Welcome to the blog for the Shape Your City Heart series, The Brisbane Institute’s FREE inner-city community forums.

The Brisbane Institute ran three forums in October and November 2009 to find out what you love about your inner city and what you’d like to change.

Brisbane City Council will be using feedback from Shape Your City Heart as part of its community engagement strategies for future planning.

The online surveys have now closed and we will upload the results onto this website in the coming days.

Shape Your City Heart is a Brisbane Institute initiative. Visit the Brisbane Institute website.

Katherine Feeney from www.brisbanetimes.com.au writes about Brisbane Marketing’s new domestic tourism campaign.

Her article quotes Lord Mayor Campbell as saying that Brisbane’s biggest branding blunder has been telling Sydneysiders and Melburnians that Brisbane is a city just like theirs.

Read the full article here.

Some of Brisbane’s leading creative minds joined with a youth panel and city residents to discuss how to keep Brisbane growing at the final in the Shape Your City Heart series, hosted by The Brisbane Institute on Tuesday November 10 at the Ithaca Auditorium, City Hall.

Wotif.com’s general legal counsel Sean Simmons led a lively Q&A style panel including Queensland’s Chief Scientist Professor Peter Andrews, architect John Cameron, The Courier-Mail’s Matthew Connors, business leader and venture capitalist David Millhouse, young entrepreneur and social innovation director Sarah Moran, and Greenfest founder and director Colman Ridge.

The event was supported by Brisbane City Council and The Courier-Mail.

Sean Simmons said that Brisbane is on a 50-year journey to becoming a very different city – residents have to seize the opportunity to say what they want for their city, and in particular the city heart. He asked panelists to consider:

• “New World City” is Brisbane Marketing’s new positioning line for the city, but compared to other world cities, are we really ahead?
• While there were a host of opinions expressed throughout the evening, an overriding concern was that Brisbane’s public transport is inadequate and not keeping pace with growth or the demands of its citizens. So how do we change this?
• Useful public space is critical for the youth – there are many examples of disused space that could be put to better use in Brisbane. Should the RNA showgrounds – which lies dormant for most of the year – be officially titled Brisbane’s most underutlised public space?

Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Peter Andrews said that in 50 years’ time Queensland will not be a resource-driven economy but a knowledge-intensive society.

Richard Florida’s book The Rise of the Creative Class inspired the notion that smart people attract other smart people. To grow and flourish Brisbane needs scientists, artists and other smart, creative people, “all mixed up”.

The Smart State Council’s 2007 report, Smart Cities: rethinking the city centre, envisages a “knowledge corridor” for Brisbane from Bowen Hills to Wolloongabba. This corridor coincides with a spine of research institutes, tertiary campuses, research precincts and cultural and creative facilities. Queensland, in particular Brisbane, has made huge strides in attracting researchers to the city. In 1998 Queensland had 8,000 researchers while New South Wales had 15,000. Now, both states claim about 18,000 researchers.

The Brisbane City Council needs to make sure there is connectivity so that physical and creative connections can occur.

Architect John Cameron said memorable buildings crystalise the times. When it comes to urban design, bad architecture can ruin a city, and Brisbane has examples of both good and bad. The GOMA/State Library-creative precinct in South Bank is an example of very good design, and these buildings are a welcome and attractive addition to creative arts in the city. Brisbane needs to be true to what it really is – its residents needs to value it in the same way as the city’s original indigenous inhabitants treasured it.

For too long we have lived beyond our means in social and economic terms.
We need to invest social and environmental capital back into our city. In the same way that we think of a house as just a product, but a home as a deeply personal space, we need to regard Brisbane as  “authentically ours”.

Courier Mail CM2 editor Matthew Connors said Brisbane’s live music scene has been growing and thriving since the 1990s, and the Valley Entertainment Precinct had give bands freedom to perform with less restrictions. Brisbane has changed – people want to stay here because the city has culture, it has great facilities.

We need to support good culture for Brisbane. The violence and heavy drinking culture is partly a result of the clustering of so many venues in a small area – we need to change this, and we need much better public transport so that people can get home quickly.

He agreed with a comment from a member of the audience from Ferny Grove who lamented Brisbane’s inadequate public transport. He said there was a great deal to be done to improve access to culture and the arts in the city’s outer suburbs.

Business executive David Millhouse said he had witnessed great change since arriving in Brisbane in 1979. Young people are staying in the city, and this has happened because both sides of government had fostered growth.
He said we need to support the Smart State strategy and hold on to what we’ve got without spoiling Brisbane’s lifestyle in the process.

