This is the personal blog of Ian Ker, who was Councillor for the South Ward of the Town of Vincent from 1995 to 2009. I have been a resident of this area since 1985. This blog was originally conceived as a way of letting residents of Vincent know what I have been doing and sharing thoughts on important issues. I can now use it to sound off about things that concern me.

If you want to contact me, my e-mail is still ian_ker@hotmail.com or post a comment on this blog.

To post a comment on this blog, select the individual post on which you wish to comment, by clicking on the title in the post or in the list to the left of the blog, and scroll down to the 'Post a Comment' box at the foot.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Looking Around



I do a lot of walking around the Town. One of the benefits of the end of daylight saving is that more of this is done at dusk and in the dark. I know a lot of people don't like this but it does give you a different view of your environs.

I have taken to carrying a camera with me a lot of the time, and thought I'd share a few of my nocturnal observations from the past few weeks. As a Councillor, I'm ineligible for the Town's photographic competition, but I hope this encourages others to look at the potential for night photography.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Musing: Am I AMUSED or BEMUSED?

I find myself amused by the various claims made by the City of Perth and its Councillors for parts of the Town of Vincent.

Fifteen years ago, the City of Perth couldn't wait to be rid of its residential areas - and so the Towns of Vincent, Victoria Park and Cambridge came into being. The City claimed that the residential areas were being heavily subsidised by business in the CBD and that residents were not part of a Capital City (with Capital letters, no doubt).

Well, if there was subsidisation, it must have been very inefficient, for when Vincent was established we found a tale of sorry neglect of infrastructure and services over a long period of time.

Our major roads were seen simply as traffic sewers, to funnel cars and their drivers (very few passengers) into the city. No consideration was given to the business and residential communities that lined these roads nor of providing any visual respite from bitumen through streetscape improvements - with, to be fair, the solitary exception of Scarborough Beach Road, Mt Hawthorn, although even this was to require much more work - and involvement of the business community - before it really started to pay off.

The rear laneways around the Town were in a shocking state, many of them little better than sandpits. And our footpaths were a disgrace. Vincent Council had to establish long-term programs to improve these.

And before anyone takes me to task because their rear laneway is still like that, let me point out that many of these are still privately owned and the Town can only do work on those that it owns. We are progressively buying these laneways - but it takes time.

Our major parks were tired and run down. When I moved to Vincent Street in 1985, the general reaction of friends and colleagues was "why would you want to live there" - Hyde Park was best known for anti-social behaviour rather than being the family place and 'arcadian jewel' that it now is. Robertson Park was no better.

Sporting facilities in the Town were deteriorating. Perth Oval and Leederville Oval were poorly maintained as playing areas and the grandstands desperately need refurbishment. Compare that to today - Members Equity Stadium is the premier rectangular stadium in WA and Leederville Oval (Medibank Stadium) is the WA Football Centre of Excellence and hosts two WAFL teams that have won seven of the past nine premierships.

Other sports have benefited through redevelopment of the Loftus Recreation Centre to include the State Gymnastics Centre (replacing the decrepit Len Fletcher Pavilion that was literally starting to fall down.

So why do City of Perth Councillors want to take back parts of Vincent? Well, putting aside the fact that we were granted part of their territory last year (which is in the area they now seem to want from Vincent), part of the reason is probably pure jealousy of the extent to which Vincent has been able to partner with others and leverage funding to achieve worthwhile community outcomes. Now that we have done so much in this way, the City wants to take it back - to gain the glory without having to do the hard yards along the way.

I suspect they also have more than half an eye on the value of land in Leederville that will bring the private sector into partnership in the exciting redevelopment there - and make Leederville a real competitor to large parts of the CBD. With the railway from Mandurah to Clarkson running through Leederville and all three freeways providing access by car, Leederville is now the most accessible place in the Perth Region - with the possible exception of the core of Perth itself.

I am amused - yes - I am also bemused, that they have so little knowledge of the past that they seek to repeat its mistakes.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The Role of the Independent

Last year I wrote about 'tilting at windmills'.

A recent book, reviewed in the Western Councillor journal, adds another dimension to the value of the 'outsider' in decision-making. This book (Sway:The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour, by Ori and Rom Brafman) talks about how apparently logical thinking in decision-making can be subverted or "swayed" by unseen behavioural forces.

In part, the authors attribute this to what they call the"chameleon effect", in which people are inclined to behave in a way that fits with the opinions or expectations of those around them.

The converse of this, of course, is those who are willing to say when the emperor has no clothes - the dissenter. According to the authors, the dissenter has a very important place in decision-making processes by forcing the majority to refine their positions and raise the quality of their analysis.

Anthony Quahe, Director of Civic Legal, Solicitors, to whom I am indebted for his review of the book, ends his review with the following question:
With such an array of behavioural influences, it would be worthwhile Councils reflecting frequently on the hidden behavioural forces behind (their) decision-making processes.

And, no, I haven't read the book yet - but I do have it on order - watch this space!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Who's the Goose?

