GateWAy Blog

Conversation with the CEO - May 11

Hello,

I am the Manager for Economic Development at the City of Albany and have lived and worked here for a little over 10 years.  During that time, like most others, I have observed lots of change ranging from new retail shops, supermarket developments, the redevelopment of the Waterfront, a new wind farm, changes at the Port, timber processing at Down Road, and new housing estates popping up around the city.

For the next month, I am working on a project to review the City of Albany’s Strategic Plan for the ten year period 2011 to 2021.   With leadership from our new Chief Executive Officer, Faileen James, I am working as part of a dedicated team of people from our community development section (Tammy Flett; Amanda Porritt; and Rachael Oswald) to gather community views on issues and opportunities for Albany.  We are seeking your views on:

·         What projects and initiatives do you think should be pursued in the short (1-2 yrs), medium (2-5 yrs)and long terms (5-10yrs)?
·         What resources (people, money and physical assets) do you think should be applied to projects and services?

In thinking about your answers to the above, please remember that the Council has finite resources that are in high demand across a range of projects.  So you need to be SMART with your responses:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely (short, medium, long term)

Please jot down your thoughts below thinking about the following themes as a guide:

•             Lifestyle and Environment
•             Sustainability and Development
•             Albany’s Role as a Regional Hub
•             Community Focussed Organisation
•             Organisational Performance

OR even better, complete the official survey online at www.albany.wa.gov.au by 5pm on Thursday 9 June 2011.

Regards,

Jon Berry
Project Team Leader
City of Albany

I recently attended a seminar run by Westpac and ACCI on why the world is in the state it is and why businesses are having such a hard time, answer is easy they are BORING, CONSERVATIVE and have NO SPARK. That describes Albany perfectly boring, conservative with no spark, very few in Albany are prepared to think outside the square.

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Posted by Richard Sanderson.

Albany requires equity with other regional cities of Geraldton and Kalgoorlie.  We require a Skywest flight once per week Perth-Albany-Melbourne and return.

- Skywest Airlines currently offers a weekly service from Geraldton – Kalgoorlie – Melbourne

- Skywest also runs a weekly (once a week) service between Perth- Kalgoorlie-and Melbourne.

I propose a Skywest Perth-Albany-Melbourne flight for a trial period of 6 months to estimate demand to and from the Eastern states.

Albany’s population is approx 35,000 which is equitable with Kalgoorlie’s population of 36,852 (estimate 2010)

With Denmark’s population of approx 7,000 and Mt Barker 6,000 approx there are strong grounds to suggest an equitable service (with Geraldton and Kalgoorlie residents) to the eastern states for Great Southern residents.  Also, it would foreseeably boost Tourism in this region.

Without any prejudice could you please tell me if Albany is a windy place?

I know there is a wind farm down there so obviously there is wind but if you lived there would you say the wind is frustrating, hard to live with or excessive?

My husband and I would like to move to Albany to live and we get all these negative comments like -its so windy or its cold and rainy. We like cold and rain, its our first reason to choose Albany as we don’t like the heat and we like the look of everything about Albany and so will make our own decision from our own research not throw away comments from people who don’t really know.

So just want local opinion on the wind.  Please login to reply.

Let’s debunk some myths about Albany here, and be clear how these myths started in the first place.

The weather in Albany, according to people who don’t know who live in Perth and who perpetuate the myth by telling everyone else what they think they know, is that it is always cold and raining in Albany. The strange thing about that is, on average Perth gets more anual rainfall than Albany does.

It is Wednesday 16^th June. Outside is a clear blue sky and both Princess Royal Harbour are silky smooth, with no wind. It isn’t hot, but it isn’t cold enough to put a jacket on either. Looking around the town, half the people I see are walking about in T shirts or at most, light jumpers. I am ‘working’ at a cafe table, with a latte and a bun.

And for most of the winter this is what Albany will be like. We will get colder days sometimes, and very wet days as well because it IS the middle of winter, but we don’t get many, and when the front passes over we’re back to clear blue days and cold nights.

I have had three phone calls this week with people in Perth presuming that Albany must be perishingly cold and pouring with rain. The myth is so well entrenched they just laughed when I said the sun was shining. So where does this myth come from?

It stems from the summer holidays we have here, when Perth folk come down in bucket loads to escape the blistering heat in Perth and find themselves in a cooler climate. One of the problems with this time of year, too, is that that for some reason our seasons are slight askew, so it is common for people to get cold and wet here during what are traditionally regarded as summer months.

So, when they return to Perth to warm up and dry out, they go with the belief that if the weather is that cold and wet in summer, it must be appalling during winter.

This is NOT true.

Albany people know the best time of year here is February – end of June, with a break for some rain at Easter when visitors come from Perth again. I don’t know why, it just happens that way, and helps perpetuate the myth.

Let me describe Albany to you right now. The sky is cobalt blue, there is no wind, the harbour and King George Sound are flat and reflect the extraordinary colour of the sky.

Café’s are full of people sitting OUTSIDE and people are happy, chatty and chuffed with their lot. Whales are swimming about in the Sound and we can go and see them now, either via a charter boat or by whale watching off our stunning coastline, a short walk away. There are dolphins flipping about, seals in abundance and whole flocks of pelicans showing off.

I am sitting outside wearing a jumper and jeans. I am warm, comfortable and there is no wind. It might rain for a while tomorrow, but not for long, because it is common to have four seasons in one day in Albany, certainly in one week, and we like it that way. We rarely get so hot we cant breath and rarely get so cold it’s unpleasant.

