Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT mayor Alannah MacTiernan is fighting a high-powered push to ban right-hand turns from Beaufort Street into Walcott Street.

She says the idea—being promoted by Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland—will affect Vincent residents while having little effect on those in neighouring Stirling.

Mr Sutherland’s electorate ends at Walcott Street.

Ms MacTiernan says a red-light camera should instead be installed at the nightmare intersection to ping motorists who do the wrong thing.

She has written to WA police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan in a bid to recruit his support for the red-light camera idea and to stop the right-hand ban in its tracks.

“Mr Sutherland is obviously focussed very much on his electorate and not at all concerned about the impact on businesses and residents south of Walcott Street,” the mayor says.

“We don’t want to agree to the banning of all right hand turns until we have tried another option, a much fairer mechanism, which is the red light cameras.”

Mr Sutherland says he’s simply responding to the wishes of the people and of experts.

“I didn’t do this,” he told the Voice from his Kimberley study trip. “This was a committee that was set up by the minister and it had people from Vincent, Stirling, Main Roads, the police department. They came up with the no-right-turn.

“I facilitated the meeting… I had no input.

“If you have experts that have said that’s what should be done, then I think that’s what should be done, and at least try it.

“If that doesn’t work, it’s not as if you’re doing major engineering works… change it back.”

by DAVID BELL

A EUROPEAN oil and gas conference in Scotland is relevant to Perth, lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi says.

Perth city council will soon vote on whether to spend up to $15,000 flying her there and back as part of a WA business delegation.

The conference theme is, Offshore Europe the next 50 years.

The Barnett government wants Ms Scaffidi in the delegation and PCC staff have recommended she attend as it will “open doors for local businesses to tap into the European oil and gas market”.

It’ll also, “allow the city to gain market intelligence on the future direction of the global energy sector and ensure that Perth continues to be competitive internationally as a leading energy city”.

Ms Scaffidi says, “this is very much our arena or space as a ‘key energy city’”.

“The City of Perth does so much in attracting business into Perth and sadly doesn’t get recognised for our strong economic development role.

“This is what a city needs to do in attracting new businesses and opportunities in a hugely competitive global arena.”

The conference is the biggest oil and gas event in Europe and runs across four days in September.

by DAVID BELL

JAMIE’S Italian restaurant won’t say how many of its high quality linen napkins are being stolen.

A source who’d dropped by the insanely popular eaterie for a feed Saturday night said they’d seen “several” of Oliver’s logo-stamped towellettes go missing.

The source estimated “hundreds” must get stolen every week.

We called the restaurant Monday but no-one was willing to comment. They put us onto the PR team and we emailed them Monday and Wednesday but got no response.

UK’s The Daily Mail reported Oliver moaning last year that 30,000 napkins a month were getting pinched from his trendy chain. But his own PR machine claimed he was wrong: “Although we do lose a fair few napkins, it is not near that number”.

Since Jamie’s Italian opened a month ago it’s been nuts. Punters line up for up to an hour to put their name on the waiting list and then another two for a call that there’s a table free. Despite the chaotic booking system it’s been a hit with critics for its decent prices and good food.

by OCEAN TRIMBOLI and DAVID BELL

NAOMI CLARK of Beaufort Street, Highgate—Vincent mayor Alannah MacTiernan would like to hear from you because she reckons you’re bogus.

In a letter published in the Voice last week Ms Clark was critical of Cr John Carey, mocking his support for publishing kerb crawlers’ details as “an obvious ploy to move to the right and buy him some street-cred with Katter’s Australia Party”.

But the mayor reckons she can smell a rat and doubts Ms Clark exists.

She’s given the Voice a slap about the head for not checking the author was legit before publishing the letter: “I think it’s very nasty, it goes beyond fair comment,” she says. “I do think there has to be a slightly more professional approach.

“I would have thought you would have an obligation, before you publish, to check if the person does exist and lives in Beaufort Street or works in Beaufort Street.

“Is she writing at someone’s behest, or a nom de plume?”

The Voice called and texted Ms Clark on the number provided but received no reply. The address she’d supplied was for a large apartment block.

Some issues featured in the letter—including budget blowouts for art on Beaufort Street and letting police handle street prostitution—had been previously raised by Cr Dudley Maier. Cr Maier says he doesn’t know Ms Clark.

Naomi Clark, if you do exist give the Voice a call on 9430 7727.

