I tire of our politicians boasting about Melbourne topping global liveability surveys while filling the joint with apartment blocks and freeways.
When I lived overseas in the 1990s, I boasted that Melbourne was the world’s biggest country town, with manageable traffic, loads of parks and relaxed people going about their business.
Those days are long gone, thanks to an obsession by successive Victorian governments to outdo Sydney in the growth stakes.
And while politicians welcomed growth, they did sod all to cater for it and ignored expert advice and public demand for better public transport.
Melbourne had the space to cater for growth. But now we’re seeing plans to squeeze out public space, from selling open areas near public housing to cutting a swathe through Royal Park for the east-west link.
We have strange priorities.