I will be posting photo’s of Albany – RIGHT NOW on a regular basis to give you a taste of what it’s like to be here, to live here, to relax, live and visit this extraordinary environment.

Sun, whales, dolphins, cafés, views, hills, six National Parks and one Natural Reserve, a lifestyle second to none and close to our wildflower season. And the weather – it’s a beautiful day, thank you for asking!

According to media reports, there has been no communication between the owners of the land that housed the Esplanade Hotel and potential developers for over a year. In fact any plans they had in place have now expired.

Socks placed at the site have attracted media attention and have brought the subject back into sharp focus, initiated by a covert, underground movement of Sock insurgents. No comment from the land owners in Singapore though.

So now maybe we should work at getting some kind of reaction. The area is after all fenced off, so any incursion onto the site would be classified as … what? Trespass?

Chairs and tables next, at the Sunday Session, and although drinking alcohol would be illegal and attract the attention of people authorised to arrest and charge those doing so, there is nothing to stop us sitting around having a chat, a soft drink and and taking photo’s and videos – sending them to the land owners and setting up appropriate pages on Facebook to attract ‘customers.’

Perhaps we could quietly build something as well … I wonder if they’d notice.

It’s easy for heckles to raise when we live in such a lucky place. Our problems are nothing compared with the disasters so many millions face on an hour by hour basis aro0und the world, so getting mad about something here usually seems petty and slightly embarrassing. Like complaining about a new theatre being built and it’s location, or whinging about the pro’s and cons concerning daylight saving.

However I am just checking my heckle level and find it’s become quite high, due to some small minded people who probably regard themselves as clean living Christians, Catholics or well behaved agnostics … or whatever. Their religious beliefs are irrelevant, unless their loud, ubiquitous opinions about people who are homeless are shared with others in God loving, compassion preaching congregations. Then it simply becomes a case of gross hypocrisy.

How can someone who lives in a nice house, with plenty of food and presumably enough clean clothes to get dressed up and go to work each day and sup nice wine each evening, possibly complain about a house being created in their neighbourhood, staffed and fully equipped both physically and emotionally to cater for a small number of people who through circumstances quite beyond them find themselves homeless?

The house in question is being created for people who need it, and every precaution is being taken to ensure the so called ‘rotten element’ cannot get a foothold. In the meantime petitions are being signed, objections are flounced about and plenty of complaining can be heard about ‘what will it do to the house prices’ and ‘ it wont be safe to go out on the street’ and ‘what about all the drugs and booze and vandals and and and and blah blah blah.’

People get a life, have a heart, dig down and find a little compassion for pities sake! Have a good look at the proposal, look into the people who have been working for a long time to make this difference to people and create a shelter where there is already a severe need. Better still, go outside and spend a week out there with no money, few clothes and a wet blanket in the middle of winter then come back and tell us people who are homeless (not homeless people, being homeless is NOT an identity) are nothing but a bunch of alcoholics, drug addicts and thieves. How dare you!?

Whatever happened to compassion, giving hope, giving back, having empathy, checking on the glass and finding it half full not nearly empty, of not looking at the worst possible case scenario and checking on how that would affect the wallet?

To those who are getting this home for homeless men up and running, bloody good on you. You are making a stand for people who need it and now having to battle against domestic bigots as well. I admire your patience, persistence and willpower!

A Californian couchsurfer told us about her experience with the service industry while visiting the region yesterday.

She is a marine biologist, working on various projects around the country and loves the place, although she cant quite get a handle on the complete lack of service she often gets hit with.

Having bought some batteries in a Walpole supermarket she realised that they were the wrong size, just as she was leaving the store. She tool them back to the nice girl at the counter, unopened, and asked if she could exchange them for the right size and pay the difference.

The girl had no problem, but had to call the manager over to show her how to do this on the till.

So far so good.

However, Mr Grumpy and Completely Unreasonable stomped over and scowled at his customer while the girl told him the problem. He said, “No we cant do that.”

Our Californian visitor explained again and said she was willing to pay the difference of course, and that the package was unopened. Again, exasperated, he said no.

She asked him politely if there was another solution.

He said yes there was. “Buy the right ones this time and as for what to do with the others, that’s your problem, they’re yours, you bought them,” and stalked off.

Too stunned to respond she turned to leave, and gave the batteries back to the girl at the counter.

“Don’t you want them?” she asked.

“Not really, you have them. They’re the wrong size, what would I do with them?’

Our Store manager from Walpole has now been quoted, described in detail and the name of his shop published in big black letters with his clear message of ‘bugger off’ plastered all over it. This has been blogged, messaged, text and discussed with her friends and family on five continents.

Someone in Walpole please get this fella to pull his head in, or send him on a long holiday, before he does anymore untold damage to the regional tourist industry.

If you commit a traffic offence(s) and have your driver’s license taken off you, why should you be allowed to apply for  an extraordinary one? What was the point of meting out punishment in the first place?

A country magistrate has been recently quoted as wanting to ban extraordinary licenses so that people who commit offences on the road actually have to deal with the consequences of their actions and think twice about drink driving or speeding or behaving recklessly on the road. It appears that the law society opposes this, saying that it could impose unnecessary hardship on people if they were stranded at home and unable to get to work, take kids to school etc.  (more…)

Do you ever stick to your new year resolutions for more than a few weeks/ days? I am hopeless but love hearing what other people plan for a fresh start from January 1 – or 2 or whenever….

The usual ones include losing weight, getting fit, more exercise, washing up breakfast straight after breakfast, making the beds every morning and so on. Nothing overly challenging really, but in my case, rarely achieved. (more…)