Brisbane should also not forget that while large entrepreneurs are important, most people outside of the government sector are employed by small businesses – encouraging the growth of SMEs remains critical for the success and growth of Brisbane.

YES Brisbane’s Sarah Moran spoke about the need for young people to have space – for living, for creativity.

Young people need lots of space, and they are avid communicators in virtual space – and so it’s hardly surprising that businesses are now adapting their businesses to capitalise on social networking.

Gen Y have lots of ideas about creating businesses and doing things for themselves, and they appreciate spaces like Visible Ink in the Valley. The space provides facilities and resources to help young people run workshops, projects, events and businesses. The State Library is another great resource for young people.

We need to consider better use of vacant spaces, such as at Stone’s Corner. Where have all the shops gone? Perhaps the vacant spaces could be used by young people who could bring them back to life again.

Greenfest Director Colman Ridge asked the audience to vote on whether Brisbane suffered from too much or too little government. (With the exception of a few, most people in the audience thought there was too much government.)

He said we need to stand up and do things for ourselves – and “New World City” sounds like something  out of  North Korea.

Town planning is not going to make our city great – people need to do it themselves. We need to make sure we’re not stopped in time – tin and timber is not the only option – let’s be careful about getting caught up in the “colonial bubble”.

The future of Brisbane is a green economy hub – with renewable energy and good public transport at the centre.

One thing Brisbane’s city centre desperately needs is a concert facility – travelling to Boondall is not on – “we need a building in the middle of the city”.

Queensland’s Chief Scientist Professor Peter Andrews was one of the panellists at the final Shape Your City Heart Forum last night. He shares his views on Brisbane as a centre of knowledge and creativity but laments how challenging it is for ‘old codgers’ to get around.

For me, one of the most important aspects of any city is the quality of the physical and cultural linkages it provides for its residents. There are some things that Brisbane does very well. And there are some I would love to see changed.

The thing I love the most about Brisbane is the way we’re attracting creative people to the city centre, particularly to the Knowledge Corridor.

What’s the Knowledge Corridor? The concept was originally proposed by the Smart State Council in its Smart Cities report.

Think of it as a big ‘S’ that begins at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Bowen Hills, winding through QUT’s health hub and Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove. It crosses the new Kurilpa Bridge, running through the Millennium Arts and cultural precincts, past two fantastic new research facilities at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Boggo Road Ecosciences Precinct, and finishing at UQ.

This continuum of great science and creative spaces is home to literally thousands of knowledge workers.

With its green bridges and public space, the Knowledge Corridor shows real foresight in terms of linking our citizens – scientists, artists and punters alike – as do other initiatives like Brisbane’s ferry services and bike paths.

On the other side of the coin, I’ve noticed a failure to provide a similar level of connectivity for old codgers like me who like to walk from A to B.

I live in St Lucia, one of Brisbane’s oldest suburbs. Yet I can’t push my grandson’s pram to the local shops safely because the few footpaths that do exist are obstructed by parked cars and garbage bins. And I can’t walk along the river to my city office without fear of being hospitalised, as my daughter’s doctor was, by a speeding cyclist.

How about some dedicated footpaths?

by Colman Ridge, founder and director of Greenfest
and participant in the final Shape Your City Heart forum on Monday 10 November

What I love about Brisbane is its grassroots people, ingenuity, colour, effervescent innovation and potential. What I hate about Brisbane is the corporatised civic patriotism that instills a fear of cultural development and individuality garnered to manage progress benchmarked to some undeclared ideal.

Brisbane is like a 13-year-old girl considering a wagged day off from school with her best friends, early in the morning by sms and insisting she’ll go if they don’t act silly. She behaves like her parents and teachers are forever watching when in fact it’s really only the city council. The police are interested but only for her to come home safe, the state’s alarm clock did not go off so they are sleeping securely and The Courier Mail already had today’s paper written yesterday but might report on her tomorrow if they stop by a pub in the valley.

Young Brisbane and her mates head off into their personal plan and sense of independence monitored Baghdad-style by rolling patrol cars donning the iconic “tickler” logo of her namesake home town. After a while the young group discounts the ineffective civic stalking and begin enjoying their power, to be promptly fined for concealing a dog (Pomeranian) off leash under a jacket and creating audible noise over 3 decibels between the hours of 6 and 10am and then being asked to complete a neighbourhood development survey for building a better Brisbane. On completing the survey Brisbane and her friends find it’s time to return home with fines in pocket, pondering the meaning of those questions on housing density.

