Since 2015, I’ve spoken often about the need for fairer cities & society due to the corrosive effects of rising inequality. I asked ChatGPT what the impacts of rising inequality are in western countries. I’d say it did a good job of it. Urbanists, note the urban & spatial impacts it identifies.

Wanna know how to speak so people will want to listen? Invest 10 minutes watching this excellent TED talk by Julian Treasure, to learn the 7 deadly sins to avoid & the 4 key aspects to focus on. You won’t regret it! youtu.be/eIho2S0ZahI?...

Really useful of @brenttoderian.bsky.social to put together this starter urbanism pack. And chuffed to be on the list. Let’s make Bluesky to go to platform for constructive conversations about cities! go.bsky.app/UG85GL8

Here’s today’s Andy Singer classic:

Anyone bidding higher than 22 benefits of urban street trees? Feel free to add to this list! sustainablect.org/fileadmin/me...

Some classic Andy Singer commentary!

Agreed. Taming cars and their drivers would be much more effective all round.

Our family has long gone to Moffat Beach on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for our beach holidays. We call it our magic beach after the wonderful children’s book by Alison Lester. We used to take our kids here, now I take them and their kids here! So good for the soul!

A few recent attempts at drawing…

Did a little sketch brush pen yesterday. Enjoying the challenge of simplicity…

Great video simulation by PTV Group demonstrating just how inefficient cars are at moving people. Urban transport is not about modes, it’s about how best to use urban space to move people around, not cars. youtu.be/0dyk6Kp6eUM

Some years ago, a good mate gave me this old commuter style bike he’d found being found on the footpath during a hard rubbish collection & gave it a once over so it’s in good working order. Been using it a lot lately, wonderful sense of freedom doing trips around the city is otherwise so in a car!

Hmmm now let’s see, how can we move a lot of people around our city by efficient using the space needed to do so? Well, as this ad showed, using private vehicles isn’t the answer.

Taking some time out at a mate’s place at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast this weekend. It’s one of the best views I’ve seen anywhere. Contrast between nature writ large and the high rise spine is quite a scene, heaps of people just sitting watching it.

This rather sums up my thoughts about flying cars:

A key issue in housing supply is (gasp!) not relays in the planning system, it’s construction sector capacity to deliver approvals. People in local government tell me there are lots of approvals out there but no one to build them. Maybe this will help? www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/prop...

Great to see Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner saying he’ll advocate for permanent changes to expand walkability ahead of the Olympic Games; and take inspiration from Paris and Vancouver to make Brisbane more walkable ahead of the games! www.indailyqld.com.au/news/in-dept...

Integrating efficient transport and land use is a holy grail of city making. Get it right and you’ll have a great place, get it wrong and you’ll have a mess.

As I often say (a little tongue in cheek, but still with a lot of belief), it doesn’t matter what the question is, the answer is street trees. Vernon Terrace at Teneriffe in Brisbane’s first urban renewal area is one of the city’s great street. Guess what it has lots of? (Pics taken quickly today)

How walkable is your city? My city of Brisbane has done some good things in key places downtown and along the river, but look at these stats and a reader poll for the city as a whole (courtesy of The Brisbane Times):

So the relationship between wealth & well being: 1. We need enough to meet our basic needs and pay for experiential rather than material things 2. Relationships are the key to well being 3. Pursuing more wealth has little or negative impacts on well being In short, greed corrupts. Love supports!

Great article about wealth and well being: a few quotes follow. 1. “Decades of international research have consistently shown materialistic goals – acquiring wealth & possessions for reasons associated with image & status – undermine wellbeing.” www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2025...

Like most cities, Brisbane has some grand inner city houses built in the “timber and tin” vernacular. This one at Bardon has just had a serious makeover.

Oops.

Most cities in what was part of the British Empire seem to have downtown arcades along the lines of the Piccadilly arcade in London. Brisbane does too - it’s cunningly called the Brisbane Arcade. 😉 They add an old school vibe to our cities as well as providing practical mid block connections.

