Skip to main content

Why doesn't Melbourne have mini-CBDs like Sydney does?

One thing that pains me about living in small cities is that you can't get anything done... there aren't enough service providers and prices are high as there is no competition.. In Geneva I would've had to go to Bern to do many things, in Lyon I had to go to Paris like a billion times to do certain things (and pay like 3x price for our translations as there just aren't many translators in Lyon/no competition) and now in Melbourne.. a city that is hardly small with over 4 million people.. but compared to Sydney feels like a small place. In Sydney we have multiple CBDs where you can get everything done as you could in the actual CBD. In Melbourne there is only ONE CBD.. and even then...

Let me give you an example.. In Sydney if you want to go to the ATO you can go to either CBD (Martin Place), Chatswood (north), Parramatta (west), Rockdale (south) or Penrith (outer west). In Melbourne there are NO offices in the CBD (wtf?), the closest is Docklands which is next to the CBD but still kinda in the middle of nowhere with crap public transport, then you have Dandenong (which is like Melbourne's version of Penrith-outer south) and a million miles away, and Geelong, which is not even in Melbourne. There is nothing in no other suburb in the east/south-east or north where probably 80% of people live. Stuff like that pisses me off about Melbourne and it's not just the ATO but looking for other services/suppliers too.. everything is everywhere and nothing is in a convenient location. I had to go to 4 different suburbs before I could even find ONE decent GP which bulkbilled and I finally found a good one but it's nowhere near where we live. In Sydney I just go to Chatswood and I can find every single thing I need, EVERY single one. In Parramatta you would never even have to leave the suburb, it literally has everything, even has its own courts. Here I have to go to 4 different suburbs to find the same things. What's even worse is that I have to waste so much time travelling around town and the transport is crap as heck.. Grr...

Oh and if hubby and/or I need to go to the French consulate - despite the fact that Melbourne has an office - guess where we'll have to go to actually get anything done? Sydney (at at minimum of $300-500/trip per person not including accommodation)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Public transport just doesn't work in Australia

(pic: space required to move 60 people) I was writing letters to Sydney's transport authority 20 years ago about the pathetic state of public transport in this area.. I see that they haven't done anything since and have made it worse with plans to build more freeways, overpasses and tunnels. The other day I was driving to Chatswood to drop hubby at the station (I didn't dare drive to the airport, it would've probably taken 3 hours) and it took 20 mins to drive 2km along Warringah Rd. It was only 7am but since it was raining heavily and a weekday the road was completely blocked. Now this stretch of road runs right near the new fandangled hospital. What dickhead decided to build a giant hospital on one of the worst bottlenecks in Sydney? As I sat in the car not moving I thought to myself I'd hate to be someone in an ambulance.. where the fuck would the ambulance go? It would have to drive on the other side of the road facing oncoming traffic which is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cycling?

Thirty years ago, 63% of Beijingers pedalled to work. Now only 12% do. Many people think that cycling is only for the poor. A dating-show contestant famously quipped in 2010 that she would “rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bike.” I think people in every country (except maybe Germany and northern Europe) think cycling and public transport is for the poor. Article: In China, bikes are back
Post a Comment
Read more