Is there anything good about Sydney?

...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.

Coming from a large country town to me Sydney rocks...love to visit there heaps to do and lots to look at
Just saying

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dont give up surfing!! Sydney has tonnes of waves

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.

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'.

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