IT is great to see the comments and debate generated by Mr Harley, (“Speedy response,” Voice Letters, August 5, 2021) about the city’s response times to requests from residents and ratepayers.
City staff are working hard every day to manage and maintain our roads, footpaths, drains, parks, playgrounds, carparks, trees and community facilities.
We aim to respond to all requests within a reasonable time.
But there will often be a greater demand than we are able to meet with our current resourcing.
The localised flooding we experienced this winter was such an occasion.
Overall, the City of Vincent fared well during these storms compared to some of our neighbouring councils.
Our staff were on the roads in some of the most difficult weather conditions, unblocking drains in order of urgency and priority – not by who complained the most or loudest as being suggested by Mr Stevenson JP (28 August).
The city has undertaken extensive works to address some of the local drainage issues Mr Stevenson JP has raised.
Councillors and staff have also received and replied to dozens of emails from Mr Stevenson this year about various other matters and have met with him on several occasions to discuss his concerns in person.
City of Vincent council and administration aim to be highly responsive to all the concerns and issues raised by residents.
Mayor Cole, councillors and city staff are always available to hear these concerns in person, on the phone, via email, our website and in the council chamber.
We understand how issues around traffic, parking, trees, graffiti, waste, drainage, road and footpath conditions can impact daily life.
We would just ask Mr Stevenson to understand that we cannot always fix all the maintenance issues we have in the city all at once.
LIKE many other dads, I over did it with the unhealthy food and craft beer on Father’s Day.
I also had to wear a cap made by my young son, featuring his drawing of me that looked like Bela Lugosi with a hangover.
On Monday I was in dire need of some vitamins and greens, so I headed to The Little Bird Cafe in Northbridge for a Workout Bowl ($18.50). Thankfully it wasn’t dumbbells made out of tofu, but a healthy cacophony of steamed greens with marinated chicken.
Situated on the corner of Lake and Newcastle Streets, Little Bird is one of those cafes I’ve always passed driving in and out of the CBD, but never stopped to visit, because it’s on a busy thoroughfare.
On Monday, I easily found a parking spot opposite City Toyota and moseyed on up for lunch.
It was a roasting hot spring day and Little Bird was a pleasant oasis with the high ceilings in the old building making it feel cool and shady.
As well as a large dining area, there was bench seating beside the towering windows, which fully opened and allowed a pleasant breeze to waft in.
It was great for people-watching and having a meal on your lonesome.
The workout bowl tasted as good as it looked. The core of the dish, the marinated chicken, was perfectly seared with succulent flesh inside. A delicious burst of protein.
I’ve never tasted anything like the coconut and ginger sweet potato puree; an intriguing mix of sweet and spice that really demanded your attention.
In fact everything was well thought-out and inventive in this dish, including the turmeric cauliflower rice and moreish cashew aioli.
Nothing was rote or cliched. The steamed pea pods added a nice texture, but the real ingenious touch was the kale crisps.
Sprinkled over the top, they created a crunchy explosion in your mouth as you foraged around the plate.
The ‘workout bowl’ was available in gluten free, dairy free, and paleo vegan (whatever that is – maybe a slice of cardboard with cayenne pepper on it).
Despite it being busy at lunchtime, the service was super quick and the staff didn’t seemed stressed; enjoying chats with regulars who rocked up for coffee and food.
It made for a relaxing atmosphere, as in some places you can vicariously feel the tension as harried workers dash around the place.
Little Bird is a lovely cafe and I can see the green shots of recovery in the surrounding area, following the opening of the revamped Boola Bardip Museum.
But you still have that inner-city edge, with a woman passing-by leaning inside the bay window and ripping a serviette from the dispenser beside my plate. Ah well, we’re getting there.
I washed down my lovely lunch with a Dr Juice ($8)– a delicious medley of beetroot, apple and assorted fruit. By the end of it, I felt like Keith Richards after a blood transfusion.
Little Bird is well-priced and has a diverse range of brunch dishes, burgers, waffles, salads and cakes.
Well worth seeking out for a meal if you’re visiting the museum or at that end of the city.
