NAKED CITY – CASPER THE UNFRIENDLY POST

NAKED CITY – CASPER THE UNFRIENDLY POST

Sydney needs the giant metal “Cloud Arch” (aka the ‘tapeworm’) like it needs another monorail, another two years of light rail construction or an enormous milk crate in Belmore Park. Call it the proverbial hole in the head! Only last week it was revealed that the cost of this absurd public artwork had blown out from $3.5 million to a staggering $11.8 million.

Regardless of its aesthetic appeal it’s a shocking waste of public money, especially when there are so many more important issues for the cashed up City Of Sydney Council to address. Already a number of Councillors opposed to the construction have indicated that the money would be much better spent elsewhere. Labor’s Linda Scott suggests it “will inevitably mean cuts in residents’ services, less green spaces, fewer affordable housing places and delays in new city infrastructure”.

And what of the Arch’s actual green credentials. It would take a shitload of concrete to erect this monster and we all know how concrete rates when it comes to the amount of carbon emissions involved in its process. Maybe the plan is to build the ghostly structure out of recycled pizza boxes and even then the demand for such could easily lead to an increase in obesity.

Last week I touched on the Council’s obsession with the ‘big picture’, often in the name of attracting tourists from overseas and putting Sydney on the international map. Whilst it will no doubt make a good photo opp, it still reeks of a kind of North Korean, neo-Stalinist monumentalism. Maybe our civic leaders could concentrate more on leaving behind a vibrant and bustling metropolis, accessible to all socio economic groups, than something you would find in Pyongyang.

I was surprised to see so many CBD shop keepers and business leaders welcome the announcement of the Arch – the same people suffering the collateral damage of the incredibly drawn out light rail construction. Well, when it comes to disruption, they ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until a whole city block is demolished to make way for a vast concrete wasteland (i.e. the City Square). I would be lodging my compensation claim now.

And has anybody questioned the safety aspects of such a large structure smack dab in the middle of Sydney. The ‘tapeworm’ will have to be under 24-hour surveillance with costly security guards to stop louts, adventurous young children, pole sitters and other thrill seekers from attempting to scale its lofty heights.

Then there’s the very problematic matter of its aero-dynamic integrity. The new Sydney square could easily become a turbulent wind swept zone and one good puff could see the ‘worm’ go crashing in any direction. If it fell to the South West it could easily wipe out the Town Hall, possibly when the Council was actually sitting. Likewise if it crashed in the direction of the Queen Victoria Building it would take out the bronze statue of Queen Victoria and her enormous baggy dress – which admittedly might not be such a bad thing.

I suspect it would be just my luck to be browsing one lunchtime in the nearby Kinokuniya bookshop when the horrendous ‘wiggly woo’ (yes another name for The Cloud Arch) fell in that direction, burying me and a host of other innocent shoppers under tonnes of rubble and coffee table books. What a way to go!

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