tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718956488041293392024-03-18T02:48:23.843-07:00Cities and CitizenshipA blog about the opportunities and challenges facing those of us working to democratise our cities...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-25715817822096628932023-04-22T21:11:00.004-07:002023-04-22T22:05:19.496-07:00Bill McKibben's 'YIMBY' principles and the urban housing debate: a critical reply from a NIMBY/YIMBY refusenik<div class="separator"><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="Claire Wayner on Twitter: "(1/n) @billmckibben's amazing piece with four frameworks for navigating the NIMBY-YIMBY debate from a classic "environmentalist" perspective. https://t.co/BlhVULBQHF" / Twitter" aria-hidden="false" class="r48jcc pT0Scc iPVvYb" height="400" jsaction="VQAsE" jsname="kn3ccd" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuRdfmyagAAPw_0?format=jpg&name=4096x4096" style="height: 680px; margin: 0px; max-width: 2400px; width: 518px;" width="305" /></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><a name="_GoBack"></a>Given that the YIMBY/NIMBY thing is creeping (maybe even galloping!) into the discourse on urban planning and housing here in Australia, here’s a few thoughts on <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/04/yimby-nimby-progressives-clean-energy-infrastructure-housing-development-wind-solar-bill-mckibben/" target="_blank">Bill McKibben’s new piece "Yes in our backyards" in </a></span><i><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/04/yimby-nimby-progressives-clean-energy-infrastructure-housing-development-wind-solar-bill-mckibben/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a></i>, which seeks to offer some principles for when we should be saying “no” and when we should be saying “yes”…<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">McKibben sets up his argument by stating that while environmentalists have been good at saying ‘no’, the challenge of acting for a liveable climate will require us to get better at saying ‘yes’ to projects which will be required to reduce carbon emissions. For him, this must include new urban densification projects which contribute to decarbonisation. Undoubtedly, this articulation of 'yes in our backyard' by one of the world's most influential environmentalists will be picked up by the self-described YIMBY housing movement in cities in the US and beyond.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">But if McKibben is worried about environmentalists hitching our wagon to 'not in my backyard' ('NIMBY') politics, I think we should be equally worried about hitching our wagon to a 'yes' in my backyard' ('YIMBY') politics. Rather than taking sides in the YIMBY/NIMBY debate as currently framed, we should be articulating and demanding an alternative way of deciding what needs construction and what needs conservation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">And while I think McKibben's piece and the principles he articulates could have made a contribution to that effort, it's likely to be mobilised in ways that reinforce the YIMBY/NIMBY debates in ways that contradict the very principles he's seeking to articulate.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p>**</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">McKibben starts with a simple premise: if a project makes climate change worse, we should still say no. But along with that, he offers four other principles for deciding when to say yes: "<span>these factors, I think, should incline us toward supporting—perhaps grudgingly, and against our first impulse—new developments that address present crises and past injustice.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">They are:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We don’t live only in our backyard; we also share one. So, “protecting one’s backyard from any change has to be balanced against the cost it will impose on the larger whole”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We don’t live only in our own moment—we’re accountable for past behavior. This applies especially to wealthy countries like US, who are responsible to more than their fare share of emissions in the past.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Idealism involves realism. So, even when new developments that cut carbon might have pernicious side effects (eg EVs reduce carbon but maintain car dependence and increase <span>lithium mining), we have to figure out what an “acceptable level of realism looks like—not giving up the fight for systemic change, but also not letting lovely goals overwhelm the gritty needs.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black;">Emergencies demand urgency. He worries that “the general tactic used by the opponents of projects—delay it until it goes away—is in effect a form of climate denial.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I’m already seeing McKibben’s article enthusiastically embraced and circulated by self-described YIMBYs in the local housing debate here in Australia, and I'm sure that's happening elsewhere too. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So, what does McKibben have to say about housing development, specifically?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>While the focus is mostly on renewable energy projects like wind and solar farms, urban housing developments are among those used as examples of projects to which we should say ‘yes’. “Denser housing along transit corridors” is pitched as one of “the cheapest ways to cut carbon”, so “if we don’t build lots and lots and lots of projects like this, then we won’t be able to keep the temperature from climbing dramatically.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>No doubt that will be the quote that gets cited in YIMBY discourse. But if we dig a little deeper into what he’s saying, things get a bit more complicated. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>In his next mention of housing, McKibben adds “affordable” to “denser”: he says we should be saying ‘yes’ to “new affordable housing that will make cities denser and more efficient while cutting the ruinous price of housing.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>However, as the article proceeds, he expresses some concern about the kind of opposition that says ‘no’ to density if it doesn’t involve affordability – in line with his third principle that idealism shouldn’t crowd out realism. He worries that good principles like affordability are sometimes being weaponised for bad purposes: “If someone who has never worked on affordable housing suddenly opposes a new development because it’s not 100 percent affordable, then that’s a tell.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>This leads him to join with those YIMBYs who argue that opposition to new housing projects is too often about protecting the assets of people who already own a home at the expense of those who do not: “If you figure out how to slow down a new housing project for four or five years, then the value of your home may go up, but someone else gets to live that four or five years under a bridge.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>He tempers this cynicism later, saying that the instinct to protect things doesn’t always come from a bad place: “that instinct can come from a good place. We’ve learned to love the world around us, and to value thriving urban neighborhoods; that’s been a core hope of environmentalists from the start, be they Aldo Leopold or Jane Jacobs.” But such values are reduced to aesthetic preferences, and he wants us to embrace a 'new aesthetic' that might appreciate a beauty in solar farms and housing for their contribution to making a liveable world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">In concluding his piece, McKibben recognises that these principles do not “infallibly spit out a default answer; every plan and project will be a little different”. For 'people of good faith' (which is the audience to which he explicitly appeals), this suggests that 'yes' should be a strong inclination, but not a dogmatic or uncritical position.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Indeed, those folks who enthusiastically embrace the principles McKibben is articulating here will need to carefully consider new housing projects on their merits, thinking through the application of principles rather than simply saying ‘yes’. Some of McKibben’s arguments and principles would still suggest that there are times when we might want to say ‘no’ to certain kinds of housing redevelopments, while saying ‘yes’ to others.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">First, McKibben’s primary principle remains that we should say ‘no’ to projects that will make climate change worse. And the jury is still out on whether all forms of density actually do reduce emissions – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12740" target="_blank">some research suggests that other factors like wealth are equally as significant as density</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12084">And ‘density’ can be achieved in all manner of ways, with different climate impacts</a>. So, it’s just not true that any and all densification will magically reduce emissions.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Second, there’s no question in my mind that there are people of bad faith among the ‘YIMBYs’ as well as the ‘NIMBYs’. The ‘YIMBY’ discourse is undoubtedly being amplified by people who are shilling for developers, who could not give a flying fuck about climate change or anything other than their profits, and who are weaponizing ‘sustainability’ and ‘affordability’ against anyone who dares to say ‘no’. To paraphrase McKibben with a twist, “if someone who has never worked on sustainability or affordability suddenly supports a new development on the grounds of sustainability or affordability, then that’s a tell.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Third, McKibben himself notes that while historical responsibilities are vital, “history cuts both ways”: “Proposing new developments on, say, land that’s all that Native Americans have left of the continent they once possessed should warrant a much harder look; ditto for Black and Latino communities that have been systematically stuck with everything others don’t want.” Now apply this to our cities. There’s a growing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518803799" target="_blank">research literature on ‘green gentrification’ </a>showing that housing developments parading themselves as green sometimes actively displace and dispossess low-income communities and communities of colour from their neighbourhoods to make way for high-density, high-profit, high-cost housing. Opposing this is not just a matter of ‘idealism’. As environmental justice activists have been trying to say for decades, we’re just not going to build a world-changing movement for a liveable climate if the climate interventions for which we advocate are just more-of-the-same oppression for the many, and more-of-the-same benefits for the few. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So, to be honest, I really wish McKibben had framed his intervention differently – it’s addressed to people who say ‘no’ as if they are always the problem. Sometimes they are the problem. But sometimes they ain’t. In some ways, this could have been (and maybe still is?) a useful piece that seeks to offer some principles for discerning good 'YIMBY' from bad 'YIMBY', good 'NIMBY' from bad 'NIMBY'. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">But by framing his piece as lending support to the YIMBYs over the NIMBYs, I fear McKibben won’t be read that way. Unfortunately, he’s taking a side in a debate that desperately, so desperately, needs to be reframed.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">So here’s my pitch to McKibben and to his ‘people of good faith’ who have embraced the YIMBY position, and who like the principles that McKibben has articulated. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I’m sure many self-described YIMBYs are indeed people of good faith who really do care about sustainability and affordability, who see new housing projects as a vehicle for addressing both of those concerns, and who worry that opposition to such projects is more about ‘locals’ protecting their turf and their amenity. What might such people take out of McKibben’s piece? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">On the general point that our pursuit of environmental and climate justice will involve building new stuff, let’s agree! In the Australian context, the idea that environmentalism involves construction as well as conversation is perhaps not so novel. After all, the Builders Labourers Federation representing construction workers were among our first environmentalists in the 1970s. While the <a href="https://jacobin.com/2021/07/australia-sydney-urbanism-construction-builders-labourers-federation-nsw-green-labor-militancy" target="_blank">BLF’s green bans</a> were indeed a way to say ‘no’ to what they named ‘so-called developments’, the union also combined with residents to develop ‘people’s plans’ which were an assertive ‘yes’ to the construction of quality low-income housing in redevelopment areas.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">But let’s also agree that both ‘no’ <i>and</i> ‘yes’ can come from ‘good’ <i>and</i> ‘bad’ places. In the case of housing, important principles of ‘sustainability’ and ‘affordability’ are certainly weaponised in bad faith by <i>proponents</i>, not just opponents, of new housing developments. New developments that espouse those principles too often have dubious climate benefits, and generate unjust displacements and dispossessions. (Indeed, among the examples of ‘red tape’ that the developers and some of their YIMBY friends frequently oppose here in Australia are regulations about sustainable materials and design, and mandated housing affordability targets!)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">And so maybe we can also agree that if we do care about principles like addressing climate change, addressing historical injustices, and even being ‘realistic’ as well as ‘idealistic’ about how to build a powerful urban climate justice movement, our job is not simply to say ‘yes’ uncritically to every new housing development that promises density. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">If we can agree on those things, here’s my final question for people of good faith: given the need to have principles for discerning between when we should say ‘yes’ and when we should say ‘no’, is a political rhetoric of polarisation between ‘NIMBY’ and ‘YIMBY’ actually going to make the cities we want, and the cities we need? Personally, I really don’t think so!<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">When low income people and people of colour fighting against the incursion of luxury ‘green’ density into their neighbourhoods are lumped together with wealthy white home owners fighting against public housing in their neighbourhoods as ‘NIMBYs’, do you really want to be ‘YIMBY’? Surely we should be seeking to disrupt the YIMBY/NIMBY distinction because it doesn’t capture the principles that are most important to us, rather than wielding it as a weapon?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:0cm;
margin-left:36.0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:0cm;
margin-left:36.0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:0cm;
margin-left:36.0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
margin-bottom:0cm;
margin-left:36.0pt;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:595.0pt 842.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;
mso-header-margin:35.4pt;
mso-footer-margin:35.4pt;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1946422845;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1154503740 67698705 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-text:"%1\)";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:18.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:54.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:90.0pt;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:126.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:162.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:198.0pt;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:234.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:270.0pt;
text-indent:-18.0pt;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:306.0pt;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
-->
</style></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-36385736205025501372022-04-06T00:58:00.002-07:002022-04-06T05:16:29.640-07:00Public transport as public space: fostering everyday equality among strangersEvery now and again, I give a little 10 minute 'class' for "Self-Improvement Wednesday" with Richard Glover on ABC Radio 702. I've been trying to use these classes to encourage listeners to think about some of the habits and infrastructures that we often take for granted in city life. In the past I've done episodes on the physical geography of the internet, on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/self-improvement-wednesday/kurt-iveson/13381708">role of advertising in public space</a>, and on the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/self-improvement-wednesday/kurt-iveson/12647330">urban mobility politics of vertical transportation</a>.<div><br /></div><div>The most recent episode was about public transport as public space. Here's the script we worked from - which draws a fair bit from the <i><a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/everyday-equalities">Everyday Equalities</a></i> book I worked on with Ruth Fincher, Helga Leitner and Valerie Preston that came out in 2019.<br /><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Public transport as public space: fostering everyday equality among strangers</h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxPzAHaaidxjiqsENGvdO-bz8bokStNTJ8RLgk_gHzEBD1yCM5XYIpEEIX_d6Q2Lwp1sOVN5m9ylJHs5w7BytX8PjKB1o2zTqeT0j72ejg8pc2xP0rWnAZluPWS6Eu72bVNU4R5L750pD_c_KbvCchl2EiWjzYBmaNm2FItKkLqC0FsRRp0eRePUXrQ/s1000/nla.obj-162863147-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="1000" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxPzAHaaidxjiqsENGvdO-bz8bokStNTJ8RLgk_gHzEBD1yCM5XYIpEEIX_d6Q2Lwp1sOVN5m9ylJHs5w7BytX8PjKB1o2zTqeT0j72ejg8pc2xP0rWnAZluPWS6Eu72bVNU4R5L750pD_c_KbvCchl2EiWjzYBmaNm2FItKkLqC0FsRRp0eRePUXrQ/w640-h472/nla.obj-162863147-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crowd standing next to the first electric train in Wynyard Station, Sydney, 1932. Source: National Library of Australia</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Discussions about public transport tend to focus on its ability (or inability!) to get us efficiently from A to B. But what about the journey itself? Train carriages, station platforms and other transport like buses and ferries are also some of the most-used public spaces in our cities – many thousands of us share these intimate spaces with strangers every day. What everyday rules and habits have we developed to make that work? What happens when they break down? And how can we create the kinds of positive atmospheres that will make public transport truly accessible for all?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>**</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Sydney’s railway network: spreading us out and packing us in </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Sydney’s urban geography has been shaped by its railways, in more ways than one. </div><div><br /></div><div>The story we usually tell about our train network is that it allowed the people to find more personal space in suburban homes away from the more densely packed inner city. Advocating for the electrification and extension of the suburban railway network, Bradfield told a conference of town planners in 1917 that it would allow workers “to reside further afield and enjoy fresh air and sunlight”. </div><div><br /></div><div>But as well as letting us spread out, those trains also packed people together in their carriages. In Sydney and other cities where train networks were growing, this was a new – and somewhat confronting – social experience. One of the great early sociologists of the industrial city, Georg Simmel, wrote in 1908:</div><blockquote><div><i>Before the development of buses, trains and streetcars in the nineteenth century, people were quite unable to look at each other for minutes or hours at a time … without talking to each other.</i> </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><b>Equality or incivility?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Reacting to this new experience, observers at the time veered between optimism and pessimism about what it would mean for urban populations. </div><div><br /></div><div>In France in the 1850s, economist and politician Constantin Pecqueur waxed lyrical about the new solidarity and equality that might emerge through train travel:</div><blockquote><div><i>By causing all classes of society to travel together and thus juxtaposing them into a kind of living mosaic of all the fortunes, positions, characters, manners, customs, and modes of dress that each and every nation has to offer, the railroads quite prodigiously advance the reign of truly fraternal social relations and do more for the sentiments of equality that the most exalted sermons of the tribunes of democracy. </i></div></blockquote><div>But others were much more pessimistic.</div><div><br /></div><div>It wasn’t just that train services in many countries tended to stratify passengers by class into different compartments and carriages. The monotony of the daily commute, the press of the crowd in the morning and afternoon peak, made some worry that people were being treated as mere goods to be efficiently moved through space by this new mechanical form of mass transportation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here in Sydney, writing in 1923 around the time of the first train electrification, an editorial writer for <i>The Sun</i> worried that overcrowded trains had:</div><blockquote><div><i>boxed us up into a straggling mass and killed our natural Instinct to be polite. We have to scramble and fight for the means of getting home and the man who steps aside and says: 'After you,' is the man who walks and finds his late arrival hard to explain.</i> </div></blockquote><div>By the 1930s, things were getting so crowded during peak hours that train carriages were refitted to remove seats and make more room for ‘strap-hangers’ to squeeze into the standing areas of vestibules and aisles.</div><div><br /></div><div>Both perspectives, I think speak to the different possibilities of train travel.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Learning to share the space of the train: the unwritten rules of ‘civil inattention’ and physical accommodation</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Certainly, the strategies we’ve developed to cope with the intimacy of sharing a carriage with strangers might not initially look too promising as practices of ‘fraternity’ and ‘equality’. </div><div><br /></div><div>Trains, along with other public transport spaces, are places where we’ve learnt to practice the art of ‘civil inattention’. In the early days of train travel, reading a newspaper or book was the classic ‘involvement shield’. Now, we have our smart phones to keep us amused during our commute and to keep us socially, if not physically, distanced from our fellow passengers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Share the confined public space of the train carriage with strangers also involves learning a bunch of physical skills. There’s all the little things we do with our bodies to carve out our own personal space, to make space for others. We also learn to read the non-verbal cues of our fellow passengers seeking to get past us to alight the train, and to avoid lurching or falling when the train starts and stops. </div><div><br /></div><div>When all this works, the train carriage becomes a microcosm of the city’s multiculture: Pecqueur’s lovely idea of the train carriage as a “living mosaic” of urban diversity is apt. We rub shoulders with all manner of strangers in a kind of everyday equality. That experience of equality is sustained by the notion that the train is for anyone, and that we all have a part to play in making it work – even if our relationships with fellow passengers are fleeting, and our actions and solidarities are unspoken.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>When public space becomes hostile space</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, solidarity among strangers on the train can also break down. I’m sure listeners can name their pet peeves! There are minor infractions like people taking up too much space. And much more seriously, some passengers can become targets of aversive behaviour, harassment, intimidation and violence – sometimes on the basis of their gender, their sexuality, their visible faith, the language they are speaking, or the colour of their skin. </div><div><br /></div><div>Interestingly, the very devices that we use as ‘involvement shields’ are now frequently being used by bystanders to witness, disrupt and shame such behaviours. There’s been a growing trend of passengers capturing ‘racist rants’ on their smart phones and re-asserting the equality of the public space.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>From hostility to festivity and solidarity?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Not all disruptions of our habitual ways of being together on the train are bad. </div><div><br /></div><div>French anthropologist Marc Auge described the train as a space of “collectivity without festival and solitude without isolation”. I love that description! But the collectivity on the train can occasionally be a little festive, and sometimes solitude makes way for connection.</div><div><br /></div><div>Think of the festive atmosphere that can take hold of a train carriage during special events, like footy fans taking the train to a big game at Olympic park. Or think of people coming to one another’s aid, through small acts of kindness like assisting someone with a stroller or vacating a seat, or through spontaneous expressions of care and solidarity like the anti-racist #I’llRideWithYou social media hashtag that was reposted hundreds of thousands of times following the Martin Place hostage-taking in 2014. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Tipping the balance towards equality and solidarity: too many sticks, not enough carrots?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>What can the transport authorities themselves do, to tip the scales from hostility towards solidarity and equality – especially when they can’t be in every carriage, all the time?</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, operating and maintaining the public spaces of trains and buses plays a big role. A special shout out here to all the operators, guards and cleaners who have kept our system going during the difficult last two years of the pandemic.