By STEPHEN POLLOCK
Little Bird Cafe 100 Lake Street,Northbridge facebook.com/littlebirdonlake 9328 1670
DESPITE all the obstacles thrown up by covid, this year’s Perth International Jazz Festival will be the biggest yet with the jazzers embarking on a tour of regional WA.
Festival director Mace Francis says a $612,000 federal arts grant has enabled them to hire people to work on the festival all year around, whereas previously they used volunteers and short-term contractors.
“The RISE grant will make a huge difference to the overall running of the Festival and its expansion and reach across WA,” she says.
“This year we’ll be heading down to Busselton on Saturday November 13 following the Perth festival, and we’re now planning our 2022 PIJF On Tour into the south-west reaching down to Albany in May.
“In following years we’ll be heading east and north of the state to make sure we include as much of WA as we can and to share this jazz music that we love.”
The core festival in Perth has also been expanded with loads more free gigs in and around the CBD.
“I’m particularly excited about the Northbridge Piazza stage which will feature jazz infused funk, pop and hip hop bands, which you will be able to enjoy with a special jazz themed beer, specifically brewed by Northbridge Brewing Co,” Dr Francis says.
“We’ll also have a secret rooftop bar featuring hot Brazilian evenings that’s right in the middle of the CBD that no one knows about. If fact you won’t know where it is either until you buy a ticket.”
Jessica Carlton (above) will play at the launch of this year’s Perth International Jazz Festival.
Despite the increased scope of the festival, the ’international’ aspect has been curtailed by covid, with no overseas artists travelling to WA to perform.
However, at the time of going to print, musicians from South Australia and Tasmania were still allowed into WA and are scheduled to appear.
“Luckily we have local musicians that can hold their own on any international stage and we will feature as many of them as we can,” Dr Francis says.
“We won’t be able to bring in any international artists directly, but we do have a very exciting and innovative performance planned by an international trio who the audience will be able to interact with in real time using their own app.
“Collaborative music making via the internet like you have never experienced before.”
The annual festival will be held in Perth from November 5 – 7, but to get sandgropers in the mood they’ll be a program launch party on September 23 at The Rechabite Hall in Northbridge, where organisers will reveal who is playing at the festival and details of venues and special events.
The launch includes live performances from Bad Whip – improvisational dance music by drummer Alex Reid and keyboardist Josiah Padmanabhan – the renowned Nick Abbey Trio, a modern take on the classic piano trio, and the Carlton/Pass/Valenti Trio, showcasing the trumpet skills of Jessica Carlton.
Tix for the launch party are at megatix.com.au (you can either buy a ticket or become a “jazz messenger” member).
I COULD imagine Hercule Poirot sauntering about this Coolbinia home and twiddling his wax moustache.
That’s because it’s an art deco delight, overflowing with leadlight windows, soaring ceilings, original light fittings and a stunning bay window that overlooks the garden.
Normally these sort of ’character’ homes are poky affairs, but this house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage, study and a huge pool.
It’s got the best of both worlds – the vintage look and the practicalities needed for the modern family.
The centrepiece of the home is the expansive open plan living area, which flows into the gardens and decked gazebo.
If all feels incredibly bright and airy thanks to the neutral colour scheme, high ceilings and the natural light flooding through the windows, with many featuring art deco motifs.
My favourite area is the kitchen – there’s a lovely use of what looks like walnut panelling on the cupboards and island bench.
The burnished high-end wood reminds me of the cabin in a vintage boat or the dashboard on a classic Jaguar.
The wood is offset with some beautiful Bianco Romano granite benchtops and a range of top-end appliances.
It looks so nice, I’d almost be embarrassed cooking my microwave lasagne and oven chips in here.
I said the kitchen is my favourite, but the pool house might just take its crown in summer.
The heated salt water pool is a beauty and is framed by a mosaic feature wall and spacious entertaining area.
There’s also an outdoor shower and WC out here.
I could picture Poirot and Hastings in their stripey 1930s bathing suits going for a salutary dip, while mulling over the poisoning of some wealthy socialite. The roof pretty much extends the use of this pool all year around, so it really is a great feature.
The bedrooms are as tasteful and elegant as you would expect, with two of them semi-ensuite.
