On 26/07/17 07:39,prescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] wrote:
>

>

> Sure a lot of developers will make money out of it (they already have

> for years in the area), but there is no conspiracy theory, just a very

> long-standing town planning agenda which most locals actually support.


Till they see the extent of the winter overshadowing these tower slums
will produce.
And I still don't know why some one would choose to live in a tower
block in a regional city. It's not as if you would be close to transport
and work like in say Wolli Creek, Sydney.

I walked through Wolli Creek at around Midday a couple of weeks back on
my way to the Botany Bay shore.
Wolli Creek is a cold and dismal place these days with dark streets with
the wind whistling down them.
Some of the developments have 'formal gardens' but at this time of the
year they are cold and dismal places as well. Really the only nice
places are those along the river side, as they are not shaded by those
to the north - as the river is to the north of them.

There is no community. People huddle in their little boxes and if they
leave, they get the lift down to the car park and leave in their car.
(The traffic along Arncliffe St is now quite heavy at all times) The
outdoors is so dismal that no one will voluntarily go for a walk, or
walk to the shops. It's straight from apartment to car and back again.

That's what Newcastle can look forward to - a wall of towers along the
hunter shoreline, leaving the rest of the city in darkness for a good
chunk of the year.

At least the older style 3-4 story 'block of flats' didn't overshadow
each other and create wind tunnels. The older 'high density' development
in the Hurstville area is like that, and even though the blocks are now
showing their age, the streets they are in are far nicer places that one
ones that have the 10-15-20 story towers along then.

You could ague that better urban design could solve many of the
shadowing problems - but the fact is, we are not getting 'good urban
design' we are getting tall boxes stacked together as close as possible
- each new towers developer really doesn't care what their development
does to those already there - all they care about is maximising their
floor area to maximise their profits. And with council town planning
neutered and building certification done by contactors who need to earn
a living, so they are not going to want to get a reputation for being
too strict, they won't get any work....