Perth Voice Interactive

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 and lifting but the companies which laid them refused to accept liability, saying the glue they’d used was supposed to be up to the job. A stone expert found the stones were too smooth for the glue to stick to properly and expansion joints had been incorrectly made.

Now the piazza will be surrounded by a less flashy (but cheaper) asphalt finish with a “decorative finish”.

It’ll take six weeks and an eye-watering $443,865 to fix, starting around the end of February.

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 used to it,” Mr Carey says.

“This is called local democracy: It’s not just commercial interests and developers lobbying you.

“If you have a strong residential community they have a right to lobby you, they have a right to tell you they don’t agree, it is very simple and what I find extraordinary … is that there are people on the city of Perth who do not get this.”

Mr Carey says he feared that if a merger goes ahead there will be a “rigged” ward system to give each original municipal area an equal number of representatives. Such a system would be “weighted” in favour of Perth as it has only 18,988 residents compared to Vincent’s 31,549.

Mr Carey says last Tuesday night’s performance by Perth councillors was evidence that proper democratic representation was required.

“It’s critical that there is one vote one value, we’re not going to accept or tolerate a scenario where there is a weighted rigging in favour of City of Perth councillors.”

Cr Limnios explained this week he was referring to the inundation as “badgering” as people contacting him didn’t have the full facts about how little heritage value was left in the building after its many modifications.

Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi says “we choose not to reply through the media and will attempt yet again to communicate directly and respectfully with [Mr Carey]”

by DAVID BELL

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 50m from their building at the corner of the mall and William Street, which also houses the Council of the Ageing, a physio and a computer consultancy.

Ms Morrow told the Voice they’re not against buskers, but the performers had become so loud and intrusive—especially those with amplifiers—that her staff had taken to wearing headphones all day and the company could no longer hold meetings with clients.

“And it usually is just three songs, because let’s face it, if they had more than that they’d be on the road”

She says a lot of thinking’s involved in software design so having the same songs murdered hour after hour, day after day, seriously affects creativity and productivity.

“And it usually is just three songs, because let’s face it, if they had more than that they’d be on the road,” Ms Morrow told the Voice.

Recently three buskers within earshot tried to outblast each other with their amps.

“Usually one of them wins out but can you imagine trying to work through that?”

Ms Morrow was so scathing of how the council had treated the complaints that she and her supporters boycotted Tuesday’s marketing, sponsorship and international relations committee where the petition was publicly raised (and flicked).

She says there was an extensive email exchange between the company, council staff and lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi, but promises it would be raised earlier weren’t met. Its sudden appearance on this week’s agenda came as a surprise.

The first she’d heard it was listed for a decision was when the media started calling, basically to have a go at the company for trying to kill off inner-city vibrancy.

“The policy says that buskers are there to enhance the vibrancy, vitality and ambience of the city—we get that, we don’t disagree, but all of the vibrancy comes from the other end of the mall.

“We’re just asking if we can have 50 metres at this end of the mall,” she says.

She says she’d even have been happy to negotiate a simple ban on amplification (Fremantle’s buskers policy doesn’t outlaw amps, but it frowns on them and noisy buskers can be told to turn down or clear off by rangers) but she’d formed a view the council has painted the group as busker-haters and won’t listen.

It could be the firm’s not in the council’s good books after hammering its complaints line over the past year. Ms Morrow says every day, every 30 minutes, someone rings up to dob in a busker who’s overstayed their 30-minute limit.

Company staff used to try to negotiate directly with the buskers, but some became aggressive so now they go straight to the council.

“Surely the rangers have better things to do than to come down every 30 minutes to move on a busker,” she says.

Rubbing salt into the wound, she says after their persistent complaints the council sent someone down to test how much noise the buskers were making: “He stood next to the busker and told him that he was going to monitor how loud he was, so could he just play normally.The busker just smiled,” she says, noting the dial on his amp suddenly wound its way back from 11 to about 3.

“We just laughed,” she said.

Ms Morrow says the buskers are also causing a public nuisance, as many of them block the entrance to the Perth underground parking.

by STEVE GRANT

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 there with his Penthouse Pet.

Now Mr Baltinas is at it again, but this time tinkering with a bit of public land at the end of the footbridge that connects the two sides of Mount Street across the Mitchell Freeway.

