The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition of Palestinian political parties, trade unions, NGOs and networks, warmly salutes those Marrickville councillors who remained steadfast and principled in their support of the three fundamental Palestinian rights that constitute the core of the boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). In the face of what Mayor Fiona Byrne rightly described as a “sledgehammer of pressure”, these courageous councillors recalled the most sincere spirit of solidarity that marked the global struggle against South African apartheid by insisting on supporting the Palestinian struggle to end Israel’s decades-old occupation, colonization, apartheid, and obdurate denial of UN-sanctioned rights of our refugees to return and receive reparations. We deeply appreciate Marrickville’s moral commitment to the objectives of the BDS movement — freedom, justice and equality — despite the current inability to maintain a majority in support of taking effective BDS measures to help reach these noble objectives.

We sincerely hope that Marrickville’s commitment to Palestinian rights and international law will inform any future decisions it makes about its interactions with the apartheid state of Israel and those corporations and institutions that are complicit with its grave violations of international law. Denying contracts to companies implicated in massive and persistent violations of human rights and international law, as those committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, is not only a moral obligation – that may one day become a legal obligation as well — for any city council around the world; it also does not carry any price tag for taxpayers served by those councils.

We congratulate the supporters of just peace and Palestinian rights in Australia who have worked so diligently to further the BDS campaign. Disinformation and smear tactics may have partially lost us this battle, but the struggle for freedom, justice and equality is undoubtedly stronger as a result of your efforts. Marrickville will be remembered as the “battle” that effectively put boycotting Israel on the map in Australia!

- BDS National Committee

An Open Letter to the Publisher of the Inner West Courier:

The last time I checked there are only two newspapers that send reporters to cover Leichhardt Council meetings: the Inner West Independent and your chain paper. Locals should be relieved that someone else is reporting the facts, given the Murdoch media’s bias in Kate Carr’s hit piece titled “Ciao attacks Leichhardt Council on advertising spending.”  Since Ciao Magazine doesn’t usually bother itself with local community politics, I was fascinated to hear publisher Sonia Komaravalli’s comments in one of your many home littered products last week (Inner West Courier, March 30): According to Komaravalli: “`Local councils have a duty to spend advertising budgets on media that communicate to all sectors of the community,”   Your journalist, Ms Carr then went on to note, “Last year Leichhardt Council spent $5370 on advertising in Ciao. It spent $66,000 advertising in the Courier.”
What irks Ms Komaravalli (and Murdoch’s hired hacks as well) is that Leichhardt Council might be spending an alleged $50,000 the Inner West Independent. The year before that, when Leichhardt Council spent over $100,000 with News Limited, Ms Komaravalli didn’t object. She was too busy running cheap advertorial spreads on behalf of other struggling small businesses to notice local politics. In order to compete with News Limited, who has been selling half page ads below cost in the Village Voice, poor Sonia has had to sell cheaper and cheaper ads. Each month News Limited sucks millions out of the Inner West marketplace through anti competitive, predatory pricing practices in the Village Voice, while all profits from your other high end product goes off shore to a Delaware based trans-national corporation. It’s no wonder you folks at the Courier feel so sorry for poor Sonia. Or that she can’t afford to send a credible journalist to cover community politics.
For the record, Shant Fabricatorian reported on the same Council’s meeting of March 23in the Inner West Independent by noting, “After less than a year, a survey by Leichhardt Council shows the Inner West Independent has already made a significant impression on local residents. The survey, within the Local Government Area, showed one in five of respondents were aware of the Independent after just eight issues.” Ms Carr put an entirely different, self serving spin on the same fact by reporting, ”four out of five people in the municipality had never read the publication.” Not surprisingly, Ms Carr also neglected to report on my own statement to Council: “According to Council’s report, one third of all households do not receive the Courier, and of those who do, 45% were not aware that Leichhardt Council even advertises in the publication. Of those who were aware, 25% couldn’t be bothered to look at the ad. Which means that three out of four Leichhardt Council residents do not read Council’s column in the Inner West Courier.” I encourage the Inner West Courier to get its facts straight.