</div><div><br /></div><div>So too does designing the space to be accessible for all – there are still dozens of stations across Sydney that are only accessible by stairs, without lifts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Beyond that, there’s been considerable focus on naming and policing the ‘unwritten rules’ of being together. On Sydney trains, there’s plenty of signs and posters telling us what not to do. Don’t put your feet on the seats. Don’t be a ‘hogger’ or a ‘loud talker’ or a “tosser”. And there are surveillance cameras watching over us, and transit officers patrolling trains and stations. </div><div><br /></div><div>But if those are the sticks, what about some carrots?</div><div><br /></div><div>Urban designer Jan Gehl says that a good public space is like a good party – once you get there, you don’t want to leave. I’m not sure that little analogy quite works for a train!</div><div><br /></div><div>But it does point to the role that care, hospitality and activation might play in making these public spaces work.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few things come to mind. I like the sign that the Human Rights Commission developed with one of the major bus companies for use in Melbourne a few years ago – it’s simple and positive message was “This bus is for everyone”. It’s welcoming, not censorious.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other cities I’ve visited, train carriages have been adorned with commissioned poetry and artworks. In Chicago a few years ago, I did find myself hanging around on a train platform much longer than planned – a local blues band were set up at one end, and as well as the music being great, they were keeping an eye on the comings and goings at the station. In Sydney a couple of years ago, on Make Music Day, bands were set up on inter-city train carriages – the opposite of a quiet carriage!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Public Space, Public Transport, and the Public Good</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In the scheme of things, when our infrastructure challenges are so great, perhaps investing in these kinds of initiatives seems trivial. </div><div><br /></div><div>But taking trains and other public transport seriously as public spaces can actually have the effect of making them more accessible to people who need them to get around.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can have as many train lines as you like, but if they’re not spaces where everyone feels welcome, where strangers can establish and nurture positive strategies for being together in their difference as equals, then people won’t use them. </div><div><br /></div><div>For public transport to serve the public good, it needs to work as public space. And this is something that both operators and we passengers always need to work at.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-35729621088137304402021-11-30T14:45:00.002-08:002021-11-30T14:50:34.762-08:00The crisis of inequality and the crisis of equality<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQOV2T6KwmB861vJnl5kkDhVjPu2KLQLfbir8ZdHWwbx4HrGZRqqEvRyAF3gCmuWDAZ_VnViGbQr8uZ-GOa0Bwpe7bNVfyc7QA_E2vyUeuXMuLKuL0FD6Wexcei556KxXcc6JVxUL3Yj_/s2048/7%252BMarch%252B2017_Surry_Hills.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="2048" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQOV2T6KwmB861vJnl5kkDhVjPu2KLQLfbir8ZdHWwbx4HrGZRqqEvRyAF3gCmuWDAZ_VnViGbQr8uZ-GOa0Bwpe7bNVfyc7QA_E2vyUeuXMuLKuL0FD6Wexcei556KxXcc6JVxUL3Yj_/w640-h389/7%252BMarch%252B2017_Surry_Hills.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the <i>Equality</i> poster series, with Wendy Murray, see https://www.busymakingposters.com/equality</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>It was an honour to be asked to respond to Steve Dovers' Patrick Troy Memorial Lecture on the subject of urban inequality for the State of Australasian Cities conference this year. For the record, here's the long version of my response, minus the swearing (!!) ... which tried to talk through the relationship between research which investigates the persistence of inequality, and work which addresses what Rosanvallon has called the 'crisis of equality'.</p><p>**</p><p>The picture of growing wealth inequality that Steve has painted for us in his powerful talk is certainly grim! And more could have been said about other inequalities that intersect with wealth inequalities – not the least gendered inequalities (so stark in the impacts of COVID on lost income and employment, for instance), and racialized inequality (certainly a feature of the housing market and public space policing during COVID here in Sydney).</p><p>I want to use my time to say something about the relationship between this crisis of inequality and what we might call a crisis of equality, and suggest that our work has to attend to both of those related but distinct crises.</p><p>There’s a sense of frustration along with indignation in Steve’s talk. It’s ‘hard to say something new’ about inequality when it’s all been said already. There’s a sense that inequality seems to persist in the face of widespread knowledge about its extent of inequality, and in the face of oft-repeated proposals for reform that struggle to get traction despite mountains of evidence that supports them.</p><p>That frustration is a thing! Pierre Rosanvallon made a similar point a few years ago in a book called <i><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674724594">Society of Equals</a></i>. That book tried to grapple with that fact that “inequalities have never before been so widely discussed while so little was being done to reduce them” (2)</p><p>Pointing out inequality, he says, loses its power in part because there is now a widespread acceptance of inequalities as natural or inevitable. It’s not so much that folks deny the inequality, they deny any injustice in that inequality</p><p>Inequality is explained as a result of just deserts and moral failure of the poor, or of the incapacity for autonomy of the colonised and the racialized and the differently abled, or of the inexorable logic of some process (globalisation, neoliberalisation, etc) over which we have no power, and which it’s just not realistic to challenge.</p><p>So for Rosanvallon, it’s not just that we’ve got a crisis of inequality, it’s that “we face a crisis of equality.” What’s at the heart of that crisis? “The word has somehow become detached from experience, so that it no longer clearly indicates battles that must be fought or goals that need to be achieved” (7-8).</p><p>Hence, our job is not only to catalogue inequalities, he argues “there is no more urgent task than that of restoring the idea of equality to its former glory” (8).</p><p>Importantly, the ‘restoring’ the idea equality is not just a ‘looking back’ to the meanings of equality that were established in history. No, “we must also go further and rethink the whole idea of equality itself”. How do we do that?</p><p>We have for inspiration and guidance the incredible work of feminist, queer, and anti-racist scholars who have been rethinking the very meaning of equality, paying particular attention to how equality has to change in the context of diversity as well as inequalities of wealth.</p><p>What’s attractive to me about the way folks like Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall and others have approached this task is that they tackle the rethinking of equality (and by extension the crisis of equality) by reconnecting it to experience of everyday life and civil society movements – addressing that detachment from experience that Rosanvallon discerns.</p><p>What’s all this got to do with cities? As messed up and unequal as our cities are, there are people living and enacting new forms of equality in the course of their everyday lives and organising, if we care to look. And the reason to look is precisely to get out of our self-referential discussions about how bad things are. </p><p>In our recent book <i><a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/everyday-equalities">Everyday Equalities</a></i>, Ruth Fincher, Helga Leitner, Valerie Preston and I went looking for the forms of equality that are being enacted in urban everyday life. In our case, we were focused on enactments of equality that address racist inequality in super-diverse, settler colonial cities. We asked how people enacted forms of equality that were not sustained by homogeneity, but by what we call ‘being together in difference as equals’. </p><p>We wrote about enactments of equality in stories of migrants making homes in suburbs of Melbourne, supermarket workers forging solidarities across their differences in Toronto, commuters and operators sharing train carriages and buses in Sydney contesting racist harassment and violence through spontaneous and structured interventions, and in anti-racist activism and cultures forged in Los Angeles worker centres.</p><p>There’s plenty of potential objections to this kind of work which seeks to implement this ‘method of equality’ as a response to the crisis of equality, and it raises as many questions as it answers.</p><p>First, and most obviously: how does all that everyday stuff address the big structural inequalities, of the kind that Steve laid out in his talk? Isn’t this all just hopelessly romantic and utopian in the face of on-going oppression? Well, of course, everyday enactments of equality have to be amplified, power won’t just melt away in their wake. So yes, there’s the challenge of building coalitions, institutions, programs on the back of those experiences, for sure! </p><p>But I guess my worry is that if all we do is document the inequality, if we write off the stuff that people are doing in their everyday lifes to build solidarities and equalities even in the face of those inequalities, we’re not addressing the crisis of equality. These enactments and experiences of equality in everyday life are foundational for building the kind of movement that will have the power, as well as the ideas, to turn things around. At very least, some comradely collaboration across these two projects of documenting inequality and enactments of equality would be nice! </p><p>A second objection or question, and a theme that I know a bunch of great people have worked hard to make a big part of our conference over the next few days [shout out to Libby Porter, Lara Daley, Michelle Thompson-Fawcett, Michele Lobo, Jamal Nabulsi who have organised the sessions on reckoning with settler colonial cities]: what does it mean to talk about equality and justice on stolen land? First Nations struggles for land rights, for self-determination, for treaties and sovereignty, for reparations certainly challenge received ideas of equality and justice. </p><p>I've been reading <a href="https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/redfern-aboriginal-activism-in-the-1970s">Johanna Perheentup’s history of Redfern Aboriginal activism in 1970s</a>, which she says “challenged common understandings about equal treatment as equal means by aiming for equal outcomes … as part of its project of Aboriginal self-determination” (172). That movement inaugurated a battle over the meaning of equality in Australian urban and social/economic policy. Some in that movement saw Aboriginal self-determination as a pathway to equality, part of its rethinking for our times and spaces. Others see self-determination and decolonisation as a challenge to the very centering of the signifier of equality in a politics of justice.</p><p>A third objection or question, and also one which plenty of folks are talking about at the conference, is a question about the relationship between the project of equality and ecological limits (shout out here to Wendy Steele, Donna Houston, Jean Hillier, Diana MacCallum, Jason Byrne whose book on quiet climate activisms is being launched at the conference). The challenge here is how we might put these together in practice, not just theory! Promisingly, proposals for Green New Deals or Real Deals like one I’m involved in via the Sydney Policy Lab recognise that the failure to centre equality alongside ecology in environmental politics is often what has held it back, stopped it finding the kind of broad support required for transformation. They push back on the idea that addressing climate change is too urgent to worry about inequality.</p><p>So yes, the method of equality generates a bunch of questions and objections, and isn’t a silver bullet or magic answer to the issues Steve identified. But I’m encouraging us all to take the reconstruction of equality as seriously as we take the collection of evidence about inequality. We do this by paying attention to equality’s enactments in everyday urban life, thinking about those enactments and what they are teaching us about equality. And our research relationships with the people who practice them might just form the basis for the kinds of coalitions that Steve urges us to make, which will make such a difference to translating everyday equality into transformative institutionalised interventions.</p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-42900370657282067702020-04-16T19:37:00.001-07:002020-04-16T19:38:22.607-07:00We don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone – we must reclaim public space lost to the coronavirus crisis <figure>
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327901/original/file-20200415-117549-1w607rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C147%2C2038%2C1324&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" />
<figcaption>
At a deserted Federation Square in Melbourne, the big screen broadcasts this message: ‘If you can see this, what are you doing? Go home.’
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/cassiezervos/status/1244482097890250753/photo/1">Cassie Zervos/Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kurt-iveson-1223">Kurt Iveson</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></span>
<p>Authorities have imposed significant restrictions on the size, purpose and location of gatherings in public space to slow the transmission of COVID-19. The massive impacts of these escalating restrictions over the past two months show us just how significant public spaces are for the life of our cities. A longer-term concern is the risk that living with these measures might normalise restrictions on, and surveillance of, our access to public space and one another. </p>
<p>Right now, public health is the priority. But access to public spaces was already significantly and unjustly restricted for many people before the coronavirus pandemic. Current restrictions could both intensify existing inequalities in access and reinforce trends towards “locking down” public space. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/public-spaces-bind-cities-together-what-happens-when-coronavirus-forces-us-apart-133763">Public spaces bind cities together. What happens when coronavirus forces us apart?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We must ensure these restrictions do not become permanent. And once the crisis is over, we also should act on existing inequitable restrictions.</p>
<h2>Restrictions have inequitable impacts</h2>
<p>Unless public health interventions are enacted with an awareness of their profoundly uneven consequences, we may well “flatten the curve” in ways that add to existing inequalities and injustices. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00048">Research</a> suggests restrictions on public space have greater impacts on people who have less access to private space. People without stable homes, and those with restricted access to domestic space, tend to live more of their lives in public. Public space restrictions have far greater consequences for these people. </p>
<p>We can see this relationship very clearly: the restrictions are paired with instructions to <em>stay at home</em>. This applies to everyone. But, while it’s inconvenient for some, it’s impossible for others. </p>
<p>It’s certainly the case for the homeless. It will also be true of others. For instance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-coronavirus-impacts-are-devastating-for-international-students-in-private-rental-housing-134792">students may be living in crowded conditions</a> in shared, family or <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/232186">informal accommodation</a>, with no access to quiet private space for study. </p>
<p>This is why researchers and activists are demanding restrictions on public space be accompanied by provisions to make such people’s lives less precarious. Suggested measures include a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-housing-evictions-must-be-suspended-to-defend-us-against-coronavirus-134148">moratorium on evictions</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-05/coronavirus-threat-to-homeless-posed-by-covid-19/12117700">safe and free accommodation for rough sleepers</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homelessness-and-overcrowding-expose-us-all-to-coronavirus-heres-what-we-can-do-to-stop-the-spread-134378">Homelessness and overcrowding expose us all to coronavirus. Here's what we can do to stop the spread</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X17690953">Research also shows us</a> restrictions on public gatherings and public space were a feature of everyday urban life for many people well before physical distancing came in. </p>
<p>Young people of colour who gather in small groups in public spaces <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/race-discrimination/projects/our-own-words-african-australians-review-human-rights-and#engaging">frequently report</a> being stopped, searched and moved on by police and security guards. People on low incomes were already excluded from commercial public spaces like cafes and shopping malls. People asking for spare change or leafleting passers-by were barred from quasi-public spaces that are subject to special restrictions. People who cannot climb stairs were unable to use basic public infrastructure, like train stations, that lacks lift or ramp access. The list goes on. </p>
<p>These pre-existing restrictions were the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2015.1128679">product of exclusion and injustice</a>. We should not have tolerated this before the crisis and it demands our renewed attention after the crisis. </p>
<p>We also know authorities responsible for regulating public space, including police, tend to enforce rules and restrictions selectively. In <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/coronavirus/nsw-police-chief-urges-residents-to-think-hard-about-risking-dollar11000-fines/ar-BB11YMU7">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/covid-19-lockdown-fines-eroding-public-confidence-top-cop-warns-20200413-p54jfk.html">Victoria</a>, police chiefs have been explicit that police will use their discretion in enforcing current restrictions. </p>
<p>The problem is this use of discretion can be informed by stereotype and prejudice. For communities who already felt unfairly targeted by police, statements about the use of discretion will be far from reassuring.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-city-squares-can-be-public-places-of-protest-or-centres-of-state-control-102275">How city squares can be public places of protest or centres of state control</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Temporary’ really must be temporary</h2>
<p>We must guard against a common tendency for temporary measures to become more permanent. Some of the extraordinary powers given to police to break up gatherings and fine people who fail to observe restrictions have been time-limited. But having been used once for a particular problem, the risk is such powers might be enacted more often in future. </p>
<p>We have seen this happen with closures of public space for commercial events. Each closure is justified as being only temporary, but such closures have become increasingly common. The cumulative effect is a creeping commercialisation of public space. </p>
<p>One can also see how “temporary” experiments with digital surveillance to slow contagion could become permanent. <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-surveillance-can-help-bring-the-coronavirus-pandemic-under-control-but-also-threatens-privacy-135151">Tech corporations are offering analyses</a> of mobile phone and other data to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/technology/mobile-phone-location-data-used-to-track-australians-movements-during-coronavirus-crisis-20200404-p54h09.html">profile public activity</a> and to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-24/coronavirus-singapore-trace-together">trace the movements and contacts of individuals</a> who have contracted the coronavirus. </p>
<p>It’s the latest step in the datafication of urban everyday life. This process <a href="https://theconversation.com/darwins-smart-city-project-is-about-surveillance-and-control-127118">erodes privacy and grants more and more power to corporations and governments</a>. It is easy to see how “contact tracing” could also be applied to protesters or stigmatised minorities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/darwins-smart-city-project-is-about-surveillance-and-control-127118">Darwin's 'smart city' project is about surveillance and control</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Normalisation of restrictions must be resisted</h2>
<p>Coronavirus-related restrictions are obvious to us because they have been imposed so rapidly. However, we should reflect on how other restrictions have become normalised precisely because they happened gradually, making them less visible and contested. </p>
<p>For example, over the past decade we have seen a <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-minister-for-public-spaces-is-welcome-now-here-are-ten-priorities-for-action-115152">creeping “gating” of a public spaces</a> like parks and school ovals. Free access to those spaces has been greatly reduced when they are not in use for organised education or sports.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pushing-casual-sport-to-the-margins-threatens-cities-social-cohesion-92352">Pushing casual sport to the margins threatens cities' social cohesion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Interestingly, as urban authorities try to provide large populations with access to public spaces in which they can maintain recommended <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com/2020/03/physical-distance-social-solidarity.html">physical distance</a>, some existing restrictions are being rethought. Cities are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/world-cities-turn-their-streets-over-to-walkers-and-cyclists">closing streets to cars</a> to give pedestrians more space rather than having to crowd onto footpaths. It will be interesting to see if such measures persist once physical-distancing restrictions are lifted.</p>
<p>Let’s hope our experience of the inconvenience and frustration of restricted access to public space will translate into a more widely shared determination not only to end these restrictions when the health crisis is over, but also to act on the unjust exclusions and restrictions that were already a feature of urban life. </p>
<p>As with so many other aspects of our society, it is not enough simply to go back to how things were before. We must ensure our public spaces are not unjustly restricted when the next crisis comes along.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135817/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kurt-iveson-1223">Kurt Iveson</a>, Associate Professor of Urban Geography and Research Lead, Sydney Policy Lab, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-know-what-weve-got-till-its-gone-we-must-reclaim-public-space-lost-to-the-coronavirus-crisis-135817">original article</a>.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-24477033578768233942020-03-23T16:34:00.001-07:002020-03-23T16:34:28.599-07:00Physical distance, social solidarity[Yesterday, a meeting of the Sydney Alliance Council passed a motion about the language the Alliance and partner organisations are going to use in the face of COVID-19 ... with so many stories of social isolation and disconnection emerging, there's a general aversion to the language of "social distancing". I was asked to write a short backgrounder for that discussion ... so figured I'd post here too.]<br />
<br />
In order to minimise the transmission of COVID-19, public health authorities recommend that we keep a distance of 1.5m between ourselves and others, and avoid gatherings in confined spaces, where possible.<br />
<br />
The term that is being used for such measures is “social distancing.” These measures are essential to slowing the transmission of the virus and ‘flattening the curve’. But this terminology is unfortunate.<br />
<br />
Until relatively recently, “social distancing” was a term used mostly by social scientists to describe the practices that we use to maintain social disconnection from others in a crowded urban context of physical proximity. “Social distancing”, in this sense of the term, describes the kind of thing that happens when we share a crowded space such as a train carriage or a bus with strangers. Our bodies are in close physical proximity, but we maintain a kind of emotional and relational ‘distance’ from the people sitting around us.<br />
<br />
The term “social distancing” has also been used by social scientists to describe the ways that some people are forcefully disconnected from proximate others – through discrimination, stigma, and other forms of misrecognition. For example, we might talk about the ways that homeless people on the street are “socially distanced”, as countless people pass by them on the street without recognition or connection. Those who are the victims of this kind of social distancing are often treated as though their stigma is ‘contagious’.<br />
<br />
But somehow, the meaning of “social distancing” has been turned on its head. The term “social distancing” is being used to describe what ought to be termed “physical distancing”.<br />
<br />
Used in its original sense, the last thing we need in a pandemic is more “social distancing”. We do need physical distancing. But we need social solidarity and connection. Without that social solidarity and connection, people are atomised and left to fend for themselves. And we know exactly who will suffer the most if that is allowed to occur.<br />
<br />
This language matters. The constant invocations to isolate and create social distance send a message about the social, not just the physical. We can already see a form of “social distancing” in action in our supermarkets – and it’s not good! People are socially distancing themselves from other shoppers in the aisle and in their community, and from the staff trying to stock the shelves and operate the checkouts.<br />
<br />
