I've just been reading a number of articles at www.smh.com.au about how proposed freeways and associated feeder roads will carve huge swathes across Sydney's suburbs as planners try to work out how to make the city work, especially with the projected rises in Sydney's population over the next few decades.
Here's a secret that only a few of us know about.
NSW does not stand for Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong!
In fact the best lifestyles are found in the 97% of NSW that is outside of the Sydney basin.
Nobody HAS to live in Sydney.
Out here in the country we have clean air, clean water, cheaper housing, acres and acres of wide empty spaces for the kids to grow up in and low crime rates. Add to that genuine community and most of the facilities people look for in the city, and it's an unbeatable lifestyle.
Sure you can't get everything in a town like Narrabri, but think about it. The occasions when you have to travel to a bigger centre are more than made up for by the time you save by not sitting in peak hour traffic or on trains.
The corporate ladders are a lot shorter here, but people with the skills to succeed in the big cities will also succeed in the smaller places, with a better lifestyle and a longer life.
I really don't know why anyone chooses to live in Sydney to be honest. Maybe it's because they've always lived there and can't imagine any other way of life. Poor deluded souls!
The solution to Sydney's woes is pretty simple really.
Move to the country.
:up:. You hit the nail on the head there. I lived in a small city for 29 years and one of the most stressful things was moving out because it was all I knew. Now that I've experienced life in smaller towns I wish I was raised in one. Where there's a concentration of people, there's a concentration of problems (noise, blight, pollution, crime, on and on).Take money out of the equation and cities are not self-sustaining.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!Like you I spent most of my early life in cities- Wolverhampton in England then Sydney. But I could never go back.Narrabri is a town of about 7,000 blessed with beautiful surroundings. We have everything that people need and if you really need to be somewhere else there are two flights and a train each day. We don't have any of those problems you mention.I love it!
ReplyDeleteThat's actually almost like a separate small city... it's all right if you work locally like you do, but once you start commuting to the CBD like a lot of people, life is a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteGive me the northern beaches any day... :P
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