The joys of Canberra, ACT, Australia
I’ve joined the Australian Blogs Community at BumpZee and added the sidebar widget to help spread the link love.
Community is important - and sharing a link is one of the best things that bloggers can do to show it.
I’m not sure whether to throw the Canberra Blog Community project into the mix at BumpZee - it currently only mentions personal friends. I’d feel more comfortable having more Canberra bloggers involved prior to publicising it.
In my post on Coworking I mentioned the woeful parking situation awaiting any venture opening in Canberra’s CBD (and to a lesser extent anywhere near a major shopping precinct in the ACT). This is a real cause of pain to people like myself who are expected to appear on different client sites at different times of the day - and as someone who paid his latest parking fine yesterday it is a recent pain.
Nathanael Boehm put me onto Fair Canberra Parking - here is what they have to say:
Introduction
Parking is one of the hottest issues in Canberra at the moment. Only in the last few months has the Government finally agreed that forcing people to take public transport by not providing sufficient parking is an unacceptable option and are now apparently planning to build more car parks.
However a shortage of car parking spaces is not the only problem, and making more spaces is not going to fix all the problems. The rising cost of parking, parking rules and regulations and the high cost of parking infringements are unacceptable.
The purpose of this website is to channel our frustration with the parking situation into change. Let’s stop whinging to our co-workers and tell someone who has to care - the Government. What we propose is not unreasonable, but the recommendations are designed to fix an unreasonable system.
I believe many parking regulations are based on a lack of technology that enables the fair monitoring and administration of parking - and so the Government just applies a broad regulation and penalty system to maximise revenue rather than invest in technology that would enable a fair parking system.
It is not insignificant!
It’s not “just parking”. It’s not “just $70″.
When you spend 20 minutes in the morning trying to find a park, or when you are delayed and don’t get back to your car in time or need to park in a 15 minute zone so you don’t miss that meeting - it has an impact far greater than the $70 or so fine.
That time spent driving around looking for a park is less time you spend at work, resulting in reduced productivity. You get into work stressed before you’ve even started. And that stress is multiplied when you see that yellow envelope … because you probably didn’t deserve it!
And while the Government is rubbing it’s hands at all the money it’s pulling in … has it noticed how many Canberra residents are public servants, and that the Government is also suffering from the reduced productivity and increased levels of stress?
Yes there are other Australian cities that are worse off for parking than Canberra - and there’s nothing stopping them from taking the initiative to also stand up to their councils and local government!
What can I do?
Send us your complaints with parking in Canberra and join the petition that will accompany the recommendations we put to the Government.
I can but agree - parking is treated as a luxury by local government even in situations where public transport is unavailable. This petition gives us the opportunity to at least voice our concerns if nothing else. If you are concerned, sign it.
Fellow Canberrans Steve Collins and Nathanael Boehm are working on a Coworking space for Canberra.
The Coworking community blog describes coworking as a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.
Imagine a cross between an internet cafe and an office - for many of us, this is fairly close to what we have now. My favourite cafe (Guru in Woden) doesn’t have net access but it has the best coffee - there is always a wireless broadband access card if absolutely necessary, and there are several spots that prove useful for either offsite client chats or intra-consultancy meetings. In an average week, between clients and meetings with other consultants, I would spend 3-4 hours doing just that - drinking coffee and having discussions where the traditional office environment isn’t quite suitable. But I digress.
The Office Nomads in Seattle have the following pricing plans:
1. $450 = Unlimited use - permanent desk
2. $250 = 3-5 days/week - any available space
3. $100 = 1-2 days/week - any available space
Each plan includes network access, printing and will have an allowance for conference room time.
What does coworking have to offer bloggers? Imagine joining (or even starting) a coworking group, and having access to a desk once or twice a week for your local equivalent of a hundred dollars - I’ve worked from home, and would have paid that and more for the opportunity to get out and work where there was space and a change of scene.
If you’re a professional blogger, that day or two a week just might save your sanity - and if you are getting to the stage where you’re thinking of turning pro, chances are you could do a lot with one day a week - setting up a whole week’s worth of quality pillar posts, dedicating yourself to killing off some fiddly configuration tasks, setting up some Squidoo lenses, or researching new marketing techniques - and having the luxury of facetime with like-minded individuals.
I can see myself coworking as a blogger, and I could certainly afford the $100 or so at the moment. Who wants to join me?
Steve Collins is asking for people to join him in creating a Canberra coworking space. Here’s what Steve and a couple of other people have in mind:
Here’s what we’ve got in terms of ideas thus far:
- around 80-100 square meters
- in the CBD (as I said)
- 2-4 full-timers with space for a few more
Looking around, rent for this sort of space in the Canberra CBD looks to be in the AU$500-550/week range, on top of which there’s the ongoing costs such as:
- utilities
- Internet
- cleaning
- things to make it look nice (paint, pictures and the like) plus desks, chairs, etc. (I’m guessing that will run to around AU$10000)
If you’re at all interested in joining the conversation or helping out on getting something off the ground, please let me know on trib [at] acidlabs [dot] org.
Good luck, Steve 
The only thing I’d change would be to steer clear of the CBD. Parking availability sucks and it is only going to get worse to the tune of around 10,000 spaces by the end of this year.
I’ve worked in Woden for the last 18 months plus, so I am biased towards reviewing Woden purveyors of the noble bean. My experience is:
Does your mileage vary? If so, leave me a comment. I’ll update this post if anything changes - there is talk of a cappucinery opening in one of the new buildings down towards Scarborough.
Canberra has been, well, cold lately. It’s July, and spring is at least two months away. We live in the mountains, so you need to get used to it.
Today was one of those cold, crisp, clear mornings - I love them, and talking to my colleague Pippa (fairly newly arrived from Cambridge, England), she loves them too. Cool.
Hints for new Canberrans about the cold:
I like the seasons here - they are really in your face. Canberra Summers are hot - often 40 degrees Celsius plus hot - and Autumn has to be seen to be believed. What this means is that Winter is, well, cold. And it is OK if you can’t stand the cold - there is no shame in getting out of the freezer
Hello Canberra. My name is Andrew.
I’ve lived in Canberra most of my life. I’ve found that I know a lot about living here that might be useful to our partially transitory workforce. I know a lot of other people that know stuff too - which restaurant is hot, where to get the best coffee, which car dealers are honest (OK, just kidding about the last one, but wouldn’t it be great if there was someone that you could trust to give you this information?).
If you’ve got a favourite Canberra cafe, restaurant, book shop, car park, you name it, let me know and I’ll mention it. Or send me reviews and I’ll publish them, and hey, you could have an account here and post them yourself. Let me know at facibus AT gmail DOT com.
Cheers, Andrew Boyd