This is a city with infinite edges that touch the world, called people. It is not a building for which we all have to hold our breath while it goes ever higher. We know each other yet we act with a degree of discomfort like we are on a stage.

The issue is not development, it’s what are we developing.

No other city sits watching us, they are dancing the samba in those other world cities and hoping we are too, knowing dancing is more sustainable than holding your breath. If the dance has broken down then let’s find some inspirational projects that deliver on community need and put that pumping heart into progress. Instead of another play-safe-get-nowhere London Eye why not:

1. Dreamtime: Cultural centre for South Pacific Indigenous Peoples based in Brisbane built over the Maritime Museum hosted by our local Aboriginal people. Provides a real local, relevant, authentic major tourist attraction for the world to appreciate the richness and diversity of South Pacific Indigenous culture. It also provides a positive community development enabler for Aboriginal people to host their region and an independent interface for them to network other issues commonly faced by Indigenous people.
2. Green Economy Hub: The world needs industry to work together faster to build the greener economy. We have all the ingredients in land, ingenuity, intellectual capital, open political economy, and respected and secure law but not the political vision. Let’s invite global companies, universities and government agencies to work together in a hub of excellence and interaction to invent and commercialise the solutions we need rather than be perpetual risk-averse fast-followers. The Green Economy Hub will be an example of  hotel, office, convention centre, residences, retail, entertainment and transport that are sustainable and will by function be a catalyst of change by the tenants within.
3. Green Colloseum: Time for an entertainment centre of 10 000+ to be built next into the Green Economy Hub both annexed to the transport infrastructure of Roma Street Station, over the rail yards and busway. When the students of QUT graduate and invent the new economy with opportunity at the Green Economy Hub, they can feed the fossil fuel industry to the lions at the Green Colosseum.

We have all the ingredients in land, ingenuity, intellectual capital, open political economy, and respected and secure law but not the political vision.

I grew up in Mount Gravatt and prior to arriving at my 8th jumbo passport through a career in marketing, worked in the factories and foundries of this city. Brisbane is unique, its region has the ingredients to lead in a most authentic and valuable way but it will lead by respecting the treasure under its feet, its people and interpreting the best fit of those abundant talents with the needs of the world around it. These ideas are suggested as things to get us started on that track.

After reading Patrick Suskind’s Perfume I remember thinking, “wow 18th Century Paris and the lovely Seine was a stinking river valley stewing in class war and ruled by mad merchants and emperors … we should let our guard down and go for it.” I salute the French strength in understanding individuality.

Brisbane is a wonderful swaying, fertile, abundant river mouth that needs more carrot and less stick.

by John Cameron, principal of John Cameron Architects (www.jcarch.com.au)
and panellist in the final Shape Your City Heart forum on Tuesday, 10 November

I love the potential for Brisbane to retain its authenticity by being true to place, people and climate. This does not mean being parochial and backward looking. To me it means having the confidence to be ‘us’, by all means measured against international benchmarks, but not imitating somewhere else. Our architecture is something we are measured by. Let’s develop a city for us, and let others take us as they find us.

Great architecture is vital for a great city, but fine buildings are merely jewels in the dustbin if the urban design – the public realm – is not equally fine.

Bad architecture can ruin a city, regardless of any fine qualities of the public realm. Bad architecture to me is that which is rude, socially exclusive, resource-inefficient or overly self-conscious – eg; World’s tallest, biggest, most luxurious, etc.

Brisbane has its share of my idea of bad architecture, but we also have some stunning examples of which we can be proud; GOMA and the new State Library precinct for example. This is architecture that sums up much of what I believe an egalitarian Queensland building style should be all about – we can go see fine art from international collections wearing our shorts and thongs, or fine clothes – we can enjoy a coffee at a table, or even on the grass under the shade of a magnificent tree and watch the river go by – we can access a wi-fi hot-spot without passing through a physical security check at State Library and while there enjoy a cool microclimate generated by a natural air-flow facilitated by thoughtfully deployed architecture and landscape rather than air-conditioning.

…we’re going to have to stop using the term ’sustainable development’ and replace it with ‘positive development’ – and get quickly on with making that which is good, rather than merely less-bad.

There are some very substantial challenges ahead – population growth, resource depletion, loss of biodiversity, water, food, climate change. Can we design a resilient and prosperous Brisbane to respond to these challenges? I think we can, but we’re going to have to stop using the term ’sustainable development’ and replace it with ‘positive development’ – and get quickly on with making that which is good, rather than merely less-bad.

