Hatches IX - Jan 2012

Hello and Happy New Year ! It's been a while since the last update here; as always lots has been going on up and down and just off King Street - below is just a summary of a few of the changes that have occurred in the last 6 months; hopefully it won't be 6 months to the next update !

Well it's January 2012 and now we're starting to understand why it's going to take until the end of this year to complete the Newtown Station upgrade. The progress is summarised in the notice below, see the detailed post for more information and photos.

Newtown Station Progress

Also still ongoing is the long running Energy Australia works; although Ausgrid, as they are now known have promised to repair the King St footpaths once all the shops connect to the beautiful black boxes on the footpaths, there's no news yet whether the road destruction on Wilson St, Angel St etc will be repaired. There are contact details below from their website:

If you have any questions, please contact our project team on the 24/7 project information line 1800 643 608 or email info-kingstreet@ausgrid.com.au.

Wilson St EnergyAustralia Repairs

New Openings

• Quite a few small bars popping up in King Street finally, including Bench, Jester Seeds (Newtown vibe and Darlinghurst prices), and Kuki Tanuki in Erskineville, finally emerging from interminable renovations.
• Sydney's Mexican food trend has spread to Newtown, with the opening of Beach Bistro next to the Hub, replacing the short lived (and Mayor-loved) Soprano's pizzeria; and the slow but promised opening of Mad Mex 
• A swanky looking Basque inspired Kingfish Bistro as SoKi continues its fashionable evolution
• A Korean barbecue restaurant has bravely opened above Tamana's North Indian diner; graveyard for Tamana's Upstairs, Posh Spice and most recently Top Level Pizza

Going ...

Old Advertising on King St

• The Laundromat near King Street Cyclery burnt down spectacularly - revealing some great old advertising on the wall of the bike shop. Will be ever be nostalgic about today's advertising ? Hard to imagine !
• Sadly Wilson St Gallery closed without much warning - apparently moved to Danks St, to be replaced (inexplicably) by a ballet shop Repertoire - that I give 6 months.
• King St Cyclery itself has closed for renovations, moving to their repair centre near Marrickville Metro. Cheeky Monkey are still going strong
• Taste Chicken surprisingly disappeared, not sure if anyone knows the story behind that.
• The much loved Freaky Tiki in the Newtown Hotel closed - will it reappear after the renovations ?

Development Applications

• A chain milk bar (above) to replace the suddenly closed African restaurant Kilimanjaro. I hope the mural is protected. 
• Yet another gelato shop to replace the camera shop next door to African feeling. I guess they've seen how popular Gelatomassi is
• The owners of the post office have applied to add some apartments out the back - across the road from the much loved Varga Bar.

Reviews

• There's a whole industry of food bloggers out there now, hard to keep track of them all ! A special mention though to Detective Chow who has quite an original take on the reviews; and has visited two Newtown locations recently.
• New Vietnamese joint Rice Paper got a write up in the SMH Jan 21; coincidentally the same day the Mayor dined there. Recommended !
  

Random 

• Whispers of The Hub coming back to life - what will this be ?
• Some very cool guerrilla knitting outside the Neighbourhood centre
  

You can see all the links that I have shared on Twitter via my bit.ly public timeline.

Hatches Batches and Dispatches V

It's been a while since the last round up of some of the comings and goings on and around King St Newtown. It's getting harder to keep track of the goings on but thankfully I have all of your tips from last month's update and Twitter. The most reported Newtown related news in the last month or so is the possible resumption of houses in Leamington Avenue for RailCorp's proposed Western Express line. The story got a second wind once some discovered the linkage to the famous 'Three Proud People' mural; now unfortunately blocked from view from Macdonaldtown Station by the sound barrier.