Carey responds

The letter stated “I understand… John Carey’s disappointment at Labor’s recent defeat in the seat of Perth. Given his constant self-promotion in the pages of the Voice I got the distinct feeling he was working to replace John Hyde in four years’ time.”

Cr Carey says he is a Labor party member but wouldn’t talk about his ambitions.

“I’m not going to get involved in speculation for something four years down the track,” he says. “My focus is on being a councillor, on the Beaufort Street Network, on the Beaufort Street festival and getting the job done.”

He says he’s had no discussions with former Perth Labor MP John Hyde nor the ALP about running as its Perth candidate.

He says he joined the ALP 11 years ago, “because I believe in social justice, equity and fairness… [and] protecting the interests of ordinary workers in the workplace”.

“I do believe in the role of unions in the workplace, I do support a strong awards system, ultimately it’s about fairness and equity and social justice.”

His father, a meatworker and WWII soldier was also a long-time party member.

Cr Carey says his party membership doesn’t affect his role on council.

“You look at the City of Vincent, and what I love about it is it’s not factionalised.”

by DAVID BELL

RACHMANISM is alive and well in Perth, according to a local man who personally knew the world’s worst slum landlord.

Peter Rachman was a Notting Hill landlord in the 1950s and 1960s, infamous for exploiting tenants with derelict dwellings and high rents. The word “Rachmanism” is now in the Oxford dictionary to describe, “the exploitation and intimidation of tenants by unscrupulous landlords”.

East Perth’s Bill Bradbury lived in some very dodgy flats in the UK in the ‘60s. He met Rachman twice.

“I met him because I used to go in the jazz clubs a lot.

“It was one of those handshakes where the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you think, ‘there’s something rotten and putrid about this handshake’.

“He’s not the type of person you’d put on your Christmas card list. He was a sleazy bastard in every sense of the word.”

Mr Bradbury owns his Goderich Street apartment but says renters in his building are scared of raising a fuss, even when maintenance is badly needed.

“The management are not listening to me. Their place [above] is leaking and water’s coming into the wall and it’s coming into my electrical system.”

He’s been trying to get his neighbours’ property managers to fix it for six weeks. He says he’s been playing “Russian Roulette”, risking electrocution every time he steps into his shower.

Mr Bradbury says in recent years his block has “become a very sleazy rooming house”.

“I saw seven grown men in a one-bedroom flat. The floor was paved with mattresses.”

This week workers were finally booked in to service Mr Bradbury’s apartment, after he’d gone to Perth city councillor Rob Butler for help.

The property manager told the Voice his firm had got onto the problem as soon as it was told. He says claims of Rachmanism are “absolute rubbish”.

“I was there in the ‘60s as well and I’m a real estate agent,”the agent said. “Rachmanism was the most terrible thing. These were people who abused tenants and forced them out with the most abusive and terrible things like turning their heating off… this was a gangster who used to go around houses with dogs to force people out.”

He says Perth’s nothing like that: “Quite the opposite, tenants today are heavily protected.

“Talking about Rachmanism is like describing someone as a nazi because they’ve done something you don’t like.”

by DAVID BELL

IT’S been a long road and a year-and-a-half of paperwork but the future of the Vastese Bakery in North Perth is safe.

The Alma Road bakery has been in the Saraceni family since 1961, baking for cafes, restaurants and boutique retailers, along with selling locals their daily bread.

But in 2011 someone complained about the bakery selling coffee.

That had Vincent council’s paper-pushers poring over ancient documents where they discovered the bakery’s office and storage area weren’t allowed under that zoning. They also found the bakery wasn’t allowed to sell bread directly to customers.

Joe Saraceni—the third generation to work in the business—says without an office onsite it would have been tough to run the bakery. The future of the bakery and its 18 employees was in doubt.

“It would have been extremely difficult,” he says. “This business is very hands-on, it’s labour intensive. The office has its finger on the pulse.

“To not have that would have really affected the culture and traditionality of the business.”

Last week Vincent councillors unanimously voted to allow the bakery to continue operating as it always has, and it’ll now go off to the planning minister for final approval.

“It did take a long time,” Mr Saraceni says, but he adds the councillors were “extremely progressive and very helpful… I have nothing but praise for the councillors”.

He describes new planning director Carlie Elridge as very helpful.

A couple of locals were concerned about noise but Mr Saraceni says he’s told his workers to cut out any early morning sailor talk. 

