ARE WE AT THE TIPPING POINT FOR CLIMATE ACTION?

Are we at the tipping point for action on the climate emergency?

Are we at the tipping point for climate action? In 2016, when we started our campaign calling on the Australian parliament to declare a climate emergency, we had no idea how far and how fast the idea would spread. Within a year we had the support of 20,000 individuals and 55 groups. Scientists, journalists and politicians from across the political spectrum had spoken out. In 2017, Darebin Council became the first council in the world to declare a climate emergency. They wrote a Climate Emergency Plan and in 2018 held a Climate Emergency Conference. The Climate Mobilization in the United States and the Extinction Rebellion campaign in the United Kingdom have been putting pressure on local municipalities to follow in Darebin's footsteps and they are making fast progress. Recently, London became the third city in the UK to declare a Climate Emergency, after Bristol and Manchester, with Totnes and Stroud following soon after. The London emergency transition program will include retrofitting buildings, creating a national electricity system that runs without creating greenhouse gas emissions, and electrifying the transportation system. There are now 21 councils and cities that have declared a climate emergency and eight of these declarations were in the last  two weeks! In the United States, The Climate Mobilization succeeded in having emergency climate action and a World War two-scale mobilisation written into the platform of the Democratic Party. Newly elected Democrats including  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (in the picture) are pushing hard for a Green New Deal. Please donate In mid 2018, we launched a booklet, 'Don't mention the emergency?' and we have now distributed over 1000 copies to politicians, scientists, journalists and community campaigners. It explains how to talk about the climate science and the need for emergency action in ways that move people to take action.   Campaigns all around the world are using the online version and we are starting to hear more use of emergency language from leaders and commentators. The picture below shows school students delivering a copy to local Labor candidate Kate Thwaites. We need your help to print more booklets in time to distribute them to politicians and opinion leaders before the federal election in 2019. Please donate here to help the emergency message reach more of those who need to hear it. We need $3000 to print another 700 copies. Listen to the author of the booklet, Jane Morton, explain our need for your help here. School Strike for Climate One person can make a difference. In August 2018, 15 year old Greta Thunberg (pictured below) began a school strike calling on the Swedish Parliament for emergency climate action. She says, "I have Asperger's syndrome, and to me, almost everything is black or white. I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange. They keep saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all. And yet they just carry on like before. If the emissions have to stop then we must stop the emissions. To me, that is black or white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilization or we don’t. We have to change." Within months school students in many countries around the world were following Greta's example. In Australia, tens of thousands of school students took to the streets on 30 November, defying Prime Minister Scott Morrison's call for"more learning in schools and less activism". What an amazing and uplifting sight it was to see students out in force. Students fully understand how serious the problem is and that time is running out to preserve a safe climate. The students' strike, and its widespread media coverage, has been a great morale boost for climate activists. It has put the climate emergency front and centre of the coming Australian federal election. The Extinction Rebellion is spreading While school students are striking, their parents and grandparents are signing up to risk arrest as part of the Extinction Rebellion (XR). This movement recognises the climate emergency as an existential threat to humans as well as vulnerable ecosystems. Even if all nations honour their Paris emissions reduction commitments, we are still on track for three to five degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century, and at those temperatures, most people on earth would die. That's why we need to "rebel for life". On 31 October, Greta Thunberg and journalist, George Monbiot were in London with thousands of campaigners calling on the UK parliament to declare a climate emergency. When the government failed to act by the deadline, the Extinction Rebellion began a series of escalating acts of disruptive civil disobedience, commencing with a protest that closed down much of the centre of London for several hours on 17 November. They have also staged sit-ins at the BBC and government offices and glued their hands to office windows to put pressure on the government to act. They have the support of hundreds of eminent people including a former archbishop. There are over 35 countries working on launching their own rebellions in mid-April 2019. If you would like updates from the international campaign, sign up here. If you are interested in being part of the Australian rebellion, sign up here. New data base We hope you like our new format newsletter and are happy to continue receiving occasional updates from the Australian campaign to declare a climate emergency. If you received this after unsubscribing, our very sincere apologies. We have recently consolidated a number of Excel spreadsheets into this Action Network data base. From now on we will be able to keep better track of those who subscribe and unsubscribe.

