VINCENT council has introduced a “12 month amnesty” on change of use applications for the main Beaufort Street strip in a bid to fill vacant shopfronts. Currently a business must apply for a change of use if they want to open a different type of business from the one previously there, which can take 90…

A POIGNANT game of snakes and ladders will be held in Perth during homelessness week to raise awareness of how people who can quickly go back to square one in life. The theme of this year’s homelessness week is “Home Safe Home”, and organisers Grief Centre WA hope the board game will be a light-hearted…

ARTIST, anthropologist and philanthropist Sagitte Yom-Tov, who died in 2013 aged 36, may soon have a laneway named in her honour. Vincent council is considering naming the laneway between Irene and William Streets after her. Yomtov means “good day” in Hebrew. The lane is near her home and beside Hyde Park, one of her favourite…

A RENT-A-CUP start-up is hoping to dramatically reduce landfill by doing away with single use, takeaway coffee cups. With an estimated one billion plastic-infused cups going to landfill in Australia every year, it’s time for lateral thinking, says Northbridge resident Laurence Hellmuth. “[They] are causing environmental problems that will last for generations, for a product…

LABOR MP John Carey has defended Perth council’s commissioners following Opposition leader Liza Harvey’s criticism of the city as “rudderless”, “grotty” and full of “meth zombies”. In a brutal critique of the state’s capital, Ms Harvey told The West Australian this week the council’s bureaucrats were “completely out of touch and out of step for…

GETTING a coffee in East Perth’s town centre just got $3.50 cheaper, with the roll-out of the council’s one-hour free parking trial this week. The Royal Street parking machines have been covered between Trafalgar Road and Fielder Street. For the first two weeks parking inspectors will dole out one-off cautions for people overstaying the hour,…

A NEW walking performance exploring Perth during the 1980s AIDS crisis has unearthed a rich history its developer feared was at risk of being lost. Noemie Huttner-Koros’s The Lion Never Sleeps takes the audience through the Northbridge streets where the queer community gathered, danced and fought the discrimination they faced during the 80s and early…

WITH urban homes short on garden space, indoor plants are becoming like little green children to many inner city dwellers. Indoor plants have become mascots, meme-material and mental health menders, especially for millennials taken by their compactness and affordability. Now Perth City Farm is jumping on the growing indoor plant trend, hosting the Perth Indoor…

BEEN hacked? ECU’s Alexa Palassis wants to hear from you. The psychology honours student is studying the personal and emotional cost when a digital identity is compromised, whether it’s social media or bank accounts. Ms Palassis says anyone can be a target. “Millennials are, funnily enough, the most common victims of hacking, with 60 per…

A FORMER senior City of Perth staff member says the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority ruled out advertising on a Noongar-inspired tower in Yagan Square. “This was our fear but the MRA assured us no advertising would be on it,” the former employee said. They’d been involved in discussions with the MRA, along with a range colleagues.…