We must ensure that in a time when physical distance is required, social distance is not increased. Neither the indifference of the crowded train carriage nor our aversion towards the stigmatised are good models for the kind of care, compassion and collective solidarity we need to deal with this pandemic in a manner that leaves no-one behind.<br />
<br />
We will need to improvise new ways to stay socially connected, lest physical distance make even more people vulnerable to social distancing, with all its harmful consequences for their access to the resources and relationships that sustain a decent life.<br />
<br />
We have powerful tools at our disposal to maintain social solidarity while keeping physical distance. There will inevitably be a focus on the way that social media is being deployed to enable mutual aid across our city. But this is not just about technology. It’s also about the institutions of civil society – institutions which are the critical social infrastructure upon which everyday relationships of support and care are built.<br />
<br />
If we’re to avoid creating a city which emerges from this crisis even more socially distanced than it began, we need to think about what kind ‘stimulus package’ we will need for civil society, not just the economy. Many civil society institutions were already stretched even before most of us knew what a coronavirus was, thanks to their efforts in addressing the extraordinary circumstances created by the bushfires, and thanks to decades of government cuts.<br />
<br />
So, as much as we must celebrate the hopeful stories of individual acts of kindness, we must also demand that the vital structural role of civil society be acknowledged and supported – politically, and materially.<br />
<br />
As <a href="http://nteu.org.au/" target="_blank">my union</a> has been saying, solidarity is the best medicine.<br />
<br />
<img alt="NTEU Campaign" height="206" src="https://www.nteu.org.au//var/files/thumbs/a780532dd116f8da145bac8c4c7961bc_3f91f028b4fccf955d7b0d82b6cdfddf_w925_h300_1.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-30416610993624941322019-09-19T23:54:00.003-07:002019-09-19T23:54:57.734-07:00For a just transition in universities: on fighting climate change and casualisation at the same time...The Global Strike for Climate today in Sydney, and in towns and cities across Australia, was massive! They've been such a source of inspiration and determination in hard times.<br />
<br />
It was fantastic to see so many university staff and students participating. I was honoured to speak for the National Tertiary Education Union as we assembled at the University of Sydney this morning.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, here's the speech I gave ... arguing for a just transition everywhere, including in higher education where I work.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
**</div>
<br />
It’s great to be here with so many university staff and students united in our determination to get this rotten Morrison government to take the climate crisis seriously!<br />
<br />
I want to talk a bit about why we’re here today, what we’re fighting for, and what it means for university staff and students to be in this fight together.<br />
<br />
One of the three demands of today’s strike is for a fair and just transition to a new economy.<br />
<br />
That demand is the bridge between the goals of the climate movement and the goals of the union movement.<br />
<br />
The demand for a just transition is the reason that wharfies from the Maritime Union of Australia have walked off the job at Port Botany today to join the strike!<br />
<br />
It’s the reason that manufacturing workers at Fenner Dunlop in Victoria are also taking industrial action and joining their local climate strike!<br />
<br />
And it’s one of the reasons that the NTEU has thrown its weight behind the school strike movement, and why thousands of university staff are joining students and walking off their campuses all over the country to participate.<br />
<br />
Now, when you think of a ‘just transition’, maybe you think of the need to create good, secure jobs for people whose jobs will disappear in fossil fuel industries like coal, oil and gas. That’s going to be absolutely vital.<br />
<br />
But the idea of a just transition is way bigger than that. The whole economy needs a transition if we’re going to stop runaway climate change … so what kind of transition will it be?<br />
<br />
What will the transition look like in higher education, one of our biggest industries and employers?<br />
<br />
Yes, it’s got to involve universities shifting to 100% renewable energy! And it has definitely got to involve divestment from all fossil fuel investments!<br />
<br />
But it won’t be a <i>just</i> transition if we go renewable while we continue to casualise teaching and administration. We’ve got to cut job insecurity and cut wage theft as well as cutting emissions!<br />
<br />
And it won’t be a just transition if we divest from fossil fuels while we divest responsibility for university operations like cleaning and security to dodgy contractors who pay minimum wage and treat their workers like crap. We’ve got to have ethical employment practices as well as ethical investments!<br />
<br />
Both of those things – the casualisation and outsourcing of work - are getting worse right here at Sydney Uni, and at other universities around the country.<br />
<br />
There will be people who tell you that we’ve got to worry first about decarbonisation, then about decasualisation. They’ll tell you that divestment is more important than what happens to the cleaning staff.<br />
<br />
They’re wrong. They’re wrong because they’re holding on to the very fantasy that has got us into this mess – that’s the fantasy that we can continue with business as usual while we save the planet.<br />
<br />
Business as usual is wrecking working lives and wrecking the planet at the same time. At universities. And across the economy.<br />
<br />
That’s why the fight of the climate movement and the fight of the union movement is ultimately the same fight. It’s the fight for an economy that puts people and planet first, not last.<br />
<br />
It’s the fight for a world in which no natural resources, no communities, no cultures, and no workers are treated as expendable.<br />
<br />
And striking is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal in that combined fight: it’s so fitting that the action that is bringing our movements together, inspired by the school student organisers, is a <i>strike</i>.<br />
<br />
So let’s strike for climate, let’s fight for a just transition. And let’s come back here on Monday after today’s strike to keep fighting for a fair and just transition at our own university!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxUkeesWpXjPQi6QZH0Rt6s-JJskRJq_aqwh3cwbhEzu-ZOfqc3uXFmHcuYC-2284QKfehZUUFwduOXNBBTa2lq16Mm1b7_tNaqh7PblepmCzLpC4bXJt502vOxkQVl2y8q6p00UeHf5FH/s1600/59063230966__AF9D4749-D41E-4DA7-8AA7-B07DC9907DC3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxUkeesWpXjPQi6QZH0Rt6s-JJskRJq_aqwh3cwbhEzu-ZOfqc3uXFmHcuYC-2284QKfehZUUFwduOXNBBTa2lq16Mm1b7_tNaqh7PblepmCzLpC4bXJt502vOxkQVl2y8q6p00UeHf5FH/s640/59063230966__AF9D4749-D41E-4DA7-8AA7-B07DC9907DC3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-44689762698595407642019-04-25T18:22:00.001-07:002019-04-25T18:22:26.849-07:00Unsolicited advice for our new Minister for Public Spaces...[Originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-minister-for-public-spaces-is-welcome-now-here-are-ten-priorities-for-action-115152" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>]<br />
<br />
With the re-election of the Berejiklian government, NSW now has a Minister for Public Spaces – Rob Stokes. This new ministerial portfolio was first mooted in February, when the Premier announced that it would be tasked with identifying and protecting publicly-owned land for use as parks or public spaces.<br />
<br />
As important as this task is, we need even more ambition in this portfolio. Public space is crucial to the social, economic, political, and environmental life of our towns and cities. We need to improve the quality of our public spaces, as well as increasing their quantity.<br />
<br />
Here are ten priorities for government action to make our public spaces more plentiful and more accessible to all.<br />
<br />
1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Privately-owned public spaces<br />
<br />
From Barangaroo to Bonnyrigg, public spaces in new urban developments are often owned and controlled by private developers. The public has little say over the rules that govern these spaces and the way those rules are enforced. Restrictions are often excessive, and private security guards are known to over-step their powers.<br />
<br />
The Minister for Public Space should map the extent of these privately-owned public spaces, and ensure that they are governed by the same, democratically-determined laws that cover publicly owned public spaces.<br />
<br />
2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Strategic purchases of private land<br />
<br />
As well as identifying publicly-owned land that could be used for parks or public spaces, the Minister for Public Space should identify privately-owned land that could be acquired for the same purpose. The gradual purchase of harbour foreshore property in Glebe has resulted in a wonderful and well-used foreshore walk. Similar opportunities to create public space networks should be identified and planned.<br />
<br />
3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Unlock the gates<br />
<br />
Too much publicly-owned public space is under-utilised because it is locked up. Across the city, there are ovals and public school playgrounds fenced off from the public for much of the year when they are not in use. We own these spaces – when they’re not in use for sport of school, we should be able to access them. As Minister for Education, Stokes recently trialled a program of opening some school playgrounds during school holidays. This should be done across the city, and Councils should be required to show cause if they want to restrict access to any public spaces they own.<br />
<br />
4.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Stop the temporary enclosures<br />
<br />
A growing number of park authorities and local governments are doing deals with private companies to temporality fence off public spaces for commercial activities – sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks and even months. They do it because they’re short of funds and need the revenue. While programming events in public spaces can help attract crowds, we must halt the creeping logic of commercialisation which sees us charged money to access our own spaces. The Minister for Public Space should ensure that park authorities do not need to depend on commercial funding for survival.<br />
<br />
5.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Maintaining footpaths<br />
<br />
The quality of footpaths makes a world of difference for people like parents with prams, little kids, people with mobility issues, and older people (for whom falls are a big health risk). Our footpaths need to be wide, their surfaces need to be even, and they need to incorporate places to rest.<br />
<br />
The capacity of local governments to maintain footpaths is highly uneven. Public spaces in wealthy areas are gold-plated, while in other parts of the city footpaths are too often in poor condition or non-existent. The Minister for Public Space must think about the role that state government can in evening things out, assisting local governments where required.<br />
<br />
6.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Public toilets<br />
<br />
As with footpaths, the provision of public toilets can make the difference between going out or staying at home for many people. The Minister for Public Space should use existing data to audit the provision and accessibility of public toilets in public spaces across the city, identify gaps, and fund improvements where required.<br />
<br />
7.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Less private advertising, more public expression<br />
<br />
While advertising on the Opera House generated controversy, the creeping spread of commercial advertising in public space is also of concern. All this advertising is commercialising our public spaces, and crowding out other forms of public expression – from neighbourhood notices about community events and lost cats to murals and street art. The Minister for Public Space should work with local governments to limit the amount of advertising in public space, and extract more public good from any advertising revenues raised in public space.<br />
<br />
8.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>No more sniffer dogs and strip searches<br />
<br />
The policing of public spaces makes a huge difference to its accessibility. Exclusionary policing strategies – especially the use of drug sniffer dogs and rising use of strip searches – should be stopped. These tactics are not only put to work at festivals, but also around train stations and entertainment precincts. They are ineffective in leading to prosecutions, and are too often used to shame, intimidate and harass people without basis. The Minister for Public Space needs to challenge the Minister for Police about this form of policing.<br />
<br />
9.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Care not control<br />
<br />
This is not say that safety is unimportant. We know that fear of harassment and assault stops some people using public space, not least women who experience this frequently.<br />
<br />
However, we must not equate ‘feeling safe’ with ‘more police’ and ‘more surveillance cameras’ – indeed, sometimes these can have the perverse effect of making people feel less safe, by producing atmospheres of threat. We feel safer when there are others around caring for the space. So, the Minister for Public Space should investigate ways to encourage these forms of care. Simple measures like later opening hours for neighbourhood shops, or staff on railway platforms and train carriages, can make a big difference.<br />
<br />
10.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Plant more trees<br />
<br />
We need more trees in our public spaces – not just in parks, but on residential and commercial streets too. This is especially important in parts of the city where summer temperatures are already extreme for weeks at a time. Not only do trees help to cool these spaces, they also encourage more biodiversity and combat carbon emissions. The Minister for Public Spaces should establish, and fund, a meaningful target for tree planting in public spaces.<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
This list of suggestions is far from exhaustive. But these reforms and others ought to be on the drawing board as the Minister for Public Space sets about his new work. Hopefully, this portfolio is to be more than a tokenistic attempt to create the appearance of action on public space, in the face of criticism about this government’s record on privatisation of public assets.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-18549243213354195912019-03-19T23:15:00.001-07:002019-03-19T23:15:08.340-07:00Sydney - We Need to Talk. A love letter to Sydney...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPWNMVwSHuq7u5-nkHYNTEerHk4UrUrGE2aSog0znyCy4i_wLGi8WyTOdAkWU4pXUdyACLaJpljH_q5173if1Rz7DGZAbb0K4DwytZX5B0tMxIj0kPxQv8B0Ji9VxqfdvOErfe6XTC6KM/s1600/Sydney-We-Need-to-Talk_Invite_EMAIL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="645" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPWNMVwSHuq7u5-nkHYNTEerHk4UrUrGE2aSog0znyCy4i_wLGi8WyTOdAkWU4pXUdyACLaJpljH_q5173if1Rz7DGZAbb0K4DwytZX5B0tMxIj0kPxQv8B0Ji9VxqfdvOErfe6XTC6KM/s400/Sydney-We-Need-to-Talk_Invite_EMAIL.jpg" width="161" /></a></div>
There are still a few days left to catch Wendy Murray’s exhibition <a href="http://www.crossart.com.au/" target="_blank"><i>Sydney - We Need to Talk</i> at Cross Art Projects in Sydney</a>. The exhibition features some of the illustrations that Wendy made for the book of the same name (<a href="https://www.sydneyweneedtotalk.com/the-book" target="_blank">which you really should download, if you haven't already!</a>).<br />
<br />
I was honoured to be asked to speak at the launch of the exhibition. Taking inspiration from the title of Wendy’s exhibition (which started life as a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/6pvk6c/sydney_we_need_to_talk/" target="_blank">poster that inspired our book</a>), I wrote a letter to Sydney. Here it is…<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
Dear Sydney,<br />
<br />
We need to talk.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure I know who you are any more.<br />
<br />
I’ve spent most of my life with you. But in the past few years, it seems to me like you’re becoming harder and harder to live with. And it’s not just me who’s noticed. You’re more and more sterile, more hostile, more expensive. You’re meaner and hotter and more divided.<br />
<br />
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of things that remind me why I loved you in the first place, and why I’ve stayed with you for so long. Your jacarandas in spring. A stroll and some shopping on Beamish street on a busy Saturday. Our local public school and its awesome school community. A sunny winter’s weekday at any of your beaches. The crispy hot broad-bean felafel at Cairo Takeaway. Tuesday night funk throw-downs at 505. The surprise appearance of fresh graffiti on your trains and posters on your walls. The energy and shared purpose of a big Sydney Alliance assembly.<br />
<br />
But for all that great stuff, I’m not sure I love who you’re becoming.<br />
<br />
Maybe you’re getting less loveable because of the company you’re keeping. You’ve spent a lot of time lately long hanging out with some dodgy characters.<br />
<br />
Your buddies Barry, Mike and Gladys are cases in point.<br />
<br />
Like Gladys. She said when she hooked up with you that making you less expensive was her #1 priority. But she’s been selling off your public housing, and refusing to introduce rules making it a requirement for her developer mates to provide cheap housing in the new towers and suburban estates that are making them rich. She won’t even introduce rules to stop tenants getting kicked out of their homes through no fault of their own.<br />
<br />
Just last week she said that your public spaces were big priority and that she’ll appoint a new minister for public space. Meanwhile, her and her friends have privatised publicly-owned assets worth over $9 billion in the last ten years. They supported private advertising on the sails of the Opera House. They put sniffer dogs instead of doctors at our festivals (not to mention on train stations in the west). They put our ovals and schools behind spear-topped fences.<br />
<br />
She said her pals in Canberra should be doing more to stop you burning up, by doing something about climate change. But she’s spending billions of dollars on a mega-freeway project that will choke you up with cars for years to come.<br />
<br />
Not to mention the fact that she wants to spend $2 billion knocking down a couple of your stadiums to help out her mates.<br />
<br />
And even when she tries to do the right thing by you, she seems to have a knack for fucking it up. Just ask the trees on Anzac Parade that had to die unnecessarily for the light rail, or the people in places like Ryde and Canterbury where there’s been over-development without infrastructure.<br />
<br />
I could go on. If I’m honest, there are times I really want to leave you.<br />
<br />
And I’m pretty sure my friend Wendy is thinking about ditching you too. But then, maybe despite herself, she seems to keep caring for you.<br />
<br />
She’s seen what you’re turning into, and she’s trying to snap you out of it – to use her art to show you what you’re becoming, but also to remind you of your best side, to show you how much better you could be.<br />
<br />
And when me and a bunch of my friends at Sydney Uni started getting together every week to talk about you, to try to make sense of what was going on with you, one of her posters on your walls inspired us to write you a big open letter.<br />
<br />
So, we got together in little groups, and we wrote some stuff: about displacement, and dispossession, and decommodification, and democracy, and a bunch of other d-words!<br />
<br />
And then she took our words, and spent hours in your streets, and patiently drew a series of beautiful images that both responded to, and challenged, the words we wrote.<br />
<br />
And then, she lovingly packaged the words and the images in a beautiful book, with a cover hand-printed using an ancient press and with pages hand-stitched, all wrapped up in one of her beautiful posters. Maybe she was hoping that you might actually notice us and how much we care about you, because of the care we took in making the letter that we wrote for you.<br />
<br />
So, I’m inspired by Wendy, and I’m not ready to break up yet. Instead, me and my friends are taking a leaf out of Wendy’s book. We’re going to spend some quality time with you, hanging out in your streets and talking to other people who love you and wish you could turn things around. We’re not going to go quiet and tolerate your bad side, but we’re not going to give up on you either.<br />
<br />
Sydney, we want, we need, to talk.<br />
<br />
Love, KurtUnknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-15246438372523129362018-11-05T21:40:00.002-08:002018-11-05T21:40:45.302-08:00Outdoor Advertising and Public Space<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIrYy8PrTPjmVfxYVL637hoNYdpcjgtnzYYcjVrmRI0cds-mE14Ru7nR8t2pn_YAjTM-FYcHrfbp2pUWSDMVaf7uRmRURJIWUgpYtxBZffnjtvts93DvKQtawlFn9-lwcF9jQ8kQOp2Mn/s1600/opera+house+pic.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtIrYy8PrTPjmVfxYVL637hoNYdpcjgtnzYYcjVrmRI0cds-mE14Ru7nR8t2pn_YAjTM-FYcHrfbp2pUWSDMVaf7uRmRURJIWUgpYtxBZffnjtvts93DvKQtawlFn9-lwcF9jQ8kQOp2Mn/s400/opera+house+pic.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
So, there was controversy here in Sydney a couple of weeks ago about the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/gladys-berejiklian-hands-racing-nsw-alan-jones-victory-in-opera-house-battle-20181005-p50837.html" target="_blank">NSW Government's decision to force the Opera House to display an advertisement for a horse race</a>.<br />
<br />
I wrote an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald about the broader issue of advertising and its impacts on public space.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Premier Gladys Berejiklian's intervention to insist the Sydney Opera
House allow blatant Racing NSW advertising on its sails is objectionable
for many reasons.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Most worryingly, it signals a new
intensification of the ongoing privatisation of our public spaces
through advertising. The surfaces of our city are being remade as
advertising space before our very eyes. ...</blockquote>
You can <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/why-the-creeping-sell-off-of-public-space-for-private-ads-is-so-wrong-20181008-p508el.html" target="_blank">read the rest of the piece here</a>.<br />
<br />
There was a great protest down at the Opera House on the night in question - you can <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sydney-news/opera-house-illumination-time-changed-to-avoid-protesters-20181009-p508ob.html" target="_blank">read about that here</a>. <br />
<br />
I've had a bee in my bonnet about advertising in public space for a while now ... and published an article in <b><i>Antipode</i></b> a few years ago about the global outdoor advertising industry. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00849.x" target="_blank">You can find that here</a> (email me if you're interested and have a hard time accessing it).<br />
<br />
And there's also a piece about hacking outdoor advertising and the decommodification of public space in the new book I've been involved with writing, <a href="http://www.sydneyweneedtotalk.com/" target="_blank"><b><i>Sydney We Need to Talk!</i></b></a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com94tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-53329298196847614282018-11-05T21:07:00.000-08:002018-11-05T21:07:52.942-08:00New book - SYDNEY WE NEED TO TALK!<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTybbtbRB1XZ1LiHk5yrRoq4wRvZ7f0mvrd0N4vbVAOSKuFDQa2U67qa1Ol4HMJAg_YmbSMVyy9QQYRo6Lbl93VMLPuGjIg71T7AOpzU7uOi3PFHjnAVj0Jtv_NqHa2JdJExvYy8PhF64/s1600/Sydney+We+Need+to+Talk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTybbtbRB1XZ1LiHk5yrRoq4wRvZ7f0mvrd0N4vbVAOSKuFDQa2U67qa1Ol4HMJAg_YmbSMVyy9QQYRo6Lbl93VMLPuGjIg71T7AOpzU7uOi3PFHjnAVj0Jtv_NqHa2JdJExvYy8PhF64/s320/Sydney+We+Need+to+Talk.png" width="265" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm excited (and proud!) to announce the publication of a new book that I've been involved in pulling together.<br />
<br />
It's called <b><i>Sydney -- We Need to Talk!</i></b><br />
<br />
It has been written by a group of folks at the University of Sydney -- geographers, plannings, political scientists, visual artists, staff and students -- who have been meeting every week to talk about our work on the politics of urbanisation. We're all either thinking about Sydney and/or thinking from Sydney. There are essays on decommodification, dispossession, democratisation, degrees, domains, dimensions, domesticity and digitalisation (we started riffing with d-words, and couldn't stop).<br />
<br />
Each essay is co-authored, and while each essay features work on Sydney, it also travels somewhere else. We bring Sydney into dialogue into other cities where we're working, including Jakarta, London, Barcelona, Hong Kong, New York and beyond.<br />
<br />
The book was designed by artist Wendy Murray, who has also responded to each essay with a series of illustrations.<br />
<br />
You can find out more about the book and its making, and download a free copy of the book, at the <a href="http://www.sydneyweneedtotalk.com/" target="_blank">website we've set up here</a>.<br />
<br />
The list of contributors is: Brittany Betteridge, Pratichi Chatterjee, Leah Emmanuel, Amy Fairall,
Bradley Garrett, Mini Graff, Kurt Iveson, Rupert Legg, Sophia Maalsen,
Marilu Melo, Wendy Murray, Madeleine Pill, Dallas Rogers, Jathan
Sadowski, Alistair Sisson, Amanda Tattersall, Sophie WebberUnknownnoreply@blogger.com101tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-18387830592259093272018-05-02T00:01:00.000-07:002018-05-02T00:01:01.099-07:00Article on safety and public space in The ConversationI was invited to contribute something on safety and public space for a series of articles in <i>The Conversation</i> called <i>Cities for Everyone</i>. Figured I should post it here too!<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
The central role of public spaces in the social, cultural, political and economic life of cities makes it crucial that they're accessible to everyone. One of the most important qualities of accessible public spaces is safety. If people do not feel safe in a public space, they are less likely to use it, let alone linger in it.
