MY CITY OF SYDNEY

 



URBAN FILTRATION (The emotional exposition)

The Sirius building situation in The Rocks is bloody dreadful. For a city that is rapidly increasing the amount of residential floor space within its boundaries and boasting about such development, it seems very odd that an already established residential complex has been tagged for demolition. The Sirius building is no small animal. It features heaps of units and some of them enjoy fabulous views over Circular Quay and beyond. 

But the residents of this building aren't movers and shakers and certainly don't deserve to bask in this sought after locality. Many of these 'untouchables' attract rental assistance and are on social welfare. How dare they? The fact that some are elderly and have lived there for decades is irrelevant. The fact that they're the remnants of a town planning initiative from forty years ago that valued a diversity of punters who inhabit our fair city has been conveniently forgotten. This is the Sydney we're becoming: the dollar rules and those pesky welfare ne'er-do-wells need to be jettisoned pronto.

Here's my first gripping generalisation and, yeah, it's as predictable as the Daily Telegraph muscling up on Clover Moore...... I reckon that a lot of people agree with kicking them out. Those Sirius residents shouldn't be entitled to have a dress circle postcode. 

We Sydney-siders have very short memories. Remember the green bans, Jack Mundey and the early-seventies BLF. The Rocks wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for the action of key groups in those times. Central to those campaigns and bans were PEOPLE. And it was people who benefitted from that action. One doesn't have to be too clever or insightful to realise that it's the same sub-group of citizens who are now enduring the heave-ho.

Have we learnt nothing from our past? What type of city do we really want?

SUBURBAN INFILTRATION (The rational discussion)

As Sydney (the city) is largely purging itself of the riff-raff currently, the opposite can be said for its surrounding suburbs. But the same principles apply and both city and suburb share common forces and explanations.

There seems to be this perception at the moment that Sydney, as a metropolis, is being invaded by the unclean and I’m not just referring to the reprobates of the Sirius complex. I’m certainly hearing it from the media regularly and even from acquaintances periodically. The sub-text for all of this appears to be migrant- or migrant background- citizens who have the temerity to take up digs in the vicinity of, or next to, ‘us’……whatever that means.

Part of the problem is the artificial and opportunistic differentiation of ‘real’ Australians and these Johnny-come-latelies who, as the narrative proceeds, challenge the very foundations of everything we love, genuflect before and treasure in this great land. I know of punters who won’t go to certain areas of Sydney because of this insane reckoning. But it does seem to be gaining traction with citizens like me, that is, boomer Australians.

The rationale behind a lot of this centres on concepts like entitlement (‘We’ve been here longer’), suitability (‘We’re white’) and values (‘We’re the real Aussies, unlike them’). Of course, such concepts also underpin movements and parties like Reclaim Australia and One Nation but let’s not get bogged down in mere ideologies. Whilst the ‘real’ Australians would never admit to using the sentence examples above, the highlighted concepts are the things that bite and provide the kindling for the political bonfires of Pauline Hanson, Catherine Brennan and others.

Any considered analysis of the Oz story since British colonisation/ invasion/ occupation points to migration as being a continuing feature of our history but this is of little consequence to those citizens who feel threatened or ‘in danger’. Their reverence towards a golden past looms large but what exactly that past looked like or even whether it existed in the first place proves difficult for them to articulate or tag.

David Marr’s quarterly paper, which attracted some publicity recently, provides much more information and analysis of many of the points mentioned but, unfortunately, I don’t believe that the notions/ processes of entitlement, finger pointing and marginalisation- which unite both the city and the suburbs- are going away anytime soon.

David Marr's essay