23rd June - Protest to keep the bike lanes in William St

Thursday last week saw a number of cyclists converge at Martin Place together with the Green Party to protest against the proposal to remove the newly acquired bicycle lanes on William st. Sydney could fast be going backwards as Iemma attempts to solve the Cross City Tunnel debarcle by offering up the bike lanes to yet more car lanes. Nice one Iemma! Has Sydney gone mad? Are the streets of the CBD not congested enough to warrant yet more in-roads? Let's pray they see sense.

Chris Harris (Greens Councillor) and Lee Rhianon
(Greens MLC) hold up a blueprint of the outlined
bicycle routes into the city...

On a more positive note, I attended a talk at the City Recital Hall about 'what makes cities great'? Robert Adams an influential dude in Melbourne (Director of Design and Culture at the City of Melbourne) delivered a fantastic synopsis upon the last 20 years in Melbourne and how they have slowly moved from a 'car crazed' city to a city which embraces public transport, pedestrians and of course cyclists. The macro differences affecting Melbourne are now quite startling; small side street cafes have sprung up all over the CBD, people stop and hang out in public places and the CBD has become a navigatable desintation place. He talked about how you focus first upon the streets on a human rather than car scale, you then begin thinking about how architecture interacts with the street landscape. And, rather than asking how you can inject some 'character' you start with the character that currently exists or memories of that public space... I cannot do it justice but I felt a lift of optimism that somebody so impassioned had a seat in power. So come on Sydney!!