Perceptions of safety are socially produced and socially variable. It is not simply the presence of crime - or "threatening environments" - that contributes to lack of safety or fear.<br />
<br />
All sorts of measures are put in place to make public spaces safer, from design to policing. But when we consider the effectiveness of these measures, we always have to ask: whose safety is being prioritised?<br />
<br />
Women and members of ethnic and sexual minorities are among those who experience particular kinds of threats, abuse and violence in public spaces.
If we don't account for the social dimensions of safety, there's a risk that measures designed to enhance safety will have the opposite effect for some urban inhabitants.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-create-safer-cities-for-everyone-we-need-to-avoid-security-that-threatens-93421">Follow this link for the rest of it,</a> with links to further research etc. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com65tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-2204404934862702102018-02-06T17:34:00.001-08:002018-02-06T17:34:18.219-08:00Cities and Citizenship Event in Sydney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKxJHiXQt70mN4UMGL8EMtVJ9-4PtmT0Lhir4tFHf1y5aV4fuudCtaj9EmABYfMxtEeduMotE5voVI6bb0fnm0gb_34_M-qPng2MvjHI9nSl0xCHRAtICSzHizNPXLHY_i0jFicT0fKFfz/s1600/Untitled.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1432" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKxJHiXQt70mN4UMGL8EMtVJ9-4PtmT0Lhir4tFHf1y5aV4fuudCtaj9EmABYfMxtEeduMotE5voVI6bb0fnm0gb_34_M-qPng2MvjHI9nSl0xCHRAtICSzHizNPXLHY_i0jFicT0fKFfz/s640/Untitled.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I'm excited to say that we're having an event here in Sydney on Thurs Feb 22 called "Cities and Citizenship". It's a Sydney Ideas event, with some fabulous speakers who are in Sydney that week to participate in a workshop that Amanda Tattersall and I have organised to discuss the democratisation of cities.<br />
<br />
<br />
Amanda and I will be talking about our work on urban alliance building, and we'll be joined by Helga Leitner from UCLA, Mark Davidson from Clark University, and Simon Tormey from here at the University of Sydney.<br />
<br />
You can find more info and register <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/cities-and-citizenship.html">here</a>... it's free, you should come!<br />
<br /><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-72647034826646579492018-01-09T19:09:00.003-08:002018-01-09T19:09:58.772-08:00The Green Revolution Game...OK, this is completely off topic ... but in cleaning up an old office, I have just found a good, working version of <b><i>The Green Revolution Game</i></b>. The graf lover in me wants to keep it just because the fonts are so cool. But it's not for me, and before it ends up in a skip, I'm hoping someone might want to rescue it.<br />
<br />
I don't really know much about it, beyond the basic idea that it's a role-playing game about agriculture and development. It was developed as a teaching tool in the 1970s by Graham Chapman from Cambridge. You can read a piece by him in Area from 1973 about how the game was developed, how it works, and its purpose <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20000732">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can read a brief piece from the New York Times in 1982 about how the game was being used at the World Bank <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/18/us/the-game-people-play-over-at-the-world-bank.html">here.</a> <br />
<br />
Pics below.<br />
<br />
Email me at kurt.iveson@sydney.edu.au if want it. I'm not charging for the object, but will need you to pay for postage (which might not be cheap, given its size and weight). First in, best dressed...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ88NuyYKv3ToAv8oU1t230U8osRM9jcNEJdM-GZhFW7M25KVsR9xPDi7noIOgKDufafPyM7xhYEg_HwozYMmU4XUlFJiDqZP0EhGWIW37fNebM_tEhfVYMzxtdM8shIahhlh7qfxLTXp/s1600/IMG_0782.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ88NuyYKv3ToAv8oU1t230U8osRM9jcNEJdM-GZhFW7M25KVsR9xPDi7noIOgKDufafPyM7xhYEg_HwozYMmU4XUlFJiDqZP0EhGWIW37fNebM_tEhfVYMzxtdM8shIahhlh7qfxLTXp/s320/IMG_0782.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiL3Pv9-WawuA4qAlBAUM9I6zKZ7uElLruT-7sfq9l5WmYI2MBlEvnCq-c1fgFXEw1PUTChyphenhyphenJtFnBR21UDbvK9PkDU_lSqVImKTzczW5uQNjEST6UXBYpeYbIQtHqleHImz5LSg8gU1jCy/s1600/IMG_0783.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiL3Pv9-WawuA4qAlBAUM9I6zKZ7uElLruT-7sfq9l5WmYI2MBlEvnCq-c1fgFXEw1PUTChyphenhyphenJtFnBR21UDbvK9PkDU_lSqVImKTzczW5uQNjEST6UXBYpeYbIQtHqleHImz5LSg8gU1jCy/s320/IMG_0783.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PYy7AqNSuDWAHdGH4v9nxMFel89EihyphenhypheneS670qRe5AQg0_3wrkIESLKJSW9pljvfNLBjY5RfPkiK0bAP1iaO69NlvaEWgvE5aFlhngULEFzqle76M5ur03UAFVhQeC8k30HeZTqxINPBS/s1600/IMG_0784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PYy7AqNSuDWAHdGH4v9nxMFel89EihyphenhypheneS670qRe5AQg0_3wrkIESLKJSW9pljvfNLBjY5RfPkiK0bAP1iaO69NlvaEWgvE5aFlhngULEFzqle76M5ur03UAFVhQeC8k30HeZTqxINPBS/s320/IMG_0784.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkidUCr3B2NUpVkkBFIJniGXfJUE5iNNsKB9ESRJ4R2f_LRt7ThFJ_xWwsJ4oZwPHCpYz38gQq1_CT5U1jtdPqdXUDj_L9eZoGXkWxhVkgbMt6xfK3_TFmzB9VOh-AYLm-Nk8UwJDi-Bpb/s1600/IMG_0785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkidUCr3B2NUpVkkBFIJniGXfJUE5iNNsKB9ESRJ4R2f_LRt7ThFJ_xWwsJ4oZwPHCpYz38gQq1_CT5U1jtdPqdXUDj_L9eZoGXkWxhVkgbMt6xfK3_TFmzB9VOh-AYLm-Nk8UwJDi-Bpb/s320/IMG_0785.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TRnyl_u23EX-LH2m_PEaWLeJx2OR2MLWsmFwdlZ2EV79lqY9VxXmdI-QAq2-IG7f5FmV7RHonWR2JsRVDS2OEjuovS76Kq7rwJRd2iyGBMlrNCGXlw6y0na08rPLL9I4nlp0MIzj90hc/s1600/IMG_0786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TRnyl_u23EX-LH2m_PEaWLeJx2OR2MLWsmFwdlZ2EV79lqY9VxXmdI-QAq2-IG7f5FmV7RHonWR2JsRVDS2OEjuovS76Kq7rwJRd2iyGBMlrNCGXlw6y0na08rPLL9I4nlp0MIzj90hc/s320/IMG_0786.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1bRMtJPbyLYXjWvLiVHsyaIBJ1JTrI0pApVTWMOlfODm5xWQ13o6ecXaX8ELEEFzdBxoUmu_mOnkYBoo8knnir4lOjIfGUOO7JpZ8Ti53KvsdlXiBCJYGJWzFXwxNaFpsaTOnzcj2A5E/s1600/IMG_0787.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1bRMtJPbyLYXjWvLiVHsyaIBJ1JTrI0pApVTWMOlfODm5xWQ13o6ecXaX8ELEEFzdBxoUmu_mOnkYBoo8knnir4lOjIfGUOO7JpZ8Ti53KvsdlXiBCJYGJWzFXwxNaFpsaTOnzcj2A5E/s320/IMG_0787.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-38654193091302290632017-11-15T19:32:00.001-08:002017-11-15T19:32:06.986-08:00The urban geography of attitudes to marriage equality (or, did car drivers vote 'no'?)Yesterday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced the results of the postal survey it was directed to conduct by the Turnbull Government about the Marriage Act. Across Australia, 61.6% supported changing the Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples to marry. Yay!<br />
<br />
But the <b>uneven geography of this vote</b> has also attracted attention. The 'Yes' vote was slightly lower in NSW - largely because 12 of the 17 Commonwealth electorates that had majority 'No' votes were in NSW, and specifically, in Western Sydney. This map of survey results has been doing the rounds:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CoAtBupSb_LQDkZFjRuEuIlMU8AwZrjq9CU6Fy92Ck3x7qb8b4ZNT_8aA83zm61LgSKeMcspoHtRHAnUjzaqbs6QUJ3rpGm4FD0Fnp0ykiqx9LxlV4O4Wtv1ViRoZtU2YmRJ1RMkhMd_/s1600/ABS+Map.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="873" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CoAtBupSb_LQDkZFjRuEuIlMU8AwZrjq9CU6Fy92Ck3x7qb8b4ZNT_8aA83zm61LgSKeMcspoHtRHAnUjzaqbs6QUJ3rpGm4FD0Fnp0ykiqx9LxlV4O4Wtv1ViRoZtU2YmRJ1RMkhMd_/s640/ABS+Map.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of Survey Results in Sydney. Source: https://marriagesurvey.abs.gov.au/results/response-map.html</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There are some particularly sharp divides here. Grayndler (not named in the map above, it is the purple electorate that sits in between Sydney and Watson) had a high 'Yes' vote of almost 80%. Watson, right next door, had a high 'No' vote of around 70%.<br />
<br />
So, what should we make of this difference? How should we try to explain it? A few articles are popping up on the theme....<br />
<br />
In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/15/dastyari-high-number-of-no-votes-in-labor-seats-shows-huge-disconnect" target="_blank">this piece in the Guardian</a>, Sam Dastayari - a Labor Senator from the region - argues that people in the region tend to be socially conservative. As for why this is so, he is quoted as saying: "The only demographic indicator that matters is ethnicity", and that any explanation based on a single religion would be incorrect. "[It’s across the board – Muslim, the Coptics, Christians, communities from migrant backgrounds contributed to voting no."<br />
<br />
Likewise, Andrew Jakubowicz <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-social-conservatism-among-ethnic-communities-drove-a-strong-no-vote-in-western-sydney-87509" target="_blank">writes in The Conversation</a> that "social conservatism among many ethnic communities loomed large as a factor" in the 'No' vote in Western Sydney". But he tells us not to essentialise this conservatism, and suggests a range of factors that might explain it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The opposition to same-sex marriage ... was particularly resonant in communities where people have fairly
poor educational backgrounds, somewhat limited English language skills
and their information is mediated primarily through religious
institutions.<br />
<br />
So, in localities where there are strong communities built around
Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, Eastern Catholicism, African Christianities,
Asian Christianities (ranging from Catholic to Evangelical), and even in
other areas with pockets of Orthodox Judaism, there were singular
funnels of information presented in cultural and moral terms. <br />
<br />
There’s little information available to those people from any other
source that they would trust, or to which they have easy access.</blockquote>
He goes on to argue that "It is important not to allow stereotypes to overwhelm analysis", and that "This is not simply about religion; it’s about culture in a more complex sense".<br />
<br />
My colleague Dallas Rogers has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-15/same-sex-marriage-the-tale-of-two-sydneys/9153436" target="_blank">written a piece for the ABC</a> which seeks to head-off the stereotypes of those in 'the west' that are ever-present in discussions of Sydney's urban geography, and which are being hastily mobilised in some of the initial reactions to the poll. He worries that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The discussion about the No vote will almost certainly follow a
familiar narrative: the west is full of variously conservative new
migrants, old people and ethnic and religious minorities. Religious and
migrant media will come under fire. The familiar troupe of derogatory Westie, migrant and religious discussion will follow.</blockquote>
Dallas doesn't seek to explain away the poll results. Indeed, he identifies himself as a Westie who voted Yes, and as one who is disappointed by the results in this part of Sydney. But he makes a really important point when noting that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The temptation might be to think about the diverse peoples and
communities of western Sydney as the sole custodians of their views. </blockquote>
While the vote was clearly uneven, there were lots of 'No' votes from people outside Western Sydney, and lots of 'Yes' votes from people in Western Sydney, so we should not fall into the trap of focusing only on the colours of that map above. He also goes on to point out what we might forget now that the results are in -- that this postal poll was an incredibly divisive political tactic deployed by the Turnbull Government, which many have criticised for the fear-mongering and hate that it unleashed.<br />
<br />
<br />
So, while it's tempting to try to explain the unevenness of the vote with reference to some of the rather obvious correlations between the poll results and the socio-demographic characteristics of an electorate derived from the 2016 Census, it's best not to jump to easy and unsupported conclusions.<br />
<br />
Sure, there are significant differences in factors like religion, income, and education between majority 'Yes' electorates in inner urban areas like Sydney and Grayndler, and majority 'No' electorates in Western Sydney like Watson and Blaxland:<br />
<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073786111 1 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sydney</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grayndler</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Watson</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Blaxland</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
No Religion (%)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
43.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
40.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
15.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
13.4</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Avg Weekly Income ($)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
933</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
997</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
490</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
462</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bach Degree or Higher (%)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
43.8</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
42.6</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
22.9</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
17.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
English only Spoken at Home (%)</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
51.0</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
66.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
28.5</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
25.5</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There are also some data that are surprising. For instance, of these four electorates, Sydney has the lowest percentage of people born in Australia:<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073786111 1 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sydney</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grayndler</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Watson</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Blaxland</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Born in Australia</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
39.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
59.1</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
44.4</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
43.9</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But before we start reading explanations from these correlations, note that there are also stark differences in other characteristics of the majority 'yes' and 'no' electorates, like public transport usage:<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:1;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073786111 1 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sydney</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grayndler</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Watson</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Blaxland</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Public Transport to Work</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
35.7</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
38</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
25.2</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 93.5pt;" valign="top" width="94">
<div class="MsoNormal">
21.3</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Were people in Western Sydney more likely to vote 'no' because of their education levels, or because they are more likely to drive a car to work? There's a good correlation for both, but I haven't seen anyone
try to explain the results in Western Sydney with reference to public
transport usage! That's because, as they say, correlation does not equal causation...<br />
<br />
More sophisticated analyses are going to be required to better understand which of any correlations might have some explantory relevance. And of course, such an analysis would need to take account of a range of other factors beyond simple demographic differences.<br />
<br />
For instance, in <a href="http://junkee.com/?p=135025" target="_blank">his piece in Junkee</a>, Osman Faruqi argues that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The huge variation in the result across electorates has a number of
factors, but is partly driven by the fact the No campaign appeared to
focus its resources on migrant and non-English speaking communities
while the Yes campaign spent its time and energy turning out the vote
rather than convincing people to change their position on the issue.</blockquote>
I don't whether this is right, but it certainly does stand to reason that we'd need to look at the geography of the campaigns and information if we're interested in the geography of the result.<br />
<br />
Sounds like something for some human geography students to get getting on with...! <br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-31457822240477030542017-06-28T08:48:00.000-07:002017-06-28T22:53:48.901-07:00Contesting bus privatisation in Sydney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRT1mFaivDaYtUSqX6QrE1VZG8oEUhg8k71_a9kkd2YxC5_AFuuYFdVUKP2X4SCFsVfKDCpFdqV9TOQYVv8b43GwE05enro_UXSvmyYsuBHU4IBcJkTZtS25gFDWQuka52reCOlX9whX1z/s1600/dontsellourbuses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="1600" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRT1mFaivDaYtUSqX6QrE1VZG8oEUhg8k71_a9kkd2YxC5_AFuuYFdVUKP2X4SCFsVfKDCpFdqV9TOQYVv8b43GwE05enro_UXSvmyYsuBHU4IBcJkTZtS25gFDWQuka52reCOlX9whX1z/s320/dontsellourbuses.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Back in May, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance announced plans to <a href="http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/inner-west-buses-be-opened-worlds-best-operators" target="_blank">go to competitive tender for buses in the inner west of Sydney</a> - effectively privatising bus services in that densely-populated region.<br />
<br />
(In Sydney, bus services in different parts of the city are divided up into 'contract regions'. The government-owned State Transit Authority (STA) currently holds the contract to provide services in four of those regions. Region 6 is the one to be privatised. On average, there are around 3.5 million trips on buses in this region every month - making it the second busiest contract region in Sydney, after the STA-run Region 9 in the city's east.)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcAgzXuabXQ7svahba6xxyfm9QuT60ZHROsmvqNJ1HbUyJwA4ZAox0G6-_cQVBKAMw9dDacf8TQ7KqBL1MPY20VazXdWH0K1TxeJUm_8ts4Sag_nEOqtrZv2HcW4nfdmpSupGSdbNymnMR/s1600/busregion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="548" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcAgzXuabXQ7svahba6xxyfm9QuT60ZHROsmvqNJ1HbUyJwA4ZAox0G6-_cQVBKAMw9dDacf8TQ7KqBL1MPY20VazXdWH0K1TxeJUm_8ts4Sag_nEOqtrZv2HcW4nfdmpSupGSdbNymnMR/s400/busregion.jpg" width="276" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sydney bus contract regions: STA regions 6-9 in blue</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=171895648804129339" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
<br />
This is the latest in a long line of privatisations of urban infrastructures by this government: electricity infrastructure, crown land, government-owned buildings, train lines, ferries, hospitals, land titles registry, public housing all over the city (especially inner city) to name a few. A defining characteristic of their policy agenda is to shrink the role and assets of the public sector.<br />
<br />
A terrific union-community campaign is taking shape to oppose this move, and to fight for publicly-owned and operated public transport that serves the public good. Drivers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/18/sydney-bus-drivers-strike-in-protest-against-privatisation-of-233-routes">walked off the job for 24 hours</a> the day after the announcement. A couple of weeks later, they swapped their uniform for Hawaiian shirts, switched off the Opal machines that collect fares, and handed out leaflets about the privatisation to happy commuters <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-01/free-buses-in-sydney-as-drivers-turn-off-opal-card-machines/8579032">travelling for free</a>. This month, there's been leafletting at bus stops, letterbox drops, a <a href="http://ourtransport.org.au/" target="_blank">social media campaign</a>, and well-attended community meetings across the affected area.<br />
<br />
