The lack of planning and foresight to cope with the never-ending population (immigration) deluge into Australia’s big cities never ceases to amaze. After a conga-line of reports about overcrowding across roads, public transport, schools and hospitals, now we hear that Sydneysiders are at war over accessing the city’s shrinking green spaces. From The SMH:
All over Sydney, tensions are rising over access to the city’s parks and playing spaces.
Whether it’s dogs gatecrashing a child’s birthday or annoyance over training bootcamps, one thing is clear. As the population density increases, more people want to use the same green space in different ways, with inevitable conflict…
Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne said the problem was “definitely getting worse” because there had been more residential development without matching increases in open space.
“We have sporting organisations, recreational groups and general community users vying for our increasingly limited and crowded open space, playing fields and sporting facilities,” Cr Byrne said. “It’s right at the very top of the pressing problems facing local governments across Sydney and the inner west in particular.”
Well whocoodanode! Sydney’s population has ballooned by 1.05 million people over the past 14 years, which necessarily means more people competing for existing open space.
Moreover, the situation is projected to worsen according to Infrastructure Australia’s projections, with traffic congestion, commute times, access to jobs, schools, hospitals and green space all worsening relative to today as Sydney’s population balloons to a projected 7.4 million people by 2046, irrespective of how Sydney builds-out:
The equation is simple: running a mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ program means incumbent residents will spend more time lost in traffic, spend more on (smaller) housing, receive less public services (e.g. health and education), will have access to less open space (e.g. parks, sporting ovals and beaches), and will experience lower overall living standards.
If you don’t like these outcomes, agitate to lower immigration.
