Is Melbourne pushing the boundary (too far)?
Melbourne in 1988 - a part of the 2010 image, showing the effects of the drought, is visible on the RHS Geosciences Australia has released a new series of satellite images comparing the extent of...
View ArticleAre infrastructure costs higher on the fringe?
Capital costs per dwelling of infrastructure provision - inner suburbs vs outer suburbs (from Trubka et al) The exhibit above purports to show that the cost of infrastructure associated with building a...
View ArticleWhat’s happening with suburban jobs in Melbourne?
Density of employment in Melbourne, 2006, in one km wide circular bands by distance from CBD (jobs/km2) The first exhibit shows the popular view of the geography of urban employment in Australia’s...
View ArticleShould our city centres get (a lot) denser?
Is this the future the Vic Planning Minister has in mind? Melbourne City Council's vision of what Southbank should look like in 2040 (see below for images of 'what it's on trend to look like' and 'what...
View ArticleIs suburban living a neurotic condition?
A literary geography of the United Kingdom (click for full map) The Courier Mail reported the death of a son and his elderly mother in their Brisbane home earlier this month under the headline “Left to...
View ArticleDecentralisation of CBD jobs: will it save the suburbs?
Animation of world urban population growth 1950-2050 (UNICEF) Bernard Salt had a fascinating but ultimately somewhat flawed article in The Australian last Saturday, Welcome to the Metropolis, which...
View ArticleWhere are cities growing?
% share of metropolitan population in the inner city at 2001 and 2011 (ABS data) There’re some interesting takeaways from the latest ABS estimates of population growth released last week. You can get a...
View ArticleAre the suburbs made for walking?
The footpath on one side of this street has been taken over entirely by Triffids! (click to look around) My wife and I were both working from home yesterday so we walked approx 1.5 km through suburban...
View ArticleWhere are the hip suburbs in Australia?
The 21 hippest suburbs in Australia (diagram by Urbis) According to the Urbis Hip List, the 21 hippest places to live in Australia are mostly in Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney has nine of them and...
View ArticleWhy do cities still sprawl?
Real house prices by distance from CBD ($09/10). Source: State of Australian Cities 2012 Australian and US cities, which largely developed in the era of mechanised transport, are notorious for...
View ArticleAre city centre apartment towers “vertical sprawl”?
CBD apartments, Brisbane (Source: wiki) The pejorative term “vertical sprawl” is gaining currency in public discussion about cities. It’s been taken up with alacrity by those who oppose high-rise...
View ArticleDoes this strategic plan really spurn sprawl?
Change in shares of existing and projected metropolitan population, Melbourne (source data: VIF 2014) Like other metropolitan strategic plans, Plan Melbourne argues it’s no longer sustainable to...
View ArticleCan artists do good work from the suburbs?
This mind map explores the artist Jackson Pollock from the perspective of the criticism his paintings attracted (source: Mind Map Inspiration) Arts writer Ben Davis is concerned rising rents are...
View ArticleBuilding (rail) connections across the suburbs
Helsinki's new orbital Ring Rail Line opens in July this year. And yes, it really is heart-shaped (sort of) Guest writer Grant Wyeth (@grantwyeth) is a Melbourne based freelance writer : Despite...
View ArticleHow is it cars had taken over the streets by 1976?
Mode of travel to work, 1976 (source data: Mees & Groenhart) I noted last week that cars were only a minor mode for work travel in Australia in 1951; public transport was the dominant mode (How...
View ArticleRecap: all the topics discussed by The Urbanist last month
Couldn't resist snapping this little cutie in Fairfield, Melbourne, the other day; looked like she was saddled up for Tekelrennen 2015, aka the Running of the Wieners Does ‘peak car’ mean traffic...
View ArticleIs this ranking of “the most liveable suburbs” believable?
The 15 criteria used by The Age to identify and rank Melbourne's "most liveable suburbs" from 1 to 321 It’s been pointed out many times before that ranking urban areas is a problematic undertaking e.g....
View ArticleCities: what’s the responsibility of the media?
Liveability versus price The Age is running a series this week on the liveability of Melbourne. Its league table of suburbs ranked by liveability might be of doubtful utility (as I wrote last time) but...
View ArticleIs decentralisation the answer to cities that are “too big”?
Are Australia’s cities getting “too big”? And if so, is decentralisation the answer? (image source: TechCentral) Sunday Age columnist Farrah Tomazin reckons Melbourne is at risk of choking on its own...
View ArticleHow big is the “transport divide” between inner and outer suburbs?
Average trip duration by mode (top) and purpose (bottom), Melbourne 2012/13 (source data: VISTA) The average duration of a weekday trip in metropolitan Sydney across all modes and all purposes is 22...
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