New Openings

• Cucina Sopranos on the site of the old Wedgetail
• The Polish restauarant in the old Choclate Dog has a name - New in Town - and gets the mayoral thumbs up - tasty and generous portions.
• A new Vietnamese noodle place called "Pho Sure" opened in the old service station on the corner of Stamore Rd and Liberty St Enmore (nice break from the terrible Thai/Tie puns)
• Dolce and Gelato has had a name change, now called gelato blue. Apart from that all looks the same. 
• Moo Gourmet burgers the latest to take on the site of Mickey's
• King St deli has moved to south king, where there used to be a business centre
• The Bank Hotel has re-opened after the fire 
• A new design shop (cute !) called Lillypad Designs hidden at the back of the newsagent near the Dendy
• Not so new now but not yet mentioned is the nursery next to the controversial car-wash on South King Street;

Development Applications

• The proposed bottlo shop in Newtown Central has a name - Cellarbrations. A chain, of course.
• Speaking of chains, Dominos Pizza coming to (far north) Newtown. Signage looks really garish
• Mostly residential otherwise.

Reviews

• Funky Cafe gets a mention in an SMH article about live music
• Not quite a review, but both Pentimento and Newtown resident and ex-Mr Varga Bar Ben Soutter got quoted in an article about Cafe mobile phone etiquette.
  

Random

• Most visited story the mayor shared in the last month was about ATM skimming on skim street; while Fairfax were too scared to name the bank involved, they did point out that NAB, CBA and ANZ denied it was them and the Pac declined to comment. Go figure.
• A broader inner city story getting too much airtime is the bike lane backlash, led by such likables as former Newtownian (sadly) Alan Jones and the Tele. Sad to say even a Wilson Street local is complaining about the lanes
• Once again, The Imperial is 'opening soon'. Sadly the plans of Sydney Fringe to use the Hub as a venue have come to nothing
• A filtered water fountain has been installed outside the Town Hall (real one, not the pub)
  

Cycling and Newtown - Part I

Newtown has a well earned reputation as the heart of Sydney cycling. Cyclists abound on and around King St, and the 'cyclists highway' of Wilson Street was the site of Sydney's first (I think) contra-flow cycle lane. According the NSW government's statistics web page; Newtown ranks second in NSW (really first, as O'Connor is in the A.C.T - strange that the website claims it as part of NSW) for the number of commuting cyclists.

The City of Sydney Council and Marrickville Council (joint custodians of Newtown) both have excellent cycling strategies online (Sydney and Marrickville). One key difference though is that Marrickville council have recently cut their cycling budget - despite the best intentions of the Greens - whereas Sydney Council are spending millions on implementing theirs.

The above dichotomy reveals are more general problem with cycle paths in Sydney. Given the state government's complete lack of interest in cycling, it's left in the hands of local councils. As a result, cycle paths (where they exists) typically stop at council boundaries (or anywhere else where the money happns to run out). The classic example of this in Newtown is the way the Stanmore - Newtown cycleway peters out at the corner of King Street and Mary Street, with an unfriendly one way street between it and the aforementioned Wilson Street cycle highway.

Amazingly there is a detailed plan to fix this intersection and unify these paths (on page 101 of Marrickville's cycle strategy) although no details on timing or funding (nor even whether the RTA would agree to losing one lane of one of the few East - West routes in inner-Sydney).


Sydney Council has recently announced plans for a Cycle Hub at Taylor Square. The planned hub will include showers and a bike repair centre. There are doubts about whether this is the right location for the hub; on the positive side it's on the intersection of three major cycle routes; on the other hand it's not clear it's close enough to offices to be really useful for commuters.


Newtown's Hub would seem like an obvious site for a similar facility (we can't let Surry Hills get one up on us) - perhaps associated with the community centre in my old office (a.k.a the Town Hall) - situated as it is at the intersection of several bike routes. It could act as a de facto bike parking facility for Newtown Station, given that Railcorp will not commit to decent bike facilities. What do you think ?

In Part 2 I'll discuss in more detail some of the local routes in and around Newtown and planned upgrades; in the meantime here are some (hopefully) useful links - let me know if I've missed any !

• Bike Sydney
  BIKESydney was formed in 2000 to help look after the Sydney City Council Area (Australia) and is affiliated with Bicycle NSW.
• Massbug
  Local bicycle group covering Marrickville and former South Sydney Council areas. The group meets on the first Wednesday of the month at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre at 7:30pm.
  
