Is there anything good about Sydney?

> 10 years ago
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actiomax
actiomax
NSW
1576 posts
NSW, 1576 posts
8 Mar 2013 7:42pm
I live near rooty hill & if there's no traffic its only 45 mins to anywhere reality some days it would be quicker to drive to port maqurie than drive to Newport & back but I've had 5 hr delays going to katomba people crash cars & die its sad & it stuff up ur commute but I would rather be stuck in traffic than stuck in an accident .
There is 1 good thing about Sydney I live here& I tell u wind skate there's plenty of tar right on everybody's doorstep & its lite up at night so its what u make of it
evlPanda
evlPanda
NSW
9207 posts
NSW, 9207 posts
8 Mar 2013 8:03pm
...Actually yes, now it is literally starting me in the face. The Harbour.

Best view I'll probably ever have. 2 minutes ago.



I'll be staring at this through binoculars for the next 20 minutes. Sipping a beer.

And riding to work in 25 minutes through Centennial.
And the vast choice of take-aways.

But everything else sucks

It should be renamed $ydney.
adolf
adolf
1862 posts
1862 posts
8 Mar 2013 5:27pm
^^^^ When you happen to get views like that, most problems momentarily disappear - for me anyway. Enjoy your beer Panda.
Clownfeatures
Clownfeatures
SA
205 posts
SA, 205 posts
8 Mar 2013 8:31pm
Coming from a large country town to me Sydney rocks...love to visit there heaps to do and lots to look at
Just saying
slammin
slammin
QLD
998 posts
QLD, 998 posts
8 Mar 2013 9:13pm
evlPanda said...
...Actually yes, now it is literally starting me in the face. The Harbour.

Best view I'll probably ever have. 2 minutes ago.



I'll be staring at this through binoculars for the next 20 minutes. Sipping a beer.

And riding to work in 25 minutes through Centennial.
And the vast choice of take-aways.

But everything else sucks

It should be renamed $ydney.


Yep Hell still has a harbour view.
actiomax
actiomax
NSW
1576 posts
NSW, 1576 posts
9 Mar 2013 7:49pm
Seriously there's heaps of great places in Sydney I could run tourist tours of some of the great & often overlooked places & for example the widest canyon in the world is up blue mountains & it was on news recently showing the water falls in the heavy rain & some people believe aliens land there but I'm not one of them
Mobydisc
Mobydisc
NSW
9029 posts
NSW, 9029 posts
9 Mar 2013 8:19pm
actiomax said...
Seriously there's heaps of great places in Sydney I could run tourist tours of some of the great & often overlooked places & for example the widest canyon in the world is up blue mountains & it was on news recently showing the water falls in the heavy rain & some people believe aliens land there but I'm not one of them


Agree and there are some amazing suburbs in western Sydney. We were talking at work about Vietnam and how some of my colleagues were thinking of going there for a holiday. However they have not driven 45 minutes to Cabramatta. You can get the same sort of food and a very similar experience to being in a Vientnamese town out a Cabramatta and unless you decide to double cross a drug dealer, it's pretty safe there.

I doubt many tourists see much of Sydney besides the harour, Blue Mountains and a few other tourist attractions. I think many tourists would be interested in seeing different areas of Sydney and seeing how people live here.
stuk
stuk
NSW
894 posts
NSW, 894 posts
9 Mar 2013 9:15pm
Alhogg said...
Coming from a large country town to me Sydney rocks...love to visit there heaps to do and lots to look at
Just saying


I grew up in a large country town now live in a small country town. I hope Sydney people never realize what a crap life they live otherwise they will exit in droves like they do every holiday and spoil it for the rest of us.
evlPanda
evlPanda
NSW
9207 posts
NSW, 9207 posts
10 Mar 2013 8:26am
Mobydisc said...
actiomax said...
Seriously there's heaps of great places in Sydney I could run tourist tours of some of the great & often overlooked places & for example the widest canyon in the world is up blue mountains & it was on news recently showing the water falls in the heavy rain & some people believe aliens land there but I'm not one of them


Agree and there are some amazing suburbs in western Sydney. We were talking at work about Vietnam and how some of my colleagues were thinking of going there for a holiday. However they have not driven 45 minutes to Cabramatta. You can get the same sort of food and a very similar experience to being in a Vientnamese town out a Cabramatta and unless you decide to double cross a drug dealer, it's pretty safe there.


