The Mayor of Newtown: May 2010

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Hatches Batches and Dispatches IV

Yarn

The fourth round up of some of the comings and goings on and around King St Newtown in the last month or so. Thanks to reader Alison for some of the observations, and those who commented on Hatches III.

New Openings

Famous Surry Hills Thai Prasits has taken over the not very succesful Thai restaurant next to the high school
New Asian restaurant – and it’s not Thai! - Asian King, on the site of old Shaiza’s Curry House
A Coffee and a Yarn at 413 King St - hugely popular knitting and mini-cafe
The Granny Square – looks like a cute crafts store, site of old Champion Textiles – 47 King St (a theme here)
Chocolate Dog is now a Polish restaurant, according to Twitter !

Prasits arrives in Newtown

Development Applications

Yet another bottle shop proposed for Newtown Central (next to Townie)
Check out the excellent Planning Alerts site to track D.A.s near you

Reviews

Moose in the SMH (Facebook link)
Darley St Bistro in the Botany View Hotel makes the Tele's Top 10 Pub Bistros
Street Food blog has a few Newtown reviews
Blog review of A Coffee and a Yarn

Random

Pretty Dog has moved down the road in Brown Street; it's great to see some action off King Street.
Popular cafe Anise has closed due to renovations upstairs
Funky Cafe is on the market. Whoever buys it must maintain the music ! And death to the nimby who raised a noise complaint; on King St FFS.
A new Festival proposed for Eliza St in September

Pretty Dog slides down Brown St

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Newtown Station Latest

After a long period of silence, the revised Newtown Station renovations were launched this month by local member and Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt and Transport Minister, Davd Campbell. The accompanying press release (pdf) was light on detail, although did contain an intruiging reference to 'including archaeological testing and demolition of the old kebab shop'. The renovations are supposed to cost an extraordinary $31M dollars, you really think we'd be getting more for that than a tarted up old station building, covered walkway and a couple of elevators.

Today

The main change from the previous proposal (read more here and here) is that the gaudy canopy (on the right below) :

has been replaced by a simpler cleaner look, which is an improvement. Interesting though that the revised plan was not provided to the public for comment, and indeed is not online anywhere. The Mayor's requests to Carmel Tebbutt's office for any further information have not been responded to.

Probably because this was about the 17th launch of station renovation plans (a NSW Labor specialty) there wasn't a lot of press, apart from this very brief article in the Inner West Courier. The comments on that article reflect the general cynicism that this will actually go ahead.

However a D.A. has already been lodged with the council, although intruigingly only for soil quality testing (those kebabs again) rather than any demolition or construction work. I've got to say it's the most detailed documentation I've ever seen, given the limited scope of the works. Maybe that's where some the $31M is going. According to the press release a tender has been called for the demolition of the kebabery as well; still, I'll only be assured this is real when I see signs of some construction rather than destruction.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Cycling to and from Newtown II - The City and North

The latest in a series of cycling posts, this post focuses on how to get from Newtown to the City and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The accepted route from Newtown to the city starts on the Wilson Street contra-flow. However very quickly opinion divides (and there are no signs; unlike the Marrickville side) on how best to get to the city. Going to the southern half of the CBD is best done following Wilson Street to the very end, through Little Eveleigh, around Redfern Station, down George Street, through Prince Alfred Park (when it's open) and then take your chances on Chalmers Street.

View Larger Map

To get to the Northern half of the CBD, or the bridge (which is the Mayor's commute) turn left off Wilson St at Shepherd St and follow it all the way past Sydney Uni Engineering, across Cleveland Street, 2nd right at Daniels, left at Buckland; then either straight down to Broadway and take the footpath up to the Jones St lights, or take a right at Blackfriars, take your chances across Abercrombie to the far lane, then cross Broadway and first right up Thomas Street to join Jones Street.

Follow Jones street almsot to the end, then right turn at Fig St. At the intersection with Harris St, either follow it down Murray St and up to Pyrmont Bridge, or turn left at Harris and take it down to Pyrmont Bridge Road. Turn right and you'll eventually join all the commuters coming off Anzac Bridge, and follow the soon to be completed Union Street cyclepath to Pyrmont Bridge.

According to their press release, the Central Park project on the old Carlton Brewery will contain a cycle way connecting Barbour Street to Jones St and the UTS precinct. While this is great news, it's still not clear to be how this will best connect to Wilson St. From the Sydney Uni / Sydney Council cycle map, it seems the best option will be still to take Shepherd Street, veer right at Boundary Street, cross Cleveland at the lights into Beaumont Street, then follow Myrtle Street across Abercrombie into Meagher Street, before turning left at Balfour.

If you're interested in cycling around the region, I recommend signing up for Sydney Cyclist, in particular the Inner West group. The state govenrnment is also taking feedback on cycling in Sydney until May 28th; I encourage you to have your say.

Hatches Batches and Dispatches III

The third round up of some of the comings and goings on and around King St Newtown in the last month or so ...

New Openings

Wine and Dine, which opened only a month ago where Mickey's was, has already closed.
A new book shop Plato opened this weekend just down the road from Newtown institution Goulds.
Inner West Live launches. Check it out !
Mayor of Newtown turned one (148 in the real world, only two years until the sesquicentenary)