FOUR years after being told it was too expensive and too hard, Crib Lane cafe owner Michael Ivanoff finally has a seated parklet. The Hay Street trader says a changing of the guard at the City of Perth helped make it happen; in 2016 he applied to convert one car bay into footpath so he…

THE WA Planning Commission has scrawled all over Bayswater council’s structure plan for the Baysie town centre. The WAPC says the council’s modest height limits of four to six storeys aren’t ambitious enough and won’t lead to a vibrant strip. The council submitted its plan two years ago, but the McGowan government has since announced…

THE 2021 Skyworks looks likely to go ahead provided WA’s Covid-19 rate stays flatlined. Commissioners will decide at this week’s council meeting whether to press the start button on planning the big Australia Day show following premier Mark McGowan’s urging to go ahead. The decision will also affect Christmas and New Year’s festivities. Staff had…

LORD mayoral candidate Di Bain says City of Perth ratepayers should get to vote in a plebiscite about whether the council keeps funding the lion’s share of Skyworks. The event costs $2.7m a year and the council pays the vast majority, but businesses funding it through their rates don’t see much benefit in people sitting…

AFTER eight years in the making the “Stop Puppy Farming” bill made it to WA Parliament this week; but it could be a short visit. Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker, who chaired the Stop Puppy Farming implementation working group, told Parliament on Tuesday the bill would reduce animal cruelty and the number of dogs being…

CITY property owners are stuck with their big annual parking bay fees. Activate Perth had petitioned the McGowan government to delay this year’s levy and spend some of the $130 million accruing in the levy account to benefit city businesses which have been hammered by Covid-19. But premier Mark McGowan says the government can’t legally…

MANY folk have been missing live music, but the itch for something acoustic has been particularly strong for Mount Lawley jazz muso Mace Francis. Dr Francis, a gigging muso, teacher and director of the Perth International Arts Festival,  says within a week of Covid-19 restrictions he’d lost all his work and was restricted to practicing at home by himself. But…

HOLLYWOOD, Venice, and now Northbridge: A giant sign reminding people which suburb they’re in is planned to hang across William Street. The proposal’s come from Happy Heart, the company set up by Adrian Fini and Marcus Canning to re-launch The Rechabite as a multi-level arts and hospitality hub. It’s hoped the sign made up of…

ASKING someone’s favourite movie line usually yields a bunch of half-remembered “are you feeling lucky, punk?” or “Luke, I’m your father” misquotes.  For the new mural out front of his Leederville microcinema, The Backlot owner Ian Hale went to the experts and asked a bunch of Perth film figures for their favourites (he had a…