I was thinking of going to Vietnam for our ten year anniversary. Surprise her?
FlySurfer
FlySurfer
NSW
4460 posts
NSW, 4460 posts
10 Mar 2013 10:57am
evlPanda said...
I was thinking of going to Vietnam for our ten year anniversary. Surprise her?


Well thanks to Seabreezers now you know you can go to Cabramatta insead, have some Pho qu or Bun bo nam bo and even pickup some crack while you're at it.
FlySurfer
FlySurfer
NSW
4460 posts
NSW, 4460 posts
10 Mar 2013 11:06am
While a small minority are fortunate enough to have a view like this from their office window...



Most have to go through this everyday... (every single image is OFF Peak/rush hour)

Parked, or moving @ <10kmh Saturday arvo ~16hrs.

Lights turning green > red > green > red > green and still not moving.

Cars in to the distance, took me 1.5hrs to travel 24km, off peak.

Peak times I just don't bother.
worrier
worrier
WA
726 posts
WA, 726 posts
10 Mar 2013 9:45am
I went there last year for the second time with the missus on our way to Fiji for 3 days.

Stayed in the Hotel next to the warship in flysurfers photo and had a ball. Didn't realise how ritzy it was till we went to one of the resteraunts downstairs on the pier. Great feed though. Had a walk and wondered who owned the big apartment down the end and found out later it was rusty Crowes, What a spot to live.
Caught the double decker bus and did the whole tour thing through darling harbour etc, down to Icebergs for a counter lunch and a bottle of wine, Best veiw from a bar Ive been in. Caught the manly ferry and had another great meal on the foreshore at one of the many cafes and bars etc. Got whiplash in my neck with some of the eye candy though
My thoughts are I loved it but would I live there, not a chance in hell. I get cranky when I have to go to Perth and drive in that shiite hole let alone Sydney. Big city's are great to visit but even better to leave behind.
W
slammin
slammin
QLD
998 posts
QLD, 998 posts
10 Mar 2013 11:58am
FlySurfer said...
While a small minority are fortunate enough to have a view like this from their office window...



I had just about that view from The Reserve Bank when I was there. But back then I muddabiked in from Dulwich Hill in about 15min. It was good times. Now I just pity the rats.
pierrec45
pierrec45
NSW
2005 posts
NSW, 2005 posts
10 Mar 2013 1:03pm
The traffic you'z talking about - I don't know of any major city that doesn't have the same. It's modern life... (and no, Dubbo, Cairns and Canberra are not a major cities).

Sydney has curves, features, bends, hills, rock pools. Have you guys been or lived in LA or Florida ? Boooooring - flat as hell. Melbourne - a bit flat.

Sydney = OK spots for flat water sailing (Sandringham, Balmoral, B-bay, Narrabeen), year-around windsurfing coz' you can catch westerlies, superb harbour to sail in (sailboat), or sailing from Port Jackson to Pittwater. Great views from the heads, esp. West Head - even Boobin Head on a cold winter morning - daughter used to love it. The run Bondi-Coogee, Blue Mountains and more bushwalks, some challenging. Cliffs at Obelisk, Grotto, etc. OK IT jobs for consultants too .

Yes the wind is rather fickle, surfing is lackadaisical... no biggie.