Yours Sincerely,
Lawrence Gibbons
Group Publisher
Alternative Media Group of Australia
Publishers of the Inner West Independent, the City Hub, the City News and the Bondi View

Cruise Terminal the way forward

The Cruise Passenger Terminal will be a really positive part of the future for White Bay. It will protect the area from Meriton-style residential development. Importantly, once fully operational, it will also provide 700 jobs for local young people, including hundreds of blue-collar, maritime jobs, and jobs in local restaurants and cafés. This is why it is strongly supported by local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce.

Balmain has been home to maritime industries for 150 years and maintaining a working harbour is strongly supported by the local community. A working port at White Bay will help protect the social diversity that is the best thing about this place. After all, this is Balmain, not Mosman.

Cr Darcy Byrne

Unacceptable and unbecoming

I agree with the comments in Michael Gormly’s article, “Oh lord, it’s high farce in the corridors of power” (October 22). The Deputy Lord Mayor squabble was unbecoming! Certain behaviour was unacceptable and I apologise to City of Sydney constituents.

Cr Marcelle Hoff, Independent Councillor, City of Sydney

E-complaints

Claims by City of Sydney Council that complaints against Councillor Mallard must be in received in writing are incorrect, as I lodged a complaint by email which was accepted.

With suggestions the Lord Mayor also breached Council’s Code of Conduct, it’s clear donations are cause for concern and should be abolished.

Stuart Baanstra, Alexandria

Hypocracy

Many Marrickville residents will have received an email or letter from local MP Carmel Tebbutt offering them the opportunity to participate in her ‘excellent’ online democracy project, asking local residents to vote for community infrastructure projects they think should be funded with $300,000 worth of NSW Government funding.

This project is an attempt by Ms Tebbutt and her cohorts to position herself as an innovative and inclusive politician, making decisions based on ‘democratic online’ voting, but only the most naïve voter wouldn’t see the flaws and astounding cynicism in this proposal.

Far from being a ‘first for Australia’, this online proposal is a cheap attempt to hoodwink residents into thinking they are being heard – tell this to the 850-odd people who wrote and petitioned Ms Tebbutt to intervene to stop the sale of our local Enmore school building. Their approaches and sensible proposals were given lip service by the Minister.

This so-called ‘rare opportunity to have a say in local funding’ is a farce, because some of the projects were already approved for funding years ago and are in train as ongoing Council projects, such as the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre access lift and upgrade (funded by Council to the tune of $700,000), and the Greek Community Childcare Centre refurbishment.

But ignoring this misleading list of works, let’s consider this as a template for allocating funding – in short, the projects with the most votes get the money. This sounds reasonable, except that in the same way as the Labor Party is fond of branch stacking, this process is also wide open for vote stacking.

Need I say more, except to remind the Minister that funding allocations are usually done according to strict criteria, at arm’s length and according to levels of need, so that the most vocal or the best mates, don’t necessarily always get the cash (except in NSW under the current ALP government).

How about some good governance and less dishonest electioneering?

Cathy Peters, Greens Councillor, Marrickville Council

Crunching the numbers

The Environmental Assessment for Sydney Metro stage 1, Central to Rozelle, indicates that between 17,000 and 23,000 trips will be made during the peak hour in 2021, six years after opening.

It is the reported claim of one-sixth capacity (‘Metro numbers don’t add up’, October 1) that does not add up.

In addition, the ‘87 per cent empty’ claim was in fact incorrectly calculated by a Sydney newspaper.

The newspaper mistakenly compared patronage figures in 2016 with the expected capacity beyond 2031. This is like comparing apples with oranges.

More than 10,000 people live within an 800-metre radius of the metro station for Rozelle, providing a large number of potential users within a short walking distance.

Many people from Rozelle and surrounding areas will use the metro for the convenience of a four-minute trip to the CBD and the frequency of services.

CityRail trains already terminate at Central where passengers transfer to other crowded CityRail services. Metro provides a frequent, fast and reliable alternative for these passengers.

Sydney Metro has a strong commitment to community consultation (‘Dancing in the streets’, October 1).

Staff have been meeting regularly with property owners, tenants, community groups and businesses, thousands of newsletters have been sent out, community information sessions have been held at key stages during the year, an online forum has run on the Sydney Metro website, and feedback has been sought for the Sydney Metro Stage 1 Environmental Assessment.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that construction work for Stage 1 will have a much smaller impact than would have been the case for Paris or other, older metros.

While there might be small entries in Paris today the impact during construction would have been massive, with ‘open cut’ techniques used rather than tunnelling.

