Love our Streets West Hobart: A Community Connect Project

Hi Everyone, thanks for your great work. Just noticed a dead street tree in the central planting between 9 and 12 Landsdowne Crescent. The others in the row have not done much for ten years or so. ( Not sure of the species...hornbeams?) Perhaps council could try a different species to replace the dead one? Thanks from Nicole

I agree wholeheartedly with Nicole when it comes to spraying Glyphosate in Pine Street. It's a horrible exercise that's been going on in our street for way too long and seriously unnecessary.

I would also like to add to the previous comments on planting more trees to improve the street scape but please can some thought go into the size of the trees that get planted. A walk down Brisbane St with the massive Plane Trees shows the on going damage done to the gutters, footpath and road by these trees. They are superb trees in a parkland but not in a narrow street with only a narrow footpath to plant then in. The other consideration is the shading these very tall trees give to any resident considering installing solar panels. I love trees but the council needs to be more selective with the height and width of the trees they plant.

Ramp the pedestrian crossings at the lights on molle and goulburn st. Parents and prams go sideways and wheels chairs just wouldn't even attempt. I have called the HCC about this twice but obviously I'll need to do a lot more since reading other people's comments.
Fence the the park on this same corner to the footpath. Make the most of the space for families to play safely.

Cheers

1. Free movie in the park (or a school, hall, etc) night. Encourage people to walk or ride and get a discounted coffee
2. Senior citizen walking groups based out of a local cafe - reduce elderly people’s isolation and improves bone and general health. If you have other walking groups (see next) make sure the groups all mix to encourage mixing of ages and community cohesion
3. History (or other themes e.g. architecture) walks to get to know our suburb better. Or simply some maps of walking routes with places of interest highlighted. A good map of entry and exit points for Knocklofty would also be good (apologies if there already is one I couldn’t find it).
4. Night of neighbourhood street parties. Nominate a night a year when residents are encouraged to hold street parties. Can even have awards for some sort of theme so that people from other streets walk to see neighbouring streets to “eyeball the competition” (and join in their parties and getting to know more people too).
5. Encourage street art by local and visiting artists.
6. Communal veggie plots including on streets.
7. Traffic calming elements, better kept footpaths (including gutter ramps so elderly and wheelchairs can use them more easily) and more bike paths and bike racks - it’s easier to talk to each other when we aren’t in cars!

Fantastic initiative and we have loved our first year in West Hobart.
We loved the feel of the suburb in particular for the evening of Halloween and Christmas Carols on the Landsdowne oval.
How about filling in the winter months with a fireworks display in the May/June period on the oval?

Planting bee corridors, fruit swaps, fence libraries with location maps, tree-planting in the centre of wide enough streets.

Lots of dog owners in West Hobart who enjoy the Landsdowne oval, very social so maybe build on this, dog day walk around West Hobart finishing at oval for dog's breakfast

Thanks so much for the sunflower seeds!
I've planted them along my front fence and when they've grown tall and large enough, we've drawn smiley faces in the seeds, so they grin at you as you walk by.
The kids from Lansdowne Crescent Primary (and their parents!) stop to talk to them as they walk past!!

To encourage walking you need a safe, clean and level place to actually do the walking.

Have you been to West Hobart? Have you seen the footpaths? Especially after the NBN crew have been through?

Maybe fix the footpaths first - make it safe first - then we can talk about walking.

As relatively new residents, it would be great to have access to a newsletter about the suburb - facilities, local interest groups, what's happening; a platform for initiating local activities/clubs/sharing resources. eg garden club, music group, walking group.

A map of local walks, including historical, social, environmental points of interest.

An annual day of open gardens/houses - could be a fund-raiser for local facilities/activities.