There’s also a second living space in this home, so when the kids get older they can have a little den to hang with their mates.
Wine buffs will be in raptures at the temperature-controlled cellar, and where better to drink the vino than in the lovely reticulated back garden which has an array of citrus trees and a plum, olive, mango and nashi pear tree.
Situated on a whopping 809sqm block on Adair Parade, you can walk to the Kyilla Farmers market on Saturday morning, and are close to Mount Lawley High and Coolbinia Primary Schools.
This is an art deco beauty and as Poirot would say, “Use ze little grey cells” and get along to the viewing.
Home open today (Saturday September 11) andtomorrow 12-12:30pm Offers in the mid-$1m’s 46 Adair Parade, Coolbinia Bellcourt Property Group6141 7848 Jody Missell 0401 770 782
Ross Ioppolo hitting Vincent’s south ward streets ahead of October’s election.
AFTER spending seven months trying to get Vincent council to fix a traffic safety issue just metres from city hall, Leederville local Ross Ioppolo has decided to run for council.
He says while the experience was “incredibly frustrating” he hopes to turn it into a positive and steer the council more towards listening to local solutions.
“There’s an opportunity to re-engage with the community,” he says, noting quite a few south ward locals he’s chatted to have felt disenfranchised lately.
“In most cases residents are the ones who have the solutions to problems in their neighbourhood.”
The instigating issue was verge parking on Vincent Street which blocked residents’ view while coming out of their driveways.
“It was like playing a game of Frogger trying to get across the road, without seeing the traffic,” he says.
Mr Ioppolo first contacted council about it in January but says he couldn’t get clear answers about what its policy was, whether verge parking could be banned, and whether his issue was being progressed.
After hearing of a neighbour’s similar experience over the same issue, he gathered a petition signed by just about everyone on the street and put it to councillors.
A report went to councillors in July noting this was a staff matter, but nonetheless informing council that staff had decided to ban Vincent Street parking, taking effect late August.
Transparency
Mr Ioppolo says “from a resident’s perspective… when there’s no transparency about what has happened after you reached out to the City of Vincent, and no timeframe, and no adequate or meaningful engagement and communication, it’s incredibly frustrating”.
With a finance background and having worked as a CFO, he says in private industry complaints such as his would be handled like a ticketing system. “You’d log it, have it on record, and once it’s closed you’d close it out, and you’re very transparent about how long issues take to get resolved.
That promotes accountability because you have a history of performance.”
If elected he’d like to see council take a more active role engaging residents, and is keen on supporting the revival of precinct groups which once boldly represented resident interests before largely fading away in the past decade. He says even something like council supporting the return of the local history walks would be a good way to get people interested in their area and engaged with council.
Mr Ioppolo says he has no interest in other areas of politics, saying “I’m really only doing this because I want change for council and administration, purely for residents’ sake.
“Local government is that last bastion of community and in my view that should transcend politics.”
He’s running in south ward where there are two seats being contested. Incumbent councillor Jonathan Hallett is seeking another term, while after 12 years in the job Josh Topelberg has decided not to re-contest.
In north ward there are two four-year spots and one for a two-year stint, as councillor Sally Smith is retiring two years before her term expires.
PERTH councillors have agreed to plop $25 million into a pool at the WACA, as long as there are no maintenance bills.
The state government’s been badgering the city to pay for its portion of a pool as part of the joint local, state and federal City Deal.
But the cash has been long delayed as the council balked at the cost of looking after a pool, with the high-water mark estimated at $151 million over its lifespan.
But councillors were still keen to have a pool somewhere in the city and decided pitching in $25m was the cheapest and quickest way to go about it.
They unanimously voted to commit to handing over the city’s contribution, with conditions the city doesn’t pay maintenance or operate the pool.
The city’s commitment’s good as long as the city, state and WACA agree on terms within six months.
PERTH needs a statue commemorating a significant woman to break up its conga line of stony-faced blokes, deputy lord mayor Sandy Anghie says.
She’s put up a motion for council to invite submissions for statues commemorating significant women, drawing on a quote from Rebecca Solnit’s book The Monument Wars to explain the need.