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UNIT 1 AT 12 MURPHY GROVE, PRESTON, VIC 3072, OWNED BY VICTORIAN STATE GOVERNMENT

We  discovered that Unit 1 at 12 Murphy Grove, Preston, Vic 3072, belonged to the Department of Health and Human Services of the Victorian State government some time after we had bought unit 2 and moved into it in February 2001.

Unit 1 is what is called transitional housing which we are given to understand is so that the tenants who are placed there are in some sort of emergency situation and are to be in this transitional housing unit for a limited period of time, until more suitable accommodation can be found for them.

The property is supposed to be managed by an organisation called Loddon Mallee Housing Services, trading as Haven; Home, Safe whose address is 52-56 Mary Street, Preston, Vic 3072, phone number 03 9479 0731.

At the moment, 19 September 2017, the Tenancy and Property Manager is Susan Hallorina. (email: susan.hallorina@hhs.org.au and web address http://www.havenhomesafe.org.au)

The two units are what I believe are called villa units and unit 1 is the front one and faces onto the street, Murphy Grove.

This has had, as far as we can make out, 13 different tenants or groups of tenants, with differing numbers of people each time, some being adults only, some being women with children who have been in situations of domestic violence, some have been migrants and some whose circumstances we have not been able to find any details about.

The tenants who have lived there have been good, bad, and impossible, and the reason that I am writing this blog is that the current tenants fall into the impossible category.

I notice that in the web pages of Haven; Home, Safe, there is no mention of how this organisation explores the needs of the neighbours of the housing they manage, so that people like us seem to have no recourse to the people who are thrust upon us and we have no support.

My only recourse is to publicly expose the ugly side of what is happening to us at the moment and hope that some organisation acts on this mess and helps to calm our situation down somewhat.

Don't hold your breath!

Attached hereto are some illustrative photos with more to come when possible.

It should also be noted that the people in unit 1 seem to be in possession of 3 cars.

Notices at the entrance to 12 Murphy Grove and outside unit 2 about No Parking in the driveway seem to have been not noticed by the tenants of unit 1 until at least two complaints were made to the organisation supposedly looking after unit 1. There is still the occasional vehicle parked in the driveway.

Darebin Council do not seem to have been in any hurry to get the residents of unit 1 to remove this junk from the pavement outside 12 Murphy Grove.

PRESTON MARKET PROPOSED REDEVELOPMENT - OBJECTION SUBMISSION TO COUNCIL

TO:

STATUTORY PLANNING UNIT

Darebin City Council,

PO Box 91

Preston

Vic 3072

FROM:

E. J. De Saxe

2/12 Murphy Grove

Preston

Vic 3072

Postal Address:

PO Box 1675

Preston South

Vic 3072

25 JANUARY 2017

SUBMISSION: OBJECTIONS TO REDEVELOPMENT OF PRESTON MARKET AND PRECINCTS PROPOSALS

OBJECTIONS BASED ON OVER-DEVELOPMENT OF PRESTON MARKET PRECINCT AND THE POSSIBLE OBLITERATION OF THE MARKET WITH NEW SHOPS AND SHOPPING AREAS IN THE HIGH RISES PROPOSED.

1)      Murray Road is one of the keys to the objection because as it runs through the north of the proposed redevelopment of Preston Market and precincts, the road has two bus routes and boom gates just adjacent to the Market parking area.

The road has two traffic lanes in each direction, one lane of each in each direction has parking available at certain times of the day, limiting the narrow Murray Road in the vicinity of the proposed development into a one-lane each way roadway.

The proposed residential towers, if approved, will apparently contain 300 dwellings.

2)      High rises are the latest answer to the Victorian state government’s attempts to contain urban sprawl which is growing rapidly as Melbourne’s population growth is rapidly increasing. To place such high rise buildings as proposed by the developers would be totally out of keeping with the suburban precincts of Preston areas. Darebin Council has planning regulations which are allowing subdivisions in many parts of the suburb because of the state government’s demand to councils to increase population density to reduce/stop urban sprawl.

