How to build a community

Hat tip to Katie Chatfield.

Search for local real estate

Google has unveiled a new tool that should make it easier to search for real estate in the area.

Note: to make it work, I had to search for "2008, NSW" rather than "Chippendale, NSW".


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Quote of the week

This image made me smile:

"Every second person has a dog... If you're walking through Chippendale you can't walk without standing in shit."

— Spokeswoman for the Chippendale residents' group

(For the record, owners who let their dogs crap everywhere do annoy the hell out of me.)

Sydney 2030: do I dare believe?

In the past, I've written about my admiration for the City of Sydney's Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision, as well as my fear that it can't be realised and I'm being sold to.

Well, according to the SMH and The Daily Telegraph, it seems the next step — creating three pedestrian havens on George St — is in the city's sights. If that's true and they deliver, it will be a happy day indeed.

The fact that the NSW government is promising to help with Town Hall Square as part of the Sydney Metro project (that's the short, funded one) has got to help.



Artist's impression of Town Hall Square.

Green light for Pemulwuy

Thankfully, and at long last, the NSW government has approved the Aboriginal Housing Company's plans to redevelop The Block. The project is named in honour of the famed Aboriginal warrior, Pemulwuy.

REDWatch has published the initial government announcements and media reports:

• ABC calls it a "brand new day"


• NineMSN asks where the money will come from


• The NSW government announces the approval


• The City of Sydney applauds the approval


• REDWatch provides its own analysis

If the AHC can realise its vision, it will create an extraordinary new space where Aboriginal Australians live, and Australians of every background come together to work, learn and play. Of course a thousand barriers — from racial prejudice to social dislocation to random bureacracy — still stand in the project's way, but today's planning approval is an important step in the right direction.

Unfunded Metro Teases Us Again

So there you go. It may be unfunded and bigger than almost anything our government has failed to deliver in the past, but apparently this promised West Metro will include a stop on Broadway. Awesome. Read all about it.

Yes, if we believe the brochures, soon we'll be a few minutes away from everything from a nice Italian dinner in Leichhardt to watching the Swannies get thrashed at Homebush. Like I said: if you believe the brochures.

Chippo Needs Gardening Volunteers!

Just got an email from local sustainability evangelist Michael Mobbs with some good news for the neighbourhood. We've been granted $1000 by Sydney Council to spend on more plantings and maintenance on the existing fruit and vegetables growing on Chippendale streets. We'll also be getting another Aerobin composter to turn more of our green waste into healthy soil for our plants. The catch, of course, is that we need volunteers to actually do the work!

Michael is asking for volunteers on both/either of these two days:

- Sunday 12 July - start 11 am; meet at Peace Park
- Sunday 19 July - start 11 am; meet at Peace Park

Alternatively, if you want to help but can't garden, it would be great to have somebody providing soup and sandwiches to the workers.

Please leave a comment if you're interested or email kris.howard@gmail.com and I'll pass along the details. I'll be volunteering on the 19th, and it'd be great to get to know some more of my neighbours.

WWJD

This is my final plea to the University of Notre Dame, and this time I will plead in terms they might understand. So Notre Dame I ask you, what would Jesus do if he were chanced with the current Bourke St Bakery situation? He always kind of struck me as an anti-establishment kind of man; the kind of man who if he saw a humble vendor under the pressure of an authoritarian institution would feel obliged to interject. Let’s face it, it’s pretty well known Jesus was a fan of bread, it features in nearly all his parables; and bread of the calibre of Bourke St's, well I think even he would resign that his loaves and fishes, although holy, weren't this good. So when you finally decide to knock down the walls and turn this building into surely another classroom where you can indoctrinate our youth about how evil condoms are, consider what the big man might say as he’s munching down on a delicious croissant in heaven.

Local culture and entertainment

I've just found a great way to find local arts and events — this page lists all posts tagged "Chippendale" on the Two Thousand website.

TwoThousand - subcultural guide to Sydney via kwout

Spanish royalty on City Road

Today, Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will visit Chippendale to open the first Australian office of Cervantes Institute, a global organisation that supports Spanish learning and culture. They're promising to offer Spanish classes for children as well as a range of other services. Sounds like a great option for our three boys, if they're interested.

Direct from Iran

During the turmoil in Iran over the last few days, people on the ground have used new technology to share their news, plans and images with each and the world. Case in point: the video below, in which militia fire upon protesters.

Warning: contains graphic violence.

The Lansdowne Hotel circa 1926

Check out this photograph of the Lansdowne Hotel from 1926. I never realised what a gorgeous building it is.

Kindness from Hannah's Pies

When walking back from the city around lunchtime, I often stop at Hannah's Pies — supplier to the legendary Harry's Cafe de Wheels — for a mighty fine pie with mushy pies.

This time around I discovered at the last moment I was a few cents short. They let me buy one anyway. How nice!

I was already a fan, but this made me want to spread the word. Next time you're near the PowerHouse Museum, stop for a pie and mushy peas. Yum!

Losing the Bourke St Bakery

So sad to learn we're losing the Bourke St Bakery on Broadway. No other baker comes close.

Apparently, the University of Notre Dame has bought the whole block and is evicting all tenants. Meanwhile, the bakery itself is too busy growing its new Marrickville store to think about trying to find and grow a new location in Chippendale.

I think I'll just have to give up bread.

"Sydney makes Dallas look like Paris"

SMH Article

Im so glad I stumbled across this article today in the Herald. I was beginning to think I was the only person who actually thought about Sydney as a city. Even the City of Sydney just refer to the city as a collective of villages. But Ackland is absolutely right, in the last 30 years all that has changed in the city is the industrial enclaves have been sold to property developers. The connection that he doesn’t quite make either is that as Australia creates more information economy jobs, if there is no cultural reason for business’ to be based in Sydney they wont be. Sydney will become Australia’s Detroit. All Rees cares about is staving off mutiny, and all Clover Moore cares about is dog parks.