“A city is a book we read by wandering its streets, a text that favours one version of history and suppresses others, enlarges your identity or reduces it, makes you feel important or disposable depending on who you are and what you are,” the passage reads.
Cr Anghie told fellow councillors she surveyed the CBD’s two main arteries on St George Terrace and Hay Street and “found 20 statues of men, or representing men… and only one woman, and she is a kangaroo. I found two children, also kangaroos.”
Outside those two strips there’s a statue of feminist activist Bessie Rischbieth on Elizabeth Quay, a statue of sister of mercy Ursula Frayne at Victoria Square, and Judith, a statue of a nine-year-old Judith Anketell (nee Fyfe) perched in Howard Street.
Cr Anghie notes while the blokey statues are “larger than life, powerful male figures”, the few women tend towards diminutive barefoot Bessie and nude young Judith.
“What message does this send to young women, or in fact any visitor to our city?”
She added “in addition to the lack of women, where is our indigenous history visible on our streets? This also needs to be addressed.”
They’ll put out a call for submissions and then consider listing some funds. It usually takes about two years from setting a brief to installation day.
Statues can be pretty pricey: The Sir Charles Court bronze installed on St Georges Terrace in 2011 was paid for by the state government and cost near half a million dollars.
As for who pays for the woman statue, Cr Anghie said existing statues had been paid for by either council, state government, the private sector or community groups, and they could all be tapped to chip in.
LONG before most people had heard the term climate change, physicist and climate scientist Bill Hare was looking for solutions.
A graduate of Murdoch University, Dr Hare worked on the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2015 Paris Agreement, and was a lead author of the landmark 2007 IPCC fourth assessment report that brought the issue to broad public consciousness.
Today he holds some hope that even as several looming tipping points threaten abrupt and irreversible environmental damage, “there’s also positive tipping points: We’ve seen that with the decline of renewable energy costs.
“We’re seeing abrupt, rapid declines in the cost of these technologies, which is starting to cause an economic tipping point where it’s no longer profitable to run old coalfired power stations in many places,” especially if governments cease heavily subsidising fossil fuels, he notes.
Unstoppable
“We’re seeing a tipping point approaching for cars where it’s thought that within another five years or so, it won’t make much sense to buy a new combustion engine car” as electrics overtake them.
His hope is those beneficial tipping points are reached before the harmful ones, such as the abrupt disintegration of the western Antarctic ice sheet which could create unstoppable sea level rise, or the tipping point for the Amazon where more drying and less rainfall could lead to runaway collapse of the rainforest.
Dr Hare is speaking at the upcoming event Tipping Point: A Call to Climate Action at the WA Museum Boola Bardip, and says there are still actions individuals can take.
“You need to be talking to your political representatives,” he says. “By email, text, calling their offices, and saying ‘we really need you to step up on this, it’s no longer good enough to be silent’.
“It’s my personal view that this [needs] action at a governmental and industrial scale.
“One thing Covid has demonstrated to me is the limits on personal action.
“You do try to reduce your footprint, but if the larger system isn’t set up properly, it doesn’t help much in the end.”
He says government interventions are vital.
“For Australia it means we need to have the most advanced energy efficiency standards for automobiles. We need to have policies on electric vehicles to support them, we need to have major improvements for our housing efficiency standards so we don’t freeze in winter and boil in summer and have to have our air-conditioning on all times of the year.”
He says people must talk to their MPs, whatever their party, to help counterbalance that other voice in their ears: Industry lobbyists and corporate donors.
“I really don’t believe this is a left or right issue. I’ve worked in Europe and I saw parties of the left and right taking action on climate change.
“You can see that in Australia: Where’s the biggest stuff happening on climate change in Australia? It’s probably in New South Wales, under a conservative government. And where is the least happening? We’re sitting in it, in WA, which has a Labor government.
“WA is a particular place. The resource sector, broadly defined, dominates the political economy of the state. That means what you see [are] politicians who are essentially captured by this industry,” he says, noting recent government decisions to expand the gas industry, while retiring politicians walk into resource industry jobs.
“There’s such a tight bond between resource companies and politicians here… the evidence is before us of the political class moving between resource companies at will.”
While corporate influence is strong he says individuals contacting MPs is not in vain. “I can tell you it does help. Collectively, it adds up to a movement.”
