The things Canberra is missing?

indigoid said :

Sydney natives get extremely, justifiably frustrated at Canberra near-total lack of public transport.

Canberra natives have learned not to expect too much.

We need ancient ruins.

Perhaps the government could build some?

I thought that I WAS an ancient Canberra ruin! There must be a lot of old farts like me willing to be paraded before tourists for a small fee. That, Julia, is a new “working Australia” initiative surely.

beejay76 said :

Ah yes. How well I remember the Big Hole. Although I am a truly converted Canberran, I must agree with Mark on this one. Canberra really doesn’t know how to do a Big Hole. The Big Hole in Sydney was the sole reason the monorail was put in. Or at least, the sole reason people rode on it. It was hard to see through the hoarding, but up in the rarefied air of the monorail you could see the Hole in all it’s 10-storey-deep glory.

We had a big hole in Civic in the 90’s (several actually), but the one I remember particularly well was next to the Canberra RSL club (now Hellenic Club in the City) on Moore St.

p1 said :

beejay76 said :

Mark Dapin is from Sydney. Evidently you have never tried to park in Sydney, or anywhere close to Sydney. Trust me: compared with Sydney Canberra has loads of parking. An adundance. An embarrassment. And it’s cheap as chips.

I’ve never tried to find daily all-day parking in order to work in the centre of Sydney. I have never found short-to-medium term parking to be any worse then the rest of the world, and not so expensive when sizes are compared. But the same is almost certainly true about Mark Dapin and Canberra.

Let me tell you most people wouldn’t even think of parking in the centre of Sydney for work unless they were willing and able to part with lots of $$$

p1 said :

beejay76 said :

Mark Dapin is from Sydney. Evidently you have never tried to park in Sydney, or anywhere close to Sydney. Trust me: compared with Sydney Canberra has loads of parking. An adundance. An embarrassment. And it’s cheap as chips.

I’ve never tried to find daily all-day parking in order to work in the centre of Sydney. I have never found short-to-medium term parking to be any worse then the rest of the world, and not so expensive when sizes are compared. But the same is almost certainly true about Mark Dapin and Canberra.

I have no trouble finding parking anywhere I go in Sydney. And if you’re on a motorbike, you don’t even have to feed the hungry parking meters 🙂 or, it seems, abide by any signposted time limits. Park and forget.

That said, Canberrans complaining about Sydney parking is much akin to people using Windows for their entire computing life and then suddenly only having access to a Mac. It’s different and trying to use it like a Windows computer is going to be very, very frustrating. If you submit to the will of Steve Jobs, however, and Do Things The Apple Way, it works just fine. The reverse also applies, of course. Sydney natives get extremely, justifiably frustrated at Canberra near-total lack of public transport.

A refreshing approach to critiquing Canberra. Bravo!

beejay76 said :

Mark Dapin is from Sydney. Evidently you have never tried to park in Sydney, or anywhere close to Sydney. Trust me: compared with Sydney Canberra has loads of parking. An adundance. An embarrassment. And it’s cheap as chips.

I’ve never tried to find daily all-day parking in order to work in the centre of Sydney. I have never found short-to-medium term parking to be any worse then the rest of the world, and not so expensive when sizes are compared. But the same is almost certainly true about Mark Dapin and Canberra.

We do have a former govt printer district that that is being turned into loft-style apartments.

Btw, what happened about the asbestos they found nearby?

Well he was born in england and came to Sydney as an adult having woken in a welsh ditch after a pogues concert and deciding to change his life.

His biography “Sex and Money” is an excellent insight into the Australian publishing industry.

p1 said :

Although his comment about plenty of parking means he clearly isn’t from here, and must have visited on Sunday, or late at night.

Mark Dapin is from Sydney. Evidently you have never tried to park in Sydney, or anywhere close to Sydney. Trust me: compared with Sydney Canberra has loads of parking. An adundance. An embarrassment. And it’s cheap as chips.

There is a Subway at the servo at the Airport. Does that count ?

p1 said :

Although his comment about plenty of parking means he clearly isn’t from here, and must have visited on Sunday, or late at night.

Or at the Mawson shops.

I would quickly add to that list some world class arcitecture and design (on top of our current basic offering). A number of decades seem to have passed since anything that could register a blip on the international radar has been constructed.

As someone who has grown up here and lived in Sydey, I frequently cop all manner of Canberra bashing from those big smoke friends. Until they come here, and realise how fantastic Canberra can be. Personally, I’m happy if the majority never find out how livable Canberra is.

thought it was fun – not wide of the mark, really. he also missed an icon from which to fling one’s self in a bid to end it all.

At first I was going to complain about the unimaginative story bashing Canberra which pops up every couple of weeks. This was supported by the round-a-bout gag right at the start. But then I read the list of things and realised, as puggy did, that he wasn’t really bashing Canberra, but in fact (in a round-a-bout kinda way) mocking the usual Canberra bashing stories.

Although his comment about plenty of parking means he clearly isn’t from here, and must have visited on Sunday, or late at night.

Seems like he’s taking the piss out of other “world-class” cities rather than Canberra. What Canberra really needs is a real checkpoint at the border so you know when you’ve well and truly entered/exited the bubble.

I LOL’d at point 5… maybe we should formally annex Queanbeyan into the ACT for this purpose?

Haha! My kind of column.

Ah yes. How well I remember the Big Hole. Although I am a truly converted Canberran, I must agree with Mark on this one. Canberra really doesn’t know how to do a Big Hole. The Big Hole in Sydney was the sole reason the monorail was put in. Or at least, the sole reason people rode on it. It was hard to see through the hoarding, but up in the rarefied air of the monorail you could see the Hole in all it’s 10-storey-deep glory.