The Chicken ? Or the Egg ?

The news that " affordable housing " is going to be concentrated in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo is alarming.  There is a distinct impression that Waterloo is going to look something like Manhattan with seven forty story towers and another twelve climbing to thirty-two stories - and all this crammed into just twenty-two hectares.  That delivers about half the parkland and recreational space of that other concentrated living area - Green Square.

The rationale is simple. It is more economical to provide electricity, water and sewage to an existing inner suburb than to create new suburbs on the city perimeter and Waterloo will be served by the new train and tram services that are part of our transport expansion.  These are bold experiments but caution is urged because similar moves have backfired badly in other world cities.

Our television news shows rioting in the streets of Paris - the " City of Light ". The French built mass affordable living towers on the city perimeter and these were quickly snapped up by the poor and immigrant communities.   They are referred to as " Banlieue's " because that is the French word for " suburb " and they have become centres for discontent.  The Banlieue is now synonymous with that other emotive word -" unemployed ", and both are associated with that other dreaded word - " Terrorists ".  We would be wise to remember the public disdain for those existing public housing towers built decades earlier in Waterloo.

There is a growing school of thought that contends that Sydney is simply becoming too big.   We are ever encroaching on valuable farmland on our perimeters and despite vast new road systems the daily commute traffic flow is consistently slower.   It has been the dream of city planners for years to accelerate movement out of the city and into the surrounding country towns where a more relaxed style of life is possible.  The stumbling block is job opportunities.   The beating heart of this city is its job situation and we have an unemployment rate at present of just 4.3%.

There is no doubt that many city people would be attracted to life in a country town if affordable housing was coupled with the reality of job opportunities offering.  It seems to be closely associated with that old " chicken and egg " conundrum.  Which came first ?

If we build affordable housing in country towns, will the people come ?   Or must industry be in place with job opportunities offering before that move will be considered ?   There is a third option.   What about the fast transport option that would allow country living to be combined with city job opportunities  ?

Just such an opportunity exists to the south of Sydney.  The towns of the south coast have no rail service past Nowra and are basically connected by a single lane each way blacktop with a shocking accident record.  They are in that moderate temperature zone where proximity to the sea avoids frosts in winter and the sea breeze  delivers relief from the ever increasing summer heat.  Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama and Nowra are fast expanding and land is available to expand the existing settlements further down the coast.

This Waterloo development is long term and will proceed over decades.  Perhaps the capital intended to create Sydney's " Banlieue " might be better directed at attracting people and industry to where a more relaxed lifestyle is still a possibility.