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Melbourne City's Lord Mayor John So has since yesterday received flak from The Age over his over-spending and budget-redirection last year, his popularity suggested to be the result of a very successful but expensive media campaign. It is also suggested that the Council's expenses had been progressively increasing since he had been in office.

Has The Age suddenly turned hostile on Melbourne's favourite Lord Mayor?...Read Full Article»

North Melbourne is a residential, commercial and industrial suburb immediately north-west of central Melbourne. It is often associated with West Melbourne (in which is situated the North Melbourne railway yards), and the boundary between the two is Victoria Street.

In 1842 the first institution of significance erected in the North Melbourne area was a cattle yard at the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria Streets (now the Queen Victoria Market). In 1851 a Benevolent Asylum was built between Abbotsford and Curzon Streets, straddling Victoria Street and thus partly in North Melbourne. The opening of the asylum coincided with the Melbourne Town Council's overtures for a new township to accommodate the gold-rush population influx. A site for the township was found by severance from an open-space reserve of 1,035 ha. that had been approved by the Governor of New South Wales in 1845. The result was a smaller reserve - now Royal Park - and a township called Parkside which now comprises North and West Melbourne. Town allotments were put up for sale in September, 1852....Read Full Article»

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the building of Copenhagen bicycle lanes in Swanston Street. Copenhagen lanes are bicycle lanes that separate cyclists and car traffic by putting a parking lane between them.

Riding on this $500,000 bicycle lane a couple of weeks ago, I can attest that this was a bad idea. I'm not even sure why this was ever built as Swanston Street already had an adequate bike lane to start out with.

...Read Full Article»