Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

[Ghost Dog]

Is Melbourne really Australia's most livable city?

1500 people are moving to Melbourne every week In less than 10 years it will be the biggest city / most populated in Australia.

I know not everyone on here is in Melbourne now.

What is your gripe with the home of AFL?









( mods - is this the right place for this post? if not move pls )

[jeemak]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Its becoming pretty bloody expensive, that's for sure.

What I don't like about its increase in size will be the liklihood of an increase in bogan and self serving behaviour.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

I hated Melbourne with a passion... until I moved away.

I still don't like the city, as jeemak said the urban sprawl is creating a lot of dickheads, but I'm still in love with Victoria and if you want to live in Victoria and do my work, you gotta be in Melbourne.

So I guess what I'm saying is it's a love-hate relationship.

[the banker]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

I love it. Along with all the usual problems associated with urban life it has substance and style. I lived a twin city life for 12 years sharing nearly 3 days every week in Sydney. In my experience, Melbourne people are interested in more than the superficial. The sporting life is unsurpassed it has a great cafe life and it has values. It faces a serious challenge in terms of transport. By and large social cohesion is good. Gardens and parks are beautiful.

The footy and sport in general adds a lot to the city.

[Bornadog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Is Melbourne really Australia's most livable city?

1500 people are moving to Melbourne every week In less than 10 years it will be the biggest city / most populated in Australia.

I know not everyone on here is in Melbourne now.

What is your gripe with the home of AFL?









( mods - is this the right place for this post? if not move pls )

Sorry GD but what has this got to do with footy?

[Twodogs]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

I've moved the thread due to the fact it has nothing to do with footy. We dont have a General Discussion board so I moved it here.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Thoughts about Melbourne...

• It's safe. Seriously. Our most dangerous suburbs here are safer than the safest suburbs in most of the world. We're so safe we have to invent OHS rules about not standing on chairs or not picking stuff up (!) to keep us even safer than we already are.
• It's diverse, it’s an hour to a beach, to mountains, to beautiful lakes and parks, to wineries etc. We have some of the best produce and RED wine in the world.
• We are expensive. I think we’re 7th or 8th on the most expensive cities in the world to live in list, around the same as Sydney and Paris. This is both a bad and good thing. Clearly, it’s bad that things are expensive, but if you look at the list, the top 2 cities are places like Zurich etc., which is where lots and lots of money reside. Clearly being expensive is a function of doing really well as a whole (of course there are people struggling, but generally speaking we are VERY well off). It also means that when we travel, things are generally ‘cheap’ to us .. even notoriously expensive cities like New York and Paris are pretty affordable if you’re used to Melbourne prices, with the high dollar.
• Culturally, this place is a real mixed bag – we do bring some of the best things from around the world, but there’s generally no comparison with really old cities from a cultural perspective... that’s unrealistic. Having said that, we are definitely the most interesting city in the country, and we do try (probably a bit too hard sometimes – we probably have one of the highest wanker-to-population ratios going around, but it also means we have great food, wine, coffee etc. Now if we can just chill out about it a bit).
• Work ethic is really inconsistent here.. or maybe I should say productivity. Lots of people are happy to sit around all day at work looking like they’re working but not really producing a whole lot of value. Our next-gens and Gen Ys are more mollycoddled than most and it’s nearly impossible to get a consistent effort out of that group as a whole (gross generalisation I know). We also have some seriously amazing pockets of innovation, but at the same time we do have very recalcitrant industries (especially retail). We’re not the best in terms of technological adoption (partially because of our low density), but we’re nowhere near the worst either.

Just some of my thoughts about the place – it can be pretty amazing, and we’re definitely lucky to live here, but there are plenty of things to piss you off about the place, offset by the fact that it’s one of the few places in the world where you can pretty much find a close facsimile of any experience you want that you normally would have to travel for. It definitely helps to break it up though -- I appreciate Melbourne more when I'm away from it, and travel always makes me happy to come home. My favourite part of coming home recently is if it's a night time arrival and the moon is in the sky, and the Citylink bit going past Docklands and the South Wharf (the 3 kms or so before the Burnley Tunnel).. just looks so beautiful at night from that distance.

[Bornadog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Born here and love it. Have travelled around the world and lived in Asia for 7 years, but Melbourne truly is the best place to live.

