August, 2012

Last week the Pew Research Centre published a report containing this simple but remarkable chart of the change in mean family income in the US over the last sixty years. It’s only a simple graphic but it’s come up multiple times in social media over the last few days because it tells an important story clearly [...]

According to the Urbis Hip List, the 21 hippest places to live in Australia are mostly in Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney has nine of them and Melbourne seven. Next are Perth and – this might come as a surprise – Canberra, with two each. Brisbane has just one suburb on the List and no other [...]

Frommer’s published a top-ten list of The world’s most walkable cities for tourists a couple of days ago. Few will be surprised Florence and Paris top the list but there might be some raised eyebrows that Venice isn’t there. And Melbourne and Sydney among the ten most walkable cities in the entire universe? The full [...]

A team of US and French researchers reckons it has distilled the architectural essence of Paris – that je ne sais quoi. They say the “look and feel” of a city like Paris doesn’t come from a few famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. Rather, it derives largely from “a set of stylistic elements” that [...]

According to NSW Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, on-road cycle paths in the centre of Sydney are in the wrong place and exacerbate traffic congestion. However his Department flatly contradicts him. It reckons they’re not only in the right place, they don’t slow traffic either! The prospect of increased traffic congestion from road space “sacrificed” for [...]

Victoria’s Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, seems to have forgotten about the Metropolitan Planning Strategy he promised during the election campaign. Mr Guy’s been in office since November 2010 and the team preparing the Metro Strategy for Melbourne was set up a year ago. Yet the only output we’ve seen so far is a web site, [...]

The Fairfax press published an article this weekend showing the linkages between company directors who sit on the boards of S&P/ASX 200 companies. Its illustrated by a pretty infographic that unfortunately doesn’t  do a very good job of informing. In fact it illustrates some of the pitfalls with the booming infographic design industry (see the first [...]

Ho hum, another half-year, another chapter in the World’s Most Liveable City sweepstakes, this time courtesy of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). In the latest release of the EIU’s bi-annual survey of 140 cities, Australian and Canadian cities once again dominate the top rankings, accounting for eight of the ten highest-rated metros. Melbourne remains the [...]

In the space of a fortnight, the Brits showed they’re getting to be remarkably good at sport. They collected 65 medals and came third in the medal standings. A fantastic performance – GB is looking like the New Australia! But what did Team GB do over the same fortnight with its traditional and formidable strength [...]

During the first week of the Olympics, architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly wrote a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald arguing that London planned its Games better than Sydney (Where the Brits have us beaten). The gist of her argument is London’s facilities were put in accessible locations and provided with good transport infrastructure. In Sydney, [...]