New development, park upgrade voting, and a call-out for mural artists

We’re also continuing to push for local improvements around the ward to support active transport and improve connectivity across our suburbs. This week I’ve been calling for the State Government to commit to funding 50% of the cost of a footbridge between West End and Toowong, and we’ve also been calling for an expansion to East Brisbane State School to cater for predicted rapid population growth around Woolloongabba and Kangaroo Point.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I believe our political system is broken. Too many important decisions are made by a small group of privileged elites who are disconnected from on-the-ground realities, and are heavily influenced by big business. Centralised top-down decision-making creates fertile ground for corruption, and disempowers the rest of us.

As a local councillor, I want to help foster a more deliberative and participatory democratic culture, where instead of just voting for a representative, you can participate directly in the decisions you care about… not just voting mindlessly according to your own self-interest, but taking the time to engage in dialogue with your fellow citizens and hear different points of view.

To help create a more participatory democratic culture, we are once again using a community voting process to allocate funding for local public space upgrades. This year, because of COVID, the process is purely online, but we are happy to arrange paper ballots for residents who don’t have computer access if requested.

How the participatory budgeting voting system works:

• Each resident creates an account and logs on to the community voting website
• If you want, you can suggest park upgrade projects around our neighbourhood that you think might benefit the community (check both the Suggested Projects and Eligible Projects lists before voting)
• We find out how much suggested projects could cost, and move them into an ‘Eligible Projects’ list that residents can choose from
• You can vote to allocate funding to multiple projects totalling up to the budget of $500 000
• You can also Like or Dislike projects even if you don’t have enough money left in your budget to fund them
• Whichever projects receive the most ‘Fund’ votes will be allocated funding for delivery by council

The difference between this system and other common forms of council ‘consultation’ is that we leave the final choice up to participating residents. You and your neighbours make the decision, not me.
So far, there are 15 eligible projects listed on the website for residents to choose between. These include skate parks, BMX tracks, playgrounds and dog off-leash areas.
The fact that a project is listed on the voting platform does not mean that I am personally supportive of it. There are a few projects on there that I expect could be quite controversial, but I’m leaving it up to residents to express your views and make the decision. Remember that as well as voting, liking and disliking, you can also post comments about a project.
If you have any issues using the platform, please get in touch with my office.

Expressions of Interest for Mural Projects
Previous rounds of consultation have shown strong support for painting more murals on public walls, so we’ve allocated a bit of money from the public space upgrades budget specifically towards painting murals on toilet blocks and underpasses around the Gabba Ward.
We are now calling for expressions of interest from experienced mural artists who are interested in paid commissions to paint some of these surfaces.
Expressions of interest close on Monday, 12 October.

Future of Boggo Road Cross River Rail station

As mentioned in the events list below, next Saturday, 3 October, I’m co-organising a community picnic in Dutton Park to discuss alternative visions for the future of the Boggo Road Gaol site. Senator Larissa Waters will also be joining us to hear from residents about what’s important to you and how you’d like to see this precinct evolve.
Like the alternative visions we released for the Gabba Cross River Rail Station, we’ll be sharing an alternative vision for the Boggo Rd station site that has been produced by local residents and architecture graduates.
Please make a note in your calendar to come along from 4pm on Saturday, 3 October.

Gabba Ward Shutdown Album: The Art of Hibernation is almost here!

We’re planning to release the Gabba Ward shutdown album online from this coming Monday, 28 September. This project involved paying musicians and producers to record tracks during the COVID19 shutdown, at a time when many performing artists had lost paid gigs.
I’ll be posting the link on social media as well as sharing it in our next email newsletter. The compilation album is called The Art of Hibernation and features a broad range of tracks by local artists including: Kurilpa Reach, Bad Sext, Wheat Paste, Bricklayers, Kairos Twin, Machiniska, A Country Practice, Saateen, Sanfeliu, Cigany Weaver, Amy Jane and Lileth.
I’m really excited about this project and can’t wait to see what residents think of it. The album will be available for download for $20 with a cheaper ‘pay what you can afford’ option for people on lower incomes. 50% of sales revenue will go directly to the participating bands, and the other 50% will be set aside to pay artists to perform live community gigs once COVID restrictions ease.

Development in Kangaroo Point

I’ve been very concerned to see that another larger development application has been lodged for the site at 94 to 108 Lambert St, Kangaroo Point. Residents might recall that despite my objections, and dozens of submissions from residents, BCC previously approved a development application on this site for three highrise towers that were significantly denser than the neighbourhood plan anticipated.
Now the developer is applying to amend that previous approval to increase the tower height from 10 storeys to 15 storeys, without any meaningful increase to green space or public amenity.
I’ll be making a submission against this development application, and I encourage other residents to do so as well. I’ll also be speaking at a public meeting about this project at 5:30pm next Tuesday evening (29 September). Let me know if you’d like to attend and I can pass on details.

Musgrave Park Masters Swimming Club

Musgrave Park Swimming Pool has reopened, and the heated pools are already proving very popular with local residents. The long-running Uni Wahoos Masters Swimming Club has asked me to let residents know that they’re looking for 6 people to join their committee to ensure they can keep their non-profit association active. Committee members do not need to be competitive swimmers, but simply community members who are interested in rebuilding the club. If you’re interested in engaging with the community around fitness and new friendships, please contact Peter on 0437 883 225 or Susanne on 0405 258 957.

Footpath closures

As you know, I’ve been advocating consistently against the closure of busy footpaths by private developers. Recently, BCC allowed a developer to close a stretch of footpath on the southern side of Stanley Street, opposite the Gabba stadium. I kicked up a stink, including lodging a notice of intention to hold a protest down Stanley St during peak-hour, and happily BCC and the developer have now decided to reopen the footpath.
I’m now optimistic of achieving broader policy change so that developers working in the inner-city are not just given approval to close footpaths for as long as they want. I’ll keep you posted on that front.

Extending the CityHopper

Residents of Kangaroo Point and East Brisbane might be interested to learn that I’m hearing what I would describe as ‘positive noises’ from the BCC administration about my proposal to extend the free CityHopper ferry service around to Mowbray Park once ferry services have returned to the river.
Up until the cross-river ferries were recently removed from service due to safety concerns, the free CityHopper went as far as Dockside and Sydney Street. However if new, slightly faster vessels are reintroduced in a couple of months, this will create an opportunity to extend the CityHopper service coverage without significant overall impacts to travel times and timetables.
If you’d like to see the free CityHopper service extended to Mowbray Park, so that residents have free cross-river access from East Brisbane to New Farm, please email the mayor at lord.mayor@brisbane.qld.gov.au and express your support for this idea.