2 There is a tension in Sydney and other Australian cities as the suburban, detached house way of living becomes unaffordable for many people or if affordable is located remote from jobs. The tension is coming from those wedded to the suburban model seeing apartment towers encroaching on their patch, the towers represent a challenge to a way of life people are used to. But many people see the urban apartment model as being better for their lifestyle than a remote house, some see the advantage of someone else looking after the garden and the swimming pool, some see the advantage of walking to the shops or to work. This edition of Urban Ideas presents ten examples of apartment dwellers who are fans of this way of living. Some are young people wanting to be closer to the action, to the amenities a city can offer, some are families who find the shared facilities of play grounds, parks and child care facilities make family life easier. Some are retirees looking for shared company and the ease of walking to amenities and some are workers in the city who don’t want to commute for hours each day. These are all genuine citizens of Sydney who have found apartment living suits them better than urban housing. We have assembled a range of people who have the common theme of LOVING APARTMENT LIVING. AS SYDNEY GROWS THERE IS LESS LAND FOR HOUSING At 5 million people Sydney has reached the limits of it’s horizontal spread. The NSW Government has a plan for three city centres in Sydney CBD, Parramatta and around the Aerotropolis in Western Sydney. This will encourage some jobs to move from the Sydney CBD to the West but most planners see greater density happening around Parramatta and around the Aerotropolis. So each of the three cities is likely to have significant higher density apartment living around the centres. With the network of ‘turn up and go’ metro rail being rolled out across Sydney this gives the ideal framework for where density should go - around rail stations. This is the model that happens in London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. As Sydney and Melbourne approach the size of these global cities they will take on similar urban densities related to metro / underground / subway rail systems. SYDNEY IS AT A TIPPING POINT AS URBAN APARTMENTS BECOME A PREFERRED WAY OF LIVING FOR MANY PEOPLE Urban Taskforce is keen to have responses to the proposals illustrated in this issue of URBAN IDEAS and we welcome comments to: admin@urbantaskforce.com.au Chris Johnson AM Chief Executive Officer Urban Taskforce Australia OWNERSHIP VS ACCESS The ten examples of apartment dwellers all talk about how good it is to be close to parks, shops, public transport and amenities that they can get access to. They also talk about having child care on site, a shared garden or swimming pool on site that they don’t have to maintain. Essentially they have traded ownership of a big house with front and back gardens and its own swimming pool with access to much larger and better quality versions of these amenities. They just don’t own the facilities. The same attitude comes with a double car garage compared to walking to the light rail or to the rail station for travel to work - access vs ownership. The result of this shift of focus I found in interviewing the ten groups is that they walk more and they become fitter as a result. NEGATIVE MEDIA ABOUT HIGHER DENSITY Over the last year in Sydney a large amount of media has covered the issue of “over development” where urban dwellers have criticised apartment towers. We asked a number of our apartment dwellers to respond to these attacks on their life style and most thought it was a misunderstanding about a different way of living. We found that all the people we interviewed loved their apartment lifestyle and they dismissed the negative comments as being a beat up. This edition of Urban Ideas presents the positives of urban living as outlined by those living this way. I have included myself in the list to show that I walk the talk, that my wife and myself enjoy our apartment lifestyle far more than our previous urban home. CAMPAIGN To give a voice to the apartment dwellers of Sydney, who are now a third of all homes, we commissioned market research company Principle Co to develop a campaign called “Welcome Home” that had a video profiling the lifestyle of a number of the apartment dwellers in this magazine in a video. We went further to set up a website www.welcomehome.org.au and ran a social media campaign to get supporters of apartment living to tell us their story. We are keen to help build up a large body of people who support apartment living to become more public. Our concern is that as the NSW planning system builds in community participation requirements that this will mainly reflect the views of retirees and suburban dwellers. We need an army of urban apartment community representatives to input into the planning system. The people in this edition of Urban Ideas could be the beginning of the new urban community activists that support apartment living. WWW.WELCOMEHOME.ORG.AU