Urban Paradox
March 2014
It’s an amusing modern irony that the micro-management of progressives creates the sterility that conservatives don’t feel threatened by.
When the Victorian government announced that Fishermans Bend would be opened up to increased development as part of the vision for a ‘Grand CBD’, there was much gnashing of teeth amongst Melbourne’s urban enthusiasts. The primary concern was that Fishermans Bend would become ‘another Docklands’; a sterile yuppie ghetto. “Plan it properly” was the mantra.
However, ‘properly’ planning the area was not actually the problem with the Docklands; counter-intuitively, over-planning it was.
In the modern era in Western cities we don’t like anything that looks a bit messy, and our governments have a difficult time turning a blind eye to anything deemed unseemly. “Think of the children” tabloid hysterics permeate the psyche of all our decision makers. Loosening control is not considered an option. Governments desire enticing, vibrant and unique areas to make a city attractive, but fear how they actually are created.
Broadly there are two types of creators that a city requires. There are the macro-creators who are the developers, large companies and governments who produce buildings and infrastructure and mass employment; the creators who deal in large scale.
Then there are the micro-creators. Those who create life, vibrancy, community. They are the artists and artisans from across the spectrum, the event organisers and facilitators, the small business owners of exotic wares, small-scale entrepreneurs and the hotch-potch of chancers who inhabit the edges of society.
There is a natural suspicion between the two, but they are both essential to each other, and to a city’s success.
Unfortunately, our modern liberal/conservative philosophical alliance (which I attribute to both major parties) has the impulse to both create and stifle simultaneously. It has fused one half of liberal creation – the macro – with conservative distrust of the micro. It was this, combined with the progressive and bureaucratic impulse of excessive administration, that gave birth to the Docklands as its inanimate bastard child.
For Fishermans Bend to be a success this Coalition of the Commonplace needs to be demolished.
The dynamic and diverse CBD and inner suburbs emerged in eras with a less omnipresent government. As difficult as it is for progressives to accept in the current big vs small government populist narrative, vibrancy cannot be imposed. It is spontaneous, unadministered – and maybe even a little dangerous. There is no such thing as government-sponsored cool. Progressive good intentions and conservative fear are both its enemies.
The organic growth of community and kinship suffocates with these over-planned, top-down directives. There isn’t the spirit of enthusiastic collaborative human investment when the government holds such tight reins.
There’s an odd tension that has arisen in our culture where those who would be considered micro-creators who require freedom and latitude, gravitate towards parties like The Greens, whose rhetoric may support their values, but whose methodologies would restrict their abilities. It’s an amusing modern irony that the micro-management of progressives creates the sterility that conservatives don’t feel threatened by.
However, one area where the government’s hands are necessary and creative is with public transport. The most essential influence government can have to an area’s vitality is access.
If the government is serious about their ‘Grand CBD’ vision, they need to accompany it with a grand transport vision.
The reluctance of both major parties to invest in rail infrastructure has been of great negligence to the city. An understanding of the widespread economic and social benefits of public transport needs to become a central philosophy for all politicians.
Fishermans Bend requires a Docklands Loop. From Yarraville or Spotswood across the river, with two or three stations in the Fishermans Bend, and into Southern Cross. Or linking up to the potential Melbourne Metro 2 floated in the recent Plan Melbourne study. This circular, or multiple entry access is essential to the success of the area.
Without this transport Fishermans Bend risks becoming little more than a suburban office park. The young and dynamic micro-creators need efficient and direct public transport connections to create the street-level, foot-friendly vibrancy that will enhance the area’s cultural charm.
The over-planning of the Docklands, through this Liberal/Conservative prism, assumed that by simply enticing in major companies the area would become alluring. Attracting major companies in order to provide mass employment is important. But part of that attraction comes from the city’s social capital. Suspicion of the organic way that an interesting and engaging culture is created made the Docklands’ development backwards; and characterless as a result.
What the area needs is for the government to relax its eyes and fingers. Roll back the entanglement of permits and provisos that predominantly restrict the creative abilities of the less financially secure micro-creators, and focus its morality detector towards real harm, not subjective distaste.
There needs to be some trust and faith shown in the public to interact and create with each other without this overbearing combination of conservative judgement and progressive condescension. Otherwise Fishermans Bend’s ability to be both a major cultural and economic asset for Melbourne will be limited.
Grant Wyeth is a Melbourne-based writer.
@grantwyeth
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