The parcel sits at the bottom of the Halo on Mount apartments, a futuristic design of polka dots and curved concrete being built by the architect in his guise as a developer.

Mr Baltinas told the Voice he’d received approval from Perth city council to reinstate the horseshoe end of the footbridge pretty much as it was, but had concluded it was a decidedly daggy and uninviting area.

So he went back to his landscape architects and asked them to design something to provide shade, seating and a green buffer to block freeway roar.

“We see the opportunity for it to become a living space, making the most of its spectacular city view…”

After some discussions the council enthusiastically backed his plans, he says, while the more conservative folk at Main Roads are at least satisfied it follows the rules.

There is a benefit for Mr Baltinas—included in the 23-apartment development is a ground floor cafe, and he’s expecting whoever gets the lease will apply for alfresco dining.

Years ago he was part of Vinyl Cafe on Hay Street, which he says made him come to realise that in a very competitive market, an alfresco area is vital to survival; Perth council doesn’t charge much for the privilege of operating on public land.

“We see the opportunity for it to become a living space, making the most of its spectacular city view, rather than being just a thoroughfare between West Perth, Subiaco, Kings Park and the city,” Mr Baltinas says.

He used to cycle between Perth and King’s Park when his office was nearby, and says the end of the footbridge was no-man’s land that he’d just race through.

It was also far enough from the city and so hot and barren that it deterred people from continuing on to Kings Park. With a cafe and some native plants it could become a good half-way hub that’ll encourage people to keep going.

“It’s the type of thing you might see in cities like New York or Chicago and we believe it will help attract people from West Perth, Subiaco and Kings Park into the city and down to Elizabeth Quay on the riverfront and vice versa.”

It’ll all come free to the public, as the developer says he’s got to get it done before the apartments are finished in August/September and there’s no way the council could get it through the system in time.

As for the futuristic design, Mr Baltinas says being both architect and developer gives him the opportunity to pursue designs many of his colleagues can only dream about.

Not that he thinks they’re not up to the task of designing funky and modern buildings—just that many developer clients care more about maximising profit at the expense of aesthetic.

by STEVE GRANT

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 3–9).

To meet the target a whopping 33,333 copies will need to be sold—around 10,000 more than normal.

Mr Sutherland, the only WA state or federal politician to put his hand up for the task, says he was happy to lend a hand and will be knocking on business doors as well as selling on the street.

the important thing is that governments and private companies do their bit to help

“Despite everyone’s best efforts, there are hundreds of people in Perth who sleep rough,” he says.

“The reasons why vary, but the important thing is that governments and private companies do their bit to help where they can.

“[The Big Issue] gives people a start who are down on their luck. I thought it would be a good thing to raise the profile.”

Around the world The Big Issue and similar magazines help around 28,000 homeless and disadvantaged people.

by JENNY D’ANGER

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 developer Giorgi Group.

Numbers 28 and 30—the 1891 conjoined houses that will stay—are listed on the local heritage inventory as “an example of the convict and late colonial Georgian style”.

“The place has considerable historic value as a good example of one of the earliest worker’s dwellings built in the area prior to the gold boom period,” the inventory entry states.

They’ll be “refurbished and adapted internally to contain two one-bedroom apartments”.

While acknowledging the three-storey building is higher than most of the surrounding houses, the Giorgi Group report reckons, “this precinct is in a transition stage where it is appropriate that future residential developments be of a higher density that is compatible with the City of Vincent’s future vision for this area”.

The decision rests with the development assessment panel, the partly-democratic body that makes decisions for big projects over $7million.

by DAVID BELL

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 councils often underspend their allocations anyway.

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 Albert says.

By getting to hard-to-reach breeding areas numbers should be considerably reduced, minimising nuisance to residents and protecting the community from Ross River and Barmah Forest virus.

The $30,000 vehicle is a first for WA but has been used successfully by the Queensland Health Department since the 1970s. The mayor is hoping nearby councils will adopt Bayswater’s approach to help beat mozzies.

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 had been followed and if Cr Kenyon didn’t receive an invite he put it down to a “clerical error”. “I am certainly not favouring other councillors—I want a unified council,” the mayor said.