I was honoured to be invited to talk to a community meeting about the issue that took place in Pitt St Uniting Church on 28 June, alongside union leaders, community leaders, and politicians from both Labor and the Greens. Here's the long version of what I said, including links to sources. It's a critical analysis of the main arguments being used to support the privatisation.<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
I’m here to offer some critical analysis of the case for privatization that has been made by the Transport Minister, Andrew Constance, and his supporters.<br />
<br />
There’s a lot at stake here. Tonight we’re talking about the privatization of buses in Sydney’s inner west. But if this goes ahead, it won’t end there. Back in March, Minister Constance <a href="http://www.afr.com/technology/tech-will-end-government-supplied-transport-nsw-minister-andrew-constance-20170315-guydph" target="_blank">told the Australian Financial Review</a> that: “In 10 to 15 years' time government will not be in the provision of transport services”.<br />
<br />
He has been strongly supported in this by the Tourism Transport Forum (TTF), a lobby group of tourism and transport operators. Last year, the TTF produced <a href="http://www.ttf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TTF-On-The-Buses-Report-2016.pdf">a report on "the benefits of private sector involvement in the delivery of bus services"</a>, urging governments around Australia to divest from public ownership and operation of bus services. When Constance made his announcement about inner west buses, they were highly supportive, and <a href="http://www.ttf.org.au/move-to-franchise-inner-west-bus-services-a-big-win-for-commuters/">urged him to go further</a>: “Today’s announcement the NSW Government will franchise the Inner West STA region is a very good start that hopefully signals a shift towards franchising more and more regions in due course.”<br />
<br />
Four main arguments have been used to justify this privatisation. So let's do some fact-checking.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Claim #1: Inner west buses attract more complaints than privately-operated buses</u></b><br />
<br />
In announcing the planned privatisation, Minister Constance frequently cited the high level of complaints received in about buses in Region 6 - for instance, telling the ABC: "If you consider that the private sector's had 19,000 complaints statewide verse 12,000 in this one region alone something had to give, and when it's complaints about buses not turning up, poor performance, we need to take action for our customers."<br />
<br />
Now, it's not easy to check this claim, as the complaint data has not been made public by Transport for NSW. I have asked for the data, and have been told by Transport for NSW that I will need to lodge a Freedom of Information request, which I plan to do.<br />
<br />
Guardian journalist Nick Evershed has seen, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2017/may/23/factcheck-just-how-bad-are-buses-in-sydneys-inner-west" target="_blank">analysed, the complaints data</a>. He found that once you take account of the much higher number of passengers that use public buses in Region 6, they don’t receive way more complaints than private buses. Here's his figures:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ6bWzantOubsuocKdVXCWcGRKdLpl7rVVEkNs_YbI610Pt6Mpxt4MU3As0REx0_UEOQ5WWbliq6349ASNNpS_apDMsnSwHfr3Cda4ESNPPmQh6eCHMfSkB8f1tgLr8v7cRThW-baMbBrc/s1600/complaints.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="539" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ6bWzantOubsuocKdVXCWcGRKdLpl7rVVEkNs_YbI610Pt6Mpxt4MU3As0REx0_UEOQ5WWbliq6349ASNNpS_apDMsnSwHfr3Cda4ESNPPmQh6eCHMfSkB8f1tgLr8v7cRThW-baMbBrc/s640/complaints.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nick Evershed analysis of bus complaints. Source: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2017/may/23/factcheck-just-how-bad-are-buses-in-sydneys-inner-west" target="_blank">Guardian Australia</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=171895648804129339" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
This analysis undermines the Minter's claims. Indeed, he surely knew he was bending the truth in citing those statistics out of context.<br />
<br />
What's more, the Minister's point makes little sense until we know more about the reasons for those complaints. For example, it’s possible that they’re about buses running late, or being full – factors that are beyond the control of the STA and its drivers. This leads to the second claim...<br />
<br />
<b><u>Claim #2: Inner west buses run late more often than privately-operated buses</u></b><br />
<br />
The privatisation announcement included the claim that buses in the inner west had one of the worst on-time running performance results in 2016.<br />
<br />
Well, this claim is technically true. But, as with the claim about complaints it is also pretty meaningless, when the data is offered without any context. Traffic congestion is also much worse in parts of the city covered by public buses. I have crunched some numbers from the <a href="http://roadsreport.rms.nsw.gov.au/#/chart?location=NSW&dateStart=2017-03-01&dateEnd=2017-05-31&peak=AM&type=period-plot">Roads and Maritime Services Roads Report</a>. For the period June 2016-May 2017, in the morning peak, traffic crawled along at an average of 54% of the speed limit in parts of the city where public buses operate. In less congested private bus areas, it averaged 62% of speed limit. Congestion influences on-time performance, having effects on punctual departures and keeping to timetabled stops.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4da5jJ3d8zUI5lzbphX-WTQImsUZX-N_ul549S_3e4pXv7DFw9zMRxU4wNph0_WU0WAgb7dOuv25j9lCgVvXlPnhnKEqYPh1qNhibzbN-aB9-x6UVICjkvBKYk4TMs9kwo1i13vS8Dro/s1600/ontime+running.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="609" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4da5jJ3d8zUI5lzbphX-WTQImsUZX-N_ul549S_3e4pXv7DFw9zMRxU4wNph0_WU0WAgb7dOuv25j9lCgVvXlPnhnKEqYPh1qNhibzbN-aB9-x6UVICjkvBKYk4TMs9kwo1i13vS8Dro/s640/ontime+running.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On-time running 2016 x AM peak road congestion 2016-17. STA Regions shaded in blue. Sources: Transport for NSW <a href="https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/about/performance-reports" target="_blank">Performance Reports</a>; Roads and Maritime Services Roads Report</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=171895648804129339" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>So, given the different road conditions across the city, it's just not meaningful or reasonable to compare on-time performance in congested and less congested areas.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Claim #3: Public buses cost more than privately-operated buses</u></b><br />
<br />
As with all privatisation debates, supporters are talking up the financial benefits of expanding the role of private operators in Sydney's bus network. But their claims in this case are overblown, and/or blinkered.<br />
<br />
Tourism Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-16/nsw-government-announces-inner-west-buses-tender/8528494">quoted on ABC news</a> saying that "With a complete franchising of the bus service here in New South Wales, on the basis of research we did at the end of last year, it could mean up to a billion dollars over a five-year period for the NSW Government."<br />
<br />
Well, actually, their research did not show that at all. It purported to show that a privatisation of all publicly-owned buses across Australia (ie, not just in Sydney and Newcastle, but in Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart) would save governments up to $1 billion over 5 years (see TTF, <a href="http://www.ttf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TTF-On-The-Buses-Report-2016.pdf" target="_blank">On the Buses</a>, p. 4). Back in February, before being in the trenches defending the Minister, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/privatising-entire-sydney-bus-network-a-500m-game-changer-report-20160226-gn4ngd.html" target="_blank">Osmond had said</a> full bus privatisation in NSW could generate up to $500 million in savings over the 5 year period.<br />
<br />
So ... what's half a billion among friends? Either way, these are big numbers. On what basis are such savings claimed?<br />
<br />
The TTF never breaks down their calculations in its report, but it cites a <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/business/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/25561/hensher-wallis-2005.pdf">2005 journal article by Hensher and Wallis</a> in support of its claims about the financial savings associated with privatisation. I've had a read of that article. And while Hensher and Wallis are by no means opponents of bus privatisation, their position is far more nuanced and critical than one might think from reading the TTF report. In particular, they identify several deficiencies in the process of competitive tendering for bus services that are relevant to our situation here in Sydney.<br />
<br />
First, they note that the evidence on cost-savings is not particularly reliable. Indeed, they put the word 'evidence' in scare-quotes when discussing cost-savings (p. 300).<br />
<br />
Second, while they certainly do think that competitive tendering seems to have generated savings where it has been implemented, they note some concerns about how such savings have been achieved in different contexts. In some contexts, particularly developing contexts, this has been achieved by driving down wages (p. 314). They also worry that "Although competitive tendering is market driven at the time of bidding, given the dominating focus on cost efficiency, it generally provides the wrong set of incentives to do more in line with social obligations or external benefits" (p. 318).<br />
<br />
Third, they note that while there are often significant savings in the short-term from competitive tendering of bus services, the long-term is another story: "Evidence is accumulating of cases where some of the initial cost
savings through CT are eroded through cost escalation in subsequent tendering rounds" (p. 313).<br />
<br />
The competitive tendering of bus services in London in the 1980s provides a case of some of these points. There, it was reported that there was a significant 50% unit cost reduction in bus services between 1985 and 2000. A major factor was a reduction in labour costs. Another factor was a substantial increase in farebox cost recovery - a growth of 60-95% that does not seem to be accounted for by the increase in patronage of 12%, but by higher fares. Further, in the five years from 1995-2000, costs were back on the rise, at an average of 10% per year (pp. 301, 306).<br />
<br />
Another case a bit closer to home is Perth. Bus services were privatised there in the 1990s. The TTF report points to cost reductions in the first decade of private contracting (p. 12). But costs have risen since then. The cost per passenger kilometre of bus services run by private operators in Perth has more than doubled since 2002, a rate of increase much higher than inflation over that period.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLf1hfthrFanRKwUAEdO5VO5P2i0JRbQ1rxpTILUQ41uvNNt_dgao6l1EoRvxe2ITwKhXtSfVxyWZrwo4zODxHaXLOerY7eZlX6Bh0UU9TBIojhU1-tcyoG40zOy2FCk_znlyhpaRvhYr/s1600/perth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="1350" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLf1hfthrFanRKwUAEdO5VO5P2i0JRbQ1rxpTILUQ41uvNNt_dgao6l1EoRvxe2ITwKhXtSfVxyWZrwo4zODxHaXLOerY7eZlX6Bh0UU9TBIojhU1-tcyoG40zOy2FCk_znlyhpaRvhYr/s640/perth.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perth, Bus Costs per Passenger Kilometre, 2002-2016. Sources: WA Public Transport Authority Annual Reports, Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As I noted above, Hensher and Wallis are far from advocates of public ownership (much less nationalisation!). But their review comes to the conclusion that a system of 'negotiated contracts' with established providers might be a more effective way to ensure cost efficiencies are matched with effective services levels that meet the important social obligations of a good public transport system. <br />
<br />
Guess what we currently have with the STA for Regions 6-9 in Sydney? A negotiated contract, of course! And that negotiated contract has in fact been delivering performance improvements and cost reductions, through the hard work of staff, over the past several years.<br />
<br />
Indeed, even the Tourism Transport Forum is forced to admit, in a small-print footnote on the last page of their report: "Sydney buses has begun to reduce its operating costs during 2013/2014, somewhat closing the gap to the private sector" (p. 31). These reductions have continued since then. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/200-jobs-slashed-as-state-transit-goes-on-costcutting-drive-to-keep-bus-contracts-20161213-gta1mx.html">It was being reported last year</a> that as a result of these reductions, which were often painful for staff, in-principle agreement had been reached between the Government and STA to extend the STA's contracts for a further five years from 2017 with competitive tendering. <br />
<br />
Now, Minister Constance is saying that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2017/may/23/factcheck-just-how-bad-are-buses-in-sydneys-inner-west">cost reductions have not gone far enough</a>, and that STA buses still cost more to run than privately-operated buses in the rest of the city. Well, of course they do! The STA also happens to run a much more frequent service than those private operators - with regular services all the way from 5am to midnight, as we found when we mapped public transport frequencies for the Sydney Alliance a few years ago (see below). Benchmarking the STA against private operators with much less frequent services is just not reasonable.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdtyB2lSeL7HwXIs_jpnxPTw0glWiXjyj_lu5sKptbJnZNjlE8_6XENJy_GpbUwmGH4b2I-zqa7n_CLTkn_De8g-pDPg_b0Fy_NSlupmGtSEEyst-rfDCZann-cg_HAfzpZZPcNTd0L0m/s1600/40015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="366" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirdtyB2lSeL7HwXIs_jpnxPTw0glWiXjyj_lu5sKptbJnZNjlE8_6XENJy_GpbUwmGH4b2I-zqa7n_CLTkn_De8g-pDPg_b0Fy_NSlupmGtSEEyst-rfDCZann-cg_HAfzpZZPcNTd0L0m/s400/40015.jpg" width="366" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Areas in purple = areas within 400m of public transport that has frequency of at least 15 minutes between 5am and midnight - note the overlap of high frequency parts of the city with STA contract areas. Source: Troy and Iveson for Sydney Alliance</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Even the hard-line economists at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recognised in their <a href="https://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/sharedassets/website/trimholdingbay/consultant_report_-_cie_-_efficiency_of_nsw_public_transport_services_-_december_2015.pdf">2015 report into the efficiency of NSW public transport services</a> that you could not directly benchmark the STA against private operators (pp. 52-57). While they attempted to take account of congestion and weekend services in their comparison, they too failed to take any account of the higher frequency of STA services during the average weekday. So IPART's conclusion that STA buses are less efficient than private operators is flawed. It does not value the STA's role in running more expensive bus services early in the morning and late into the evening. These non-peak services provide an essential social and economic service to the city - for shift-workers, people participating in the 'night-time economy', and many more besides. So comparing public and private here is like comparing apples and oranges.<br />
<br />
Phew!<br />
<br />
<b><u>Claim #4: The private sector provides more innovative services</u></b><br />
<br />
Finally, both the Minister and the TTF make the claim that the private sector will provide more innovative service offerings. The Minister, in particular, seems <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-26/uber-buses-on-the-cards-for-sydney/8561016">very enamoured of 'on-demand' bus services</a> - in which passengers can effectively hail a small bus that could adjust its route in real-time. For him, cracking open the market to the private sector might allow such wonders to emerge.<br />
<br />
Such services have been trialled now in a few cities – for example, in Helsinki (in a scheme called Kutsuplus that was run by the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority), and in Boston, Washington and Kansas by a company called Bridj. There was plenty of hype about all of these services when they started up. But Kutsuplus, Bridj, and other similar services like Split have all fallen apart in the past few months. Evidently, the subsidies per rider were simply too high. In Kansas City, Bridj services (which were offered in partnership with the public transit authority there, and at least offered union jobs to drivers) were apparently being <a href="https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/05/bridj-is-dead-but-microtransit-isnt/525156/" target="_blank">subsidised to the tune of $1000 per rider</a> in the first six months of their operation. The public authorities and the venture capitalists who were funding the schemes eventually cut their losses.<br />
<br />
Surely there are some lessons to be learnt here. It seems that right now, these on-demand, app-enabled mini-buses are no match for mass public transport in dense urban environments, from a cost perspective. So far, it seems the private sector is having no more luck delivering some of these techo-fantasies than the public sector.<br />
<br />
Beyond the techno-fantasies, there's plenty of evidence for publicly-owned transport operators providing great, innovative services right here in Australia. Brisbane offers another example of this. There, the publicly-owned service includes a <a href="http://humantransit.org/2009/11/brisbane-bus-rapid-transit-soars.html" target="_blank">sector-leading Bus Rapid Transit network</a>.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Conclusion: What kind of public transport do we want?</b></u><br />
<br />
So, the case for privatisation has some big holes in it.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that buses in the inner west, or anywhere else in Sydney, are perfect. Far from it.<br />
<br />
But <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/mapping-public-transport-accessibility.html" target="_blank">as we’ve been arguing in the Sydney Alliance for some years now</a>, the biggest improvements we could make to public transport in Sydney are about filling the gaps in the network. We need to make sure that everyone is in walking distance to frequent public transport services, that form a coordinated network across the city that can get people wherever they need to go, whenever they need to travel.<br />
<br />
That’s the job of … the government! It’s the government who ultimately has responsibility for network planning and service levels.<br />
<br />
It seems that Minister Constance and Premier Berejiklian are trying to deflect our attention away from their failings to deliver the integrated network they promised in a <a href="https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/b2b/publications/sydney-bus-future-final-web.pdf" target="_blank">series of previous plans</a>. Worse still, they’re trying to redirect our frustration towards the drivers who deal with lousy Sydney traffic on our behalf, and the staff who keep those buses safe and clean.<br />
<br />
I’m so heartened to see people in our city not failing for this attempt to divide us, sticking together with the drivers and maintenance workers and demanding that our public buses remain in public hands, serving the public good. And I look forward to working with you as we get ourselves organised to assert and win this demand.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-20882804017621975662016-11-16T03:02:00.000-08:002016-11-16T03:02:22.829-08:00Down to Earth Podcast on Urban Environmental PoliticsFor the past few months, I've been co-hosting a fortnightly segment on FBi Radio 94.5FM, based here in Sydney, called <i>Down to Earth</i>. It's a segment about stuff we can do to make cities fairer and more sustainable. So far we've talked about a bunch of things, from the recent re-emergence of green bans in Sydney (of course!), to disposable coffee cups and plastics waste, urban beekeeping, driverless cars, the public transport experience, and smart phones (their production, consumption and recycling...).<br />
<br />
It's been heaps of fun putting these segments together, and Alex Pye has been an awesome person to work with. We're on every first and third Thursday morning of the month at 10am.<br />
<br />