Well, it seems I was wrong about the public transport cuts becoming 6% rather than 3% - but the rest of what I said in December last appears to be on the money.

The reported plans to cut public transport services that are ‘used by few commuters’ and to ‘realign services’ to get ‘maximum value for the taxpayer for taxpayer dollar’ (Transport services face cuts, West Australian, Monday 25 May) may make superficial sense but ignore the realities that face an increasing number of people who live in the suburbs of Perth.

Suburban households need more, not less, public transport.

Yes, it will cost money, at least in the short run, but that is a cost we should bear for failing to protect the interests of a large part of the Perth community.

Because public transport does not serve their place of employment, family entertainment outings, higher education or other needs, many outer suburban residents have little choice but to use cars to travel or to do without.

They are caught in the trap of higher fuel prices (as oil production is unable to keep pace with growing global demand), so spend a much larger part of their pay on simply traveling to earn a living.

That income itself is being threatened by the current economic downturn and, for those who do lose their jobs, lack of public transport can prevent their even getting to first base – attending an interview.

It is time that government faced the fact that this situation is the result of continual failures of the planning system in WA to deliver sustainable residential development or employment close to where people live, in the suburbs, in particular.

It has been estimated that every outer suburban residential lot is subsidized to the extent of $85,000. This makes the outer suburbs appear cheap to families, but results in a high cost of transport for those who buy homes on this basis.

The State Government (and its predecessors) is ultimately responsible for the failure of planning that continues to feed the need to travel by car. This system clearly needs to be made more responsive to the long-term needs of the community.

Public transport should not just be about trains and big buses. In many other places, public transport involves small and medium-sized buses, as well as big ones.

Those of us who live in inner areas such as Vincent are lucky, but it’s time to provide all residents of Perth, young and old, with proper access to the good things that the more fortunate among us take for granted.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Time to Revisit Precincts?

The referendum on daylight saving has gone and the results of the previous three referenda confirmed.

[Incidentally, with regard to that other relatively recent referendum, on retail trading hours, anyone who has traveled extensively overseas will know that there are very few places where 24 hour trading is common practice, no matter what the law says. There are places where trading goes on longer into the evening - but even these are remarkably few, except for tourist shops and convenience stores. But that is another story.]

It is, as someone remarked to me on leaving the polling booth, a clear reflection of the fact that if no new arguments or information come to light, then people will continue to vote the same way.

And that got me to thinking of what, as an economist, I really ought to have been more aware all along. That is that people are rational no matter how it might suit politicians to think otherwise. The key is ensuring that they have the necessary information on which to make decisions or, in the case of local government, to influence their elected members.

Vincent established a precint group system early in its life - encouraged by reports of the success of precincts in North Sydney under the tutelage of Ted Mack as Mayor. For a while this worked well, but it has been difficult for those groups to maintain their energy and several of them have folded in recent years.

The reasons for this are not hard to find, the main one being that our precincts are too small. Each precinct in North Sydney had almost as many residents as the whole of the Town of Vincent. So, as the Town matured and the issues that had been neglected by the City of Perth were addressed, there were too few matters of specific concern to any one precinct group - as distinct from important to the Town as a whole.

For issues of importance to the Town as a whole, the precinct system might actually have worked against the original intention of facilitating informed community discussion and input to Council decision-making - something akin to 'divide and rule', perhaps - a fragmented community is unable to present a coherent and consistent point of view.

Sure, on specific issues we consult widely - matters such as the potential redevelopment of Leederville. But on the less tangible topics that are the stuff of policy (and the Town has heaps of policies), we get very litle input from either precinct groups or individual members of the community.

So is it time to revisit the precinct system in Vincent - to revitalise and recreate?

The award-winning Vincent Vision 2024 identified five 'place-based areas'. These were: Mt Hawthorn; North Perth; Leederville; Mt Lawley/Highgate; and Perth. These have also been used as the basis for the Local Planning Strategy, which lays the groundwork for the review of the Town Planning Scheme.

Each of these areas has a 'town centre' and a local community that relates to it. The local residents may patronise local businesses and, in turn, will understand the impacts of those businesses; businesses in those centres would also have a voice that is often missing at present. There is a multi-faceted 'community of interest' that would lend itself to creating an informed community, on the one hand, and provide an effective forum for discussion of important issues affecting the place, on the other hand.

If we are going to plan on the basis of these five areas, let's do the job properly and establish a consultative structure that accords with them - as part of the develoment of the new Town Planning Scheme and as an integral part of its implementation.

If we are going to do this, we must also be prepared to resource those groups so that they can fulfil their role effectively.

We should also look carefully at the potential value of having a 'place manager' for each of these five places - to integrate the planning and delivery of services for each place across the functional boundaries. The business and residential communities would then have a single point of contact with the Town (a portal) rather than having to penetrate the adminstrative structure to work out who best to talk to. The role of 'place manager' is a relatively new one, but we should look to being once again the benchmark rather than a follower.