Our friends at Fairfax
are having a hard time

As Fast News reported last month, Fairfax recently apologised to newsagents for
the constant late delivery of the Herald and its other papers, as well as
apologising to a senior journalist whom management accused of leaking a story
to their rivals at News Ltd. Now perhaps they need to apologise to Redfern. Michael Englert e-mailed Fast News and asked: “Did
you see the SMH’s Good Living supplement today? The cover says, ‘HOT SPOTS – A
foodie guide to Redfern and beyond’. The story by Helen Greenwood includes a
‘cutesy’ map of the 15 selected food eateries – mentioning two in Redfern and
other cafes in Waterloo, Alexandria, Mascot and Rosebery.” Michael points out that the Zensation Teahouse is
actually in Surry Hills and the Saint Germain Patisserie looks like Darlington
or Chippendale on the Fairfax
map which doesn’t even include Redfern
Street. They’ve forgotten Redfern, haven’t they?
Here’s a newspaper trying to sound trendy by mentioning Redfern but not
actually covering the real Redfern eateries. “A true foodies guide to Redfern
should include the cafes, restaurants and free food services or subsidised food
outlets e.g. Café Cana.” Why not do a real Redfern foodies guide in response to
the Fairfax
effort, Michael suggested –
especially with the Survival Expresso Bar just opening up again?

Balfour Park at last

The Chippendale Resident Group in its recent email
newsletter wrote: “Sunday March 30 is an auspicious date for Chippendale. It
marks the formal closure of a part of Balfour
Street (between Kensington and O’Connor Streets)
to make our latest small park. Chippendale has the lowest open space per person
of all Sydney
suburbs. So, every additional green space we can gain is valuable. Even tiny
“pocket parks” (like the street closures on Balfour at Cleveland, and at Shepherd at Broadway) have
a positive beneft for us in a number of ways. “But there’s an important
community lesson with the new Balfour
Street Park
(yet to have an offcial name). Moves to have this street closure and park
started many years ago when a small group of residents approached Council.
Despite getting rejected, deferred numerous times, being buried in municipal
bureaucracy, and becoming sidelined through Council amalgamations, the idea
simply was not allowed to die. We salute the residents who kept persisting and
nagging on the matter. They never gave up. Eventually, the park will be
properly landscaped. It will link across O’Connor Street with the main park
intended for the brewery site redevelopment and with the strip park to be
created down the side of Wellington
Street. It will also become part of the
long-advocated ‘green link’ pedestrian and cycle-friendly way going from
Eveleigh through Redfern, Chippendale, and Ultimo into Darling Harbor.”

Source:
South Sydney Herald May 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au