Sydney Metro will use modern construction methods to minimise impacts. Station entries will take up as little space as possible while still incorporating essential services such as fresh air vents and an emergency exit.

Rodd Staples, Acting Chief Executive, Sydney Metro

Pots, kettles and cyclists

Regarding Peter Whitehead’s Life Cycle column in your October 8 issue (‘Magda does lycra a favour’) – it’s marvellous to see so many people taking up cycling. It’s environmentally friendly and it is said to improve the health of cyclists. They have every right to use the road and motorists should extend to them every courtesy.

What is unfortunate is that many cyclists feel so menaced by contemptuous, thuggish motorists that they have retreated from the roads to our footpaths. Unfortunately, the upshot is that cyclists have become very widely feared by pedestrians.

Considerable numbers of cyclists continue to flout laws respecting our pavements – so far, with impunity. They ride at speed on pavements reserved for pedestrians and they don’t even bother to ring a warning bell.

This dangerous behaviour continues, despite the fact that the authorities seem so anxious to secure the cyclists’ vote by pressing ahead to meet their demands by increasing the number of shared pathways and the construction of more and more dedicated cycleways.

Meantime, because of the apparent disdain many cyclists appear to have for pedestrians, there are increasing public calls for cyclists and their bikes to be registered so that the lawbreakers among them can be more easily identified and legal action can be more effectively pursued against them.

In the interim, surely more official policing of our pavements and footpaths is necessary. For example, some cyclists continue to appear oblivious of the 10 km/h speed limit notices for cyclists that have been posted on the Pyrmont Bridge, in the interests of safeguarding pedestrians.

Mr Whitehead noted in his column that driver awareness (of cyclists) is the critical factor in safety. Let’s hope more cyclists become aware of the fact that some of their number have made our pavements and footpaths perilous zones for pedestrians, and that the perceived behaviour of arrogant cyclists is provoking increasing outrage.

After all, the president of the Pedestrian Council, Harold Scruby, notes that elderly victims of hit-and-run cyclists often “don’t come back”. Even a relatively minor injury such as a broken pelvis can entail weeks of lying supine in hospital, with the concomitant danger of a fatal infection.

Ava Hubble, Pyrmont

Working hand in hand

In your article “Packing up an ‘option’ for Union Square residents’ (October 8), you quote Jean Stuart and refer to her as Co-Convenor of Pyrmont Action. Jean is in fact Co-Convenor of the ‘Save Union Square’ campaign and Pyrmont Action, of which I am Convenor, is working closely with that group to avert the disaster of having the CBD Metro station located in Union Street. We would like to thank City News for continuing to report the issues from the local perspective. There are alternative sites for the station entrance and we will continue to fight for its removal from the Union Square precinct.

Elizabeth Elenius, Pyrmont

Taking out the trash

Recent statements by City of Sydney Council are a repetition of the same pseudo-justification for its plan to impose a garbage truck depot on Rosebery. No, Council, the proposed site is not “well located in an industrial area”. Although the site itself is currently zoned industrial, it is adjacent to people’s homes and adjacent to commercial businesses. Council’s own Depot Strategy says, “Council should not locate depots adjacent to recreational, residential or commercial areas.”

Council is also clutching at straws with its statement that, “State Government has identified this area as a key industrial area to retain employment.” Over the past few years Council has approved every application by developers to convert Rosebery industrial sites into residential flats, including a 118-apartment project opposite the proposed mega-depot site. Apparently, it’s only a key industrial area when it suits Council.

If there was really any justification for Council’s plan they wouldn’t need to continually resort to the same untenable arguments.

Graeme Grace, Rosebery Residents Action Group

Standing up, but not counting

We don’t count.

That’s what the residents of Rosebery have been told by our local council. We don’t count, despite 1,100 local resident and local business signatures on a petition against the location of a garbage truck depot (consolidating three other works depots) next to residential, commercial and light industrial (including food storage) in Rosebery. We don’t count, because the total population of our local area (less than 4,000 people including children, and a high percentage of English as a second language residents) doesn’t stack up against the 150,000 other people Council represents. We don’t count, because we are the last bastion of low-density, low-rise residential area (with pockets of apartments on the outskirts) within the City of Sydney Council area. How dare we choose to live in a detached house within the City of Sydney.