I'm happy to say <i>Down to Earth</i> has now been made into a podcast: you can access it <a href="http://fbiradio.com/podcast/down-to-earth/" target="_blank">here</a>, for iTunes and Android. Yay! Thanks to Andrew and the team at FBi for getting this up and running, and for getting a bunch of the past episodes up online...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkh4yts61m_3WaS9YM-YkTBYZwJtGKAyV5_WU00F9oe0Yn1TPPBY4iOyE6C4r2YXD6_cHQP_gYmQLvC8YUgMppoQPXgERBEwzNoGD-Tc5LGeiGfqIdZlWAePDvnJOHP5SxWxpA4dI4JUE/s1600/DOWN-TO-EARTH_wide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkh4yts61m_3WaS9YM-YkTBYZwJtGKAyV5_WU00F9oe0Yn1TPPBY4iOyE6C4r2YXD6_cHQP_gYmQLvC8YUgMppoQPXgERBEwzNoGD-Tc5LGeiGfqIdZlWAePDvnJOHP5SxWxpA4dI4JUE/s640/DOWN-TO-EARTH_wide.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-23903982314353965122016-08-17T21:47:00.003-07:002016-08-17T21:47:42.909-07:00Pokémon GO and public space<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s.yimg.com/dh/ap/default/160712/art_poke6.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Pokémon GO players gather at Peg Patterson Park in Rhodes, Sydney. Source: ABC</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In an <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/pokemon-go-geospatial-data-and-digital.html" target="_blank">earlier post here</a>, I argued that Pokémon GO involves players in a form of 'playbour', because playing the game involves the production of geospatial data that is owned and can be traded by the game's creator, Niantic.<br />
<br />
In this post, I want to take a look at a related set of issues that have arisen with the rapid and massive popularity of this game. If Pokémon GO has figured out a way to encourage and then profit from our explorations of public space, what else does the game have to teach us about public space in our digitally 'augmented' urban playgrounds?<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
Pokémon GO is an 'augmented reality' app, and is by far the most popular application of this technology that we've seen. 'Augmented reality' (AR) makes use of internet connectivity, location awareness and cameras on smartphones to allow people to view digital images and information that have been layered onto the 'real' physical environment.<br />
<br />
A few years ago, AR was going to be the next big thing in digital tech. But things didn't quite go as predicted, and more recently, we started seeing more and more commentary on the failure of AR to live up to that hype. Now, with the massive popularity of Pokémon GO, it seems to be back with a bullet. <br />
<br />
At least three fascinating issues concerning Pokémon GO and public space have arisen in the past few weeks, and I think they illustrate some broader issues that are pertinent for discussions of augmented reality in urban environments.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>1. Where are the Pokémon? On the uneven distribution of digital 'augmentation' across public spaces</b><br />
<br />
So, are there Pokémon in your neighbourhood? Of course, as the game is rolled out across different markets at different times, this will depend in the first instance on whether or not the game has come to your country! (Africa, you're still waiting! You too, India and China. CNET are keeping an updated list of countries where you can (officially) play the game <a href="http://www.cnet.com/how-to/pokemon-go-where-its-available-now-and-coming-soon/" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
But even if the game is available in your city, we are seeing that some neighbourhoods are full of Pokémon and PokéStops, while in other places there are less to find.<br />
<br />
This <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/national/article89562297.html" target="_blank">interesting article from the US</a> by Christopher Huffaker makes some very interesting observations about the locations of key sites or 'portals' in an augmented reality game called <a href="http://politicsoflocation.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/ingress.html" target="_blank">Ingress</a>. This matters for our discussion because Ingress is a predecessor to Pokémon GO, was developed by the same operator (Niantic), and its geospatial data has been used to set locations for key sites in Pokemon GO like PokéStops and Gyms. Huffaker argues there are fewer portals in predominantly African-American neighbourhoods of large US cities like Detroit, New York and Chicago. <a href="http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/pokemon-go-changing-how-cities-use-public-space-could-it-be-more-inclusive" target="_blank">Researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington DC have done their own maps</a>, and have come to similar conclusions.<br />
<br />
Now, no-one is suggesting that a group of nasty people working for Niantic sat down and plotted out an uneven, racialised distribution of Pokémon GO sites to make it harder to play in predominantly African-American neighbourhoods. But that's the whole point. When crowds are used to source data, the data is only as inclusive as the crowd. And because Ingress tends to be played by a quite specific kinds of people, Pokémon data reflects those demographics.<br />
<br />
More broadly, we might also observe that when algorithms are used to turn such data in geospatial information, the data is only as inclusive as the parameters that have been coded for the algorithms. The algorithmic nature of the game information is also most likely the explanation for the various stories appearing about 'inappropriate' game locations, like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/07/12/holocaust-museum-to-visitors-please-stop-catching-pokemon-here/" target="_blank">memorials</a> and some secure sites -- not to mention <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/fedup-council-seek-to-take-down-pokmon-go-stops-20160722-gqbinm/" target="_blank">suburban parks</a> that might not have the infrastructure to cope with hoards of people trying to hang out there (more on that one below).<br />
<br />
For most of us, it's very difficult to get a grip on the way such algorithms work. Even if we could get corporations or governments to share their code, those lines of code only make sense to those with the specialist skills to understand how they work. There's a growing literature on the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S10708-013-9516-8" target="_blank">role of algorithms in the governance of cities and populations</a>. That literature suggests that as algorithms become ever more important in informing and even automating decision-making and resource allocation, we might want to know a little more about how they work, and how their injustices can be made visible and contested. The discussion about the location of key sites in Pokémon GO certainly illustrates the kinds of things that are at stake.<br />
<br />
There are two more points to note about the location of important sites in the game. First, the geography of the game is likely to change as more sponsorship deals are done between Niantic and those seeking to lure players to their location. As has been widely reported, the first of these major deals was done <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/21/pokemon-go-is-finally-available-in-japan/" target="_blank">with McDonalds in Japan</a>, and many more are set to follow - Niantic's John Hanke says that <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2016/07/28/pokemon-go-creator-john-hanke-answers-all-your-burning-questions/#1f76317f23ac" target="_blank">this is his preferred means of raising revenue</a>. Shops and advertisers can also spend money to buy and then <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-11/pok-mon-go-brings-real-money-to-random-bars-and-pizzerias" target="_blank">set lures for players</a>. So, for all the hype about the way that this game is encouraging people to explore their urban environment, we might want to ask some questions about how those explorations are being guided as the digital geography of the game is further commercialised.<br />
<br />
Second, a conflict has emerged between Niantic and a numbers of fan websites that had been providing real-time maps of Pokémon locations, by scraping data from the game. As <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/pokemon-go-pokevision-crack-down-players-furious/" target="_blank">reported by CNET</a> and others, it appears that Niantic have found a way to prevent tracking sites like Pokevision accessing their locational data, and made a few legal threats to those sites while they are at it. The operators of Pokevision wrote <a href="https://medium.com/@yangcliu/an-open-letter-to-john-hanke-niantic-6a32325b67a8#.d9tjnv50w" target="_blank">an open letter to Hanke and Niantic</a> about the shut down. Hanke and Niantic <a href="https://www.nianticlabs.com/blog/update-080416/" target="_blank">responded with a blog post</a> claiming that they'd taken the action to reduce pressure on their servers, which have been <a href="http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/138271-pokemon-go-server-problems-why-does-the-game-keep-stopping" target="_blank">melting down frequently</a>. This conflict over the openness of the game's location data is an interesting one. This is a game operated by a commercial gaming company, so to what extent do the usual arguments about 'open data' apply? Interestingly, those running the tracking sites are arguing that their access should be maintained because it will enhance the playability of the game, especially while the tracking feature continues to have problems. This interesting conflict is to be continued, I'm sure...<br />
<br />
<b>2. Who can access the </b><b>Pokémon? On uneven access to public space in cities of inequality</b><br />
<br />
Not everyone who walks around a city staring at their phone searching for Pokémon will have the same experience of this 'play'. To play this game is to walk around an urban environment in search of Pokémon, PokéStops and Gyms. Indeed, the game also rewards you for the steps you take while playing it, with those steps helping you to hatch eggs. (A brilliant way to ensure that your geographical data can be captured, by the way ... but that's another story.)<br />
<br />
Niantic and the game's supporters are talking up the social and the health benefits of this kind of play -- if millions of people are now out and about in their public spaces, exploring places they have never been, meeting other players and getting exercise at the same time, then everyone wins, right?<br />
<br />
Well, sort of. Here's where Pokémon GO interacts with the broader politics of public space. As we know from decades of research on this topic, public spaces in our cities are not equally accessible to everyone.<br />
<br />
Again in the United States, there has been some critical discussion about the experience of 'Pokémoning While Black'. In Iowa City, Faith Joseph Ekakite <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/faith-joseph-ekakitie/pokemon-go/10154336693784210" target="_blank">shared this account of being stopped and searched at gunpoint by police</a> while playing the game in a park. Omari Akil wrote this widely-reported account of his unease while playing the game, fearing that <a href="https://medium.com/mobile-lifestyle/warning-pokemon-go-is-a-death-sentence-if-you-are-a-black-man-acacb4bdae7f#.7x3k6bg3f" target="_blank">Pokémon GO could be a death sentence for black men</a>, given the on-going problem of police shootings in the US.<br />
<br />
Not surprisingly, there has also been some discussion of the potential vulnerability of children playing the game, and the potential for them to be 'lured' to locations where they might be targeted for their smartphone or something else. Here, <br />
<br />
There seems to have been less discussion of the gendered politics of playing Pokémon in public space. A recent report suggests that <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2016/07/26/more-women-than-men-are-playing-pokemon-go-by-a-lot/#1ced58ea4f16" target="_blank">female players outnumber male players by a ratio of almost 2 to 1</a>. If that's true, I'll admit that it challenges my own assumptions about the gendered nature of both gaming and public space. <br />
<br />
In fact, this finding raises the question of whether Pokémon GO game play might actually help to address, rather than reinforce, some of the exclusionary aspects of public space that I've mentioned above. Anecdotally, some people playing the game tell me that it has given them and their friends a kind of 'license' to be in various places that they would not normally go, like parks and residential streets late at night. They say they can do so because they know there will be other people around also playing, and so places will be less scary than they might otherwise have been. Are the eyes on the screen are also 'eyes on the street', in a Jane Jacobs kinda way? Will this actually help to make public spaces more accessible, by being more used?<br />
<br />
<b>3. Whose infrastructure supports the game? On the public-private relationship in augmented urban spaces</b><br />
<br />
Niantic provides the digital data and server infrastructure that enables people to play the game as they move around their environment. But as Pokémon GO turns the streets and parks and malls of the city into a playground, who provides the playground? The game takes-for-granted the existence of 'physical' public spaces and their infrastructures, and makes no particular contribution to their provision or maintenance.<br />
<br />
On the surface, this doesn't seem unreasonable -- after all, public space is notionally meant to be accessible to all, right? So why shouldn't it be available for play (or playbour)?<br />
<br />
However, it's clear that in some instances, the popularity of the game has actually put some public spaces under considerable pressure. Here in Sydney, an everyday park in suburban Rhodes that most people had never visited or even heard of <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/pokemon-go-rhodes?utm_term=.dry8293G8#.nfmrQRDXr" target="_blank">was inundated with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Pokémon GO players</a> in search of rare Pokémon that were concentrated in the area. Word of the bounty on offer in the park spread quickly through social media, so this was a classic example of a nimble, digitally-connected crowd in formation and action.<br />
<br />
Residents complained of noise and litter. At one point, they took to throwing water bombs from their balconies late at night to try to clear the park. Police were called, and they issued parking infringements to try to move people on.<br />
<br />
As several players pointed out, there were no fights, no violence, no crime, and this is meant to be public space ... so what's the problem?<br />
<br />
But it's also true that the crowds had some impacts on the park. The picture below accompanied an <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/fedup-council-seek-to-take-down-pokmon-go-stops-20160722-gqbinm/" target="_blank">article on one local website</a> about the issue -- the park does seem kinda messed up.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-zm_6V9ZAKZwZfwZGb2SfG1L-na5ImY2ULStCyEK0eicpSyq2KnDKWm-QK_j__vTq5YUaPoqN0HnPvSj2UZgbz-VQhhSlabeFiavIHd5VjW6k6WZ-j3Tpf4MfU5_FEMbdo9YeeNv-jeg/s1600/Image.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-zm_6V9ZAKZwZfwZGb2SfG1L-na5ImY2ULStCyEK0eicpSyq2KnDKWm-QK_j__vTq5YUaPoqN0HnPvSj2UZgbz-VQhhSlabeFiavIHd5VjW6k6WZ-j3Tpf4MfU5_FEMbdo9YeeNv-jeg/s640/Image.png" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
While maintaining local parks is one of the responsibilities of public authorities, and while those parks are there to be used by 'the public', this little episode demonstrates some of the complex geographical dimensions of urban publicness<br />
<br />
I think we do need to resist the idea that this park somehow 'belongs' to the 'local' public, and the associated logic that people coming from 'elsewhere' is a problem in itself. Nor would I want to see any kind of 'users pays' logic be introduced to park use in Sydney, or elsewhere.<br />
<br />
But what of the private commercial entities who are making lots of money, but who are not actually making any contribution to support the urban environment that supports their game? Yes, there is socialisation going on here, but there is also commercialisation (something can be two things at once!). And where there's commercialisation, it's not necessarily unreasonable for the public authorities to seek some kind of contribution or compensation. Money for growing trees doesn't grow on trees, if you know what I mean.<br />
<br />
Earlier this year, Evgeny Morozov made the case in<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/31/cheap-cab-ride-uber-true-cost-google-wealth-taxation" target="_blank"> a piece for the Guardian</a> that the tax-dodging and tax-minimising practices of huge digital corporates like Uber and Google was actually contributing to the hollowing out of state capacity to fund public services like transport. It's a question worth asking: while Pokémon GO might be enhancing some people's experience of public space, but should we expect some financial contribution from the game's owners to sustaining the playground for their very profitable game?<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
So, there you go. Across these three sets of issues, we can see that the game's popularity throws up some new questions about public space in networked cities, but also draws us into some very old questions about the city's streets and their accessibility. It's only a game, I know. But as our experience of public space is increasingly mediated through digital connectivity, it's a game that does have something to teach us about how the urban experience is being transformed through collisions of the digital and the urban.<br />
<br />
In finally finishing this piece, I've also come across a few other interesting articles specifically on the issue of Pokémon GO and public space that are worth checking out:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>This one from <a href="https://overland.org.au/2016/07/pokemon-go-and-the-politics-of-digital-gaming-in-public/" target="_blank">Brendan Keogh in Overland</a>;</li>
<li>This one from <a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/public-space-versus-pokemon-go/" target="_blank">Rana Abboud at ArchitectureAU</a>;</li>
<li>This one from <a href="http://www.archdaily.com/791694/21st-century-nolli-how-pokemon-go-and-augmented-reality-could-shape-our-cities" target="_blank">Patrick Lynch in ArchDaily</a>.</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-29556727065879837192016-08-14T23:12:00.001-07:002016-08-14T23:14:01.131-07:00McKenzie Wark on Judith Butler on Assembly and The Street<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="478" src="https://scontent-syd1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16830_1459354784092376_8416757494776754275_n.jpg?oh=9c8c48dd004f6c0b109f53863ed9b8e1&oe=58514D8A" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Street sculpture and tents, Hong Kong 2014. Source: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/umhkmap/photos" target="_blank">Mapping the Umbrella Movement</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
McKenzie Wark has <a href="http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/06/butler/" target="_blank">written a great review of Judith Butler's 2015 book "Notes Toward A Performative Theory of Assembly" over at <i>Public Seminar</i></a>.<br />
<br />
Butler's book includes a chapter called '<a href="http://www.eipcp.net/transversal/1011/butler/en" target="_blank">Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street</a>',
that appeared online a couple of years back as a talk given by Butler
in the wake of events like Tahir and Occupy. Once I got over my initial
jilted geographer's reaction of 'hey, you realise a few other folks have
been thinking about public space and politics since Hannah Arendt?', I
got heaps out of the Butler piece (it's *Judith Butler* writing about
public space and politics, after all!). In particular, I really like the
way she works with (and past) Arendt's approach to the 'space of
appearance', focusing attention on the 'infrastructure' that is produced
and sustained to support that appearance: as she puts it, "the material
supports for action are not only part of the action, but they are also
what is being fought about".<br />
<br />
Anyway, one of the passages in Wark's review that really stuck out for me was this: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For
Butler, “the media have entered into the very definition of the
people.” (20) Might it not rather be the other way around? There is a
sort of latent Platonism at work here, where the bodies gathered in and
as a body, come first, and their mediated double second. But surely it
is the other way around in any modern polity. The media are the primary
space; public squares and so forth are sets for media performances. One
cannot simply add media onto some fantasy of the Greek polis and call it
modern politics. The thing to occupy is media time; the way to do it is
to take space. It is not the case that “the media extends the scene.”