3)      If this development is allowed to proceed, Preston Market will be completely hemmed in by the high rise buildings on its north and west. How long before similar developments will then be approved in High Street and Gower Street. If this occurs, then in the years to come, this mass of overdevelopment will end up in the same situation as high rises in Flemington, Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and other urban and suburban areas. Docklands comes to mind.

4)      The amenities provided at the moment by Preston Market will be materially altered if the proposed upgrading of the Market itself proceeds and increases in rents and supplies at the Market will increase to keep pace with the “gentrification” of the precinct.

5)      Preston Market itself needs some upgrading and modernisation, but not at the expense of stallholders being priced out of the Market because they can’t afford the new rents and because they possibly won’t have the customers to support them. Raising prices may well mean losing existing customers, but they may not be left with any choice.

6)      Preston Market is enclosed by four main roads which are narrow and carry vast amounts of traffic. Murray Road is a main east-west link and carries two bus routes – 903 and 527. High Street is a main north-south link running virtually from Gertrude Street in Fitzroy northwards along Smith Street, Queen’s Parade and becoming High Street at the southern most end of Northcote, travelling northwards through and beyond Reservoir. Gower Street is also an east-west link which carries traffic from the industrial and commercial businesses around Chifley Drive near Darebin Creek on the east side of Preston and going west into West Preston. Traffic is already a serious problem on all these roads, exacerbated by the fact that there are level crossings on Murray Road and Gower Street.

7)      If this development is allowed to proceed because approval is given by Darebin Council, does this mean that anywhere in Preston,  residential areas will be able to be rezoned to allow for high rise buildings such as those being considered around Preston Market?

8)      With the traffic along Murray Road already choking the road as an east-west link, motorists are taking short cuts through other quiet suburban roads running off Murray Road, such as our short street, Murphy Grove, where motorists escape Murray Road and use the short cut to Wood Street and also Tyler Street. Does this mean that what the real estate agents are saying about Preston that we are now inner city being only approximately 10 km from the Melbourne CBD?

9)      Preston infrastructure is early 20^th century in many areas, road width included, so services such as water, gas, electricity, communications – are all out of date. With the proposed development around Preston Market, how will services such as fire and ambulance cope in an emergency? They are already finding difficulties in these areas because of the roads and hydrants and other similar services, so it would seem that disasters on a major scale become possibilities if there is a fire, for instance in a high rise such as a 14 storey building.

10)  Darebin Council is proudly displaying a banner outside their premises at the corner of High Street and Gower Street stating:

                                 “We love Preston Market”

Darebin Council cannot love Preston Market if they even contemplate allowing such a gross overdevelopment to be given the green light for the Preston Market precinct.

Melbourne – the most liveable city in the world – is on the way out. Melbourne and suburbia will become the slum capital unless these high rise proposals are stopped before they can be developed.

Mannie De Saxe

PRESTON MARKET, DAREBIN COUNCIL, DEVELOPERS

This seems to be a good place to start.

Preston Market has been on the developers' cards for many years. Plans have been submitted to Darebin Council and some, lately, seem to have been ready to be approved with some modifications.

However, as the article below indicates, Council is now considering allowing three high rise buildings to be built in the Market precinct and it seems there is no consideration or understanding of the infrastructure problems concerning the proposed development.

We have examined the plans at Darebin Council's planning department and they reveal horror upon horror of disasters awaiting the whole area at and around the Market.

The Council has erected a sign outside its buildings at the corner of High Street and Gower Street, Preston, and we are now trying to work out what the Council loves about the Market if they are now even prepared to consider the plans submitted to them by the developer who owns so much of the area on which the Market stands.

The following article is from the Preston Leader:

Three apartment towers on Murray Rd revealed as part of Preston Market revamp plans

1 December 2016

Madeleine Brennan

Preston Market concept shots — the residential buildings.

THIS is the new face of Murray Rd if a planning proposal by the owners of Preston Market goes ahead.

