There’s a ton of beach towns with a a tiny zone where you can build hotels/apartments. If you had by-right building to 3-5 stories you’d see a lot of growth right along the East Coast.
Met a retired engineer the other day who used to do public consultation in North Queensland - he said they're all hardline opposed to immigration and his strong view was that their opinions should be completely ignored.
Playing with fire to say "yes, we should ignore public opinion on immigration" in 2025 but I'm so sold on the idea of Big Cairns. Could've got it done fifty years ago if we hadn't used the White Australia Policy to keep out the Chinese. When you start reading about Singapore you realise how much Pacific history was shaped by nativist anti-Chinese sentiment - there could be Singapores everywhere.
Curious - why is this all about proportionality and international comparisons? Is there not an absolute size range (both geographical extent and population) that might best suit true cities to ensure the proper balance of economic opportunity, lifestyle, healthy bustle (as opposed to congestion), access to nature, etc.?
Almost certainly not! People like to imagine that there is some goldilocks zone of the ’perfect city’, because it’s fun to do so. But it almost certainly does not exist.
If I count as a crank, fair enough
https://www.kvetch.au/p/a-new-hong-kong-in-australia
I plead the fifth
Only reason this didn't happen earlier is the White Australia Policy. We have to make up for lost time. Thursday Island Singapore by 2035
There’s a ton of beach towns with a a tiny zone where you can build hotels/apartments. If you had by-right building to 3-5 stories you’d see a lot of growth right along the East Coast.
That’s right. All we have to do is make it legal.
Great! fun is illegal now.
If you wanted fun you should have zoned for it
Met a retired engineer the other day who used to do public consultation in North Queensland - he said they're all hardline opposed to immigration and his strong view was that their opinions should be completely ignored.
Playing with fire to say "yes, we should ignore public opinion on immigration" in 2025 but I'm so sold on the idea of Big Cairns. Could've got it done fifty years ago if we hadn't used the White Australia Policy to keep out the Chinese. When you start reading about Singapore you realise how much Pacific history was shaped by nativist anti-Chinese sentiment - there could be Singapores everywhere.
I’m extremely open to Big Cairns!
Curious - why is this all about proportionality and international comparisons? Is there not an absolute size range (both geographical extent and population) that might best suit true cities to ensure the proper balance of economic opportunity, lifestyle, healthy bustle (as opposed to congestion), access to nature, etc.?
Almost certainly not! People like to imagine that there is some goldilocks zone of the ’perfect city’, because it’s fun to do so. But it almost certainly does not exist.