While garbage truck depots may exist near residential in Ultimo and Woolloomooloo, the depots have been there for decades. Residents moved into those areas knowing that was the case, or had little choice due to the prominence of public housing in the immediate area. However, the proposed Rosebery garbage truck depot is different because it is new – it’s not something that has been there for decades. Many of the local residents in the immediate area have lived there for more than 50 years. My neighbours moved into their house, opposite the proposed garbage truck depot, in 1941.

Our local action group has proposed alternative, community-friendly uses for the site and compromises on the work depot activities – but these have been ignored. Council’s proposal goes against its own strategic review recommendations to negotiate for the RTA-owned Burrows Road site, an alternative site in the Alexandria Industrial Area or a redevelopment of the existing Epsom Road depot. Instead, Council officers continue to push for an unpalatable solution for local residents, local businesses and the local school community. After all, we don’t count, we just have to live with the outfall of the largest urban renewal project in Australia.

Samantha Gardner-Wade, Rosebery

There’s still time

In relation to your story about the Environmental Assessment for the CBD Metro (‘Metro rolls onward, but questions remain unanswered’, September 24) – we are actively encouraging people to look through the assessment and to have their say.

All of the relevant information is easily accessible via our website – www.sydneymetro.nsw.gov.au – and laid out for easy navigation.

Put simply, the Environmental Assessment reviews the challenges and benefits provided by metro, and sets out the strategies to deliver metro rail to Sydney.

All the relevant material is on the website – have a read, and have your say!

Rodd Staples, Acting Chief Executive, Sydney Metro

Defending the indefencible

Councillor Di Tornai’s apologia attempts to defend the ‘indefencible’ (“Residents not consulted? It simply ain’t so”, Letters, September 17).

The Orphan School Creek-gate affair, and its re-worked landscape park plans, were not the result of extensive community consultations as she claims. They were the result of a cover-up exposed after the Greens Councillors and Labor councillor Meredith Burgmann rapidly realised they’d been deceived: plans they’d been shown and approved were not materialising on the ground.

The quantity of meetings Cr Tornai refers to ad nauseum wasn’t a substitute for the quality consensus required of a democratic council. Democracy is government by discussion, not government by imposition.

It’s true, the residents were revolting. And they’re still rightly revolting against planning outcomes that diminish their quality of life and other expedient, pro-developer, behind-the-scenes planning staff DA decisions, some never even advertised.

This is contrary to the objectives of the NSW Planning Act. Sections 5 (a) and (c) require all Councils to “encourage…and provide increased opportunity for public involvement and participation in environmental planning and assessment”.

Recent examples include: the original mega-outdoor seating area for the Springfield Mills pub (never advertised) and now partly rescinded; approval for outdoor liquor-licensed seating for a sausage sizzle shop in tiny Llankelly Place in Kings Cross, within three metres of bedroom windows (never advertised); lack of online plans and documents for a DA for an 80-seat bar actually within a residential apartment block, Potts Point, not advertised to residents within a 75-metre radius and with a reduced 7-day exhibition period (not properly advertised), and point blank refusal to answer concerned e-mails relating to demolition of a heritage WWII air-raid shelter.

It was demolished two weeks ago.

All these are inconvenient truths.

As former Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff has rightly remarked, good councils have more than a notional nexus with communities, they encourage a sense of belonging.

After all, just whose Council is it?

Andrew Woodhouse, Potts Point
President, Potts Point and Kings Cross Heritage Conservation Society

Less heat, more light

Shant Fabricatorian’s article on the proposed Erskineville supermarket (“Controversial Erskineville supermarket receives Council approval”, September 24) covers a lot of ground, but does not consider exactly why (it seems) the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) would now allow the development in its amended form.

For what are the principles by which the L&EC makes its assessment? If those principles result in inappropriate development, then that’s something we all need to know about and understand – for perhaps these principles result in unjust outcomes, and are in need of change.

Alternatively, perhaps the L&EC would be making a reasonable decision. Is there a development which would be small enough that community activists would approve of? Would a coffee cart be acceptable?

Either way, we need to know what the principles are by which the L&EC operates. It seems the original rejection would have been upheld by the L&EC. But not now. What’s changed? There’s a lot of heat here – we need light.

John August, Darlinghurst

Who do you think you are, Lance Armstrong?

