intensity: five-to-ten-storey buildings with generous public space but a population density less than your average suburb.
Kim Dovey
Curbing negative gearing will help get empty housing onto the market. This could go some way to bringing life back to relatively dense urban centres that are oddly lacking intensity of public life.
Tensions are mounting between the professional practices of government planners, processes of public participation and the private sector’s increasing role in shaping Australian cities.
Jackson Heights possesses an abundance of diverse cuisine.
Frederick Wiseman’s documentary ‘In Jackson Heights’ explores the joys, struggles, victories and defeats of one of the most diverse communities in the country.
For one in three people who live in cities in the global south that means living in a slum.
AAP/Diego Azubel
At the Habitat III summit in October, governments will agree an agenda to guide sustainable global urban development over the next 20 years. The rise of the ethical city is a key element of this.
Cities aren’t the ever-growing, long-lasting powerhouses we think they are.
City residents are embracing the bike as the fastest, most convenient transport in areas like Brunswick, yet an apartment building has been blocked for not providing car parking.
flickr/Takver
It’s up to state governments to ensure urban planning rules properly reflect both the desires of residents in the 21st century and the principles of sustainability.
A social housing development in Parramatta, Sydney, that was initially opposed by local residents.
Edgar Liu
Ignoring residents’ concerns about boarding houses and failing to allay their fears helps nobody – least of all those in dire need of affordable housing options.
In cities like Nashville and Vancouver, home teardowns are on the rise.
'Demolition' via www.shutterstock.com
Nobel Laureates met recently in Hong Kong to sign a memorandum calling for cities to help guard against climate change. As the most creative places on the planet, big cities are the perfect place to meet this challenge.
An increasing number of apartments being built in Australia’s cities are failing to meet basic requirements.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Standards for apartments are desperately needed in Melbourne where planning laws allow things banned in cities including New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Vancouver.
Skaters bring culture and creativity to places others avoid.
Nic Redhead
Light rail is good for cities, but it’s also expensive, which is why many Australian cities have opted for buses instead. But there is a way to get top-drawer public transport using private dollars.
With car manufacturing gone and the submarine business looking shaky, South Australia is a state in need of an industrial transfusion.
HASSELL
Last week the South Australian premier announced major refurbishment of the Adelaide Festival Centre. The question is, what will these major works say about the kind of city Adelaide wants to be?
PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney