three things!

[the coffee nazi]

hey hey folks, just been having a look back over the posts for the past few months... moan whinge bitch whine wah wah wah!
i haven't been very active on here - new-ish full-time job, really working hard at making this community better. i have stacks of ideas of how i could continue to do that outside of work, and i want to share three with you... and challenge you all the share three back with me, and with the rest of the forum. three things that would make Ipswich even better than it is right now.

please fell free to be as honest and (considering some the previous posts) as inflamatory as you wish - but if you are going to complain, at least make some suggestions on how YOU could improve things.

so here goes:

1. start a farmer's market - once a month, on a weeknight. no second-hand goods (not a flea market) just a true fresh food market, preferably stocked by local suppliers. imagine strolling along, buying gorgeous fresh veggies, with some live music maybe... how cool would that be?

2. lobby council for a bike/walking path network thought the city and into surrounding suburbs. i won't go on, if you look back through my past posts you can see that this is one issue I really care about... started my own group on whereilive.com in fact, called it Ipswichians for Car Alternatives - i'm the sole member so far, but i'm hopeful!

3. speaking of car alternatives, start a strong working group to push the state govt to sort out westside buses. there was a lot of talk around the middle-ish of the company being investigated by the dept of transport after some bad press when some school kids where left on the side of the road - remember that? anyone know what happened? I WANT TO LEAVE MY CAR AT HOME!

so come on guys - new year, new beginnings. this is our home, it is our responsibility to make it great.

if anyone wants to contact me regarding sparking up any of the above - please fell free!

http://www.whereilive.com.au/groups/-4305/20060822/84/ipswichians-for-car-alternatives-(ifca)
i can't get the url code dealie to work, so there's the address to IFCA, just copy&paste into your address dealie...

[garthc]

Some good ideas there coffee nazi. However, I fear that the idea of a farmers market would be fiercely opposed by Woolies, Coles & probably Harvest Markets because it would take the trade off them even if was for only 1 day a month.

I can't comment on Westside buses because I'm 1 of those lazy bums who takes my car everywhere but I have heard heaps of negative comments about them including from my neighbours whose kids bus never arrived to take them to school on at least 2 occasions that I know of. Maybe Westside management needs to be reminded of the Daniel Morcombe case. If that bus had only stopped for him that day, that kid might still be be alive today. Council is gradually building a network of walkways around the area linking places like parks, train stations, schools etc. Later this year, they're building 1 through North Booval giving those in the area a direct walking path to Bundamba TAFE.

As for the mall & CBD, I still think the best thing to do is to turn it into some sort of concept aimed at the tourist market. We've already discussed that 1 in an earlier thread. If that was done, the CBD would have its own identity & not have to worry about competing with Riverlink as they'd both be catering for 2 vastly different markets. This will only be achieved if we can manage to get rid of the never ending negativity towards this town including from some of its residents. For them, the answer is simple: if you don't like it here, MOVE. We don't want your negative & ignorant attitudes dragging down the rest of us who just happen to like it here. I blame a lot of our problems on the major Brisbane daily paper who for some reason harbours some kind of snobbery towards Ipswich. I stopped getting this paper because I got fed up with their refusal to mention the "I" word. They'll happily use it when it comes to reporting on crime or some other negative story but otherwise when they're reporting on say, Dinmore, it's always "west of Brisbane". Even if they're writing about Gatton, it's still "west of Brisbane". Well HELLO but there's a major city in the middle called IPSWICH maybe you've never heard of it. I would like to see our local papers retaliate by referring to Brisbane & surrounds as "east of Ipswich". Lets see how long it takes before they start bitching.

Regarding comment #2, "lobby council for a bike/walking path network through the city and into surrounding suburbs." I've never liked that word lobby in cases like this. To me, "lobby" has always implied protesting or keeping on someones back until they do something. For this cause, I prefer the word CONSULT. To me that means the 2 parties working together to get a satisfactory result. If you want to start up a "consulting group" to liaise with council, you can count me in. Paul Pisasale's door is always open to anyone with ideas on how to make this town a better place.

[Steve Axe]

GarthC, I think the whole point of a farmers market is to oppose the major chains and provide quality and well priced goods(including better prices for the producer or farmer as opposed to the multinational company selling goods with an inflated mark up) , difficult to organise and keep running but a noble cause if people have the will to organise and continue it can work. But the piont is to to offer that to the communinty which has worked elsewere in Qld by the community.

It is a shallow and narrow view to think those who have criticisms and different thoughts of the future direction of the city that they should "move". As a democratic society we should all have the right to criticise whatever happens in our city whether it be derived from the Council, State or Federal Govts, business or individual citizens. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed and embraced, if it is silly stuff based on predudace than, of course, it should be treated as it should be but our overreaction to some criticism unfortunately just adds to the stereotype to many I know who live outside the Ipswich boundary.

Comparing Westsides problems to the Morcombe case is over the top, and they have been fined by the state govt for not forfilling their obligations but to compare that with that case is a bit extreme and alarmist. I have heard many stories on terrible service but nothing like what you compare or whish to associate by your comments, with their service without evidence I wight add and I'm disappionted it hasn't been moderated as other comments of other people have "without supporting information". Many aren't happy with the service but to link it to a tragic case with different circumstances should be left to A Current Affair or Today Tonight and other sensationalist programs.

Council also builds the paths you are talking about connecting booval and bundamba with State Gov 50% financial assistance and with terrible private enterprise attempts in front of the new units being slapped up with which I think you may be talking about which Council tells me they are also deeply concerned about quality of the job and many residents say is a disgrace as I have also expressed my concerns.

I agree that new proposals need to be developed for the CBD but overall planning of commercial precincts throughout the city needs to be more defined and intergrated than the current system which drives commercial delvelopment from the current CBD outwards, to which the CBD is relying on Govt Office infrastructure to support currrent business activity (ie small food & beverage suppliers, etc) rather than assisting commercial development (entertainment, retail, housing,....etc. small incremental changes in this regard are occuring but are far behind similar metrolpolitan centres throughout Qld which are experiencing similar or greater growth outside the cbd through suburban or new growth corridors) through commercially attractive business activity.

Lobbying in your opion is is a word which you associate with "protest" or other terms you feel is , mabye, confrontational, but some of your previous posts have asked to action from council and other levels of politicians which are in reality "lobbying" . It ain't an evil term and any interested citizen should "lobby" , a mild term in my book, to help make their community a better place.

Because in the end whether we agree or disagree with each other I hope that your interests are the same as others on this forum to pursue, lobby, protest, or whatever term you prefer to assist making Ipswich a better, happier and safer place for our families to enjoy.

It is a challenge that never ends as we pursue higher aims as we reach the our goals.

[the coffee nazi]

vroom vroom!

1. stick it to woolworths i say... i go out of my way (and yes, unfortunately, in the damn car) to buy my fruit & veges elsewhere. i want a local market; imagine stalls in the Riverheart parklands carpark, on a Wednesday night, once a month. there's enough street parking in the evening, and you could have incentives for people who show their bus tickets - a free carton of organic eggs, for egg-sample (pardon the pun). it could be a real event, with coffee & food vendors, live music... people come for an evening stroll in the parkland and go home with a bag full of fresh HEALTHY food. i think it would be worthwhile for the potential positive health impact alone, never mind what it could do for us as a community. imagine if you were considering moving to Ipswich (and you wanted to work here too) - would it sweeten the deal if we had a monthly farmer's market, right here in town? i reckon it would!

2. lobby/consult - it's all semantics. the last attempt i made at 'consulting' with a councillor was pretty pathetic. i got the distinct impression that this particular councillor was personally not interested in looking at car alternatives - not for himself, nor for the good folk in his Division, or the people who would ultimately be moving there (who are all these people moving to Ipswich? ask yourself!) i guess he didn't need my vote after all, so i moved out of that Division, to one where a bike path into town was on the cards. i'm looking forward to riding to work, with my small child, safe off the road sometime this year (finger's crossed). i wish everyone in the outskirts of the CBD had that opportunity - like they do in Brisbane. why do they have it in Brisbane? because the citizens demanded it, and because the council and state government know what is good for that city; it gets cars off the road, and improves people's health, and the environment, and fosters community pride and more etc etc!!!!!!! how we could even be entered into a 'most liveable city' competition without a cycle commuting network is beyond me.

3. dear garth, go google Godwin's Law, would you... i personally think the community has enough of a legitimate complaint against Westside buses, given their record. we put up with it, well, because frankly we prefer to use our cars. BUT if the entire community demanded a working bus service on behalf of those who don't have a car, or who - like me - want to leave the damn things at home - then we would get one. it's what a community does. we understand that there are people who may be less fortunate than us (are they less fortunate is they don't have a car? i personally don't think so, but thats another discussion) and because we are lucky enough to live a country with a democratic system that supports us, we help them out by advocating for a better damn bus service! don't make them sell their souls to Today Tonight! that just makes Ipswich look even more like a redneck, one-horse, no-bikepath, crap bus service town!

i need a coffee!

[garthc]

I'm not against a farmers market. I think it's a great idea. I'm just saying, knowing how the retail industry works, the Woolies & Coles of this world wont take kindly to someone cutting into their market share & these guys have million$ in the bank to fight them.

As for the Westside buses comment, sorry if it offends some people but I still think the Morcombe case should serve as a warning to all our transport companies. Surely these people have a duty of care to make sure their patrons arrive at their destination safely?. (Within reason).

I recently worked with a woman who lives in this town & constantly referred to the place as Ips#it. I asked her if she hated the place so much, why did she live here?. Her reason was that she was only living here because she couldn't be bothered moving. She never came up with any ideas on how to improve the place but was always criticizing it. It's the people like her that the comment "they should move" was aimed at.

Interesting timing about my comment re snobbery towards this town. Some of you might have seen this story in today's QT about the Gold Coast's Mayors comments about us. If you believe this guy, we're the "leftovers" of south-east Queensland migration. I don't know about the rest of you guys but I take personal offence at this comment.

http://www.qt.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3760114&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

This is exactly what I was talking about earlier. I think the only way we'll combat this problem is for the ICC to employ a full time tourism ambassador. This person could be responsible for promoting Ipswich & bringing tourists here before they hit places like Brisbane & the Gold Coast. Imagine if we had tour buses at the airport, Fisherman Island & Roma St station to bring them here first?. Not everyone comes to QLD for the beaches & theme parks. It's these people we should be encouraging here. Hopefully they'd spend all their tourist $$$ here & then not have any left to go to the Gold Coast. See how smug Ron Clarke would be then.

I think Mr Clarke is just jealous of us because we have a trophy to prove how good we are & he doesn't.

[Steve Axe]

Garth I wasn't offended by your linking a tragedy to poor bus service just thought it goes way too far. I am glad that you added 'within reason ' because at some stage parents and the wider community need to take responsibility. Far too often we place the blame on business, Government and deflect it from ourselves.

I see Ron Clarke has also apologised for his comment about "leftovers" . I am sure there are people from interstate moving to Ipswich but he has some merit in suggesting that those who move from Sydney or Melbourne for a 'sea change' are not going to move to Ipswich. Recent media reports show that they aren't just moving to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts but also other regional sea side areas like Hervey Bay, and even further to Townsvile and Cairns which are booming in their population because of jobs growth from Mining and the lifestyle living at the beach offers.

I think while we need to promote our image we also need to be mature enough to understand our limitations , what we are good at and what others are better at. Ipswich can fill some niche tourism but we can hardly say we have the infrastructure or attractions to compete with the Gold Coast. We can't be and shouldn't try to be all things to all people.

It will take sometime to adress the stigma placed on Ipswich by others and carrying on like pork chops attacking others only ads fuel to the fire of those who need enlightenment.

I was stunned by the comments by the Mayor in the articles about this storm in a tea cup about "we're not just a town of miners anymore" as they were the only ones in town when I grew up that had any money

[Ms B]

Just found this link and find it interesting.
I was one of the people who "sold my soul to Today tonight" I wasn't paid by the way although ACA wanted to. We refused because we wanted the message out there.
The problem had been occuring for over a year. The first few times we thought it was our fault, that we had sent our girls to the bus late. As the year progressed it became worse. Parents stopped sending their children on the bus due to this but didn't always have acces to a vehicle so the bus was really it for me.
Other parents had their own reasons for sending children on the bus. I was the one on several occasions when having the vehicle came back from Ipswich to find the children standing there (not mine as those particular days I had taken them to school) waiting for the bus. I stood with them and contacted parents where I could to notify them.
I would contact the school and the bus service each time.
I approached various areas of the bus service and after 6 months of being given the run around I finally approached the council, the local member, the ministers for transport and education and finally the newspaper, from there it went to tv.
We finally had a response to our problem and so far so good we have not had a bus diver fail to turn up since it went public.
I happen to like ipswich BUT if the behaviour of a company puts my child or any child in danger i will scream and shout and rattle the bars till something is done. Westside needs competition but the cost is prohibitive. several smaller companies have tried and failed.

As for farmers markets I think there is more of a chance for them now. People are more keen about sustainability and their carbon footprint so the market promoted as such would be an absolute asset to the are.

[the coffee nazi]

[kyla]

I have been reading this post quietly...I would like to applaud the intelligence and literacy of the above posters...even if I don't agree with some points, you are still the type of people I want to see in my town!

As for the new Ipswich Markets in the mall...yes, it's great that they are there, and I did ok with my little stall but for any locals wating to be a part of it the price is very restrictive. I am not sure if any of you know but the cost to have a marquee sized stall for the day is $75!!
Now, some days that is all I will make depending on the weather and peoples spending habits. I would prefer to see David Bostock reduce the price of the stall fee and encourage more locals to be a part of the markets instead of importing stallholders from his already booming Brisbane markets. Why on earth, with all those stalls, is the price more than my grocery bill for the week? Certainly council is not charging so much for use of the space that he cannot drop the price?
Isn't that what we want? Local produce and products?

And on another note...the Karalee Country Markets which has fresh produce and local handmade products is on the move...
As of February 28th they will become the Ipswich Indoor Bazaar, held at the Ipswich State High School. You can check out all the info at http://www.ipswichindoorbazaar.blogspot.com

xxxKyla