A leaflet recently dropped in our letter box advises that participants in the ‘City of Sydney Spring Cycle’ will be “rolling through” our area (Pyrmont) on Sunday, September 27 to raise money for the MS Society and the Oncology Children’s Foundation. We were warned that the event might lead to delays in residents accessing their property. Okay. We’ll cope. We wish them well. But I am afraid my enthusiasm for cyclists has waned.

Yet I once stood in the street to cheer cyclists passing by en masse. I supported their campaign to be able to share the road with motorists without intimidation. Yet instead of bravely pursuing that initiative, cyclists seem to be retreating to the footpaths and intimidating pedestrians. Every day, men and women on bikes can be seen racing along pavements, apparently without concern for the safety of others.

I have so far managed to avoid being seriously injured, but this has entailed increasing vigilance. The days of a carefree saunter around the neighbourhood, or even around parks or Darling Harbour, has been rendered a thing of the past by cyclists who proceed as though they were just ahead and in sight of the finishing line in Le Tour de France.

I have witnessed a cyclist knock a man down and ride on, not only without stopping after causing the accident, but, adding insult to injury, by making an obscene gesture at those protesting at this behaviour. You may dismiss this report as anecdotal, but all of my acquaintances seem to have similar depressing tales to tell.

Recently I stopped to try to comfort a very old man, bent double by infirmity. At the time he had only just managed to keep his feet after being startled by a cyclist speeding past him without so much as a warning bell. The badly shaken old fellow told me that he has become so intimidated by cyclists that he fears to go out, even to the nearby Coles for some shopping.

This is a shameful state of affairs. It has reached a stage in Sydney where some people have become so frightened of cyclists hurtling along footpaths that they even drive (rather than risk walking) to nearby destinations.

Isn’t it time for cyclists’ lobby groups to vigorously re-ignite their campaign for their right to use the road without being intimidated or endangered by impatient, intolerant and contemptuous drivers? I am sure a campaign of this sort would receive tremendous public support. After all, it will be quite a while before more dedicated cycleways are constructed. Surely, too, pressure should be exerted on the State Government to support Clover Moore’s pleas for reduced speed limits on Sydney roads. Research reportedly reveals that reduced speeds lead to fewer accidents and fewer life-threatening injuries.

Needless to say, we all accept the fact that many cyclists are caring and responsible people. It does seem, however, that incidents of astonishingly selfish and reckless behaviour are increasing.

Meantime, I believe it is still the law that adult cyclists are prohibited from riding on footpaths. If some of their number continue to flout the law, there may well be an increased public demand for the registration of cyclists and their bikes. A registration number would give those injured by cyclists at least a chance of redress for grievous bodily harm, especially given the help of witnesses.

Ava Hubble, Pyrmont

Inappropriate in the inner city

Both Adrian Bartels, of the Kings Cross and Potts Point Partnership, and Michael Gormly, editor of the City News, perhaps inadvertently advocate for Potts Point, Darlinghurst, and Sydney’s CBD to bear a disproportionate load of alcohol-related violence. This is despite the fact that the socio-economic profile of these suburbs is not consistent with the sort of anti-social behaviour imposed on them. Problem drinkers are largely imported from the ‘burbs’ on weekends, people intent on trashing themselves away from the immediate gaze of their own local communities.

In the cases of Kings Cross and Darlinghurst, the perception that anything goes is based on an aberration. These were formerly genteel and fashionable residential suburbs which lost their gloss when the quarter-acre block became popular early in the 20th century. These days, there is a clear recognition that a small carbon footprint is easier to achieve when you live close to your place of work. Thus, the inner city is being re-gentrified. This is a natural process of change, and business will have to adjust to it. A combination of market forces and social policy mean that inner-city ‘lager barns’ have a short future.

No amount of statistical manipulation and misinformation will change the facts. According to the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the highest numbers of pub/club-based violent incidents are in the inner city of Sydney, with only Wollongong’s CBD recording a higher level (112) than Potts Point (88), while Darlinghurst (138) and the city’s CBD (190) are the highest in the state. Furthermore, the high density of licensed premises in the city means that much of the alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour will occur on the streets, not inside the venues.

Cumulative impact of licensed premises is a world-wide problem. Government initiatives in the United Kingdom and the United States have targeted reductions in the density of licensed premises as key strategies in addressing alcohol related crime. Think globally, act locally.

Sue Hanley, Darlinghurst