• Bicycle NSW
  Peak cycling body providing advice, insurance, ride events bike shop discounts and Australian Cyclist magazine to members
  
• RTA Cycleways
  The RTA has produced Cycleway maps for Newcastle, Central Coast, Illawarra and Sydney regions.
• Sydney Community College
  Offers short affordable cycling courses to improve your skills and confidence in riding a bike.

Newtown Hub Update

This weeks Inner West Courier has an article on Newtown's Hub, although unfortunately there is no news as such. The owner, Chris Vlattas, is quoted blaming Marrickville Council for the lack of progress in turning The Hub into an entertainment venue, a charge which the council quite reasonably denies given the most recent DA was for shops and offices (see my take from last year).

Maybe the publicity will force those interested to discuss sensible options for the venue; certainly Newstown readers have come up with some creative ideas. Use of such an iconic building for shops and apartments would really be a shame. Some sort of concert / cinema venue would be the most logical use - but I'd love to see some more original ideas !

Here's hoping - one thing for sure is that The Hub has stood empty for way too long.

Posted via email from Mayor's posterous

Notes about a New Venue

Notes Live

There's a new venue in Newtown. While it doesn't (yet?) seem to form part of the Newtown Entertainment Precinct, it seems that Notes Live, at 73-75 Enmore Road near the bridge, has ambitious plans to be a permanent part of the Newtown Entertainment scene, at least judging by the yet to be active website, extensive upcoming gig list, and branding. With a fancy menu accompanying the Monsieur Camembert invitation, it seems the inspiration is very much Newtown's Vanguard.


The official opening this Friday (15th May) will feature Vanguard favourites Monsieur Camembert, although the venue has been there for a while, operating as a sort of occasional Greek nightclub and function centre. The fact that the premises are a converted funeral parlour shouldn't be an issue given the success of Kinselas in Darlinghurst.

Any new venue is good news for Newtown in the Mayor's opinion, although I only hope it doesn't impact on any plans for The Hub to re-open as a venue. I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who has already been there, or is attending the opening - let us all know what it's like as a venue.

What of the Hub ?

I'm not sure how it escaped the Mayor's attention, but last October, Marrickville Council thankfully rejected a development application to convert the Hub in Newtown to a 3 story combined retail and commercial premises. The full details, including plans, are on pages 303-323 of the Council Minutes (34MB - beware - and see comments below for download instructions). The text regarding the decision reads:

File Ref: DA200800185
Application to carry out alterations and additions to convert the Hub
theatre into retail space on the ground floor and two levels of open plan
commercial office space above. Four (4) submissions were received in
response to Council's notification of the proposal. A submission was
also received from RailCorp advising of certain matters, such as noise
and vibration and stray currents from railway operations, that should be
addressed in the assessment of the application. The proposed
development varies from the maximum floor space ratio prescribed
under Marrickville Local Environmental Plan 2001, and the applicant
has submitted an objection under State Environmental Planning Policy
No. 1 in support of the proposed variation. The proposed development
fails to provide car parking in accordance with Marrickville
Development Control Plan No. 19 – Parking Strategy. Council’s
Heritage and Urban Design Advisor does not support the proposed
development as the subject proposal equates to substantial demolition of
the existing building and will result in the loss of a significant social
icon, which is located in the centre of a key heritage precinct. The
application is recommended for refusal. The application is referred to
the Committee for determination due to the prominent location of the
site, the local significance of the theatre building and the excess gross
floor area proposed.

The Hub is now available for short term lease - presumably while a follow up DA is being prepared. Thanks to the anonymous tipster who pointed this out on the Newtown Eyesores post.

The Hub is a Newtown icon and deserves a better future than being chopped up and diced out like a piece of meat. Hopefully the owners can come up with better plans than that.

What should become of the Hub ? Is there room in Newtown for another live music venue, so close to the Enmore and Factory ? Do we bring back the skin flicks ? Is an ice-skating rink the answer ? A permanent artisan's market ? Are there any proposed short term uses ?

Your thoughts please !