The artist impressions, provided to the Leader, have also been shown to market visitors over the past couple of weeks as part of the owner’s push to allay community concerns over the future of the popular site.

MARKET BUILDINGS SAFE UNDER $4M REVAMP
 
It shows three separate apartment towers, each of different design, which will have prime access to the market and retail outlets underneath.

The existing footprint of the fresh food market will not be impacted, although Aldi would be demolished to make more room for parking and moved to the new retail space. The Hood building would also be demolished to make way for parking.

TRADERS FACE BOOT AT PRESTON MARKET
 
An amended proposal was submitted to Darebin Council on Friday, which the owners said was to meet the State Government’s new design standards on providing more natural light. Salta Properties managing director Sam Tarascio said the proposal set “a new standard” for development in Darebin.

“It has been designed by leading architects, Breathe Architecture, who delivered The Commons in Brunswick, and NH Architecture, and will be well connected to the market,” Mr Tarascio said.

The mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments would be larger than many others in the area to appeal to owner occupiers, he said. Communal gardens and a basketball court feature in the proposed design.

The owners could not confirm exact parking numbers, but said it would be an increase on what is available now. Parking for market shoppers and residents will be separate.

However, not all apartments will be sold with a car space, because of the proximity to a variety of public transport options.

The public will have the opportunity to comment on the plans as part of normal planning processes.

This article in the Preston Leader of 17 JANUARY 2017 continues the story and advises when objections must be submitted to Council:

" ......., objectors to the 14-storey development planned for above Preston Market have until 25 JANUARY to lodge their disapproval.

The planning permit application for the 170-dwelling development is on display at Darebin Council's statutory planning unit, on the first floor at 274 Gower Street, Preston from 8.45am to 4.45pm. Monday to Friday.

People objecting must send a submission to Darebin Council, including the reasons for their objections." 

And people will assuredly object to not only the 14-storey development, but the two 10-storey developments as well!

SAVE PRESTON MARKET - STOP DAREBIN COUNCIL AND THE MARKET OWNERS FROM RUINING THE AREA!

Attached are two flyers dealing with immediate action required to stop the vandals from destroying Preston Market.

Join People For Preston Market

Darebin Council's behaviour in respect to the Market's future has been nothing less than a disaster for Preston.

Because no decisions have been made about the future of the area and because Darebin Council is so secretive about its planning decisions, it is necessary to ensure that the Council elections due to take place in October 2016 ensure that different councillors are elected who do not belong to the major parties which are uncooperative, unhelpful and ensure that no residents get positive help from the Council over problematic planning decisions.

We would urge as many people as possible to attend the two meetings and demonstrations planned in order to show our displeasure at the way the Market owners and Darebin Council have handled the public over the Market's future.

email: peopleforprestonmarket@gmail.com

The banner below was made for the "Photo Bomb" - photoshoot at Preston Market at midday on Saturday 17 September 2016.

We estimate that about 50 people were present for the above demo outside one entrance to the Market.

The next two photos were taken with the above banner being used to draw people's attention to the problems being confronted by the stallholders and those of us who are regulars at the Market.

Poster by Kendall Lovett, photos by Mannie De Saxe and Marian De Saxe at Preston Market photo shoot on 17 SEPTEMBER 2016.

• From The Age 31 August  2016

Preston Market revamp to start in October

• Simon Johanson

The owners of the Preston Market will move ahead with a $4 million revamp of its popular food halls despite opposition from local residents and traders.
Salta Properties and Medich Corporation, who jointly own the 45-year-old fresh food market, will begin work on upgrading the fruit, vegetable, meat, poultry and fish halls in October.

An artist's impression of the upgrades to Preston Market. Photo: Supplied

The upgrade is the first stage of a planned $550 million makeover of the thriving, multicultural market that includes plans for 1500 homes in towers up to 28 storeys high.

The project's controversial second and third stages, which include multi-storey car parks and high-rise buildings, have stalled in the planning process after they were rejected by the local council.

Salta's director Sam Tarascio said the market had remained largely untouched since the 1970s and was due for an upgrade.

