I get irrationally irritated by these 'teach kids to walk safely' initiatives. They should invest more in 'close the roads so kids can be safe walking to school' days.

Imo trees make the biggest difference to street quality, not architecture

Watching some overpriced rentals in Melbourne and its nice to see that landlords still don't decide the price - the market does

More high income people are promoting renting over buying, and I think this will be good for the politics of renters rights

It's happening: Melbourne is now a perfect city

Does this offend you? Having a taller building next to a smaller building is condemned in our planning system, but I think it looks fine.

Now that Melbourne is a marginal seat do we get some perks? More infrastructure funding, cool parks, maybe a new pool?

Asked chatgpt "what is the optimal size of a city?" The answer was pretty good:

Vaguely YIMBY/ pro-housing messages?

State/local planners seem to over-rely on lessons from excellent individual developments. They should instead take a lot more of their lessons from excellent planning *systems*.

Why is there no early voting in the CBD?

Good that there is no "stop greedy developers" language from the Greens

Interesting style choice for this heritage house

Our walkable neighbourhood has a few high end toy stores my kids like to browse when we get coffee on the weekends. Useful to see the price of toys without China - 18 wooden blocks for $50 (made in Europe).

This proposal honestly looks way too small for a renewal area Link: www.northwestcitynews.com.au/no-clear-com...

Pretty bold policy proposal

So bizarre. The Melbourne Lord Mayor confesses his desire to leave Carlton and move to East Melbourne. Pandering to a suburb with only 2 per cent of the council's population. Link: www.innercitynews.com.au/east-melbour...

Apartments are obviously more affordable than houses. Yet you still hear NIMBYs argue the opposite. Link: www.theage.com.au/property/new...

Jane Jacobs altered the facade of her NYC house and removed the ground-floor shop before she advocated for historic protections for everyone else's house in the neighbourhood. From the book "Stuck": www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700580...

Do your part. Emergency submission workshop online this Wednesday night.

Tree-lined shopping streets are good. We should build a lot of new housing on/near these streets to make sure they stay alive.

The correct feelings to feel when a cute old house is destroyed... Sad: Cute old house destroyed by a fire. Meh: Cute old house destroyed to replace with a modern house. Excited: Cute house destroyed to make way for townhouses or apartments.

How do we get the infill housing we need while preventing displacement and helping Californians build generational wealth? By letting cash-poor homeowners partner with developers to build small condo buildings. This strategy worked in postwar Greece and it can work here if we get the policy right.

Weird that Australians might have better access to cool cheap stuff now compared to Americans

Oh good they have set up the next community consultation group in the FIVE YEAR LONG timeline to just get a PLANNING APPLICATION for affordable housing on a public car parking lot. This timeline does not include actually building the housing.

Haven't looked at buying a car myself for years but have been seeing more and more Chinese brands on the street. Are Chinese cars the best value cars in Australia now?

What's the correct cyclist etiquette on a shared bike/pedestrian path? I see a lot of cyclists ringing to get pedestrians to move, but that feels wrong to me? When I am on a bike, I always just go slowly behind people until I have room to pass.

Interesting how some areas are apparently still very high demand and low supply. Maybe we should allow more apartments there instead of just Box Hill and the CBD.

Landlords are very hateable, but as a renter I have to remind myself that I will only benefit if there are more landlords.

The engagement period for the Geelong Heritage Strategy has ended, and I'm sensing it may not be perfectly representative of the average Geelong resident

Reminds me of areas of Fitzroy North where you have three-storey modern townhouses/apartments across from heritage terraces. It looks and feels completely fine!

If city council/planners actually planned for affordability, they’d ban mansions, not apartments. They’d have lot size maximums, not lot size minimums. They’d have higher fees per sq ft of mansion, not apartments. They’d charge the rich in mansions more, not everyone else in apartments.

This is admittedly a weird design but it is growing on me. Was so happy when it finally got finished after many years of a giant empty lot in Fitzroy. 115 homes.

Lol what a headline for a story about cheaper housing

That's right: All three can and should go together

Honestly do not understand how these things become policy

This is the best definition of what amenity is. It doesn't make sense to fight apartments because they will "ruin the amenity of an area". The amenity is not heritage or large backyards. We should build a lot more homes in high amenity areas.

There's another site, also owned by the hospital, just across the street...could also be a good site for new housing? Maybe the government excluded heritage sites.

Fellow YIMBYs: The City of Melbourne is creating a Vision and Council Plan - and they are having a summit on 9 May at Melbourne Town Hall.

Story is about dissatisfaction of young Americans with politics, but it is young Australians who are the most dissatisfied with their access to housing on.ft.com/3FAbgAE

How do architects grapple with these questions: Can a house really be sustainable if it's in a car-dependent area? Can a single-family home really be sustainable when apartments would lead to a more compact city?

I started renting an e-bike to cart my kids around about a year ago. It works! It makes life better and easier.

Auckland rental supply: "Househunters are being offered $500 grocery vouchers or a free week's rent by Auckland landlords keen to lure them - but are being told to hold off for more." www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/545...

Every heritage 'village' people want to protect is unbelievably depressing-looking.

It's nice the way this addition to the Port House in Antwerp preserved the original building.

The City of Melbourne should get a lot of credit for having many excellent playgrounds. Whenever I travel I realise how lucky we are to have easy access to these parks nearby. www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/news/guide-r...

Heritage policy increases the cost of housing. Would be fine if there were like 1,000 heritage properties. But there are over 180,000 in Victoria alone. www.afr.com/property/res...

Transparently NIMBY piece that cites a more than decade-old case where one unimportant heritage house was allowed to be demolished for apartments on a main road. This supposedly proves that VIC already does a good job of allowing housing in heritage areas...

Chairman Allan should immediately approve this project and remove the council's power. www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

Chairman Allan kind of sounds cool as hell. She should definitely embrace being dictator of building townhouses.