Council election results

[verbatim9]

Election results bring in change and hope for better PT and Infrastructure
http://www.busnews.com.au/industry-news/1603/qld-elections-bring-change/

[ozbob]

 

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Why polling quirks missed Quirk's margin

[ozbob]

Queensland Greens --> Greens celebrate record local Council results

04/04/2016

With the results of Queensland local council elections being declared, Senator Waters congratulated Queensland Greens members, volunteers and supporters on their exceptional results, including achieving Queensland's first Greens Councillor, Jonathan Sri.

Qld Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Deputy Leader, said:

"Across the state there's so much to celebrate about our record results, people-powered campaigns, agenda-setting policies and exceptional candidates.

"In Brisbane, we're overjoyed to have Jonathan Sri elected in the Gabba Ward as Queensland's first Greens Local Councillor and to have had Michael Kane come so close in the Paddington Ward.

"Judging by our results across Brisbane, it won't be long before we have more Green local councillors joining Jonathan in City Hall. 

"Our vote went up in 25 out of the 26 Brisbane wards, and in 5 wards more than 20 per cent of residents voted Green. 

"Across Brisbane, the Greens got a 6% swing, with a City-wide vote of 14.4%. 

"Our Brisbane Mayoral Candidate Ben Pennings was a strong public advocate for affordable public transport and transparency of political donations and effectively put these issues on the agenda.

"Our Sunshine Coast Mayoral Candidate Tony Gibson came in second place, supported by a great team of Division Candidates and our hard-working candidate for Noosa Shire, Aaron White, ran a strong campaign.

"We also had candidates run in Ipswich, Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast, giving residents the opportunity to vote for Green values in their local community," Senator Waters said.

[ozbob]

Jonathan Sri --> Where To Next After Greens' Stunning Brisbane Election Win

[#Metro]

There is some confused thinking in this writing piece.

The election result suggests that residents in my ward tend to favour greater investment in public and active transport and less spending on car-oriented road upgrades. However if the majority of city councillors from other wards insist on prioritising private vehicle transport, the democratically expressed will of Gabba Ward residents will be ignored.

I can empathise with this, but let's put the detail to one side. If you're going to spend other people's money collected from outside your ward, then obviously those other people also get a say. No taxation without representation.

Going back to the transport theme, there is a direct relationship between density and PT use. If you have less density, all else equal, then the trip generation is also going to be less.

Unfortunately in Brisbane, most big urban planning decisions are taken out of residents' hands altogether. This means planning decisions tend to favour the short-term interests of elite developers and investors rather than the long-term interests of ordinary Brisbanites.

How does he know they are 'elite'? Property is a large investment class and most superannuation funds invest in property. Those funds are often non-profit (industry funds) and suchlike. In addition to this, developers and investors could not exist unless there was demand for their product - homes to live in. And this is where it gets interesting, people who want to live in that ward but don't do now don't have a voice or a vote. Therefore one must be careful when assigning values / legitimacy about who should have a say and who shouldn't.

There's an injustice at the heart of Brisbane's construction boom. Low-rent sharehouses and boarding houses are being demolished to make room for apartments that are often too expensive (and inappropriately designed) for poorer residents.

Again, this is a question of scale and focus. If you zoom out, you would see something different. That new stock is absorbing lots of new people citywide who would be competing against existing residents and pushing rent prices up if those places were not built. In cities that don't build new housing, like San Francisco, rents explode because the housing stock isn't allowed to expand. The rental housing prices in that city is insane - $1000/week for something old and people are living in boxes in living rooms etc. London also.

I've heard people who are concerned about the over-supply of low-quality high rise developments suggest it might be time to form alliances with construction workers to blockade certain building sites.

It is a contradiction to argue that the apartments are low quality and then criticise when they are high quality (luxury) and expensive. Quality correlates with cost. And construction workers blocking their own employment? How does that work??

It still hasn't been explained to me how it is green to ban urban sprawl (development too far from the city) on environmental grounds while simultaneously believing also that we should ban buildings / density within the city also (development too close to the city). Where are people going to live? You would need to enforce population control, something that I would not agree with.

[aldonius]

construction workers

You should know that a large founding influence on the green movement (at least on the east-coast mainland) was the 'green bans' of the 1970s.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Peter Cumming elected Brisbane Labor leader

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

5th April 2016

Bus Reform: Crs Peter Cumming and Jonathan Sri

Greetings,

RAIL Back on Track welcomes Cr Peter Cumming (ALP) and Cr Jonathan Sri (GRN) to their respective positions within Brisbane City Council. Well done.

It is not surprising that the latest Brisbane City Council election was fought on public transport.

Brisbane has been growing and expanding, and yet the bus network has failed to keep pace.

Brisbane City Council's bus network is inefficient, ineffective and needs major improvement. Brisbane City Council's buses are not even meeting mandated 'bus on time' standards.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has has ignored our calls for bus reforms since 2012. Under Graham Quirk's stewardship, bus patronage has fallen through the floor, entire suburbs are designated 'black hole' areas with poor bus service, and proposals for CityGlider services to Bulimba and the Centenary Suburbs have been rejected.

The Brisbane City Council bus network is Lord Mayor Graham Quirk's greatest policy weakness. He can't bring himself to fix up the bus network. He just can't.

Now Graham Quirk wants to build a metro. 'Quack' Metro our members call it. We absolutely DO NOT support this 'Quack' Metro proposal, and our members are unanimous in this view.