The bakery was started by Guiseppe Saraceni in 1958: He’d come to Australia from Vasto in 1951 and worked at the old Maylands brickyards before leaving in 1957 to start home deliveries of Italian bread. He wasn’t happy with the quality of the product he was given so he started his own bakery

Originally on Newcastle Street, the bakery moved to Alma Road in 1961. 

Tony Saraceni, who’s been working there since he was seven, has seen plenty of change in the area.

“That area was virtually all migrants… there wasn’t one Australian family. It was all Italians, Greeks, Macedonians, Croatians. Now they’ve all shifted out and the younger generation has come in.”

by DAVID BELL

AN Australia Day fireworks without any fireworks has been raised as a possibility by a Department of Fire and Emergency Services staffer.

In the Australia Day post-mortem conducted by Perth city council a brief note on page five states, “there were… significant bush fires in the state which required DFES attention”.

“It was raised at the debrief by DFES the possibility of not having fireworks in future years due to the demands on DFES at this time of year.”

Fire and emergency services commissioner Wayne Gregson has been quick to point out the DFES would only recommend restrictions or cancellation “if there is an extreme threat to DFES operations and there are no alternatives”.

“The officer’s points included that the event is held at a time of high bushfire risk across the Perth metropolitan area and southern parts of the state, and when firefighting resources are under great demand.

“Among a number of discussions [at the post-mortem] it was suggested the City of Perth consider an alternative spectacular display, however this is the view of the individual officer and not the department. DFES will continue to be involved in the planning and execution of this large public event.”

Meanwhile, the PCC was shocked to receive a $16,300 bill from Kings Park for staff costs associated with the event.

“The City of Perth had not budgeted for these costs and therefore declined to cover these costs,” PCC staff reported.

“The city already provides a significant level of infrastructure in Kings Park, however, it is anticipated that a request will be forthcoming to cover these costs in 2014.”

FOR the first time Jane’s Walk is coming to Maylands.

The international event takes place May 4, celebrating the legacy of urban activist Jane Jacobs who died in 2006.

Jacobs pioneered a grassroots movement to protect Greenwich Village’s old neighbourhoods from so-called “slum clearance” where old blocks were to be razed for upscale apartment blocks. She was strongly pro-pedestrian and fought car-centric planning of US cities.

Jane’s Walks have been held around the world every year since her death: People chat about local culture, history and planning issues.

“[We’ll] attempt to answer the question, in a very small way of what makes Maylands the unique place that it is today,” organiser Tina Askam says of the upcoming inaugural local event.

Along with culture, local history and architecture participants will discuss Jacobs’ ideas about diversity, walkability, mixed use suburbs and reusing old buildings.

“[Jacobs’] idea was that it’s the people in the city who create the city and the life there, it creates itself so we don’t need to be imposing these plans on top.”

Ms Askam, a PhD candidate in spacial justice at ECU, says Maylands was created to house factory workers who built the pipes for CY O’Connor’s Goldfields water supply scheme.

Up till the 1980s the suburb had a grungy reputation. Today, it’s known as a creative hub with fashion shops, cafes and art galleries.

“There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of community and positivity in the suburb,” Ms Askam says.

“I’ve spoken to people who’ve moved from Fremantle to Maylands because they can’t afford Fremantle anymore.”

The What Makes Maylands walk starts at Albany Bell Castle, corner of Thirlmere and Guildford Roads at 2pm on May 4. It’s free and all are welcome.

by DAVID BELL

JUST over a million bucks will be spent sprucing up the first stage of Leederville’s town centre.

With little done in the precinct since the formation of the Vincent city council, mayor Alannah MacTiernan says, “it is clearly Leederville village’s turn to get an upgrade in the public spaces in the town centre, it being 18 years since the last major works”.

The upgrade to the Oxford Street park is the first priority. Ms MacTiernan says she wants to get at least one project underway before the council is re-absorbed into Perth city council.

Greg White runs Cranked cafe and has been in Leederville for 17 years. His business is right by the park and the rejig will let people sit at the cafe while keeping an eye on the kids at the playground. He’s chuffed with the plan and says it couldn’t be better for livening up the locale. Other parts of the plan include new streetscaping and plantings, new toilets and activities for kids like outdoor ping pong (and maybe outdoor chess, though one local suggested no youngsters know how to play).

by DAVID BELL