Can we afford to get back on the rails?

Australia’s largest cities still rely heavily on massive investments in rail before the second world war. With renewed interest in rail as a way of dealing with congestion, Peter Mares looks at what history can tell us about the value of reinvesting in railways

12 Dec 12 | Comments (1)

Canberra: what sort of city?

Twenty-five years on, we’re still asking the same question, writes Margo Saunders

09 Nov 12 | Comments (2)

Waiting for the great eighteenth

On the eve of China’s eighteenth party congress, life in Beijing is changing in increasingly obvious ways, writes Antonia Finnane

02 Nov 12 | Comments (0)

A sense of possibility in Alice Springs

After six months of living in Alice Springs, Eleanor Hogan’s employer folded and she was offered an all-expenses-paid relocation back to Sydney. But she was in no hurry to leave

27 Aug 12 | Comments (3)

Urban romance

Fifty years after the publication of Jane Jacobs’s landmark book, we’re still trying to find our way around the city, writes Richard Johnstone

27 Feb 12 | Comments (3)

Who should look after the cities?

The federal government is showing signs of getting back into the urban planning business, reports Margaret Simons

02 Jun 11 | Comments (1)

Shanghai’s affordability problem

Massive rises in the cost of housing are at last being recognised by government, writes Duncan Hewitt

28 Apr 11 | Comments (0)

Understanding Miller

“Locational disadvantage” has an enormous impact on the lives of residents in many Australian suburbs. But an experiment in Sydney’s 2168 postcode area is yielding results, writes Melissa Sweet

28 Mar 11 | Comments (2)

The dying art of strolling in Shanghai

Traffic is becoming a fiercely debated topic in China’s major cities, writes Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

22 Mar 11 | Comments (0)

Shanghai sling

Although it symbolises China’s embrace of the market economy, Shanghai is still very much shaped by the party and struggling to overcome entrenched corruption, writes Peter Browne

28 Jan 11 | Comments (0)

Retreat to the backyard

BOOKS | Peter Spearritt looks at how traffic engineers and apartment developers are degrading Australian cities

07 Oct 10 | Comments (1)

Our consensus future

How will the world economy look in 2025? Mark Thirlwell looks at the consensus view – and the possibility of a few surprises

09 Sep 10 | Comments (1)

Sydney adrift

Forty-one mayors and a state government in crisis means that no one is in charge of Sydney, writes Jim Colman

01 Jul 10 | Comments (1)

Trouble in the city

If you want to find out what’s happening in Australia’s cities today, don’t go to the glossy planning documents, writes Peter Spearritt

22 Oct 09 | Comments (4)