To take it up another notch, serious money needs spending on public transport. Successive State Governments blame each other but do nothing about it.

[jeemak]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Good post Lantern, puts a few things in perspective. I particularly agree with the part about food, wine and coffee!

For a reasonably well planned city there's two major areas that for me, let us down. The size of blocks in the inner to mid range suburbs and the public transport situation is diabolical.

There are people that sit in traffic for over three to four hours a day in this city, out of nessecity due to the terrible rail network. Life isn't supposed to be like that.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Haven't lived anywhere else (not long term!), so I'm not the most worldly person to ask, but I like Melbourne. Public transport lets us down, but it's clean, safe and if the weather doesn't suit you, just wait a little while, it'll change!

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Sorry GD but what has this got to do with footy?

That's why I wrote this at the bottom of the post


( mods - is this the right place for this post? if not move pls )




Have a nice collection of defective Myki's building up.
Maybe it's different depending on your pay scale. Renting, not sure how many on here do. Does change one's perspective.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

GD, you gave a rant warning, but then didn't go on much of a rant What in particular irks you about Melbourne? The defective myki cards obviously, anything else?

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

GD, you gave a rant warning, but then didn't go on much of a rant What in particular irks you about Melbourne? The defective myki cards obviously, anything else?

The other day I was on the platform. Minding my own business. New ' transit cops' come along in a pack, with their shiny guns. So they just randomly walk up to me and start asking for my details. I asked them ' did I do something? ' They admitted to having a policy of selecting out people to 'log' on the platform. In doing this they make it appear to everyone else on the platform that they are actually doing something. So everyone is looking at me like I'm a crim all the way home.
And where were they when the teen age lads started chroming on the train? So it goes.

I used to love riding my bike in Melb. I don't anymore after a series of very close calls. The roads seem much more intense than I remember.

Ticket prices / Rents all going up. The suburbs you can bike from are getting more and more difficult to find places in.

The idea of buying a house in Melbourne seems well out of reach. I live in a rooming house at the moment.

What used to be restricted to Chapel st has now spread across the city. satisfied with its 'livability' people will always keep coming but I worry about these huge infrastructure projects like desal, Myki, the train system that seem to get botched all the time. I read that Australia as a whole is worse off in terms of sustainability than it was 20 years ago. Assume the same can be said for our city.

Docklands is horrid. A wind swept tunnel that could have been so much more. And the suburbs are pretty ghastly. Poorly planned. Cars dominate Melbourne and I feel its losing its character. Much to love about it, a fine place to live, especially if you own your own home. But some big challenges.
Sorry for the negative vibes! Rant because I want it to retain something of what I used to love.

[Bornadog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

The other day I was on the platform. Minding my own business. New ' transit cops' come along in a pack, with their shiny guns. So they just randomly walk up to me and start asking for my details. I asked them ' did I do something? ' They admitted to having a policy of selecting out people to 'log' on the platform. In doing this they make it appear to everyone else on the platform that they are actually doing something. So everyone is looking at me like I'm a crim all the way home.
And where were they when the teen age lads started chroming on the train? So it goes.

I used to love riding my bike in Melb. I don't anymore after a series of very close calls. The roads seem much more intense than I remember.

Ticket prices / Rents all going up. The suburbs you can bike from are getting more and more difficult to find places in.

The idea of buying a house in Melbourne seems well out of reach. I live in a rooming house at the moment.

What used to be restricted to Chapel st has now spread across the city. satisfied with its 'livability' people will always keep coming but I worry about these huge infrastructure projects like desal, Myki, the train system that seem to get botched all the time. I read that Australia as a whole is worse off in terms of sustainability than it was 20 years ago. Assume the same can be said for our city.

Docklands is horrid. A wind swept tunnel that could have been so much more. And the suburbs are pretty ghastly. Poorly planned. Cars dominate Melbourne and I feel its losing its character. Much to love about it, a fine place to live, especially if you own your own home. But some big challenges.
Sorry for the negative vibes! Rant because I want it to retain something of what I used to love.

Do you ever post anything that is positive?

If you don't like living here then plenty of other places to move to. Some beautiful spots in country Victoria.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Is Melbourne worth it any more? - (rant warning )

Do you ever post anything that is positive?

If you don't like living here then plenty of other places to move to. Some beautiful spots in country Victoria.

Um, yes!