City Road Podcast

Water security is one of the most contested issues facing urban and regional communities across Australia. For growing inland cities like Canberra, conventional assumptions and approaches to water supply, catchment management, and urban planning must be reimagined in the context of climate change. This special event hosted in partnership with the Planning Institute of Australia examines the increasingly complex debates surrounding water security and asks whether and how inland cities can ever achieve true urban resilience.

This event is co-hosted with the Planning Institute of Australia.

SPEAKERS

Professor Barbara Norman, Foundation Chair of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF), the University of Canberra

Danielle Francis, Manager Policy and Strategy, Water Services Australia

Dr Jason Alexandra, Research Fellow, Transformational Climate Adaptation and Water, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions, ANU Institute for Water Futures.

Dr Danswell Starrs, Water Science, Monitoring and Modelling Manager at ACT Government

CHAIRED BY

Dr Maxine Cooper FPIA, FEIANZ, Adjunct Prof UC, Chair ACT & Region Catchment Management Coordination Group, Chair Landcare ACT, and Deputy Chair National Landcare Network.

We know we must end sprawl and densify our cities, but are tall towers the answer? Can the skyscraper solve our affordable housing problem? Does high density necessarily mean high-rise, and do such developments stack up environmentally – or do they exacerbate issues such as urban heat? What are the wider benefits or disbenefits of hyper-density in terms of urban design, street making, community cohesion or accessibility? Join Saving Sydney author Dr Elizabeth Farrelly and a panel of experts for a robust discussion on whether Sydney should ‘go up or go out’, and whether this is even the right question.

PANEL

Dr Fiona Foo, Cardiologist

Professor Cathy Sherry, Law School and Smart Green Cities, Macquarie University

Tim Sneesby, Manager Strategic Planning, Waverley Council 

Professor Michael Chapman, Chair of Architecture and Design, University of Western Sydney

CHAIRED BY

Dr Elizabeth Farrelly, author, journalist and Henry Halloran Research Trust Writer in Residence

How are Australia’s Indigenous and settler histories recognised and confronted in cultural heritage conservation and urban planning practice, alongside wider struggles for native title, land rights, and spatial justice? Join this conversation with a panel of experts across Indigenous history, archaeology, heritage conservation, urban planning and design.

SPEAKERS

Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Head of Department of Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University

Stephen Gapps, Senior Associate Historian, Artefact Heritage Services

Seth Dias, PHD Candidate at the USYD school of Architecture, Design and Planning

Innez Haua

Jess Herder, Senior Associate, Thirriwirri

CHAIRED BY

Professor Michael Mossman, Associate Dean Indigenous Strategy and Services, the University of Sydney

In recent years a new movement known as ‘YIMBY’ (‘Yes In My Backyard’) has emerged. ‘YIMBIES’ argue that planning and regulatory barriers serving local ‘NIMBY’ (‘Not In My Backyard’ property owners) block new and higher density housing, causing affordability pressures across the market. By contrast, many so called ‘NIMBIES’ reject the proposition that ‘supply’ is the only solution to high cost housing. In this session, housing advocates and experts debate the proposition that supply side barriers are to blame for Australia’s housing crisis and recommend strategies to fix the housing system.

SPEAKERS

Eamon Waterford, CEO, Committee for Sydney

Max Holleran, Lecturer in Social Policy, the University of Melbourne

Melissa Neighbour, Principal Planner, Sky Planning

Michael Koziol, Sydney editor, The Sydney Morning Herald

CHAIRED BY

Professor Nicole Gurran, Director Henry Halloran Research Trust, the University of Sydney

Episode 3: Innovating urban governance: the Creative Bureaucrat

Does creativity have a place in City Hall? The idea that bureaucracy should or can be creative certainly runs counter to common ideas we have of city government. But recently, that has begun to change. Innovation in city governance is being recast as ‘creative problem solving’. Drawing on stories from city governments around the world, in this third episode of ‘Innovating Cities’, Tom Baker and Pauline McGuirk discuss what it takes to build creative capacity within bureaucracies.

Tom Baker is Associate Professor in the School of Environment, University of Auckland. His research focuses on how public policies are made and implemented, addressing social, institutional, ideological and spatial dimensions.

Pauline McGuirk is Senior Professor of urban geography and Director of the Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space, University of Wollongong. Her work revolves around critical studies of urban governance, its changing geographies, material practices and politics, and the differential implications for urban places, communities, subjectivities and power.

For more information about our podcast series, including transcripts, go to: https://uow.info/innovating-cities

Find out more about our research project Innovating urban governance: practices for enhanced urban futures at:

https://www.uow.edu.au/the-arts-social-sciences-humanities/research/access/research/rce/

Special guests

Anne-Marie Croce, Program Lead, Customer Experience Transformation and Innovation, City of Toronto

Brad Badelt, Director of Sustainability, City of Vancouver, CityStudio Vancouver.

James Corless, Executive Director, Sacramento Area Council of Governments

Eliza Erickson, former Director of Innovation and Strategy, Office of Innovation and Technology, City of Philadelphia

James Wagner, Chief Financial Officer, Office of Performance, Strategy and Innovation, City of Tulsa

Arna Ýr Sævarsdóttir, Service and Digital Transformation Manager, Department of Services & Innovation, City of Reykjavik

Michele D’Alena, Director, Civic Imagination Office, City of Bologna

Kris Carter, former Co-Chair, Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics

Terrance Smith, Former Director of the Innovation Unit, City of Mobile

This podcast episode was supported by the Australian Research Council under Grant ARCDP200100176 Innovating urban governance: practices for enhanced urban futures, a joint project by the University of Wollongong, the University of Sydney and the University of Auckland.