(91) The scene is a retroactive production of media. If an assembly
gathered and nobody noticed, did it make a sound?</blockquote>
This
is a great provocation about the relationship between the urban and the
media in public formation and politics. I can get with the idea that
maybe the bodies don't come first, prior to some subsequent mediation,
and I think Wark's point here is really important. But I'm not sure I
can get with the follow-up claim Wark makes here that: "the thing to
occupy is media time; the way to do it is to take space", and that
argument that urban public spaces are now primarily "sets for media
performances".<br />
<br />
Sure, many occupations and assemblies
are indeed 'staged' with their 'screening' in mind, and media narratives
clearly shape and frame actions staged in the streets -- so I agree
that efforts to claim media space/time are a constitutive element in the production of many political events in public spaces, not a secondary or subsequent process.<br />
<br />
But
in the occupations that we have witnessed across this decade, I think
there are plenty of things going on that don't conform to this
formulation either. Sometimes, the bodies assembled together are
constantly moving between practices that sustain the physical space of
occupation, and practices that reach out beyond that space in the
process of representation and claim-making. 'Urban' and 'media' spaces
are mixed together in different combinations to achieve these dual ends.
Just as some actions are clearly staged in a physical public space in a
manner calculated to find an audience via mass/niche/social media as
Wark argues, so too various media are put to work in the service of
maintaining what Butler calls the 'infrastructure' of
assembly/occupation (eg via social media call-outs for resources/food,
defence against police, etc). Theses processes of social reproduction in
an assembly/occupation are not exclusively undertaken just to sustain
the space that can occupy media time. They are also frequently
understood as prefigurative experiments with different (more just) ways
of being together, and therefore as political ends in themselves (for
some great images of this in action at Occupy Wall St, see Alison
Young's <a href="https://imagestoliveby.com/2011/10/21/occupy-wall-street-an-essay-in-images/" target="_blank">blog post over on Images to Live By</a>).<br />
<br />
So, as I tried to argue in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00844.x/abstract" target="_blank">this short piece written a little while back</a>,
I think it's a dead end to get into an argument about 'which comes
first?', the city (ie Butler's bodies in a physical geography) or the
media (ie Wark's mediated presence with its virtual geography). An
approach that focuses on interaction and co-production seems much more
promising. <br />
<br />
Wark's review comes under the title
"what the performative can't perform", meaning that for him Butler's
frame is too focused on embodied performativity at the expense of a
consideration of the performativity of infrastructure (including media).
But in <i>Publics and the City</i>, when I was trying to think through
the co-constitution of embodied and mediated forms of 'being public', I
actually found some work in Performance Studies very helpful - in
particular, Philip Auslander's 1999 book <i>Liveness - Performance in a Mediatized Culture</i>.
Writing to a performance/theatre studies audience, he argued against
the idea that live theatre has more 'radical' potential than mediatised
performance on the basis of its 'liveness' and the embodied co-presence
of performers and their audience. Rather, he insists, the very idea of
'liveness' is a function of mediatisation, precisely because
"mediatisation is now explicitly and implicitly embedded within the live
experience" (eg think about the way live events incorporate media, the
way they are staged with mediation in mind, etc). In Auslander's book,
this passage really stuck out for me:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
any
distinction [between live and mediatised performances] needs to derive
from careful consideration of how the relationship between the live and
the mediatized is articulated in particular cases, not from a set of
assumptions that constructs the relation between live and mediatized
representations <i>a priori</i> as a relation of essential opposition.</blockquote>
I think this is a great warning against any theoretical prioritisation of embodied co-presence or mediatisation.<br />
<br />
In
this vein, one of the points I took from Butler's book was her linking
of bodies and media in assemblies. In noting that assemblies circulate
via media, she also points out that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
there
remains something localized that cannot and does not travel in that
way; and the scene could not be the scene if we did not understand that
some people are at risk, and the risk is run precisely by those bodies
on the street. If they are transported in one way, they are surely left
in place in another, holding the camera or the cell phone, face to face
with those they oppose, unprotected, injurable, injured, persistent, if
not insurgent. It matters that those bodies carry cell phones, relaying
messages and image..." (9).</blockquote>
This passage brought a
bunch of memories flooding back for me ... of sitting at my computer in
Sydney, transfixed by the #ows twitter stream during the infamous march
across the Brooklyn Bridge in which hundreds were arrested, half a world
away. I was there in one sense, and they were with me ... but in
another sense, of course, we really were worlds apart. Me, in a comfy
office, reading live media accounts from people being violently blocked
and arrested by police. <br />
<br />
Now, Wark might say this is
exactly his point (ie that those bodies were taking risks in public
space precisely in order to capture media time). Fair enough. But I
guess I feel as though taking a little of both Butler and Wark together
could actually be quite fruitful for those of us trying to think through
the urban/media interface in politics right now.<br />
<br />
In
any case, Wark's review is going to have me dipping back into some of
his previous writing on media, vectoral power, etc. (I just read his
latest book <i>Molecular Red</i>, which I loved for many reasons ... not
least for some unexpected and evocative personal recollections on his
time in the offices of the Communist Party of Australia back in the day
when the <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/building-city-for-people-green-bans-in.html" target="_blank">green bans</a> were in full swing!).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-28676865714845253272016-08-09T00:34:00.001-07:002016-08-09T00:34:22.592-07:00The Politics of Pokémon GO on The StreamRight then, this was fun. The <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/pokemon-go-geospatial-data-and-digital.html" target="_blank">Sydney Morning Herald piece on Pokemon GO</a> got picked up by the lovely people at <a href="http://stream.aljazeera.com/" target="_blank">The Stream on Al Jazeera</a>, and I was just involved in an interesting panel discussion on the game and its politics.<br />
<br />
The 30 minute discussion covered political appropriations of the game, the apparently racialised uneven distribution of PokeStops and Gyms in the game, the accessibility of public space, data privacy and monetisation, the present and future of augmented reality, and other interesting stuff.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H1pk-gk8ufo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H1pk-gk8ufo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-76729630026329529882016-08-07T22:33:00.001-07:002016-08-07T22:33:27.048-07:00Pokémon GO: Geospatial data and digital labour in the urban playground So ... Pokémon GO has been a thing, right?!<br />
<br />
The article below was published as an opinion piece in the <i><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/how-pokemon-go-will-make-money-from-you-20160802-gqj457.html" target="_blank">Sydney Morning Herald</a></i> last week. It's included here with active links for anyone who's interested. It's about the way the game turns play into a kind of 'digital labour', through the collection and monetisation of data about our movements through the urban environment.<br />
<br />
I've got a bit more to say about the game ... I really do think it has plenty to teach us about the on-going digitalisation of everyday urban life. More to follow soon.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SWtDeeXtMZM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SWtDeeXtMZM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As Pokémon GO maintains its place at the
top of the app charts, and as our streets and parks are increasingly populated
by screen-illuminated trainers trying to find and evolve their digital
critters, it’s time to ask a few questions about the kind of ‘play’ that is
going on here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For many, this this game is great fun. And
it is free to download. But Niantic (the game’s creator, a spin-off company
from Google), Google, Nintendo and others have invested cold hard cash in
developing the game and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/16/pokemon-go-server-crash-niantic-europe-us">trying
to maintain the infrastructure that supports it</a>. A closer look at how the
app might provide some return on that investment tells us something important
about the nature of ‘free play’ in our digitally-augmented urban playground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">How does Pokémon GO make money for its
creator and investors? Of course, as with many free apps, there are ‘in-app
purchases’ that will be attractive to some (if not all) players. Some analysts
estimate earnings of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/google-apple-nintendo-who-s-really-making-money-out-of-pokemon-go-a7136906.html">over
$1 million per day</a> from such purchases. These in-app purchases are the most
visible form of revenue from the game, but they are by no means the only or
even the most lucrative revenue source.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At present, the real-world location of most
important places for players like PokéStops and Gyms have been set by Niantic –
based on spatial data acquired from another of their augmented reality games, <i>Ingress</i>. In that game, retailers and
others can pay Niantic to have portals located in or near their premises. This
has now occurred with Pokémon GO in Japan, where <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/21/pokemon-go-is-finally-available-in-japan/">McDonalds
has become the first company to do a deal with Niantic to sponsor Gym locations</a>.
Such deals are expected to occur elsewhere very soon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But the revenue potential does not stop
there. As the saying goes, “surveillance is the business model of the internet”.
Augmented reality games like Ingress and Pokémon GO have the potential open up
a very lucrative new revenue stream based on the acquisition and sale of data –
not just personal data, but aggregated spatial data about urban activity
patterns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There has already been some <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-all-the-data-pokemon-go-is-collecting-from-your-phone">controversy
about the terms of service for players</a>, which give Niantic access to all
manner of data on their phones – including email contacts and social media
profiles. This data could potentially be sold to third parties with an interest
in targeted advertising. Concerns about this arrangement resulted in a
modification of those initial terms of service – but this modification has not
satisfied the likes of <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/07/12/franken-probes-pokemon-go-data-privacy/">Senator
Al Franken in the United States</a> or <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/07/20/pokemon-go-germany-privacy/">consumer
advocates in Germany</a>, both of whom have raised on-going concerns with
Niantic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But it is not only individually-identifiable
personal data that interests Niantic. They are also interested in the spatial
data that is generated by Pokémon GO players. As has been widely observed,
playing the game rapidly drains phone batteries, because when the game is open
your phone is constantly in touch with Niantic servers and providing detailed spatial
information about your movements. The <a href="http://www.pokemon.com/us/privacy-policy/">Privacy Policy</a> notifies
players that locational data will be collected during game play, and that “We
may share aggregated information and non-identifying information with third
parties for research and analysis, demographic profiling, and other similar
purposes”. It goes on to note that “Information that we collect from our users
is considered to be a business asset”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This not only has the potential for
surveillance of an individual gamer’s movements through the city (a potential
which is of course inherent in smartphones anyway). Aggregated data about players’
movements through the city also has the potential to be incredibly lucrative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Niantic is now harvesting geospatial data
about millions of people’s routes from one place to another, about how far they
are prepared to travel as part of game play, about the kinds of places they
stop during game play, about the groups they travel with and the connections
they make during game play, and much more besides. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The commercial potential of such
information is huge. These markets for personal and geospatial data are closely
guarded, and notoriously difficult to track by interested observers. While
Niantic CEO John Hanke has remained tight-lipped in response to questions about
the game’s revenue model, the collection and ‘sharing’ of such data is
undoubtedly a core part of the business model of the app.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So, even gamers who never spend a cent on
in-app purchases or promotions are effectively producing information that
becomes a commodity owned by Niantic. The free distribution of Pokémon GO can
be likened to the free distribution of a tool that lets us make stuff that then
belongs to someone else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course, this tool happens to be pretty
fun to use. But this should not distract us completely from what’s at stake
here. Work might be fun. But that doesn’t make it any less a form of labour.
And as our everyday urban lives are increasingly commodified in this way, it’s
time to start seeking answers to serious questions about how the spoils of our
labour (or ‘playbour’) are collected and distributed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-46644284721789004602016-06-30T00:55:00.000-07:002016-08-25T04:35:15.646-07:00Dear Greater Sydney Commission, my idea for Sydney is ... democracyLast weekend, my fam and I popped in to Canterbury Racecouse, where a
food market has just started up on Sundays. Empanadas and stuff. Right
on.<br />
<br />
At the far end of the market sat a parked bus
that announced itself as a 'Talk Bus'. People with black t-shirts and
balloons covered in hashtags were trying (and mostly failing) to connect
with passers-by. They wanted to know what we loved about living in
Sydney, and our ideas for making it better.<br />
<br />
Someone from
the bus tried to give one of my kids a balloon. It kinda freaked her out
and she grabbed her mum's leg. Exactly, girlfriend. They also tried to
stop my Mum for a chat. Mum's nice, and she politely declined. But in a
classic spruiker move, that politeness was twisted into an invitation to
talk some more. Mum tried to escape by telling them she was old, and
that if it was all about the future, maybe they should be asking younger
people. The frustrated spruiker then had a crack at her -- "what,
younger people like the ones you're here with? They just walked past
without talking to me!". End of engagement. I wonder what box got ticked
on the woman's clipboard...?<br />
<br />
It turned out the Talk Bus people were from the newly-established <a href="http://www.greatersydneycommission.nsw.gov.au/" target="_blank">Greater Sydney Commission</a>. <br />
<br />
Here's
a tweet of a picture of a camera filming a moment of consultation in
front of the Talk Bus, with a guy with one of the hashtag balloons in
the background: <br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3I2XSENkf1X5Glx1cIWgKOZi-JYSqa1H0NWweF9VWlyuhpTBD9Pqa-s-IjcELcoGnuiddkhjDew8N9F3iW_OMgmL8iB-2ltB_Frto44So0WRrGBAGFyh54ivZfVnm_eg8d1k9PjmdtZOu/s1600/GSC+talk+bus+tweet.tiff" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3I2XSENkf1X5Glx1cIWgKOZi-JYSqa1H0NWweF9VWlyuhpTBD9Pqa-s-IjcELcoGnuiddkhjDew8N9F3iW_OMgmL8iB-2ltB_Frto44So0WRrGBAGFyh54ivZfVnm_eg8d1k9PjmdtZOu/s400/GSC+talk+bus+tweet.tiff" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The
Greater Sydney Commission in action, working with some people and their
dog to "co-create a more prosperous and liveable Sydney" <br />
Image source: <a href="https://twitter.com/gscsydney/status/746875568428224512" target="_blank">GSC Twitter Feed</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Apparently, the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/baird-government-spends-millions-to-win-public-support-after-rail-road-disruption-20160625-gprrls.html" target="_blank">Talk Bus will be travelling around Sydney for the next few weeks</a>.