Principal of Ray White Real Estate at New Farm Haesley Cush is one of our panellists at the next Shape Your City Heart Forum, “Build a successful city”. Here are his thoughts about Brisbane now and in the future.

What I love:

The magic of Brisbane’s inner city stems from the people, the landscape and the proximity to the country & coast. We are a diverse mix of passionate Australians. As a city we are proud of our sky-scrapers and our delicate city fringe (Kangaroo Point, Story Bridge, South Bank, New Farm Park, etc). We are a working people, we work hard and dream big. A close drive to Aussie outback or sprawling coast makes for active breaks with an Australian theme. We view ourselves as forward thinking and advanced but enjoy the romance attached to our small town roots. We are also culturally diverse, with waves of new cultures rolling in every few years, new flavours decorate our suburbs.

A few changes:

Moving forward we need to address some housing issues. The inner city is heavier in population but could easily cope with more. The urban sprawl is creating sub-communities around shopping villages. To continue to protect our access to the country and coast is paramount to us maintaining our laid back/fair go approach. Protecting poor quality inner-city housing from times gone by is not the only way to keep character. Character is a style, peoples values and community. Our climate is changing, our housing must evolve, pre-war houses need post-war innovation. Relaxation around the relocation of Queenslanders to make way for higher density is needed. People/buyers travelling to Brisbane are seeking a relaxed lifestyle, they want a driven business sector but wish to escape to parklands, sandy beaches or river walks.

In our second forum of the series our expert panel will talk about issues like housing, sustainable development, transport, infrastructure, architecture and more.

The Courier-Mail feature writer and green blogger Graham Readfearn will MC a panel including principal of Ray White New Farm Haesley Cush, Brisbane Housing Company special projects manager Rebecca Oelkers, director of Urbis Brisbane — the firm that worked on the re-design of King George Square — James Tuma, ecological sustainable development engineer from ARUP Peter James and urban sociologist from Griffith University Geoff Woolcock.

So come along and have your say on how we can build a successful city. 2 November, 6pm-8pm, Ithaca Auditorium at City Hall. Entry is free. Also, don’t forget to add your comments to our blogs and fill in the surveys by clicking on the survey link above.

Audience members at first Saturday’s Shape Your City Heart Forum were as articulate and passionate as the speakers in expressing their views. Here is a sample of some of their views, and some comments from our speakers in reply:

Bill has lived in Brisbane since the 1930s. He says Brisbane is the subtropical capital of Australia. He says we need to claim that title and nail it up and bend over backwards to live up to it. Bill expressed concern that Yungaba (under the Story Bridge) was about to be developed, saying that Brisbane needed to learn to restore and recapture its history.

In reply:

Kathleen Noonan —”Under the Bjelke-Petersen government, we lost buildings, while under the Beattie and Bligh governments, we are losing public spaces”.

Matthew Condon — “We can give an old fibre glass pineapple a heritage tag but we go blank in the city”.

• Audience member Susan applauded the restoration of St John’s Cathedral, all done through community action.
• Roth asked about the place of agriculture in the city Kathleen Noonan suggested that the city needed a city farm, like at Northey St at Windsor
• Elizabeth said she’s been to too many consultation events and seen nothing change … she said it was important to maintain the character of Brisbane by not replacing Queenslander homes with 20-storey buildings. She also said a ‘curtain’ of buildings built in front of Roma St Parklands had cut the public space off from its public. Leah Cotterell replied with the question: I wonder how long the shadow is going to be from the 15-storey building being built 20 metres from my house in West End.
• One young man called for more Jacaranda trees to be planted and for Brisbane’s laneways to be more “edgy and eclectic” like in Melbourne.
• David said people should not accept the assumptions of the SEQ Regional Plan concerning population increases. He said assumptions made in the plan were ‘pie in the sky’ and ‘ridiculous’. Matt Condon said what was ‘ridiculous’ was that the Lord Mayor had to charge $15 per person to raise money to save City Hall.

When singer/songwriter and community activist Leah Cotterell stepped up to the microphone at the first Shape Your City Heart forum on Saturday, she said she was surprised to hear that all four people who had spoken before her spoke with “one voice on how to make our city work for our kids and our future”.

There were many points that most  of the speakers — who included Kim Wilkins, Matthew Condon, Malcolm Snow, Kathleen Noonan and Leah Cotterell — agreed on:

• GOMA is a wonderful addition to the Brisbane cultural scene.
• South Bank is a great space for families to come together.
• We need more trees in Brisbane’s inner city.
• King George Square could be better used as a public space.
• Plans for developing suburbs like West End with higher-density living need to be approached very cautiously so we don’t lose a very special community and place in Brisbane.

