The " NINBY " Factor !

New South Wales voters are due to hold an election next March and all the indications are for a return of the present government, probably with an even bigger majority.    The past grip of inertia has been broken and the public is seeing work advancing on new rail lines, the extension of light rail in both the city centre and towards the suburbs - and at long last the hard decisions have been made to widen and extend the arterial roads that are such a misery to daily commuter traffic.

The hard core of the ministerial team running this state has adopted a "fact of life " stance in the decision making process.  It is all very well to talk of being "consultative "and "allowing the public to have a say " on  planning issues, but the end result is endless delay and the reworking of plans to appease criticism.    Everything on the drawing board needed to survive the NINBY factor !

The city of Sydney is going to be home to another 1.6 million people by 2050 and some very hard decisions need to be made and implemented if they are to have somewhere to live, jobs to deliver them a pay packet - and transport that actually move great masses of people both swiftly and at reasonable cost.   All that will not happen if every move gets bogged down in endless appeals and court actions.

Sydney is starting to look a little jaded in comparison with other world cities.  Our skyline does not compare well with even Melbourne and it is certain that the building height ceiling will shortly be lifted.  Living density needs to increase in proximity to "transportation corridors " and that means some pleasant and leafy suburbs will need to change character - and that will displease their present residents.  Home acquisition and demolition to widen arterial roads and make way for new train stations are unpopular necessities.    The people concerned usually agree that such improvements are necessary - but then demand that they occur  "somewhere else "!

It seems that this ministerial team is prepared to ride out the inevitable placard waving demonstrators deploring the decisions it makes - and suffer the noisy displeasure that those decisions impose on significant groups of people.  Where actual acquisition of land is involved it is essential that market value compensation be offered.  A change of zoning to allow denser living ratios usually sends land values soaring and while many people regret having to move - in the long run they improve their situation and gain in wealth.

Inevitably, there will be charges that the government is being arrogant - and hard hearted.  It is certainly clearing away the obstacles and removing legal barriers to increase the speed of change - and some will claim that as "running rough shod over civil liberties ", but wherever the NINBY factor causes long delays it also vastly increases the cost of getting the job done. In the past, this very factor has caused the city of Sydney to stagnate !

Strong government that gets things done is the difference between modern, vibrant cities that are world tourist destinations - and many former great cities that have lost their glitter and retreated into oblivion with suburbs that are little more than ghettos with rampant crime because of fading living facilities.  Many older suburbs of Sydney are crying out for redevelopment and there are former industrial zones that need to be transformed into living and work hubs that can be the way of the future.

Like it or not - Sydney is going to get those 1.6 million extra people by 2050 and whether they fold neatly into a nicely planned urban landscape or tend to cram into yesterday's suburbs and turn them into favellas will depend on how decisions made now are implemented.