Planning Minister Rob Stokes says it's all about "hearing directly from
the local community to help shape the future of Sydney".<br />
<br />
My blood is starting to boil just from typing out those words ... honestly.<br />
<br />
I
don't know anyone who works at the Greater Sydney Commission. They
might be lovely people, for all I know. But I do know some bullshit when
I smell it.<br />
<br />
With the recent establishment of the
Greater Sydney Commission, a bunch of appointed Commissioners have
acquired incredible powers to shape this city. They've been given those
powers by a Tory NSW Government that claims Sydney's problems are caused
by the lack of a metropolitan planning authority. Apparently we need such an authority to make 'strategic' decisions for the city as a whole. Reduce silos! Cut red/green tape! Blah blah blah.<br />
<br />
But
the things that are most wrong with my town are not going to be fixed
by the creation of the Greater Sydney Commission. In fact, the way that
the NSW Government has gone about establishing the Greater Sydney
Commission is a perfect example of what's most messed up with the way
this city is governed. <br />
<br />
When my mum extricated herself
from the Talk Bus, she suggested maybe I should go talk to them and tell
them what I thought. Best if I don't, I said. I'm not a fan of tokenistic consultation, and had no interest in contributing to their 'engagement' statistics. I
was also a little annoyed that they had tried to get to me through my
kid, and then made my Mum feel bad about not talking to them. And I had spotted the empanadas. <br />
<br />
But
I probably should have stopped for a yarn, because I just ended up
spending the rest of the afternoon being a little distracted, thinking
of the kinds of things I coulda-shoulda-woulda said. You know the
feeling, right?<br />
<br />
Then I remembered I have a blog... <br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
I
don't have a problem with the idea of a planning for the city as a
whole. In fact, I spend a lot of my time thinking about 'the city as a
whole', and how it might be organised and represented and made more
just, beyond local initiatives.<br />
<br />
But <a href="http://citiesandcitizenship.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/who-stands-for-sydney-on-construction.html" target="_blank">as I've argued elsewhere</a>
on this blog, when people make claims to be representing 'the city as a
whole', we have to ask some critical questions about the kinds of
authority on which those claims are based.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>At best, the Greater Sydney Commission is an assertion of <i>technocratic</i>
authority. There are lovely statements on the webpage about the
Commission 'working with us', how they want our ideas so they can
'co-create' a better Sydney with us. It's very nice of them to seek our
ideas.<br />
<br />
But we know how this goes. The plans they develop
will be the plans they were always going to develop. I'm sure their
reports will include selected quotes from consulted punters and pie
charts of community attitudes, to give them the veneer of democratic
legitimacy. They will claim they were shaped by our 'participation' and
'engagement' through extensive consultation. <br />
<br />
This
form of consultation is not the same as democratic participation --
indeed, it is close to its opposite. Those involved in the Commission
may genuinely wish to know what we think. They may even deign to
incorporate some of our ideas in their plans. But ultimately, they are
not accountable to us. We don't get to determine what they do with our
ideas. The plans will be <i>theirs</i>. Indeed, the strange motto of the Commission -- <i>Our Sydney, Your Home</i> -- kinda sums this up for me. Weird, right? It's like the Commission is telling us "you might <i>live</i> here, but Sydney is<i> ours, </i>not<i> yours</i>...".<br />
<br />
Now, don't get me wrong. Technocrats who consult with us might be better than technocrats who don't consult with us. And technocrats
with some expertise might even produce better outcomes than local
governments whose 'democratic' planning processes were tainted by
corruption. But ultimately, the problem with technocracy is that while
it might make reference to the will of the people, it is not accountable
to that will.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO97AuoR-fQhbBr-W1UbCZkg-6dumQ3eb6alOb3GBWQd9Rrt6aepWsANjaAHuiwWrGcYJQ-ErkecKR4rxDj-ZzfW2pbZzDjtJ0ZQd-P1x-ELURQeii1iPYlt9iPfqdL6tgiL3sjneN-dRx/s1600/GSC+Democracy.tiff" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO97AuoR-fQhbBr-W1UbCZkg-6dumQ3eb6alOb3GBWQd9Rrt6aepWsANjaAHuiwWrGcYJQ-ErkecKR4rxDj-ZzfW2pbZzDjtJ0ZQd-P1x-ELURQeii1iPYlt9iPfqdL6tgiL3sjneN-dRx/s640/GSC+Democracy.tiff" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Searching
for democracy: here's what happens when you search for 'democracy' on
the Greater Sydney Commission website. Screen grab taken on 30 June
2016. (And yes, a search for 'democratic' gets the same result.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Indeed,
in the case of the Greater Sydney Commission, the technocrats serve at
the pleasure of other masters whose agenda is far from democratic. And
those masters will surely have way more influence on the kinds of
proposals they develop than punters like the folks with the dog in the
PR tweet above.<br />
<br />
The Greater Sydney Commission was
established by a NSW Government that is pro-developer,
pro-privatisation, pro-market and anti-democratic. It is brought to us
by the same NSW Government that has sought to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-set-to-deliver-radical-changes-to-planning-under-existing-laws-20140227-33oss" target="_blank">reform planning laws to grease the wheels for developers </a>... the same government that is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-bairds-3-billion-selloff-of-public-buildings-20151231-glxcwu" target="_blank">selling off public land and assets</a> at an unprecedented rate ... the same Government that looks exclusively to the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/is-the-new-sydney-metro-privatisation-of-the-rail-network-by-stealth-20150707-gi6rdg.html" target="_blank">private sector for the provision of new urban infrastructure</a> ... the same Government that has<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/council-amalgamations-elected-officials-out-and-administrators-in-after-mike-baird-sacks-42-councils-20160512-gotpmk.html" target="_blank"> forced amalgamations on local governments and appointed its own Administrators with delayed elections</a> ... the same Government that has introduced <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/nsw-antiprotest-laws-are-part-of-a-corrosive-national-trend-20160321-gno10h" target="_blank">draconian new laws to curb rights of protest</a> ... among other things!<br />
<br />
This
approach to urban policy and governance clearly shapes the way the
Commission was established. Its Commissioners are hand-picked appointees
of the State
Government. What are these Commissioners tasked with achieving? <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-budget-to-establish-greater-sydney-commission-20150620-ght5mb.html" target="_blank">As reported in the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i> at the time</a>,
the Commission was established with the expressed intent of
overcoming blockages to increasingly the supply of housing in Sydney. It
aims to better 'co-ordinate' the release of land, the rezoning of
existing localities for redevelopment, and the provision of
infrastructure.<br />
<br />
This approach privileges the role
of private sector 'partners' in delivering urban outcomes. It's one part
of an approach to urban policy
and governance that equates the public good with the profitability of
private sector housing and infrastructure developers. It point-blank
refuses to see other means to address our serious housing and
infrastructure problems.<br />
<br />
All
this will be a bonanza for developers like Harry Triguboff's Meriton,
which is responsible for a sizeable chunk of new apartments built in
Sydney. He has already overtaken mining capitalist Gina Rinehart to <a href="http://www.afr.com/brand/afr-magazine/brw-rich-1-the-rise-and-rise-of-building-billionaire-harry-triguboff-20160415-go7hre" target="_blank">become Australia's richest individual</a>. Ultimately, then, with the Greater Sydney Commission perhaps we have technocracy in the service of plutocracy?<br />
<br />
The Commission will approach its task by developing planning frameworks
for the 6 Districts into which the city has been carved up (that strange 'carving' is another story ... based on <a href="http://www.greatersydneycommission.nsw.gov.au/What-We-Do/Greater-Sydney-District-Plans/District-Planning-Overview" target="_blank">these opaque maps</a>,
I'm sure many Sydney-siders will not be sure which District they are
even in). Planning processes established by (recently amalgamated) local
governments in those Districts will be required to conform to those
District Plans that they have had no part in determining (of course,
they will be <i>consulted</i>!). So, even when we finally do get to vote
for our local councillors again, they will have barely any actual
authority to shape their locality.<br />
<br />
Now, I am not
suggesting that 'locals' should have the ultimate say in how things
unfold in their locality -- when localities are part of a wider city,
this is not necessarily democratic or just. But when the locals are
disempowered, it tends to be only ministers or technocrats who are
empowered in their place.<br />
<br />
We've seen this when the State
Government has taken control over parts of the city defined as 'state
significant sites' and given itself extraordinary planning powers. We've
also seen it with the establishment of urban redevelopment authorities
like UrbanGrowth NSW, who have powers to take similar control of other
urban areas. These moves have not involved a re-scaling of democratic
authority from the local to the metropolitan scale. Instead, they have
resulted in a consolidation of authority in the hands of the few -- the
body politic has been equated with the body of the planning minister,
and on the basis of elections held every five years, somehow that's
meant to be ok.<br />
<br />
The establishment of the Greater
Sydney Commission very neatly works to curb the powers of those pesky
local governments in parts of the city that the State Government can not
convincingly take-over as state significant sites. And the authority of
those local governments is transferred to appointed Commissioners
working at the pleasure of the Planning Minister.<br />
<br />
There
will no doubt be some folks in the planning and associated urban
professions who insist things are not this bad. They might hope that at
least the planners working for the Greater Sydney Commission will be a
step removed from government and 'politics'. Perhaps they believe that a
new metropolitan planning authority might be able to better co-ordinate
development agendas across the city on that basis.<br />
<br />
You
see, many planners in Sydney seem to believe that the history of urban
development in Sydney is a history of their very excellent plans being
scuppered by politicians and their pesky <i>politics</i>. I love John Toon, but the title of his book on the history of metropolitan planning
in Sydney nicely encapsulates the way many planners see things -- it's called <i>Sydney - Planning or Politics</i>. It's as though good planning can only happen without politics. If only the experts didn't have to deal with
pesky politicians and people who don't know what's good for them, things
would be awesome! I'm sure that's why plenty of planners seem excited
about the Greater Sydney Commission. As Sarah Hill, planner and CEO of the Commission, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/planners-take-over-the-sydney-of-the-future-20160122-gmbub5.html" target="_blank">said:</a> "It's something planners have dreamed of for a very long time."<br />
<br />
This
is both a flawed and an unrealistic aspiration. If the Greater Sydney
Commission agenda is ultimately tasked with freeing up the market to
enable the private sector to 'fix' the very real problems with housing
and infrastructure, then it is really just going to facilitate more of
the same crap that got us to where we're at. The idea that the
Commission will facilitate better co-ordination of a planning process
designed to advance the commodification of urban life does not fill me
with hope, it fills me with dread.<br />
<br />
This certainly
involves 'taking the politics out of planning', as Chris Johnson from
the Urban Taskforce (a developer lobby group) put it. But while he sees
that as a good thing, I certainly don't! Politics is taken out of
planning by denying the people of my city a chance to actually explore
alternative ways of organising and living our lives together. <br />
<br />
In
Sydney, we desperately need alternatives a representative political
system that panders to the interests of developers and other shady
interests, and a planning profession that sees itself as the only
alternative form of authority to that system. The role of 'the people'
in these two visions of urban governance is reduced to casting a vote
for a representative every five years, or being 'consulted' by someone
who already thinks they know what's best. Neither will do. Our problem
is not too much politics, but not enough politics.<br />
<br />
This
is exactly why I find myself returning to the green bans and other
attempts to construct and enact a different model of 'the people' and
their interests. We've done it before, and it can be done again.<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
Right then. It's nice to get that off my chest. I wonder how that would have gone if I'd stopped to talk to a spruiker?<br />
<br />
I guess my short answer to the question "what's your idea for improving Sydney" is ... some democracy would be nice. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-55345520548914508432016-06-25T23:25:00.000-07:002016-06-25T23:25:23.412-07:00Inclusionary Zoning and Affordable Housing in SydneyA few weeks back, Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London. He has committed to a target of 50% affordable housing in new housing developments in London. That's a stark contrast to what's going on here in Sydney, where the affordable housing target is ... well, there isn't one.<br />
<br />
Out of some frustration with that situation, I banged out an opinion piece that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/sydney-needs-to-catch-up-to-other-global-cities-with-affordable-housing-20160515-govv88.html" target="_blank">got a run in the Sydney Morning Herald</a>, making the case for mandatory targets for affordable housing in new developments in Sydney - a policy known as inclusionary zoning. The article's copied in below, with links to further information about some of the points made along the way.<br />
<br />
(The SMH ran the article with the title "Sydney needs to catch up to other global cities with affordable housing" ... which will be a nice anecdote for next year's lecture about the 'global city' concept as a hegemonic concept through which all sensible claims have to be articulated! But I guess I was playing that game in the article, so fair cop. Anyways, I digress...)<br />
<br />
Inclusionary zoning is no longer especially 'radical' in many parts of the world. And, <a href="https://pmarcuse.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/blog-80-mandatory-inclusionary-housing-and-zoning-the-good-and-the-bad/" target="_blank">as Peter Marcuse pointed out in a recent blog post</a>, if inclusionary zoning is used in the re-development of existing social housing or low income housing areas, it can actually reduce the proportion of affordable housing and contribute to gentrification. That's certainly a risk were it to be applied in some parts of Sydney -- the proposed redevelopment of Redfern-Waterloo, currently an area with substantial public housing, is a case in point. But setting a mandatory minimum target in a situation where such redevelopments are going ahead without <i>any</i> legislated requirements for housing affordability would be better than nothing!<br />
<br />
Since the article was published, I've spoken at a very interesting forum on affordable housing hosted by Vinnies, and made an appearance on <a href="http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/06/25/20/21/nsw-labor-proposes-affordable-housing-target" target="_blank">Channel 9 news</a> for a story about NSW Labor's proposal for an affordable housing target (I don't think they've quite embraced a numerical target at this point). Here's hoping that through the hard work of lots of different actors in the city, the tide might slowly be turning on this issue...<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
We might poke fun at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/04/malcolm-turnbull-defends-his-personal-tax-record-and-negative-gearing-policy" target="_blank">Malcolm Turnbull’s recent remark that wealthy parents should shell out to assist their adult kidsfind their way into the housing market</a>. But his quip reflects the reality that is taking hold in Sydney today.<br />
<br />
Housing has become unaffordable to all but the highest paid. Help from our parents is certainly the only way that my
partner and I could afford the house we’re living in now – and we’re on higher wages than most. As Tim Williams from the Committee for Sydney recently argued, <a href="http://www.sydney.org.au/tim-williams-on-challenging-sydney-to-be-great-eight-debates-we-have-to-have/" target="_blank">inheritance is becoming the main road to home ownership in Sydney</a>.<br />
<br />
The statistics on this situation keep on coming. Last year, one study reported in the Sydney Morning Herald showed that a <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/where-sydneys-essential-workers-can-afford-to-live-20150610-ghk8sg/" target="_blank">nurse could not afford to purchase a home in 95% of Sydney’s suburbs</a>. Another showed that in financial year 2014-15, there were <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sydney-suburbs-where-you-cant-buy-anything-for-less-than-1-million-20151010-gk23t6/" target="_blank">64 suburbs where not a single dwelling sold for less than $1 million</a>.<br />
<br />
Things get even worse for those on lower incomes. An Anglicare report showed <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-housing-affordability-crisis-for-low-income-earners-is-spreading-anglicare-finds-20160419-go9tje.html" target="_blank">less than 1% of available rentals wereaffordable for people on government income support payments</a>.<br />
<br />
There are so many reasons not to tolerate this situation – not least the injustice of intergenerational inequity and
widening inequality, and the economic unsustainability of pricing key workers like nurses and teachers out of the city.<br />
<br />
The reasons for the high cost of housing have roots in the changing economic structure of our city. Politicians of all stripes like to brag about Sydney being a ‘global city’. That’s all well and good. But as our city has made the transition to becoming ‘global’, the cost of housing relative to wages has skyrocketed. This is not a coincidence. Indeed, it is a global phenomenon in cities similar to ours.In global cities where employment is increasingly polarized between those in high-paid professions working for globally-oriented corporate services sector, and those in the lower paid consumer services sector, there has been tremendous upward pressure on house prices, especially in parts of the city close to major employment centres.<br />
<br />
Left to their own devices, housing markets in these cities do not deliver affordability. Housing is not like the
fictitious markets in high school economics textbooks, where increasing supply can cause prices to fall.<br />
<br />
So, what are other ‘global cities’ doing about this problem? In many, Governments are setting enforceable targets for affordable housing in new housing developments. This policy is called inclusionary zoning. In London over the weekend, Labour’s Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor. Part of his platform was to require that a full 50% of all dwellings in new developments are affordable. This would represent an increase from the percentage achieved by his Conservative predecessor Boris Johnson. His administration set a three year target of 55,000 affordable homes, with an
average 34% of new dwellings being affordable in the 2012-2015 period.<br />
<br />
What is the mandatory minimum for affordable housing in new housing developments in Sydney? <br />
<br />
We don’t have one. We don’t even have an aspirational target.<br />
<br />
Inclusionary zoning is by now a mainstream idea in many major cities, and is supported across the political spectrum. In cities like London, the debate has moved on from whether it is a good idea – the argument is now about the proportion of housing that should be made affordable.<br />
<br />
This widespread embrace of inclusionary zoning is reflected here in Sydney, where a diverse cross-section of society
supports inclusionary zoning in new developments as an effective means to provide affordable housing. Civil society peak groups like the <a href="https://www.ncoss.org.au/sites/default/files/public/policy/Final%20SAHF%20Report%2028%20Oct%202015.pdf" target="_blank">NSW Council of Social Service</a> and coalitions like the <a href="http://www.sydneyalliance.org.au/housing_targets_faqs" target="_blank">Sydney Alliance</a> are calling for inclusionary zoning. <a href="http://theconversation.com/tackling-housing-unaffordability-a-10-point-national-plan-43628" target="_blank">Academics</a> who have been funded by Governments from across Australia to look into solutions for housing affordability are calling for inclusionary zoning. The <a href="http://www.sydney.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CfS-Issues-Paper-8-A-City-for-All-Five-Game-Changers-for-Affordable-Housing-in-Sydney.pdf" target="_blank">Committee for Sydney</a>, whose membership is made up of dozens of major national and international corporations located in Sydney – including several prominent developers like Lend Lease, Meriton and Mirvac – is calling for inclusionary zoning.<br />
<br />
But for some reason, the NSW State Government won’t get with the program. <br />
<br />
Earlier this year, Premier Baird announced a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-state-election-2015/mike-baird-brokers-1-billion-social-and-affordable-housing-deal-20150311-141d9s.html" target="_blank">$1 billion fund designed to ‘encourage’ investment in affordable and social housing</a>. It was reported that this might generate an extra 3000 affordable homes – that’s a start, but it’s certainly not enough to transform our situation.<br />
<br />
We need much more from Government than polite ‘encouragement’. We need enforcement. <br />
<br />
As we stare down the barrel at several major redevelopments across Sydney – like the Central to Eveleigh corridor, the Bays Precinct, the train stations along the soon-to-be transformed Bankstown line, Parramatta Road, the areas around the proposed Parramatta light rail, and many more besides – we must set substantial mandatory requirements for affordable housing. <br />
<br />
Aspirational targets have been set for some of these developments, but <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lend-lease-baulking-at-providing-affordable-homes-in-barangaroo-20140814-1049rr.html" target="_blank">we know from past experience that this won’t do</a>. Enforceable requirements that apply across the city are the only way to ensure that all developers involved in the planning and construction of new housing – including the State Government’s own Urban Growth – can’t trade away affordable housing aspirations once developments get underway.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-77217079336235406142016-04-14T03:07:00.006-07:002016-04-14T03:23:08.689-07:00Nuit Debout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</div>
[Crickey, a year since the last post here! Time to get things going again...]<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYExJDF6aBqyQ2KMIMSlHAulBAd7R7TXBObzGXhCyBd49aZbcyuOBPHB4tQR-UA6RWkzrqWBfShP4aw1u2yjRxX6J3aGYe1rjypAfuZlhpZrXYy2VuzzXBT6HC1M7-054AWOLPCoheqOsD/s1600/Nuit+Debout+Guardian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYExJDF6aBqyQ2KMIMSlHAulBAd7R7TXBObzGXhCyBd49aZbcyuOBPHB4tQR-UA6RWkzrqWBfShP4aw1u2yjRxX6J3aGYe1rjypAfuZlhpZrXYy2VuzzXBT6HC1M7-054AWOLPCoheqOsD/s640/Nuit+Debout+Guardian.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protesters in the Place de la Republique, Paris. Image source: The Guardian</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Twelve nights of protests and counting in Paris, under the Nuit Debout banner. There's a story in the Guardian <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/nuit-debout-protesters-occupy-french-cities-in-a-revolutionary-call-for-change" target="_blank">here</a> about the first week of protests. As with many other occupations that have taken place in the last five years or so, there's a really interesting process of care and social reproduction going on here - something that Setha Low and I have recently written a little about in a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13604813.2015.1128679" target="_blank">piece on public space and social justice</a>.<br />
<br />
Here's an interesting discussion of the movement on Al Jazeera, featuring one of my union comrades from the University of Sydney, Nick Riemer, who is in Paris right now....<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M_oDRAVpAlw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Jacques Rancière and Étienne Balibar also offered statements of solidarity to the initial sit-ins, which you can find <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2583-jacques-ranciere-and-etienne-balibar-solidarity-with-the-tolbiac-occupation" target="_blank">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-56230194942747460482015-04-30T19:03:00.002-07:002015-04-30T19:03:35.752-07:00#BlackLivesMatterI'm in the US right now ... and the killing of Freddie Gray while in police custody, and the subsequent protests and riots taking place in Baltimore, have dominated the news. Today, protests took place in Philadelphia, and more are planned in further cities over the next few days.<br />
<br />
A change has got to come.<br />
<br />
These two videos spoke to me in different ways today...<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/us-news/video/2015/apr/30/freddie-gray-neighbors-baltimore-video" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kuX1kM5UdBA" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171895648804129339.post-35006837766050051442015-03-23T02:54:00.003-07:002015-05-11T00:35:33.425-07:00"What is saved is not always safe...": Alison Alder and Mini Graff poster exhibition on public housing sell-off at Millers Point, Sydney<br />
For those in Sydney ... get in while you can to check out <a href="http://crossart.com.au/home/index.php/current-show/272-some-posters-positions-for-future-feminist-archive" target="_blank"><i>Some Posters/Local Positions</i></a>, an exhibition of posters by Alison Alder and Mini Graff at The Cross Arts Projects.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://crossart.com.au/home/images/stories/exhibitions/xap91someposters/print.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://crossart.com.au/home/images/stories/exhibitions/xap91someposters/print.jpg" height="384" style="margin-top: 5px;" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mini Graff, 2015, <i>Pipped at the post (Dominos)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The exhibition is a part of the gallery's program to celebrate the 40th anniversary of International Women's Year (1975). It features new work from both artists that responds to the NSW Government's shameful sell-off of public housing in Millers Point and the Rocks -- inner urban neighbourhoods where public housing was 'saved' by the green bans in the 1970s.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/millers-point-one-year-on-20150318-1m1rlj.html" target="_blank">(This recent piece</a> by Alex Greenwich provides a little background on the sell-off, and a critique of its intentions and its execution.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0