Weekend traffic woes
If you were desirous of inflicting maximum disruption on the lives of the residents of New Farm, Teneriffe and Newstead by closing off a major thoroughfare, on what days would you choose to do so?
Monday? Nah. Quietest day of the week. Tuesday? Getting busier but still not maximum traffic. How about Saturday when everyone is out shopping and taking the kids to sport and Sunday when people are going for a drive, visiting family and generally hitting the road?
Perfect. Let’s make it Saturday and Sunday so congratulations to the council for giving permission to developer Mirvac to shut down Skyring Terrace over several weekends.
If its aim was to anger the maximum number of ratepayers, then it was mission accomplished.
Gould-en goodbyes
Kate Gould, CEO and artistic director of the Powerhouse at New Farm, has resigned with no word yet on her replacement.
Our paths never crossed as Ms Gould refused to speak to or meet me after I committed the grievous sin of criticising some of her pronouncements, my failure to worship at the altar of her infallibility seeing me cast out into the wilderness.
The Brisbane City Council spends millions of dollars of ratepayers’ funds keeping the Powerhouse afloat. We must hope that whoever succeeds her embraces and engages with the greater community, commits to transparency and caters all of the city’s population.
Oh yes – and removes the “semi-permanent” tent and blot on the landscape that labours under the title of Pleasuredome.
Seymour’s supermarket settlement
Good to hear that the issues between Dexus which owns the Gasworks Plaza and Seymour Group which plans to develop the Newstead Green project at 99 Breakfast Creek Road have been settled.
The precinct will comprise eight residential towers from 12 to 15 storeys and include more than 800 apartments above a 10,000sq m retail centre and is expected to include much needed extra supermarket shopping in the form of a Coles and Harris Farm-style offering.
The project was put on hold last year after Dexus appealed, claiming it would lead to a 15 per cent drop in sales for Gasworks retail tenants.
Seymour Group senior director Daniel Farquhar told Village Voice that the project, on what was probably the largest development site in the city, remained largely unchanged and was expected to be delivered before the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Clash of councils
The slanging match between Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and our very own Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner which led to accusations that the latter was freeloading and failing to contribute to the cost of the Olympic Games produced this interesting barb.
“He’s not putting a dollar in because his council is heading towards $5bn in debt,” Tate said.
That would explain the potholes in the neighbourhood that would swallow small children.
No flight noise for athletes
The decision to shift the athletes’ village from Hamilton North Shore to the RNA showgrounds was hailed during a recent media event, with LM Schrinner saying one of the reasons the RNA was preferred over North Shore was because “you don’t have planes flying over the top of you as you do have at North Shore.”
So intrusive aircraft flight paths are fine for residents who are expected to shup up and cop them but unacceptable for athletes.
Once upon a time
Someone mention the Olympics? In spite of all the singing and dancing Victoria Park as the site for the main stadium has been a done deal for some time. Everything else has been smoke and mirrors.
In the years to come you will be able to take your grandchildren for a walk along Gregory Terrace, look out across the concrete and steel that stretches before you and say: “See that? Once upon a time it was a park.”
