Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The title is misleading, doesn't have that much to do with being a 'redneck paradise.' There are still a lot of rednecks in Brisbane, as well as Perth, Sydney, Melbourne. Gentrification in the inner city has little to do with the vast swathes of so-called 'rednecks' or bogans that live in the mortgage belt.
That's very interesting, funny how Brisbane got rid of its trams and the Gold Coast went to enormous cost to install it, then missed the obvious by not linking it up with the rail system.
Brisbane didn't so much "get rid of its trams" as there was an incredibly suspicious fire at a time when most of the trams just happened to be in one of the sheds.
The Gold Coast didn't miss the obvious . . . they just didn't have the money for it in the first phase (btw, regular service starts on the 20th). There's a lot of debate going on down there right now on whether or not the first extension will be to Burleigh Heads or to Helensvale.
IMO, and I've worked in transport planning for quite a few years, the tramway as it's currently set up can only support one of the extensions:
Southport, Surfers, and Broadbeach are some of the densest areas of Australia and connecting them to big trip generators like the Gold Coast Line, Griffith, Burleigh, OOL, etc is going to completely overwhelm the line.
They've reorganized the bus network around the tram so that it will replace some routes and others will feed into it.
They call it light rail, and for what they paid they should certainly have light rail, but it's not. They bought tramcars to service the line and while they're the long, articulated Flexity II trams they still only carry around 250 people at crush load and they can't be coupled together to make trains.
Because it's running mostly in the ROW of surface streets, even if they wanted to they couldn't make longer trains because then they would be so long as to block the intersections.
Because it's running mostly in the ROW of surface streets they can't run trams more than every 5 minutes or so because of how much it would disrupt traffic . . . not that they could run trams every 5 minutes if they wanted to because they don't have enough of them.
I feel like every year there's a new announcement that Brisbane has finally made it, become a "world city", caught up with Sydney and Melbourne, stopped being a "large country town" etc etc. I used to kind of buy it when I was young and naive but now I don't - unless something really drastic happens, Brisbane will always be a city to "get out" of. I don't really know if Australia can even support more than two "cool" cities.
As to the whole "redneck" thing, I'm not sure how true it is. I've lived in Brisbane all my life and I only know two or three right-wingers, and they're very much Turnbull style wet liberals. I guess I must live in some kind of left-wing bubble though, given 1 in 5 Queenslanders supporting Pauline Hanson, the Bjelke-Peterson legacy etc - though I imagine a lot of that comes from regional and rural Queensland. I'm hardly a big Brisbane booster, and I'm hoping to leave as soon as I can, but I'd argue it's problem is more that it's just hopelessly bland and boring rather than being some kind of haven for stereotypical "rednecks".
I feel like every year there's a new announcement that Brisbane has finally made it, become a "world city", caught up with Sydney and Melbourne, stopped being a "large country town" etc etc. I used to kind of buy it when I was young and naive but now I don't - unless something really drastic happens, Brisbane will always be a city to "get out" of. I don't really know if Australia can even support more than two "cool" cities.
As to the whole "redneck" thing, I'm not sure how true it is. I've lived in Brisbane all my life and I only know two or three right-wingers, and they're very much Turnbull style wet liberals. I guess I must live in some kind of left-wing bubble though, given 1 in 5 Queenslanders supporting Pauline Hanson, the Bjelke-Peterson legacy etc - though I imagine a lot of that comes from regional and rural Queensland. I'm hardly a big Brisbane booster, and I'm hoping to leave as soon as I can, but I'd argue it's problem is more that it's just hopelessly bland and boring rather than being some kind of haven for stereotypical "rednecks".
Brisbane like every other city in is what you make of it. You could be easily be bored In London after a couple of years. Brisbane will never be Sydney or Melbourne until it gets the population of Sydney or Melbourne. Though yes contrary to popular belief Brisbane has always been left leaning. Unfortunately when you live in the least centralized state in the country, you are always going to effectively governed from toowoomba or Townsville etc, especially when their is an conservative state government in place.
Brisbane like every other city in is what you make of it. You could be easily be bored In London after a couple of years. Brisbane will never be Sydney or Melbourne until it gets the population of Sydney or Melbourne. Though yes contrary to popular belief Brisbane has always been left leaning. Unfortunately when you live in the least centralized state in the country, you are always going to effectively governed from toowoomba or Townsville etc, especially when their is an conservative state government in place.
Fair enough. I guess I'm just eager to move on and see the world. It is pretty sleepy though compared to Sydney/Melbourne and I've been to smaller cities that seemed more interesting/vibrant/cultured.
That's a good summation of Queensland politics. I read a study that found that Sydney and Perth were both a lot more right wing than Brisbane, but I can't find it now.
I guess I was using politics as an example, but even in a broader sense, I don't really see Brisbane as being full of rednecks somehow. I'm not sure what other people are seeing here that I'm not.
Brisbane like every other city in is what you make of it. You could be easily be bored In London after a couple of years. Brisbane will never be Sydney or Melbourne until it gets the population of Sydney or Melbourne. Though yes contrary to popular belief Brisbane has always been left leaning. Unfortunately when you live in the least centralized state in the country, you are always going to effectively governed from toowoomba or Townsville etc, especially when their is an conservative state government in place.
The Brisbane 'mortgage' belt and most of suburbia, as well as large parts of SEQ (including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast with it's grey-haired brigade) are too conservative too.
The Brisbane 'mortgage' belt and most of suburbia, as well as large parts of SEQ (including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast with it's grey-haired brigade) are too conservative too.
Is not most of Australia's mortgage belt conservative? Most Locals living in the Brisbane area consider Brisbane to be the city of Brisbane.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 07-11-2014 at 02:58 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
