Daily Prompt – Howl At The Moon

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” — Allen Ginsberg

Do you follow Ginsberg’s advice — in your writing and/or in your everyday life?

My ‘madness’, if that’s what we’re referring to it as, is what makes me uniquely me.

Daily Prompt – City Planners

If you could clone one element from another city you’ve visited — a building, a cultural institution, a common street food, etc. — and bring it back to your own hometown, what would it be?

I think it would have to be infrastructure. Roads; rail and tram networks; more efficient public transport systems. Seriously, how is it 2014 and we’re STILL without an airport rail link?!? Oh that’s right, because we’re so behind the 8-ball it’s ridiculous.

Daily Prompt: We Built This City

What do you love most about the city / town / place that you live in? What do you like the least about it? If you were mayor, what would be the most important problem you’d tackle? How would you tackle it?

As somebody who grew up in a very, very small farming town, the thought of going to a big city was both scary and exciting. When I decided to move to Melbourne, I was so full of anxiety, but I saw it as a ‘challenge’ and it’s a decision I’ve never regretted.

I love living in Melbourne – I just love Melbourne. I find it’s just one of those cities that, generally, is very easy going. People tend to be quite nice and friendly; the city is laid out quite well, so everything is easy to get to; the public transport is generally quite good – it could be improved quite significantly, but overall it does a solid job.

Melbourne is a city of multiculturalism, fashion, food and coffee. Especially coffee!! Melburnians LOVE their coffee and will have no hesitation if they think it tastes like mud. It has also previously been voted as the World’s Most Liveable City! It also hosts some of the biggest international events such as the Grand Prix, Melbourne Cup and the Spring Racing Carnival, Melbourne Fashion Week. Plus, with a constant array of galleries, theatre, musicals, and international music artists touring, there is always something to do in Melbourne!! Oh, and we have now joined the elite list of cities to take part in the Real Housewives franchise (Suck it, Sydney!!).

The only downfall about Melbourne is the weather. We have shit weather 90% of the time. If it’s not the standard grey-overcast-cold weather, it’s four seasons in a day. If you’re planning on visiting, ALWAYS prepare for cold and rain at some point during your stay. It’s inevitable!!

If I was the Mayor of the city and hypothetically had unlimited funds to tackle the city’s biggest problems, the first thing I would do is dramatically increase the public transport infrastructure. There’s so much room for improvement, and during peak times, it’s terribly overcrowded, and there’s nothing worse than running late to work, getting to the train station and then spending 20mins waiting to get on a train, because all the trains coming through are jam-packed.

I’d also create a public transport link to the airport. Places like Sydney and Brisbane have a rail-link connecting the airport to the city, and Melbourne certainly needs one. We have a bus shuttle service, but you can only catch that from the city. I’d want there to be a rail option for those who live in the suburbs.

Which brings me to my next point – cross-suburban rail network. I’d further our current government’s plans to develop a rail network to link suburban lines, and completely bypassing the need to go via the city. As it stands, commuters need to travel into the city, in order to change trains and travel out again if they wish to get to another station on a different train line. A cross-network ‘bypass’ would resolve that issue… however, it would require significant research into how many users this would affect.

…not to mention millions (if not billions) of dollars.
 

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