Dear Aisha and Amanda,

Thanks for this opportunity to comment. I'm afraid walking has been curtailed in West Hobart for the last couple of days, since I saw council workers spraying the footpaths, gutters and grassed islands in Pine Street with large amounts of glyphosate. Pine Street is not over-run with environmental weeds, and to direct large jets of herbicide toward a single 3 cm wide dandelion on the footpath in front of my house seems excessive. Also, the colouring agent used was totally inadequate: it was only by close inspection that I could detect the faintest hint of blue - and as we get no warning of where has been sprayed, or when, it is perfectly feasible that my neighbours have walked their children and their dogs through considerable quantities of fresh, wet glyphosate. As you are no doubt aware, the EU is currently in the process of trying to ban glyphosate use, as it is 'probably' carcinogenic; even in extremely low doses is toxic to aquatic life, and, as Monsanto has been forced to admit in a French court, has a residual time frame of much longer than two days, meaning they mislead their consumers. Alternatives to glyphosate are available: steam weeding, and a totally organic herbicide called 'Slash'. If additional expense of these methods is considered prohibitive, I suggest council workers be trained to only spray when necessary. If the council is serious about encouraging the residents of West Hobart to enjoy walking the streets and parks with their children, their grandchildren and their dogs, may I please ask that they do us the kindness of employing non-toxic alternatives to glyphosate. Thankyou and regards, Nicole

verge boxed vegetable gardens on wide footpaths for community gardening as well as allocating vacant land for community gardening and gatherings. Musicians in the parks.

Thanks for your great work. A wonderful idea to slow down traffic and get more people walking would be to plant more leafy, shady-canopied street trees along Hill street, Harrington and Murray streets, Melville street, Patrick street, along Landsdowne crescent, and in the 'bald patch' roundabout in front of the post office. Then, once the trees are growing, ask kids to spread the seeds of pretty, hardy, flowering annuals in the gravel at the base of the trees. It's much easier to walk through streets that are pleasantly green in the summer.

The majority of (really simple) ways to enhance walkability are already within the Council's ability to control, yet I've discovered they resist you at ever step and drag their feet (puns intended).
For 15 years I've been trying to get the Council to improve walkability around West Hobart.
Poorly maintained footpaths are the biggest issue. It took 10 years of relentless letter writing just to get a stretch of crumbling, frost prone footpath on Bathurst Street repaved. In the end, it was only due to the grateful assistance of Alderman Anna Reynolds that got it over the line. Now we have lots more people using that section of footpath.
Another major issue is overgrown vegetation that blocks footpaths. The by-laws state that private vegetation is to be removed within 14 days, yet the Council allows property owners 3 warnings spread over 3 weeks each. Even then, it can take several more months before anything is done. Plus, Council can remove vegetation from their verges anytime they want. Yet there are patches I've told them about that remain untouched years later.
I ask you, would a bush be left blocking a road car lane for several months before anything was done about it?
Another issue is traffic calming for speeding cars. I had a study conducted on Cavell Street and there were two instances of excessive speed in a 50kph zone - 83kph and a whopping 118kph! Yet will the Council install traffic calming measures? No! I have to organise a petition with no guarantees it'll do any good.
I've also told them how I was nearly run over twice in one day at the dangerous intersection of Molle & Collins Street by drivers who ignore the give way to pedestrian rule. I suggested reducing the speed limit and installing give way to pedestrian signs but was told it would add to "visual clutter in the city". Heaven forbid you'd want to install messy safety signs!
To improve walkability, all the Council needs to do is maintain footpaths, clear vegetation in a timely manner, and install appropriate traffic calming measures & signage.

It would be fantastic if one of the local businesses could commission some of 'Jamin's' wonderful art. He tells me he lived here for 20 years! http://www.jamin.com.au/

If the footpaths were in better condition walking would be more appealing to more people. The paths are uneven, badly patched where they have been dug up by assorted utilities providers, and a real risk to anyone with less than 100% flexibility, balance and mobility. The vegetation (both council and private) that encroaches on the footpath space can make walking uncomfortable on a wet day and well nigh impossible in places when carrying an umbrella.

I would like to create a communal food patch outside my house in Allison Street.

lot's of ideas simmering away Amanda!...this is a fabulous initiative!
Will calm my excitement enough to gather my thoughts and be in touch again soon! ❤️