Letters

Missing bus stop

It’s good to see that the City of Sydney is expanding the village-to-village shuttle bus route to include Elizabeth Bay. This follows the extensive community campaign to reinstate the 311 bus service to the Ithaca Road “loop”.

It appears that there will be two shuttle bus stops on that loop – while the 311 service had three. The “missing” stop is at the corner of Ithaca Road and Billyard Avenue.

I’ve written to Council asking if there’s a reason for not including the third stop, and whether it could be included on a trial basis. It will be good to hear Council’s reply.

Sacha Blumen, Elizabeth Bay

Don’t ignore Kings Cross’s genteel past

Through his advocacy on behalf of car hoons, Michael Gormly is again attacking the residents in the community of which he is part. According to the City of Sydney Council’s policies, its residents should be able to live peacefully alongside the city’s commercial, cultural and entertainment enterprises. In attacking the residents of Potts Point who have sought nothing more than equality with all other city residents, Michael Gormly is on dangerous ground when he suggests that peaceful living should not apply to these residents because some of them are an ‘elite’. The same logic would have ‘non-elites’ treated in a different way, and the foundations of our democratic society would be then seriously undermined.

Michael argues for a Kings Cross which reflects his personal values. However, when he evokes history to support his case, he is selective indeed. Up until the early 20th century, Kings Cross was very genteel. This is still in evidence when you gaze above the tawdry street level in the vicinity of Darlinghurst Road, and admire the architecture of its old but lovely apartment blocks. Its decline can be traced firstly to the introduction of cars, and the mass exodus of the middle classes to quarter acre blocks from which they could drive to the city. Its continuing descent can be attributable to multiple causes; mostly, however, to the predations of organised crime. Inevitably, of course, the drift of population back to the city is seeing the same middle classes re-inhabiting these old buildings and the newer ones which have sprung up in order to meet demand for dwellings close to work places. History is against Michael Gormly.

Sue Hanley, Darlinghurst