Need for more than clichéd hopes

He is somewhat scathing about recent major reports on cities. The State of Australian Cities 2010 report, he says, “is replete with all those clichéd hopes that have peppered urban policy papers for decades – integrated infrastructure planning and programming, innovative urban design, consideration of place impacts of development, healthier cities, sustainable cities, affordable housing, less car dependent, shorter trips, access to a wide range of services and facilities …

“One gets a warm glow from these documents. They don’t disappoint by explaining what we really would have to do to achieve their lofty aims. To explain would be to expose the hollowness of the analysis and the solutions. The truth is inconvenient because it is to be found within government and the way it operates. Rather than face up to it, much better to wrap the clichés around some pictures of happy citizens and pretend you are across the issues”.

“The point is, let’s have some honesty in these urban reports. For years the same hopes have been stated. Nobody writes why it is that those hopes are not realized. If we had some real analysis, we might see some real solutions”, is John Mant’s conclusion.