HALF-A-MILLION dollars will be spent ripping out cobblestones on the roads around the Northbridge Piazza and replacing them with asphalt. The cobblestoned surface has been a headache for Perth city council from almost the day they were laid as part of the multi-million-dollar piazza project. Back in 2011 the Voice reported the cobblestones were splitting…

VINCENT mayor John Carey has warned Perth councillors to expect a lot more community lobbying once the two councils are merged. Mr Carey took aim at comments like those from Cr James Limnios, who claimed he’d been “badgered” by people over the Michelides tobacco factory. “It’s not badgering, it’s actually democracy at work, and get…

THE CBD firm at the centre of a row over buskers in the Murray Street mall says it’s being unfairly painted as full of snobs and accuses Perth city council of shabby treatment. Jenny Morrow manages finance and admin at software developer Calytryx Technology. She’d spearheaded a 50-person petition asking the council to push buskers…

ARCHITECT Barry Baltinas and his firm like to push boundaries. A decade ago they raised eyebrows taking on a client who’d asked for an apartment block styled on Miami’s art deco high rise: The Miami apartment complex became the most expensive in Perth at the time, with millionaire porn king Malcolm Day deciding to nestle…

MT LAWLEY MLA Michael Sutherland was pounding the beat this week—not on the hustings but to sell The Big Issue. The Liberal MP hasn’t fallen on hard times, he’s one of 70 politicians, mayors and CEOs Australia-wide helping the organisation reach its target of selling $100,000 of magazines during International Street Paper Vendor Week (February…

BIG changes are on the way for West Perth’s aged streetscape with three houses to be demolished to make way for 48 units. Almost 60m of street across houses 32, 40 and 44 Cowle Street will be knocked down while a semi-detached pair of heritage-listed properties will be incorporated into the $8.35m design by property…

THE WA government has slashed $140,000 from Bayswater’s expected $700,000 in local roads funding. The council is furious and has resolved to write to premier Colin Barnett to protest. It will also support the WA local government association’s bid to seek legal advice on the move. WA treasurer Troy Buswell said last month that local…

BAYSWATER council has ramped up its war on mosquitoes with delivery of the Argo Frontier—an amphibious, all-terrain vehicle. The vehicle will give the city’s crack Mosquito Control Unit access to otherwise inaccessible breeding sites: “It was difficult and sometimes dangerous for MCU officers to access areas with pit falls, snakes and heavy mud,” mayor Sylvan…

BAYSWATER councillors are to be sent invitations to every council event in their ward. The policy emerged after former mayor Terry Kenyon, who is still a councillor, complained he’d not been invited by mayor Sylvan Albert to a function at the tennis club. Cr Albert says to the best of his knowledge the usual protocol…

FANCY driving a train, being a policeman, a clown, an AFL footballer, US president or even the pope? Choose your avatar and you can be who you like at the Perth International Arts Festival exhibition I Think I Can, an interactive instillation put together by a Tasmanian puppeteer and the Fremantle and District Model Railway…