'Quack' Metro proposes to spend at least $1.5 billion ( more like $3 billion ) on something that adds ZERO additional capacity when compared against the existing busway system. This is totally unacceptable. The minimum vehicle capacity needs to be 750 passengers per train, and yet Graham Quirk is offering something that holds 300 passengers per train, the capacity of a large tram.

We have shown the way forward. Our New Bus Network Proposal is here http://tiny.cc/newnetwork. It has been viewed over 11 000 times now and sets out a near-cost neutral bus reform to fix the entire Brisbane Bus Network.

Once again, we welcome Cr Peter Cumming (ALP) and Cr Jonathan Sri (GRN) to their respective positions. There is much to be done.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

http://www.grahamquirk.com.au/lord-mayor-announces-reshuffle-of-civic-cabinet/

Lord Mayor announces reshuffle of Civic Cabinet

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has announced a wide-ranging reshuffle of his Civic Cabinet with the development of the Brisbane Metro subway a new priority for the new four-year term.

Cr Quirk said Cr Adrian Schrinner – who was yesterday re-elected as Deputy Mayor unopposed – would have special responsibility for the development of the Brisbane Metro as part of an expanded Public and Active Transport portfolio.

"During the election campaign I made a commitment to building the Brisbane Metro subway system to cope with the demands on our public transport system and freeing up more buses for the suburbs and I look forward to making this a reality over coming years," he said.

"The Brisbane Metro is the biggest project that will get underway during this term and I'm handing responsibility for its development to Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner.

"I want to recommit Council to addressing the important matters for our city – tackling traffic congestion, even better public transport and enhancing our lifestyle and leisure opportunities.

"My team will continue Council's good work to ease traffic congestion by completing 90 new road projects across Brisbane over the coming four years, including the much needed Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade.

"I am committed to making our New World City the very best it can be and I look forward to working with all Brisbane residents to deliver on that vision."

The Civic Cabinet team remains the same as during the previous term however every member has different portfolio responsibilities.

Civic Cabinet and Councillors will be officially sworn in next Tuesday at City Hall.

The Civic Cabinet membership is:

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk
Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner, Chairman, Public and Active Transport Committee with special responsibility for the development of the Brisbane Metro and International Relations
Cr Krista Adams, Chairman, Finance and Economic Development Committee
Cr Matthew Bourke, Chairman, Lifestyle and Community Services Committee
Cr Amanda Cooper, Chairman, Infrastructure Committee
Cr Peter Matic, Chairman, Field Services Committee
Cr David McLachlan, Chairman, Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee
Cr Julian Simmonds, Chairman, City Planning Committee

The Chairman of Council is Cr Angela Owen.

==================

This will be fun hey?   

[#Metro]

It just shows how much smoke and mirrors are coming out of City Hall.

We are expected to believe that bus routes are 'a state government responsibility' and yet BCC quite freely invents their

own bus services at the drop of a hat (CityGliders) or does its own bus review (2013).

And in addition to this, the fact that trains running on State Government controlled infrastructure and land would also be a

State Government responsibility, has not stopped BCC from coming up with Quirk Metro...

[verbatim9]

Today the Lord Mayor asked Adrian Schrinner to Chair Council's Public & Active Transport Committee going forward.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154437775361165&substory_index=0&id=35421541164

Wonder what is going to become of this competing or working with Translink?

[#Metro]

Quirk Metro?

https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/03/10/03/40/duck-1247810_960_720.jpg

[verbatim9]

I have seen that he is a big advocate for the Eastern Busway. Lets hope he thinks for the whole of Brisbane.

[James]

I have seen that he is a big advocate for the Eastern Busway. Lets hope he thinks for the whole of Brisbane.

He's a big advocate for the state government funding the Eastern Busway. Given the current attitude of the state government, I'd say the chances of seeing the Eastern Busway built in the next decade are low at best. Apparently funding the EB is "a state responsibility", even though converting the inner SEB to metro is not.

[#Metro]

He's a big advocate for the state government funding the Eastern Busway. Given the current attitude of the state government, I'd say the chances of seeing the Eastern Busway built in the next decade are low at best. Apparently funding the EB is "a state responsibility", even though converting the inner SEB to metro is not.

It does not make sense to have the Eastern Busway extended until such time that the core sections of the busway are unblocked.

If it were not for the presence of the Captain Cook Bridge which diverts ca. 50% of the bus load during peak hour, the congestion at Cultural Centre would be 2x what it is now. There would be buses every 12-15 seconds IMHO.

If the Eastern Busway were extended, buses would be fed into the bottlenecks at Buranda and Wooloongabba even faster than they are now. Because off-peak services would attract patronage, more bus services would also be put on in peak hour as well, which would further compound the problem. Then there are the space issues in the CBD about where to put all these thousands of terminating buses.

(NB: having half the busway flow terminating at Woolongabba CRR also I think is not an ideal solution either IMHO)

The bus network absolutely must be sorted out. A geometric issue really that politicians cannot spin their way out of. Quirk et al have already been caught out on the math for capacity etc.

It is very sad that BCC seems to have gone out of its way to maximise suffering for all concerned. What is the purpose of all this lunacy with the PT system. They could have just fixed it years ago when they had the bus review under BCC control.

And the State Gov, totally complicit in all of this also IMHO.