Audio recording and editing by Jennifer Macey. Additional editing by Emily Perkins. Coordination by Laura Goh. Special thanks to Brian Dwyer.

With rising recognition of the health and environmental benefits of active transport, there are increasing struggles between users of footpaths, roads and curbs. Not only are streets important transportation routes, as demonstrated over the Pandemic period, they have also become recognised as important public spaces for social activities, from dining to market stalls or food production. This session interrogates the emerging struggles over street spaces still dominated by roads and parking.

SPEAKERS

Tegan Mitchell, Manager Major Transport Projects, City of Sydney

Dr Rebecca Clements, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the University of Sydney

Benjamin Carr, Co-founder, Lug+Carrie e-bike hire

CHAIRED BY

Dr Jennifer Kent, Senior Research Fellow in Urbanism, the University of Sydney

Australia’s legal frameworks for biodiversity conservation and environmental protection are intended to preserve and enhance the nation’s natural and cultural heritage while enabling appropriate forms of urban development and infrastructure. Yet Commonwealth Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation law has been deemed unfit for purpose, while the states pledge ongoing reforms to make land use systems faster and more responsive to enable residential development and major projects. Key issues include certification and offsetting processes for biodiversity or heritage and whether alternative approaches, from avoiding development altogether to better protecting and enhancing conservation outcomes are possible.

PANEL

Rachel Walmsley, Head of Policy & Law Reform, Environmental Defenders Office

Rowena Welsh-Jarrett, Indigenous Heritage Expert, Bila Group

Associate Professor Ed Couzens, Law School, the University of Sydney

CHAIRED BY

Professor Rosemary Lyster, Climate and Environmental Law, the University of Sydney

Hosted in partnership with the Sydney Environment Institute.

Meaningful public accountability in infrastructure governance

This episode considers the challenges of, and possibilities for, meaningful accountability in infrastructure governance. Public accountability is often publicly demanded or politically signalled, but much more rarely unpacked or discussed in depth. This episode discusses the importance of accountability in infrastructure and planning governance, and its multiple intersecting social understandings. We discuss the importance of scrutinising our current accountability approaches, power relationships, and contextual challenges in order to build more open and collaborative governance. We also hear insights from Roberta Ryan, the Independent Community Commissioner involved with the Western Parkland City.

Researchers present: Rebecca Clements, Tooran Alizadeh

Guest: Roberta Ryan

This podcast series is sponsored by the Infrastructure Governance Incubator, a three-year (2020-2023) collaborative research platform—funded by the Henry Halloran Research Trust—across three universities (The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne, and Monash University), and in partnership with Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) NSW & Victoria.

Audio recording and editing by Mikayla Scolaro and Dallas Rogers.

Episode 2: Innovating urban governance: Design Thinking

What is design thinking and how might it be useful for city governments? In this second episode of ‘Innovating Cities’, Robyn Dowling and Sophia Maalsen discuss how design thinking is being conceptualised and operationalised in city governance innovation. Drawing from examples internationally and in Australia, they ask what design thinking means to those who use it, what it is used for, and how using design thinking may open up new opportunities to address urban problems.

Robyn Dowling is Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney. Her current research is concerned with the ways in which urban governance and urban life are responding to climate change, technological disruptions and the diffusion of innovation practices.

Sophia Maalsen is Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney. She is currently researching the application of computational logics and technologies to “hack housing” and address issues of housing affordability and innovation. Her research is predominantly situated at the intersection of the digital and material across urban spaces, housing and governance.

For more information about our podcast series, including transcripts, go to: https://uow.info/innovating-cities

Find out more about our research project Innovating urban governance: practices for enhanced urban futures at:

https://www.uow.edu.au/the-arts-social-sciences-humanities/research/access/research/rce/

Special guests

Eliza Erickson, former Director of Innovation and Strategy

Office of Innovation and Technology, City of Philadelphia

Arna Ýr Sævarsdóttir, Service and Digital Transformation Manager

Department of Services & Innovation, City of Reykjavik

Kris Carter, former Co-Chair

Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics

Terrance Smith, Former Director of the Innovation Unit

City of Mobile

Duane Elverum, Executive Director and Co-Founder

CityStudio Vancouver

Anne-Marie Croce, Program Lead

Customer Experience Transformation and Innovation, City of Toronto

Shane Waring, Lead

Dublin Beta Lab

This podcast episode was supported by the Australian Research Council under Grant ARCDP200100176 Innovating urban governance: practices for enhanced urban futures, a joint project by the University of Wollongong, the University of Sydney and the University of Auckland.

Audio recording and editing by Jennifer Macey. Additional editing by Emily Perkins. Coordination and additional scripting by Laura Goh.

There is ongoing concern about the localised impacts of globally owned platforms on the ways in which we use our homes and cities. From the housing market and neighbourhood impacts of Airbnb style platforms through to the less visible implications of automated urban systems, this session asks how communities can best understand and harness digitalisation to create positive opportunities, while managing risks.

PANEL

Professor Simon Marvin, the University of Sydney and the Director of the Urban Institute at Sheffield University

Dr Luke Hespanhol, Senior Lecturer in Design, the University of Sydney

Cecille Weldon, Proptech Association Australia

Dr Allan McCay, Deputy Director of The Sydney Institute of Criminology and Academic Fellow, Law School, the University of Sydney

CHAIRED BY

Dr Sophia Maalsen, Lecturer in Urbanism, the University of Sydney