Howard Maclean
@howardfmaclean.bsky.social
Convenor of @greatercanberra.org.au- Lawyer, general purpose nerd. Building better cities requires actually building. Views my own.
What does a proposal for a 55 storey tall tower in Woden Mean? It means that the height limit in Civic is far, far, far too low.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Canberra's tallest buildings would be dwarfed by proposed new skyscrapers
A developer wants to add 17 towers to the Woden town centre with the highest proposed to stand at 55 storeys.
www.abc.net.au
October 23, 2025 at 7:09 AM
What does a proposal for a 55 storey tall tower in Woden Mean? It means that the height limit in Civic is far, far, far too low.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
A slow moving scandal in Canberra at the moment is that we launched a new public transport ticketing system which is *so bad* and unreliable that we no longer have any idea how many people are using transit or how.
October 17, 2025 at 10:18 PM
A slow moving scandal in Canberra at the moment is that we launched a new public transport ticketing system which is *so bad* and unreliable that we no longer have any idea how many people are using transit or how.
Reposted by Howard Maclean
Impossible to read this passage in Seeing Like a State and not picture Canberra from above
October 2, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Impossible to read this passage in Seeing Like a State and not picture Canberra from above
Unsure about this one, in my view the meta-brain gives you insight into the takes of others and arms you with the rhetorical tools needed to combat or support those takes, but only occasionally does this equate to intelligence.
Posting is a Faustian bargain where in exchange for degrading your mental health you intermittently get access to a far smarter meta-brain.
September 28, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Unsure about this one, in my view the meta-brain gives you insight into the takes of others and arms you with the rhetorical tools needed to combat or support those takes, but only occasionally does this equate to intelligence.
@jonobri.com hits the grey elephant in the new city debate - that the vast majority of regional towns and small cities are determined to avoid growing any larger than they currently are.
No, Australia does not need new cities.
My new essay sets the record straight: we have a lot of cities, but we aren’t using them as well as we could be. To make our cities more successful, we have to open up a lot more land for commercial uses to enable agglomeration.
My new essay sets the record straight: we have a lot of cities, but we aren’t using them as well as we could be. To make our cities more successful, we have to open up a lot more land for commercial uses to enable agglomeration.
September 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
@jonobri.com hits the grey elephant in the new city debate - that the vast majority of regional towns and small cities are determined to avoid growing any larger than they currently are.
I once went seat of my uber to seat of my flight in 8 minutes flat at Canberra Airport.
Actually, you know what? Let’s stop complaining for a second. QT this with a GOOD airport. Defend that title as much or as little as you like. But let’s hear about airports that don’t suck.
August 13, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I once went seat of my uber to seat of my flight in 8 minutes flat at Canberra Airport.
Potentially one of the weirdest things about Australian planning culture is how every planning department in the country is hellbent on ensuring that the public and private realm has the least protection from UV rays in the summer possible in the name of preventing "overshadowing"
August 5, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Potentially one of the weirdest things about Australian planning culture is how every planning department in the country is hellbent on ensuring that the public and private realm has the least protection from UV rays in the summer possible in the name of preventing "overshadowing"
One of the weirdest things about ACT Politics is that Light rail stage one ($675 million construction) is often cited as an example of unimaginable fiscal proclivity, when as time goes on we're reminded that it was actually a spectacularly good deal.
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05...
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05...
The Block and Grand Designs have nothing on the RBA's billion-dollar renovation horror show
Renovating the Reserve Bank's headquarters is increasingly looking like a disastrous episode of home building show Grand Designs. The key difference? The budget for the horror reno is now north of $1 ...
www.abc.net.au
July 19, 2025 at 1:11 AM
One of the weirdest things about ACT Politics is that Light rail stage one ($675 million construction) is often cited as an example of unimaginable fiscal proclivity, when as time goes on we're reminded that it was actually a spectacularly good deal.
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05...
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05...
Reposted by Howard Maclean
The Problem with Urban Planning: a professional silo is gatekeeping our nation's growth.
My new essay w/ @inflectionpoints.work
The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵
My new essay w/ @inflectionpoints.work
The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵
July 12, 2025 at 10:02 PM
The Problem with Urban Planning: a professional silo is gatekeeping our nation's growth.
My new essay w/ @inflectionpoints.work
The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵
My new essay w/ @inflectionpoints.work
The problem at the heart of planning is not political—it's professional. 🧵
If you think you have problems, spare a thought for this Rose Bay homeowner that is complaining that zoning changes have made her and her neighbours fantastically wealthy.
July 12, 2025 at 10:11 PM
If you think you have problems, spare a thought for this Rose Bay homeowner that is complaining that zoning changes have made her and her neighbours fantastically wealthy.