Calling 4-5 millions people all retards is a bit anti-social...
FlySurfer
FlySurfer
NSW
4460 posts
NSW, 4460 posts
10 Mar 2013 2:52pm
pierrec45 said...
The traffic you'z talking about - I don't know of any major city that doesn't have the same. It's modern life... (and no, Dubbo, Cairns and Canberra are not a major cities).


The problem is the city planners *planned a city for 2 million people, then shoved 4.5 million in it.
The trains are over capacity, the buses are a joke, a lot major arteries are toll roads, major arteries are woefully inadequate and much too narrow, traffic lights every 100m (Canberra has roundabouts), even the ferries are bursting over.

Look at Buenos Aires, Paris and Barcelona how many lanes do you see?





Now look at Sydney...



They just don't get that a highway that goes from 10 lanes down to 4 has the capacity of 4 lanes.

Plus most cities don't concentrate most jobs in one really small area of the city, then provide really crap transport to it.
Sydney could fix it's problem by just forcing companies (taxing) to spread out... to like Rhodes, Macquarie, Chatswood, Parramatta, Brookvale, etc...

With the extra space provided by the vacating they could re-purpose it for apartments... the Asian love apartments.

BTW: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1157079 has a lot of cool city photos.
Dazza65
Dazza65
QLD
389 posts
QLD, 389 posts
10 Mar 2013 2:39pm
FlySurfer said...
While a small minority are fortunate enough to have a view like this from their office window...



Most have to go through this everyday... (every single image is OFF Peak/rush hour)

Parked, or moving @ <10kmh Saturday arvo ~16hrs.

Lights turning green > red > green > red > green and still not moving.

Cars in to the distance, took me 1.5hrs to travel 24km, off peak.

Peak times I just don't bother.


Had that view for about 10 years but the job that provided it owned me! For me Sydney was an awesome place to live during the late 90's early 00's but then lost its mojo. Had reached its critical mass I reckon.
actiomax
actiomax
NSW
1576 posts
NSW, 1576 posts
10 Mar 2013 6:47pm
I was working in cabramatta & were I parked a bloke was sitting on the fence selling drugs so I said if ur going to be here a while could you keep an eye on my ute mate he said sure no worries I didn't have tool boxes then & nothing was stolen drug dealers and users are people too show them some respect just like everybody else & it will be returned
FormulaNova
FormulaNova
WA
15100 posts
WA, 15100 posts
10 Mar 2013 6:44pm
FlySurfer said...


The problem is the city planners *planned a city for 2 million people, then shoved 4.5 million in it.



I agree. I don't know why it seems hard to plan things, but I suspect it has a lot to do with political cycles and no one wants to or can be in it for the long haul.

One thing that sucks is when someone creates a freeway reservation, 50 years ago, and then someone else comes along and thinks they can sell the land for a short term profit. Of course, if this happens, the freeway never gets built.

Down south, there has been a reservation for 50 or 60 years, and every so often you have some politician thinking he can sell it off, and win some votes in the process from people that bought in a freeway reservation.

I think they even ran into this problem with the M4, when some idiot politician sold off some of the land.

It sounds like lack of planning with the rail system has created a problem too, but at least they have started fixing it. I was amazed the first time I caught an express train from where I am and it cut down the trip by 15 minutes. If they were able to do this for a lot of lines, it would improve things.

Why can't you get a fast train from say Cambelltown into the city? If you could travel that distance in 30 minutes, I would move there in a minute.
Mr Milk
Mr Milk
NSW
3137 posts
NSW, 3137 posts
12 Mar 2013 12:30am
FormulaNova said...
FlySurfer said...


The problem is the city planners *planned a city for 2 million people, then shoved 4.5 million in it.



I agree. I don't know why it seems hard to plan things, but I suspect it has a lot to do with political cycles and no one wants to or can be in it for the long haul.

One thing that sucks is when someone creates a freeway reservation, 50 years ago, and then someone else comes along and thinks they can sell the land for a short term profit. Of course, if this happens, the freeway never gets built.

