'SYDNEY SIZZLER'

I am tired of watching the Ultra-wealthy be served up our public spaces and assets on a golden platter, promising to improve them, only to make them places where they only function for profit.

I was standing in the new Wynyard station development, above six train platforms, hundreds of people rushing around me in monochromatic smart-casual outfits, but it was silent. It really unnerved me. Although I was in the beating heart of Sydney, I felt alone; if I had just evaporated into thin air, no one would notice. I realised in that moment this new development wasn’t for me, and it wasn’t for people like me. To me, the new George St development doesn’t feel like an improvement; it's just ‘chic uncanny valley’, a speciality of Merrivale.

Merrivale’s wrapped expansion has fundamentally changed the city's cultural fabric. It’s made Sydney toxic to those of a particular tax bracket to participate. Developments like these make the city more divided and feel soulless.

To control people, you must control the space they occupy. Whoever controls a space determines how it can be used and what its purpose is. The loss of public spaces to private entities changes them from places of community building and connection to places of profit. The insidious part is that they can often maintain the facade of community, but it's exclusive to those who can make the space profitable.

Our public spaces are essential, and their control should not be sacrificed to corporations. It impacts every level of our lives, from the personal to societal. They are the places where we come together, learn, build, and unite. They are places where culture can grow and develop, but when they are privately controlled, a culture of consumption replaces cultural exchange.

It halts a city's cultural development, and what is even sadder is that, these days, the government feels it needs to rely on these corporations and private interests to improve our cities. Swallowing the bullshit that these corporations will bring innovation to our towns, like oh Packers pecker another casino, now that's innovative, at least now I have a guiding compass whenever I am lost in Sydney.

I am sick of walking past a new development promising a grand future, only to find another with the same four restaurants. How many Tottis does a city need?

I am sick of seeing a city that I love get gorged on by a select few, while those who call it home fight for the crumbs left behind.