One thing that all speakers shared unequivocally was a love for Brisbane, for its river, for its weather, for its more relaxed pace of life that bigger cities. However, there were cautions that if we do not create more spaces for reflection, for gathering, for contemplation, Brisbane may become just as rude and  busy as many other cities.

Some ideas and comments from each of our speakers:

Kim Wilkins — Kim said art (by which she meant all forms of art, not just visual arts) should be more accessible for people who did not live near the inner city, reaching out to people from different demographics and social groups … “not to overfish the pool, but to increase the pool you’re fishing from”. She suggested subsidised transport (or built into ticket prices) for performances. She said art should be brought to people geographically, like having interactive art at train and bus stations or a wall for punters at Suncorp stadium to write poetry on.

Matthew Condon — Matt said a kind of “generational non-caring” existed in Brisbane and that people have been very subservient to authority. He urged citizens to demand what they want to see changed in their city and to speak up. Matt spoke about how Brisbane had a heart but has perhaps lost it. He used the example of the redesigned King George Square as an example. “It’s a thoroughfare … 26 seats and only 3 and a half in the shade … it says ‘don’t sit here, don’t reflect here, don’t engage’. People need to be given an opportunity to interact.” Matt spoke of his love for South Bank as Brisbane’s “giant back yard”.   His ideas for better shaping Brisbane  were:

• to permanently close off a block including parts of Queen Street, Adelaide Street and Charlotte Street to see City Hall and King George Square “sucked” into Qeen Street Mall, have this just for pedestrians, and have a Notting Hill-style carnival.

make the Botanic Gardens in the city Australia’s first civic space for children.

CEO of South Bank Corporation Malcolm Snow cautioned against Brisbane developing in tune with a “growth is good” mantra. Malcolm said it was inevitable the inner city would be home, leisure centre and workplace to many more people in closer proximity. However he said it was possible to make the city a place that reinforced Brisbane’s unique physical features, such as its windy river. Malcolm said high density didn’t necessarily mean high-rise, citing the example of Barcelona — among the densist of the world’s cities, which doesn’t go above six stories. Malcolm supported Kim Wilkins’ idea of art coming to people, recalling a trip where he had seen an orchestra in an airport. He reminded people that, within the city, more than 65% of the space is part of the public realm. “This is not simply the responsibility of government and developers: we must ask if we are doing enough to ensure the future.”

As reflected in her blog previously published on this site, Kathleen Noonan lamented Brisbane’s lack of trees and criticised the way the city has been built,  too hot in summer, and too windy and cold in winter. “Landscape and climate have done so much for Brisbane and we have not reciprocated,” she said. She said Brisbane was too ’shiny’ and shiny was not good for the soul. Kathleen is a runner who regularly traverses the edges of the city, interacting with the place and people. She wishes Brisbane’s bike lanes would lead somewhere instead of evaporating into traffic. She said she was mourning the loss of Yungaba, under the Story Bridge, which is to be turned into a “parkland destination” — warning that anything that is promoted as “world-class public space” shoudl be treated with suspicion. Kathleen reminded the audience that people are not powerless to be heard, citing the public’s opposition to North Bank as an example of how the government will often listen to the community’s voice.

Leah Cotterell recalled ‘fleeing’ from her childhood in Upper Mount Gravatt to the inner-city area, recalling how things had changed in the area since the ’70s. Leah expressed concern that any efforts would be made to ’shape’ the city: “It’s only when I look back that I can see how the city was shaped”. Leah likened planning of the inner city to planning a party: either use the approach of the “straight-haired hostess keen to show off all her European applicances, or text 200 of your friends, pull up the rugs and buy some ice”, she said. A West End resident, Leah expressed concerns about the plans for higher density development in the area, fearing how the arrival of “25,000 cashed up homogenous people” would impact on the community. Leah said Brisbane’s festivals and event organisers often preferred ’safe bets’ and international artists to local talent. She said we needed to

“stop banging on about excellence and international best practice … empower artists and the cream will rise to the surface”.

MC Kelly Higgins-Devine from ABC local radio summed up the whole point of the day in agreeing with Kathleen Noonan that people’s voices were heard by government and business. Kathleen suggested people writer letters to the editor and Kelly urged people to also use radio talk back and websites to have their say:

Remember, your silence is consent.