As a long-term resident and small business owner, I know the Bayside is a great place to live. I love the people, I love the environment, I love the way of life. But there’s a few things I reckon we need to really make the Bayside shine as a vibrant, connected, affordable community. And these are the things I want to fight for in council.
Let’s start with our public spaces.
One thing we need in the Bayside is more and better-funded public spaces. And not just along the foreshore. We need community hubs, parks and playgrounds all across the ward, from right along the water’s edge, to often-overlooked areas like Wynnum West and Manly West.
As councillor, I will push to revitalise the Wynnum Community Centre, with a name change to the Bayside Community Hub, turning it into a vibrant hub with better facilities, flowering and native gardens, improved lighting and usable greenspace for everyone. I reckon it can be an amazing place to host festivals, markets and all kinds of fun family events.
I want to put up signs along the Esplanade to link the thousands of visitors to the foreshore every week, up into the two main business areas of Wynnum and Manly, connecting that whole area together and making it easier for people to drop in for lunch at any of our great local businesses.
Right now, we have thousands of visitors to the foreshore, but that doesn’t translate to thousands visiting the central business areas of Wynnum and Manly. Manly CBD is easier to navigate at least, due to it’s proximity to the water, but Wynnum doesn’t have that accessibility.
I’ll advocate for at least one new park in Wynnum West, a full overhaul of Eric Shaw Park in Wynnum North and major improvements to the dog park and greenspace at Lota.
I’ll make sure all our green spaces are fit for purpose, for multi generational use.
We have parks in this ward that don’t even have water or toilet facilities - how are you supposed to take your family for a picnic there?
I reckon we need shade trees, picnic tables, free BBQs, basketball courts, bike tracks with stop signs and traffic signals, rock climbing walls, reflection gardens and ponds/water features which actively cool down spaces - everything we need to make sure that all ages can actually use these spaces.
We can build better playgrounds all across the community, accessible to everyone from all walks and wheels of life.
I have so many ideas based on the conversations our team have been having across the Bayside and as a business owner and resident.
Let’s talk about housing.
Rents in Brisbane have skyrocketed over the last couple of years, jumping by a staggering 45% since the start of 2021. And it’s only getting worse. Forecasts show rents could jump by another 30%, the fastest increase anywhere in Australia.
In a city where almost four in ten people live in rental accommodation, this means it’s harder for young people to make a start in life. It’s harder for families to settle down and find a good place to raise their kids. It’s harder for single parents or caregivers to make ends meet and it’s harder for retirees to stay in the places where they’ve lived all their lives.
It doesn’t have to be like this. If we want to see the Bayside boom, this needs to change.
Right now, the Greens have a plan to freeze rent increases across Brisbane and make it harder for big investors to sit on vacant properties. I reckon this is a good start. It’ll bring down the cost of housing in Brisbane, as well as lowering commercial rents for business owners. It’ll help out people who are struggling, and put more spending money in everyone’s pockets.
Cheap housing is vital to my vision of the Bayside. As your councillor, I’ll support the Greens’ rent freeze. And I’ll push for more public and community housing here in Wynnum-Manly - to make sure the Bayside remains a place where everyone can afford to live.
Building Bayside Business
As the Bayside grows, we need to make sure there is plenty of space for independent local businesses to thrive.
As councillor, I will establish a Small Business Concierge Service to encourage new businesses to Wynnum and Manly - helping them get set up in our shopping precincts, getting them access to grants, the paperwork required to start a business and giving them the support they need in every way possible.
The idea is to encourage businesses, or business ideas, that compliment the current retailers and foodies. Growing retail and dining precincts, is vital to a place like Wynnum and Manly to thrive and survive. Having the right mix of retail, for example, ensures there's enough incentive for people to visit on a shopping spree.
I’ve been running Little Gnome bookshop in Wynnum for over 8.5 years now, and I know how hard it can be to get started. I also know that we need a whole ecosystem of local businesses for our communities to prosper.
If you have ever wanted to start your own restaurant? A craft store? A skate shop? A bar, then this policy is for you, because I’ve done the same thing - and as your councillor, my job will be to make that as easy as possible.
But that’s not all we can do. Revitalising our public spaces will create more opportunities for local businesses to grow. We will improve transport links so the whole Bayside is better connected.
Ultimately, I’d like to see Wynnum-Manly become a destination for people all across Brisbane. With better transport, better public spaces and thriving local business districts, we could make the whole Bayside boom.
One thing I’m excited about as a Greens candidate is the opportunity to massively expand Brisbane’s bus network, making sure everyone has access to free and easy public transport.
If we’re going to build the Bayside, we need to make sure people can get around. I’m planning to improve local roads and sidewalks, making it easier for parents to drop their kids off at school. But I also want to ensure we are better connected to the rest of Brisbane.
That’s where the Brissie Bus Boost comes in. The Greens have a plan to build 15 new high frequency bus routes all across Brisbane, as well as improving a bunch of existing lines, is hitting all the right spots. In particular, we’re going to upgrade the frequency of the 220 route, which connects the CBD to Wynnum and Manly - making it way easier for Baysiders to get into the city, and for the rest of Brisbane to get out here.
I’m excited about this. It’ll help draw more people out to the Bayside, creating big opportunities for local businesses. It’ll help Baysiders to get around, with or without cars, making our community easier to live in and more affordable for everyone. And this huge boost to the bus routes will open up the whole city, transforming lives all across Brisbane.
To me, all this stuff fits together nicely - Better transport means greater connection to all of our suburbs, safer streets and roads for our kids to cross and a reliance on things other than cars! That’s the vision of the Bayside I want to fight for as your Greens councillor.
The Greens have just announced a $500 million upgrade to a bunch of bike corridors and pedestrian crossings, leading in and out of the city and around our suburbs.
The Safe Streets Program adds 7 new pedestrian crossings per ward, as well as vital infrastructure at dangerous intersections like Whites/Preston/Manly and Ernest.
Also just as exciting, is the announcement of improved and new bike lanes along important corridors like Wynnum Road - connecting our Bayside to the city in a safe way. Leave your car at home, because under the Greens, there will be free and frequent buses and dedicated bike lanes! Save on fuel, lower emissions and get fit! It’s a win win!
Don’t be fooled by the narrative that we hate cars - we don’t! But we don’t want to keep spending money on widening roads, resuming land and homes, all for it to be bottlenecked somewhere along the line - besides all the expensive toll roads and tunnels, has any project really saved you precious time travelling to work? We need to rely less on cars and focus on creating a city and suburbs that focuses on other modes of transport. And how many people use the toll roads? They have well and truly made their money back on projects like the Gateway, yet we are still paying over $5 per car, one way!
Did you know that in 2014, the LNP led Council targeted Wynnum Road as a vital corridor for access to the city and suggested (and implemented) a bunch of road changes but when asked by local cycling groups why bike lanes weren’t included in their Congestion Busting Projects, the response was “that bikeways are outside the scope of a CBP, because a CBP delivers "low cost/high impact" road improvements”.
Imagine having a Council that keeps focusing on one form of transport, when it’s so obvious that we can actually move about far quicker with more busses and dedicated bike lanes, if we moved on from a car-centric city! We’re only 14ks from the city!! Why do we have such well connected bike paths to Wellington Point, but not to the city, where most of the jobs are as a daily commute?
Bike riding and public transport is where it's at! Save your car for that weekend getaway, or in my case, a charity Variety Bach each year and errands in the rain!
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