Down south, there has been a reservation for 50 or 60 years, and every so often you have some politician thinking he can sell it off, and win some votes in the process from people that bought in a freeway reservation.

I think they even ran into this problem with the M4, when some idiot politician sold off some of the land.

It sounds like lack of planning with the rail system has created a problem too, but at least they have started fixing it. I was amazed the first time I caught an express train from where I am and it cut down the trip by 15 minutes. If they were able to do this for a lot of lines, it would improve things.

Why can't you get a fast train from say Cambelltown into the city? If you could travel that distance in 30 minutes, I would move there in a minute.


Actually, it has a lot to do with trade offs and how much tax you are prepared to pay.

It's a choice between very expensively extending life spans by providing all possible therapies at public expense, or providing services for the citizens with plenty of life left.

And there is a private choice to be made about how much public goods you consume. You won't get much sympathy from me if you complain about being stuck in traffic if you are 1 person in a car built for 6. Don't you know that you can buy a scooter for a few G that will get you from A to B much faster, using less road space, parking space, metal and hydrocarbons than your mobile lounge room ever will?

FormulaNova
FormulaNova
WA
15100 posts
WA, 15100 posts
12 Mar 2013 5:47am
Mr Milk said...

Don't you know that you can buy a scooter for a few G that will get you from A to B much faster, using less road space, parking space, metal and hydrocarbons than your mobile lounge room ever will?



I think they should positively encourage people using scooters or motorbikes by constructing dedicated laneways for them on major routes.

It is faster on a bike, but if it was safe as well, I think people would use them much more. Imagine being able to knock a 1 hour commute down to 30 minutes?

Unfortunately for me, I'm such a nancy-boy that with all my protective gear on a bike, it would take another 15 minutes for me at each end to get changed anyway. Plus in summer, I would need to have a shower at work too.

For what its worth, I don't complain about being stuck in traffic. I like driving, and a 1 hour commute for me is actually comfortable, and I prefer it to the train. Air-con that works, heaps of room, no one else's BO, and no more than 1 crazy person.

That said, if the city was planned a bit better, it should be easier to find work closer to home by decentralizing industry across the greater city, not just in 1 or 2 main areas.
Wollemi
Wollemi
NSW
350 posts
NSW, 350 posts
12 Mar 2013 11:12am
FormulaNova said...For what its worth, I don't complain about being stuck in traffic. I like driving, and a 1 hour commute for me is actually comfortable, and I prefer it to the train. Air-con that works, heaps of room, no one else's BO, and no more than 1 crazy person.


This statement is not helpful for all of us on the ever burgeoning planet.

Sometimes, you are just either must keep your thoughts to yourself, or adjust your mindset; preferably both. There are over 7000 000 000 people on earth sharing resources, and almost one-quarter of our nations population lives in or very near, Sydney. Please consider cycling and/or public transport, where you could read, or people-watch around you at leisure, say.

FormulaNova
FormulaNova
WA
15100 posts
WA, 15100 posts
12 Mar 2013 8:38am
Wollemi said...
FormulaNova said...For what its worth, I don't complain about being stuck in traffic. I like driving, and a 1 hour commute for me is actually comfortable, and I prefer it to the train. Air-con that works, heaps of room, no one else's BO, and no more than 1 crazy person.


This statement is not helpful for all of us on the ever burgeoning planet.

Sometimes, you are just either must keep your thoughts to yourself, or adjust your mindset; preferably both. There are over 7000 000 000 people on earth sharing resources, and almost one-quarter of our nations population lives in or very near, Sydney. Please consider cycling and/or public transport, where you could read, or people-watch around you at leisure, say.



That's where I think you are missing my point. As an aside, I do catch public transport, but I do prefer to drive. It's expensive to drive though, so I generally don't.

I think your statement about not helping, is a bit ignorant too. Its easy to criticize others for their impact, but its not going to change things, just by being critical.