"A key focus of the works is the introduction of a range of environmental and sustainability initiatives," he said.

They include solar panels on the roof, onsite waste treatment, recycling improvements, smart building technologies, a children's play area and expansion of the Preston Artist Market, dubbed PAM Lane.

Manny Spiteri, a leasing advocate representing the market's 150 traders, described the work as a " facelift to placate the council".

Mr Spiteri said the market's owners had failed to properly consult with market traders.

"You're the first one to tell us. Wouldn't you think they would consult the traders?" he said. "We don't know when it's going to happen, how it's going to happen."

The market's owners face stiff opposition from local residents, with a push by Darebin Progress Association for a public meeting to voice concerns.

"We don't want it sanitised. We want the amenity of the market, it's multicultural aspects preserved," organisation secretary Marion Harper said. "It's a cultural hub. It's a way of life that's disappearing."

Passionate shoppers, protective of Melbourne's old-style traditional undercover markets, have levelled similar criticism at the City of Melbourne's multi-million dollar makeover of the Queen Victoria Market.
Mr Tarascio said traders knew the changes were coming and would be briefed next week.

The Preston Market will remain open while it undergoes the revamp which has been designed by NH Architecture and Breathe Architecture, he said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Leader newspapers:

Manny Spiteri, who is advocating for stallholders, says traders at Preston Market are at ‘breaking point’. Picture: David Smith

Preston Market traders forced to close as $4m million ’facelift’ begins

Harrison Tippet, Preston Leader

5 SEPTEMBER 2016 

AT LEAST three Preston Market traders have been given marching orders, while others have been put on month-by-month contracts in the face of a $4 million “facelift” of the site.

Preston Market Developments, a partnership between Salta Properties and Medich Corporation, last week announced it would spend more than $4 million on a market revamp.

The makeover would add 60 retail jobs and include upgrades to the Fruit and Vegetable block and Meat, Poultry and Fish Hall, new children’s play spaces and sustainability improvements.

Works are to begin next month.

But Preston Leader discovered at least three traders had been issued with notices of lease terminations ahead of the planned works, while one had started legal proceedings against the owners.

Leader spoke to stallholders at the market who revealed some had been issued with notices of termination, while others were on month-by-month ‘holding over’ lease arrangements.

Artists impression of how Preston Market will look following its $4 million revamp. Picture: Supplied

Salta Properties managing director Sam Tarascio last week said he was “not in a position to discuss commercial in confidence matters regarding individual traders”.

Enzo Seconnino, who has run Patricia Fabrics at the market for more than 40 years, said he received a notice of termination, and would be forced to close his shop for the final time on September 12.

“It’s not a very nice way to go, you’d think that after so many years I’d be part of the fabric of the market,” he said.

Mr Seconnino said the owners had suggested they would relocate him, but had so far given him nothing in writing.

PEOPLE FOR PRESTON MARKET PUT NEW VISION ON TABLE
Preston Market Traders advocate Manny Spiteri said the renewal works were “a facelift” to placate traders who were at “breaking point”, fearing their tenancies could be terminated.

Mr Spiteri claimed four stallholders’ leases had been terminated, with two stallholders launching legal action against the owners and about eight considering legal action.

Darebin Progress Association spokeswoman Marion Harper said local community groups are working to form a Save Preston Market group, and were planning a community meeting.

The $4 million revamp is the first stage of a planned $550 million redevelopment of the market.

Darebin Council has twice rejected planning scheme amendments, including one which would have paved the way for a 28-storey apartment tower on the site.

Mr Tarascio last week could not guarantee stallholders would not lose their jobs as part of the $550 million redevelopment.

“Like any retail project, we continue to work closely with the traders regarding any new leases and this is ongoing at Preston Market,” Mr Tarascio said.

MARKET LAUNCHES NEW ARTS PRECINCT

“As with all markets, stall holders do change from time to time.”

He said the upgrades would be done to the include the installation of solar panels, on-site waste treatment.

The $4 million Preston Market revamp will include:

— Sustainability improvements, including solar panels, on-site waste treatment, recycling improvements and new technologies that will reduce the carbon footprint of the market.