Some local burglaries - an MO

Along with some of our neighbours in Chippendale and Darlington, we've recently been broken into.

Our Abercrombie st house got done , our next-door neighbours were also broken into and, according to the police who took my girlfriend's statement, more people who lived up the road were burgled last week.

Earlier in the week, I picked up some scuttlebut at the cafe "A Little On The Side" that there were some other break-ins around the area as well. Obviously I can't confirm the accuracy of that.

What I do know is that the day before we were robbed my girlfriend answered the door to a young (~20) woman asking for some name like Anna Smith, who supposedly lived in a blue house like ours in the area. My partner said no she hadn't heard of the woman, and the girl went away. [Edit: "digital-sunrise" from the comment string says "Hi there, there was indeed an Anna Smith who lived in the purple house next to the Cafe on 65 Aberchrombie. She's in her 20s and is a friend of mine. She lived in that house for a couple of years up until 07, I think. If the girl that came knocking at your door looked very subculture then it's likely to be the same Anna Smith. Don't worry, she's a great girl and not into the drugs thing so it would not have been something untoward. Cheers. "]

The next day, between midday and 1.50pm the burglar broke in by pulling off some bars from a back laundry window; similar to how they'd broken in next door. They nicked two laptops (one with a broken screen), a DSLR camera body with three lenses, an iPod, some other minor audio recording gear as well as the chargers and transformers. They also emptied out a bag of sports gear, presumably to carry the loot out. We've since had the bars replaced with much tougher fastenings, and a second set of bars on the inside of that window. Unfortunately we've also had to set up a better way of deadlocking the doors, so it'll be practically impossible to get gear back out.

We suspect they would have taken more, but heard my girlfriend coming home through the front gate.
When the forensic bloke came around (who was very nice btw), he found only glove prints, and said it'd been a similar scene up the road. The police have a discription of the girl and talked about cracking down on break-ins in the area.

We were lucky in some ways; our neighbour said he'd come home to a trashed house. At our place they were surprisingly neat. Possibly they would have damaged more if they'd had more time.

So what's the moral? If someone knocks on your door with a flimsy line about looking for someone you've never heard of, take a good long look at them, and perhaps tell 'em you've got a plague ridden house that they shouldn't try getting into.

If you're brave and willing to introduce some ugly dynamics, pull out your phone/camera and take a snap.

Check your insurance policy, and ask yourself whether the bars on your window are good enough.
Alternatively, accept the compromises of inner-city living, and deal with the chance you'll have a whack of your income re-distributed.

But one way or the other, back up your computer eh?

You may also have some details of burglaries around the area, without libelling anyone, or introducing an atmosphere of mutual suspicion, it may be worth exchanging information.

Victoria Park Playground

An upgraded playground at Victoria Park has been long-promised by the City of Sydney Council. Back when the pool had its upgrade in 2007 the Lord Mayor promised that consultation with the community would commence shortly on the playground, but it didn't happen until late last year. We were told earlier this year that construction of a new playground would commence in June. I emailed the CoS and was told that construction will now not commence until September 2009. So who knows ? Perhaps we'll have a new playground by the beginning of 2010.

House price insanity

Apparently, a derelict home in Smithers St — with two bedrooms, no kitchen, an outdoor bathroom and a burnt-out livingroom — sold for $580,000. With three bedrooms, a kitchen, an intact livingroom and an indoor bathroom, I'm starting to feel like we're sitting on an awesome investment!



Image from the Ray White website.

Garbage day annoyances

Every Tuesday I dash off quickly in the car to drop the boys at daycare and school. Every time I return, I find that someone from the garbage collection service has dragged everyone's bins into the street, preventing us from parking. Today the road was so cluttered with bins I had extreme trouble even turning the car around to nab a faraway parking spot. It's so annoying.

Cleveland St roastery

I've wondered about the roastery on Cleveland St. Turns out it's Mecca Espresso, recently profiled in the SMH. Apparently, Mecca Espresso specialises in the little-known "siphon" method of producing a cup of coffee, but it looks like you have to travel to the CBD to actually taste one.

Uncommon sense on light rail

The SMH is reporting that NSW Labor is exhibiting uncommon sense on public transport — quietly, tentatively, behind closed doors. I wonder how long it will take them to shake off that uncomfortable feeling?

More Fruit Trees in Chippendale

On Saturday my husband and I joined our neighbour Jeff to help Michael plant a few more fruit trees on Myrtle Street. It was pretty exhausting work, to tell you the truth! I took some pictures to document the process.







More photos are available over on my blog. If you'd like to help out with further Guerilla Gardening adventures, just drop me or Michael a line. More help is always welcome!

Our transport woes

It seems even Federal Labor does not believe NSW Labor is fit to run our transport system. I can't believe we have years to wait before the next state election.

NSW police apathy

On Thursday, I was about to cross George St at Railway Square. I stopped when I heard screeching. I looked up to see a black sedan heading down George St — obviously it hadn't stopped for the red light.

The black sedan collided with the bonnet of taxi that, like me, was legally heading out over George St. A half-second later, it would have been out another metre, and the sedan would have turned the taxi driver into a pancake. It was that close.

After the collision, the black sedan skidded 180 degrees on its access. Luckily for the child in the back seat, it did not roll. The driver then revved her engine like she was trying to get out of there fast but her car wouldn't move.

As soon as I got home I called the police. All I wanted was to leave my name and number in case they were later looking for witnesses. If I could help take this driver off the road, I felt it was my duty to try. But the police weren't interested. They said the crash had not been reported, and therefore they did not need to record my details. Unbelievable.