PERTH city council has approved the demolition of the old Michelides tobacco factory, much to the dismay of heritage fans. But lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi didn’t have much patience for their campaign to save the factory, saying if they loved old buildings they should buy them. The factory’s owner Graham Hardie wants to knock over…

FOR 20 years Dave Boothey has been a regular sight in North Perth, picking up rubbish, cleaning the streets and doing odd jobs for local businesses. This week his long-time service to the community was recognised with the Vincent active citizen award. The upbeat local retired in 1993 after working for Westrail’s sleeper team for…

RUBBISH collection fees in Perth could soar because technology is making the traditional garbo obsolete. So far just one apartment block has opted out of Perth city council’s rubbish service because it’s got suction tubes that deposit refuse into a skip bin collected by private contractors, but the council’s techies are worried. They fear that…

VINCENT city council is hoping to turn its barren verges into lush native gardens through a new adopt-a-verge scheme. Under the plan the council will do the earthworks and install mulch for interested residents, then cough up for 20 plants at its twice-yearly native plant sale. Once it’s set up, caretaking is handed over to…

THE spirit of the garage game developer is alive and well at SK Games’converted office on Fitzgerald Street. Owner Louis Roots set up the company late last year after coming back to Perth back from a Danish job developing games for mobile phones. It was a ballsy move for Roots, who employs six paid staff…

THE list of long-empty buildings plaguing Northbridge is shrinking. Perth city council keeps a register of tough-nut properties that aren’t progressing, but planning committee chief Rob Butler says it’s been whittled from eight to three. The remaining properties on the list are: • 78 James Street, the old DV8 Nightclub; • 2-6 Parker Street, the…

PRIDE’S parade is heading back to the night. Following a dire turnout at last year’s inaugural daytime parade the Northbridge event will be pushed back to 8pm. The Pride management committee had hoped a daytime parade would encourage more families, but Voice staffer Jenny D’Anger marched last year and said audiences were a fifth of…

THERE’LL be a three-way tussle in the by-election for Vincent’s south ward. Business manager Mark Rossi, urban planner James Peart and the executive director of the state’s development department Gary Simmons will fight it out to fill the position made vacant when John Carey was elevated to the mayoralty. At October’s election Mr Peart came…

A Mt LAWLEY resident has asked an artist to paint an alien mural on his back wall, after graffiti artists kept tagging his property. Arts management graduate John Clark was fed up looking at the ugly tags on his rear wall, which backs onto Jack Marks Lane, so he got in touch with local artist…

A UNITED STATES printer has left local Bruce Springsteen fans out of pocket after pulling the pin on a t-shirt they had designed featuring their hero. Members of Perth’s Springsteen fan club had come up with the design—a silhouette of the New Jersey muso against the Perth skyline—and were having them printed by Spreadshirt. About…