— Upgrades to existing buildings and public spaces, including kids play areas and landscaping
— Works to provide space for more artists and designers at PAM Lane.

— General enhancements, including parent rooms, public walkways, a new customer service centre and improved public amenities.

DAREBIN COUNCIL, SEXUAL MINORITIES, IDAHO

In 2001 we moved from New South Wales to Victoria after buying a house in Preston, in the Darebin Council area in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

For a few years before moving to Melbourne we had been involved with a group we had been part of since its inception, InterSection, formed after Christine Bird had been commissioned by Sutherland Shire Council to investigate issues dealing with sexual minorities in that Council area.

InterSection led us on to investigations of homophobia in local government councils around New South Wales, and correspondence between our group and many of the councils resulted in some interesting conclusions and outcomes.

Conclusions were that most councils weren't even interesting in responding to enquiries about homophobia and sexual minorities in their areas, and a few councils responded positively and provided information as to how they were dealing with issues of discrimination, abuse, bullying and related issues.

The outcome was that the New South Wales government of the time - during the 1990s - rewrote the mandatory requirements of local governments to include sexual minorities as a special group with other groups such as ethnic minorities, Aboriginal requirements, disability groups and similar minority groups in our society.

When we arrived in Preston in 2001 we discovered that Darebin Council had been involved in a survey relating to ageing and other issues within the Council's area.

We wrote to the Council person who had been the signatory to a report and the feedback we obtained at the time seemed to promise progress that Darebin Council would address the issue of sexual minority problems within the Council area.

Over the years we have made several attempts to urge the Council to address various issues relating to sexual minorities, all to no avail.

For the first time, in 2011, after the Council election process had been changed by the Victorian Electoral Commission, and Darebin residents were able to elect other than the dominant ruling party to the Council, Darebin Council suddenly discovered that there was an annual international event which recognised homophobia around the world and is called IDAHO - International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and is held on 17 May each year.

Darebin Council held its first event in 2011, which involved a seminar and morning tea for people from various groups and residents in the Council area to get together and suggest ways forward to address the many problems confronting the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and HIV (GLTH) members of the community in Darebin.

Some months later Council asked interested groups and individuals to contact Council with a view to setting up a committee to investigate and deal with issues in the GLTH communities.

In 2012 Darebin Council is holding a follow-up IDAHO to recognise the day and is having various events for the day.

Now it is possible to give Darebin Council some credit for acting at last on homophobia and related problems, but we, as InterSection and as Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, have been using whatever means were at our disposal to get some movement on these issues tears ago, to no avail.

We set up web pages to document progress - or otherwise - and what we see now is that Darebin Council, in keeping with so many other organisations, is re-inventing the wheel.

Our web pages are at InterSection, but the Darebin-specific pages commence at InterSection Part 4 and succeeding parts of the InterSection web pages.

Two issues with which we have been heavily involved in recent years relate to GLTH ageing and GLTH listings in Darebin libraries for young people discovering their sexuality and for older people who may still be living in the closet for fear of the consequences of being known to the public as "dykes", "poofters", "trannies" and other terms unacceptable to many people.

It is by now well known how the federal government outed people with changes to legislation on 1 July 2009 when many people were exposed after lifetimes of abuse from the community at large and over which the federal government ignored requests from us to grandfather certain of the clauses which were seen to be most harmful to us all. The homophobic members of the federal parliament - most of them, it seems - including the member for Batman, which covers most of the Darebin Council area, ignored our requests, but managed to grandfather other clauses of dramatic natures which they were busy introducing - increasing the ages before people would be able to receive pensions!

We are yet to see who the members of this committee are and what their connections are to the GLTH members of the community.

We are hoping it won't be another case of the farcical Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) inquiry into homophobia, discrimination, bullying and other GLTH issues faced by Jewish members of the community. JCCV received 5 submissions and the members of the committee were demanding secrecy of their identities which were only revealed on publication of the report. Since that date, all trace of any progress for the Jewish GLTH members of the community have vanished altogether.