dallas
December 9th, 2005, 06:21 PM
I borrowed this thread from EDSG25 (thanks - hope you don't mind) from the US forum.
Anyway, I thought that this could be applied to Australian cities, capital or non capital, it doesn't matter.
Based on a car speedometer how would you judge the growth and direction that a city is heading in, or to paraphase EDSG25 "how much each city is pushing the accelerator."
So let's give ourselves the opportunity to do that right now.
It's really very simple. We track a city's speed of development, acquisition of future oriented economy, quality of life issues, and exciting urbanization using the following accelerator model (which maxes out at 100):
0 (at a standstill)_______50 (average growth)_______100 (Look out:full speed ahead!!)
positive growth should be measured by city's size and importance, comparing where it was, with where it is, and most importantly where it is going. In essence, the city's acelerator number is generated by looking at the city and seeing what is happening there. the comparison comes with other cities afterwords. Thus smaller Darwin could get a higher rate than larger Adelaide if you preceive Darwin is moving forward based on its current size and status faster than Adelaide is.
Using the above:
1. take any city (cities) you choose
2. give them an accelerator number
3. explain why you think it deserves that number for its rate of positive growth/change
So as an outsider looking in I would say:
Melbourne is at 90
It's has managed to lock in some fantastic growth, has instituted policies that make the city a more vibrant and interesting and has managed to rebound back from the dark days of the rust belt and state bank collapse in an impressive manner both in confidence and style.
Brisbane - 90
Along with Melbourne, Brisbane has been atrracting people and businesses northwards at a fair clip for two decades and although it still has plenty of room for growth in both size and maturity, from the news stories and the comments I've seen from other forumers it seems to be developing into quite a vibrant city.
Sydney - 70
I think Sydney will always grow as it is Australia's international city, and the one city in Australia that comes close to having that big city, organized chaos feel about it. It loses out to Brisbane and Melbourne because it doesn't seem to have the dynamic growth that they do and relies to much on the "we are the biggest, so they will come to us anyway" kind of attitude, but I don't think that will last forever though as there seems to be some stirrings on setting Syyney up for growth again both from the private and the public sectors.
Darwin - 70
For a small city, they seem to be working towards developing themselves into a very growth orientated city, hence the new apartment projects that have sprung up there in the past couple of years.
Perth - 65
The goverment and people on the whole these days seem to be a lot more introverted and reluctant to go for the big gamble and big growth projects these days (certainly compared to when I was a kid in the 80's), instead it's a case of let rely on resources to supply all our growth and not diversify, and lets not change anything too much, lest we rock the boat. It still grows and attracts people but the old state of excitement days when it felt like WA was going somewhere are well and truely over until there is a new goverment with some vision.
Adelaide - 60
Sorry, I don't know a lot about how Adelaide's been performing, so please don't take offence, but it still seems to suffer from the stuck in the middle syndrome and although I've always enjoyed visiting, it has never been able to hit the accelerator hard because of a) where it's located, b) the resource base is not as big as WA and c) it's always been perceived as the city of churches, and a kind of quite place.
Canberra - 50
Some new projects and and some population growth seems to keep Canberra at a sedate 50, nothing exciting really going on in the nation's caplital.
Hobart - 30
No new projects, the city hasn't really grown or diversified and minimal population growth. Not a whole lot going on in the great scheme of things.
As I said, feel free to disagree or set me straight where you think I've gone wrong (and set your own speeds for your city). To kick it off I did the all the capitals, but feel free to add in any city in Australia.
Anyway, I thought that this could be applied to Australian cities, capital or non capital, it doesn't matter.
Based on a car speedometer how would you judge the growth and direction that a city is heading in, or to paraphase EDSG25 "how much each city is pushing the accelerator."
So let's give ourselves the opportunity to do that right now.
It's really very simple. We track a city's speed of development, acquisition of future oriented economy, quality of life issues, and exciting urbanization using the following accelerator model (which maxes out at 100):
0 (at a standstill)_______50 (average growth)_______100 (Look out:full speed ahead!!)
positive growth should be measured by city's size and importance, comparing where it was, with where it is, and most importantly where it is going. In essence, the city's acelerator number is generated by looking at the city and seeing what is happening there. the comparison comes with other cities afterwords. Thus smaller Darwin could get a higher rate than larger Adelaide if you preceive Darwin is moving forward based on its current size and status faster than Adelaide is.
Using the above:
1. take any city (cities) you choose
2. give them an accelerator number
3. explain why you think it deserves that number for its rate of positive growth/change
So as an outsider looking in I would say:
Melbourne is at 90
It's has managed to lock in some fantastic growth, has instituted policies that make the city a more vibrant and interesting and has managed to rebound back from the dark days of the rust belt and state bank collapse in an impressive manner both in confidence and style.
Brisbane - 90
Along with Melbourne, Brisbane has been atrracting people and businesses northwards at a fair clip for two decades and although it still has plenty of room for growth in both size and maturity, from the news stories and the comments I've seen from other forumers it seems to be developing into quite a vibrant city.
Sydney - 70
I think Sydney will always grow as it is Australia's international city, and the one city in Australia that comes close to having that big city, organized chaos feel about it. It loses out to Brisbane and Melbourne because it doesn't seem to have the dynamic growth that they do and relies to much on the "we are the biggest, so they will come to us anyway" kind of attitude, but I don't think that will last forever though as there seems to be some stirrings on setting Syyney up for growth again both from the private and the public sectors.
Darwin - 70
For a small city, they seem to be working towards developing themselves into a very growth orientated city, hence the new apartment projects that have sprung up there in the past couple of years.
Perth - 65
The goverment and people on the whole these days seem to be a lot more introverted and reluctant to go for the big gamble and big growth projects these days (certainly compared to when I was a kid in the 80's), instead it's a case of let rely on resources to supply all our growth and not diversify, and lets not change anything too much, lest we rock the boat. It still grows and attracts people but the old state of excitement days when it felt like WA was going somewhere are well and truely over until there is a new goverment with some vision.
Adelaide - 60
Sorry, I don't know a lot about how Adelaide's been performing, so please don't take offence, but it still seems to suffer from the stuck in the middle syndrome and although I've always enjoyed visiting, it has never been able to hit the accelerator hard because of a) where it's located, b) the resource base is not as big as WA and c) it's always been perceived as the city of churches, and a kind of quite place.
Canberra - 50
Some new projects and and some population growth seems to keep Canberra at a sedate 50, nothing exciting really going on in the nation's caplital.
Hobart - 30
No new projects, the city hasn't really grown or diversified and minimal population growth. Not a whole lot going on in the great scheme of things.
As I said, feel free to disagree or set me straight where you think I've gone wrong (and set your own speeds for your city). To kick it off I did the all the capitals, but feel free to add in any city in Australia.