As well as the well known NIMBY syndrome holding back housing supply, choice & diversity, there’s also the “last settler syndrome” - people who move to a new place then want everything to stay exactly as it was when they moved there.

Often hear people in western countries deride the social democracies of Northern Europe for their “socialist” nature. Yet they rate as some of the happiest & productive countries, highest median incomes, with high taxes & high levels of social services. Education & health are basically free to all.

Brisbane’s off leash dog parks are really popular, especially in the late afternoon. I counted 14 dogs and 18 people in this one today!

Who doesn’t love a cafe down a lane way! Brew in Brisbane is a cracker.

Brisbane’s Queen Street mall is one of the most successful anywhere. It teams with people pretty much any time of day or night.

I often joke at my own expense that I get paid to have coffee with people for a living. But I kinda have done for many years, as the best relationships come from informal connections. This is my third cafe for the day, one more to go!

Listening to the fabulous Lucy Saunders of Healthy Streets: “streets aren’t just places we travel through, they are places where we grow up and grow old”. ❤️

Brisbane recently opened three more green bridges (some walking only, some bikes/walking/scooters, some add in buses) making a total of 7 in the city so far. Gotta be some sort of record!

I’m not really a morning person but having children and taking up riding a bike for exercise taught me how to get up early. And sights like this dawn over Brisbane help make it worthwhile.

Wow, Brisbane, this is fantastic. As part of the Brisbane Festival, our latest and greatest green bridge, the Kangaroo Point Bridge, has been festooned with wonderful artwork by Craig & Carl. It’s spectacular & a great experience first hand. As they say in bike riding circles, chapeau Brisbane!

Well that’s my Father’s Day brunch done.

In my world, there’s nothing quite like riding a bike home from catching up with mates for coffee!

This nails the value of walkability & community life density & mixed use brings to community health and well being. But weirdly it portrays this as something architects know while planners push suburbia. I’m one of many planners who have advocated this for decades. www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/he...

A case of “We’d like our kids to walk or ride to school but the roads are unsafe so we drive them” and so the vicious cycle of car dominance spirals downward.

Saw comment that started “the solution to the housing crisis is” as though there is a silver bullet. Someone said to me once (about something else) “there is no silver bullet, but there may be silver buckshot”. Think that applies to housing. List your housing buckshot in responses please!

Brisbane has lots of former corner/general store buildings built in the traditional “timber and tin” vernacular, which have been protected & reuse encouraged by planning laws. Many of them now make great & popular cafes, which local people flock to. Few pics here of one near me I go to regularly.

I have often thought that people don’t really get walkability till they experience it, then they love it!

The Queensland Government recently canned stage 4 of the Gold Coast Light Rail, notwithstanding it is one of Australia’s most successful transit projects and stage 4 would connect to the city’s airport. It’s seems to be a decision driven by a local push back and cost concerns. It’s a sad result.

I recently got to interview a co-founders of Ground Up cafe in regional Toowoomba city. This was the first laneway cafe started by some young blokes (one a planner!) who wanted to make real planning aspirations for the city centre. It’s a great story. Have a listen:: youtu.be/GY9Lh4WAs7Q?...

I’m with @brenttoderian.bsky.social in wanting to boost Bluesky as a platform for great urbanism conversations, just as Twitter used to be before it got Musked. So if you’re interested in cities, I’d encourage you to use this platform for these conversations!

Very excited to launch Urban Mentors Collective, bringing together 12 senior practitioners available for mentoring people in the city shaping world, to help build the capacity of our people. urbanmentorscollective.com.au

Extensive, rigorous study finds that if communities are more walkable, people will walk more. No s%*t Sherlock! As Fred Kent says “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It’s Queensland Walks Month, people! Let’s get out there & enjoy & celebrate walking with all its myriad benefits for people & communities; and advocate for more walkable communities. queenslandwalks.org.au/queensland-w...

Road deaths are not inevitable. Lower speed limits, better street design, and better enforcements are the path to vision zero. yle.fi/a/74-2017483...

Huge vehicles take us backwards not forward, even if they are electric powered…