Hands over the cityTowards an urban nightmare

• Big corporations rule: Profits come first, people last.

• Drive for profit sharply intensifying.

• Combined social & ecological crisis.

Rod Steiger as ruthless developer in Naples in 1963 Italian film Hands Over the City.

Corporate ‘free fire’ zone

‘Developers’ on the loose‘Hundreds of miles of track, some of it quite useless, pushed out from the egocentric city to the rampant suburbs and the far countryside. Hardly a member of Parliament whose vote could be bought went without his bribe in the form of a new railway, a spur line, or advance information on governmental plans to enable him to buy choice land in advance – the value of which was enormously enhanced when the line went through. It was a dispiriting chapter in Victorian political morality.’

— Michael Cannon on Melbourne’s 1880s land boom (p. 39).

Bay wrecked for profit

Portsea bayside beach, June 2011

Residentsin truck hell

• Residents near docks have to live with heavy truck traffic 24/7.

• Government’s only ‘solution’: Move problem somewhere else.

Footscray truck protest; Yarraville resident ponders the view.

Building sustainable cities

• How cities are structured

• How we move around

• How we house ourselves

• How we get our power & water

• How we get our food

Need to consider:

More people: more sprawl?

Caroline Springs, Melbourne.

• Melbourne has grown by over 600,000 people since 2001.

• Further growth of our cities on current pattern is an alarming prospect.

Open spaces to be sacrificed

• Situation outside green wedges bad enough.

• New review to open way for development in green belt.

Freeway madnessvs public transport

Interchange on East Link tollway.

Housing crisis intensifying

• Mortgage stress.

• Soaring rents.

• Homelessness.

• Refusal to build public housing.

Collingwood public housing estate.

Soaring power bills hit poor• Privatisation.• Profit gouging.• Intolerable

stress on pensioners & poor.

• No serious move to renewables.

New ‘smart meters’ will hit residents.

Desal plant rip-off

Wonthaggi desalination plant under construction.

Food supply in the gripof capitalist monopolies

• Climate change will impact severely on food supply.

• But so much already in grip of supermarket giants (Coles & Woolworths).

PPPs take public for a ride

Southern Cross station: another PPP rip-off.

Radical change needed • Creating green, livable cities will require a

massive fight for a sharp change of direction.• Put corporate ‘property developers’ out of

business.• Radically expanded public sector must play

key role in transport, housing, services & jobs.• We need to develop an emergency program to

fight climate change & prepare for what’s coming.