With so much of the current mainstream conversation focused on the coronavirus, it will be a challenge to get the public consciousness back to climate change, but Dr Hare says this presents an inroad.
“We’re in a luxury situation in WA for the time being, but I think it does allow debate to occur.” He says now that most people have paid heed to research on coronavirus “what about taking science seriously on climate change.”
As governments have shown they can prop up economies through a health threat, Dr Hare says it can be done for a climate threat too. “Governments have spent an awful lot of money on Covid recovery, and if they put their Covid recovery resources into greening our economies, greening our societies, then we’d go a very long way towards reducing our emissions.”
The talk is on September 9, head to visit.museum.wa.gov.au for tickets.
BESSIE MABEL RISCHBIETH (1874-1967) co-founded the the Women’s Service Guilds of WA, a feminist organisation campaigning to improve rights for women and children.
Later she joined environmental causes, successfully campaigning against the plan to build a swimming pool in Kings Park, and unsuccessfully fighting the plan to fill in parts of the river to build the Narrows Bridge. At age 89 she waded into the river to try to stop the bulldozers.
The Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, the state government agency behind Elizabeth Quay, felt her stance was congruous with that development and commissioned a statue of her, installed 2016.
“Her passion for the Swan River is fitting with the Elizabeth Quay project, which reconnects the city with the waterfront, encouraging the people of Perth to enjoy the river’s natural beauty,” the MRA said.
JUDITHat 18 Howard Street depicts local youngster Judith Fyfe at nine years old.
Back in the 1930s the Fyfe family lived in the wake of the Great Depression, her father having lost his job when the bank he worked at collapsed. They found a cheap rental in a caretaker’s flat at the top floor of 18 Howard Street, close to a studio run by artist Karin Wigan (nee Tulloch, 1914-2002). Judith would sit patiently after school over the winter months of 1936 as Tulloch sculpted her in plaster and later gave her the work.
70 years later the subject, now Judith Anketell, donated the plaster to Perth council, and it was cast in bronze to be displayed near her old home.
URSULA FRAYNE (1816-1885) was an Irish nun who was appointed Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy in 1842.
She came to Australia on missionary work, persisting under harsh conditions after arriving in 1846 and founding the first Mercy school.
The bronze sculpture by artist Gael O’Leary was installed at the Mercy Heritage Centre in Victoria Square in 2016.
PERTH’s stern grey ghosts have been told to go a bit easier on people running overtime on their parking tickets and spend less time targeting quiet residential streets.
In March councillor Brent Fleeton got up a motion calling for the council’s parking fine practices to be overhauled, stating “councillors heard loud and clear during the 2020 election campaign that improvements must be made in different areas of parking. Fines, fees, timed bays, residential areas versus commercial, how our parking inspectors interact with our customers – all of it needed reviewing.”
New rules
The Voice even heard of residents in the newly annexed Crawley being fined for parking in their own driveways, a normal practice in the burbs but banned by Perth city council.
This week council got a report on how the new rules are working out, including:
• A consistent 10-minute grace period for all time restricted parking bays, rather than the discretionary bang on the dot ticket. The kid-gloves come off for clearway cloggers though: Cars in a clearway in peak periods still get an immediate fine of $200 if a parking officer shows up before Main Roads tows the car (which costs another $368). Clearway parkers currently rack up about 20 infringements a day;
• Parking inspectors now focus their routine patrols on the packed out commercial areas, and typically only head out to residential zones like Crawley if someone lodges a complaint about a parking problem. The new system’s seen residential-area fines drop from 80 a day to 40.
• Within those beats the inspectors will hit up high risk and high traffic areas first, before getting to the quieter bays. They’ll first check bays at day care centres, bus zones, loading zones, emergency services, entertainment and business precincts, thoroughfares and clearways.
The council has 21 full time “parking information officers” and eight part timers, issuing about 300 fines a day. Parking squad numbers are down from 36 full time inspectors from December 2020.
Fines range from $61 for overstaying your time to $505 for forging a ticket or parking permit, and make up the the bulk of the near $10 million per year the council collects from various infringement categories.
Perth Voice Interactive 