You are never going to convince people to give up a selfish mode of transport if there is no benefit to them. No one wants to.

So, you can either keep the infrastructure the way it is, and really really hope that other people 'do the right thing' or you can intelligently design it, so that people can reduce their impact and enjoy doing it.

Which do you think is the most pragmatic way of having people change their behavior?

I like cycling, and do a fair bit of it on group rides each year. Would I ride to work in Sydney? Never. I may as well jump in front of a taxi closer to home and get a quicker trip to the hospital.

So, the solution could be... make special cycleways so that people can ride to the CBD from 30kms out? Decentralise business so that fewer people have to travel so far to get to work? Make better, more frequent, faster, more comfortable public transport available?

Or, 'we' could just go on about how others are being inconsiderate and wasteful. One approach is going to make you feel better about yourself, and the other just might actually change things.

Hamsta
Hamsta
505 posts
505 posts
13 Mar 2013 4:21pm
I am typing this whilst sitting at my brothers place in Darlinghurst. Sydney is unreal. I am seriously considering giving away surfing and concentrating on MTB instead and moving over here. Fark, brother doesn't own a car, cycles everywhere if he feels like some excersice else he uses bus/train/taxi. I haven't been here for 12 years and it honestly feels more relaxed than the first time I was here.
doggie
doggie
WA
15849 posts
WA, 15849 posts
13 Mar 2013 4:41pm
Hamsta said...
I am typing this whilst sitting at my brothers place in Darlinghurst. Sydney is unreal. I am seriously considering giving away surfing and concentrating on MTB instead and moving over here. Fark, brother doesn't own a car, cycles everywhere if he feels like some excersice else he uses bus/train/taxi. I haven't been here for 12 years and it honestly feels more relaxed than the first time I was here.


Dont give up surfing!! Sydney has tonnes of waves
Shane10
Shane10
QLD
102 posts
QLD, 102 posts
13 Mar 2013 10:45pm
Ill be moving down there in a month. I don't mind it. Good scenery, good food. Only thing that really gets to me is the traffic.

At this stage it's a toss up between narrabeen and cronulla. Both seem to have good waves, similar price range for small units. Similar commute for the mrs out to western syd. Any suggestions?
bigmark100
bigmark100
NSW
584 posts
NSW, 584 posts
14 Mar 2013 4:25pm
I live in Manly, Sydney and its awesome. I really love wear I live and consider myself very very lucky . My only gripe is the cost. Its very expensive.







rockmagnet
rockmagnet
QLD
1458 posts
QLD, 1458 posts
14 Mar 2013 9:17pm
It's 1200 kilometres away
Sailhack
Sailhack
VIC
5000 posts
VIC, 5000 posts
15 Mar 2013 9:19am
You 'city-folk' crack me up!

We've got good food, no traffic (maybe a bit at school pickup/drop-off times), low-cost living & the view from my office isn't too bad either - it might not be a Sydney Harbour view, but it's 'my' harbour view and I can walk across the road on a hot day & have a dip, sup or w/surf when the conditions are right!

This view greeted me this morning and changes every morning I open the door to my 'little' office (btw, the BM's not mine - belongs to the tackle-shop owner next door)...




As for Sydney - only been there once (for a convention) & spent most of the time staggering around between bars in 'The Cross'.




fingerbone
fingerbone
NSW
921 posts
NSW, 921 posts
15 Mar 2013 9:31am
Sydney is just typical of a large city....If you don't like it don't go there,simple really..
Dazzler75
Dazzler75
QLD
458 posts
QLD, 458 posts
18 Mar 2013 4:26pm
It is home to the most successful rugby league team since 1970............

The mighty Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

I grew up on Nth Shore and left in 1994 when I was 19. Have lived in Brisbane, Noosa, Alexandra Headland, Margret River and now Currumbin in past 19 years.....no chance of me going back to Sydney
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