What we have lost

[mumandtwins]

I am in South Australia doing business and society at Uni I am very interested in the Social Sustainability of this area if that is what they can call bulldozing beautiful homes and replacing them with concrete Not nice :(

[Steptile1]

Isn't it about time we had more green bans?

[billJmears]

@Steptile1 What? I assume that you mean to stop all development in your pretty little part of Sydney? Why would we (working class/unions) support bans in an area that supports the party (libs) that has destroyed our security and won’t spend a cent on services! I know that the BLF supported the national trust, but the big stuff (rocks/domain/kellys bush) was about protecting public access for ordinary people, not the interests of a wealthy few!

[billJmears]

@Steptile1 Whats more! The BLF wanted to build schools, aged care, hospitals, houses and flats for ORDINARY people because they didn’t have these things! How would a green ban on your houses help to achieve what Mundy, Pringles and Owens were fighting for?

[lmenday]

driving along the Pac Hwy last week I thought that the new aparments are an improvement. 1 storey homes along this road are too small and make the area feel open and hostile, but the apartments compensate for the busyness/scale of the road. Otherwise, while some of these apartments are pretty ordinary, many employ thoughful designs and high grade materials, and fit well with the topography. I dont see why they are 'unsympathetic'!

[lmenday]

@Steptile1 the volume of traffic + scale of the road are not reciprocated in the built form. The traffic and front fences (which often block the views to the houses) r the predominant feature in the landscape and the place feels ‘open and hostile’ bc there is no protection for pedestrians and nothing else to see, kind of like a suburban desert I think. the apartments help to balance this because the scale is better matched and the road/fences are no longer the only feature of the landscape.

[lmenday]

@Steptile1 Also bc you can see windows rather than just fences, it looks like a place where people live, which I think gives it a friendlier feel. There are many beautiful low density parts of Ku-ring-gai, where the federation homes rather than the road are able to be the focus of the landscape, but I like the apartments on the highway.

[FOKEsydney]

Wow, today our video was seen in Western Australia, tomorrow the World!!...Nobody wants unsympathetic inappropriate development. Take a look at our new video, "Ku-ring-gai for Sale" We want a say in how our suburbs are developed, not told what we are to have by faceless Planning Panels and Developers.

[LeoZaza]

Unfortunately, what is going on in Ku-ring-gai has happened right through some areas here in WA, which are now like legoland.  From what I see, the damage is done and your area has turned from leafy green and nice to just crass. Fight on, because you really don't need any more disgraceful development. Nice to have the old photos to look back on I suppose.

[jaack456]

I don't get what is with these people. Higher population in the Kuringai Area can only be better, in Lindfield where I live there is pretty much nothing interesting there. I do have a problem with people destroying native wildlife, but that is not the plan, the plan is to build over the pre-existing ugly buildings on the Pacific Highway not in Garigal Park and soforth. The old-farts running this program need to pull their heads out of their asses and realise change IS good.

[ssath09]

the plan is to build over the pre-existing ugly buildings on the Pacific Highway: just like that lovely set of 1930's Art Deco shops that were on the corner of Grosvenor Rd and Pacific Hwy that were pulled down to make way for an ugly apartment building. I live in Lindfield too but don't regard hideous, revolting Soviet inspired apartment complexes for the cashed up baby boomers a sign that multicultural cosmopolitan atmosphere is about to occur here.

[D73Martin]

You're living in the wrong place if Lindfield's not "interesting" enough. Other people living here chose it for its quiet village, its streetscapes, its heritage - not because it had tatty apartment blocks in prospect, or double the supermarket space, or more coffee shops. Young farts like you should choose Newtown or somewhere like that if you want "interest". But if you ask 90% of people in Newtown whether they want tower blocks nearby, they say "No"! My guess is that you're a developer!!

[jaack456]

What streetscapes and heritage? The main drag at Lindfield is tatty and needs to be spruced up a lot and by that I DO NOT mean another Chatswood, all it needs is some modern buildings which match the new train station look and in those put some nice restaurants and specialty stores. And no, I am not a developer and unless you have proof of an actual study asking the residents of Newton I will totally disregard those facts.

[steptile]

I think better amenities like improved shopping and public spaces would be nice IF that is what is to follow..debatable. What I most object to is the style of housing and the planning panels. The view may be nice from INSIDE but hideous outside. And where have the trees gone? They have been replaced by tiny saplings or nothing. Those views you are enjoying are not the new look Kuringai,they are the old look Kuringai. Even if you like the apartments the Planning Panels are still undemocratic.

[AntonHamer]

I love the new look of Kuringai. Its such an improvement. More people get to enjoy 15km rail to the city, better shops will move in soon, and the place looks much more clean and inviting. My friends and I embrace the change, love the views from our new apartment and improved living standards for our parents who are all downsizing to apartments too. 80yr olds cant mow 1600sqm! I can't believe the selfishness of people who think Kuringai is theirs to keep in the dark ages. Go move to Tasmania.

[lllordllloyd]

Not that 'embracing the change' means you'd actually LIVE in one of the cheaply-constructed, tightly-squeezed, architecturally worthless McFlats, eh Anton? Bet your house is one of those mowing nightmares, probably some awful trees around it, too? Defend the obvious political corruption and disenfranchisement of the local community... if you dare.

[TheSagesong]

People who have NO IDEA of the worth of our Australian architectural and social history are making decisions about it. Destroying it. No taste (approving human filing cabinets), & no values (taking money in return for approvals). Making these vulgar decisions & somehow sleeping soundly at night. But you know what? What goes around comes around.They'll one day regret their acts bitterly, and it will be TOO LATE.Chances are their children & grandchildren will be disgusted by their lack of ethics.

[kcarrollau]

Unbelievable! I used to live in Ku-ring-gai and am SHOCKED at what I saw in this video. As I watched, with goosebumps of horror on my arms, the words that filled my mind were ...chilling, outrageous, mindless, narrow-minded. Such a powerful image of the heritage house in the process of being demolished - what clearer way is there to show the destruction of our history, our heritage, our environment and the fact that there's no way to restore the uniqueness of what we've already lost.

[steptile]

You said it yourself, "engage with design and ensure quality". These new blocks going up have nothing to do with quality. They also have nothing to do with urban development. It is all about fast bucks. We have lost old suburbs such as Haberfield, Leichhardt, Chatswood and Willoughby. You can still see abundant heritage in Glebe, Annandale, Hunters Hill and Paddington -- and boy, how people clamour to live in those suburbs, and visit their restaurants and amenities. You might ask yourself why.

[GreenGranny63]

I would like outraged Kuring-gai residents to consider that Sydney is growing and that people need to live somewhere. Have you had children? Where will they live? Will we licence people to live in this area? When was it "ideal" from which it's all been downhill? 1960? 1980? 1930? Perhaps the Aborigines felt this way about what we did. Do we just write off all beautiful surrounding rural areas that feed us? Better to engage with design and ensure quality surely. Be realistic. This is NIMBYism.

[FOKErm7]

Yes we have children,but they couldn't afford the apartments-they are too expensive. Yes we have to keep farmlands near Sydney, as well as national parks & endangered bushland, as it is in Ku-ring-gai. Come and see it for yourself. We accept we must take our share, but these buildings are incompatible with the environment. The Pacific Hwy is a carpark, the trains overcrowded now-how can we take 14,000 more people? This is the main transport link north and is not being upgraded. Help!