Rushcutters Bay becomes an artist’s impression of itself

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It’s the Sydney paradigm – out with anything old, homespun, or folksy, no matter how well it may be working, and in with cleanline hard-edged modernity. The City of Sydney has redeveloped 83 parks to date, transforming much of Sydney into an artist’s impression of itself until it disappears up its own design brief.

The vanilla illustrations that precede each project always feature rich, young, slim, successful white people talking on mobile phones in beautiful surrounds free of leaf litter or Ibis-poop. But they are the only people who like the new spaces and feel comfortable in them, says Rory Miles who has managed the Rushcutters Bay Tennis Courts for 27 years.

Yet at the same time, the new contract Council has been begging him to sign stipulates he must host a certain number of homeless and Aboriginal tennis players each month, and count them up for new monthly compliance reports.

“They want us to teach these people,” he said, “but they’ve created a space they wouldn’t want to come to.”

“I can’t ask everyone who comes in here if they are Aboriginal or homeless – it’s embarrassing.”

The monthly reports must also count the number of customers (divided into “target groups”), the number of Access Cards used, a full financial report plus gas and energy usage.

“I will have to pay an extra person just to handle the paperwork,” said Mr Miles.

On top of that, the contract stipulates quarterly audits from Council, the colour of chairs and tables at the café (white), the court fees, staff uniforms, a total ban on alcohol and instant “Termination for Convenience” if Council staff decide they want the contractor out.

The 3-year term is too short to justify the $103,000+ capital he will have to outlay, he says, and a further three-year option is at Council’s discretion, not his. On top of that he has spent $55,000 preparing two tenders and paid $7,000 in legal fees – while during redevelopment of the park he has earned income from only two courts out of five. Council did reduce the rent, but Mr Miles says two courts are still not a viable business proposition.

The no-alcohol clause might sound reasonable until you realise that seniors from a nearby retirement home have for decades been playing a game of evening tennis before gathering at the old café to share a bottle of BYO wine. There have been no problems or complaints, says Mr Miles.

But this community focus will be destroyed because the new café Council has built across the road in the park cuts outdoor seating from 76 to 22 seats.

“That will totally change the nature of the business. You won’t be able to let people take their time and sit there reading a newspaper over a coffee, you have to move people through quickly to make it pay,” he said.

Enter Council’s new vision of yuppieville.

“Council wants to micro-manage the business, but they clearly don’t have the capacity to do that. On the other hand we have been running it for 27 years, and we should be able to run it now,” said Mr Miles.

A quick look at the new café supports this –  the sleek neo-Deco building, decorated with stylised laser-cut clover leaves, is light, airy and stylish but there is nowhere to put a drinks fridge.

“I might be able to put one under the counter, but old people are not going to bend over to get drinks,” said Mr Miles.

The old café and the caretaker’s cottage adjacent to it are a bit folksy and run down, it’s true, but there is room for a drinks fridge and they function as a community meeting point for folk. All they needed was minor renovation.

Sometimes you can have too much design – form should not mitigate function – and micro-control of businesses by bureaucrats has never been known to succeed.

by Michael Gormly