June, 2010

The name of the new Sustainable Population portfolio implies that growth and environmental sustainability have to be traded off. The real limit to growth however is the potential inability of the political system to make the right infrastructure and policy decisions.

The floor area of new homes in most of Melbourne’s growth areas got smaller over the last three years, largely because of the boost to demand from Federal and State first home owners assistance.

Young people are driving less. Driving is not the highly symbolic rite-of-passage for Gen Ys that it was for baby boomers. There are a range of factors driving this chance which suggest it is not transitory.

The Age advocates construction of a rail line to Melbourne Airport, but the case has not been made

The man who devised the Beard-Einstein conflation may have lived like a character from a novel, but he delivered one of the great addresses on climate change

Steven Johnson’s book about Dr John Snow’s fight to show that cholera was caused by contaminated water, not noxious odours, is both an exciting narrative and a intelligent look at the social, health and technological issues that governed public health policy in Victorian London.

A bigger Melbourne need not inevitably be a worse Melbourne. Many much larger cities are sought-after locations, suggesting scale and density have advantages. The key task is to manage growth well.

The winners of the Victorian App My State competition have an urban focus

One option for dealing with over-crowding on Melbourne’s trains could be to increase prices for peak period travel.

This 520 unit development in Coburg reaches up 13 stories to make good use of a rare, large inner suburban site. It is the kind of development we need to see more of.