Australian journalism is defined by its low expectations of its readership, and so I'm super excited by @inflectionpoints.work and the potential for a masthead that treats its audience as neither stupid or likely to switch off at the 1000th word.
Talking about reform is our national ritual: white papers, inquiries, op-eds, post-election promises.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
July 12, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Australian journalism is defined by its low expectations of its readership, and so I'm super excited by @inflectionpoints.work and the potential for a masthead that treats its audience as neither stupid or likely to switch off at the 1000th word.
Reposted by Howard Maclean
Talking about reform is our national ritual: white papers, inquiries, op-eds, post-election promises.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
July 12, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Talking about reform is our national ritual: white papers, inquiries, op-eds, post-election promises.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
But too often, these calls create more process than progress.
So we’re launching Inflection Points—a new platform for longform policy writing that aims to cut through.
The Metro has ongoing near universal support in Sydney, despite being a fantastically expensive infrastructure project with cost overruns, precisely because it's by far the fastest form of transport. No matter how rich you are in Sydney, the Metro is your quickest option for getting through the CBD.
July 9, 2025 at 9:13 PM
The Metro has ongoing near universal support in Sydney, despite being a fantastically expensive infrastructure project with cost overruns, precisely because it's by far the fastest form of transport. No matter how rich you are in Sydney, the Metro is your quickest option for getting through the CBD.
July 9, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Alright, I'm now back on this website more fully - appreciate firing any accounts I should follow as I attempt to build a timeline.
July 8, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Alright, I'm now back on this website more fully - appreciate firing any accounts I should follow as I attempt to build a timeline.
As a Canberran, my first time in Germany was incredibly confusing, because it would be chilly out on the street and then tropical indoors, easy t shirt weather. The cool climate Australian practice of having winter indoor temperatures only slightly higher than outside (maybe 12-14C) is not standard.
"just wear layers bro" ok but every indoor environment is a furnace so I have to peel myself like an onion, then reverse peel myself like a tenet-onion whenever I step inside or outside
December 6, 2024 at 12:02 AM
As a Canberran, my first time in Germany was incredibly confusing, because it would be chilly out on the street and then tropical indoors, easy t shirt weather. The cool climate Australian practice of having winter indoor temperatures only slightly higher than outside (maybe 12-14C) is not standard.
Reposted by Howard Maclean
If the heritage industry wants to be taken seriously, they should stop trying to argue the heritage significance of a petrol station on the West Gate freeway...
December 5, 2024 at 11:27 PM
If the heritage industry wants to be taken seriously, they should stop trying to argue the heritage significance of a petrol station on the West Gate freeway...
Reposted by Howard Maclean
There’s a deep tension between the value Australians place on freedom and the desire of some policymakers to restrict urban growth. Governments can control housing, but they can’t control people. The only way we can stop people moving to cities is to make them unaffordable.
December 4, 2024 at 7:52 AM
There’s a deep tension between the value Australians place on freedom and the desire of some policymakers to restrict urban growth. Governments can control housing, but they can’t control people. The only way we can stop people moving to cities is to make them unaffordable.
Building on this, we collectively have a pretty good understanding on how pre-industrial human society + fantasy elements (magic, dragons, dieties etc) works, but very little on how modern society+magic works. This is why many urban fantasy IPs revolve around strict separation of magic and tech.
Why is so much fantasy literature set in pre-industrial worlds?
1. Walkable cities and no sprawl, so plenty of room for both agriculture and nature.
2. Plots move forward when strangers meet on a road or street, but not when they are in cars.
Image: “Gondolin” by Ted Nesmith
1. Walkable cities and no sprawl, so plenty of room for both agriculture and nature.
2. Plots move forward when strangers meet on a road or street, but not when they are in cars.
Image: “Gondolin” by Ted Nesmith
December 1, 2024 at 2:33 AM
Building on this, we collectively have a pretty good understanding on how pre-industrial human society + fantasy elements (magic, dragons, dieties etc) works, but very little on how modern society+magic works. This is why many urban fantasy IPs revolve around strict separation of magic and tech.
There's a deeply rooted opposition in Australia to small homes. This recent support for continue the ban on smaller apartments is a continuation of mid 20th century efforts to ban terraces and "Street life" - with peter Harrison famously saying that Terraces were "unfit for human habitation".
November 30, 2024 at 4:05 AM
There's a deeply rooted opposition in Australia to small homes. This recent support for continue the ban on smaller apartments is a continuation of mid 20th century efforts to ban terraces and "Street life" - with peter Harrison famously saying that Terraces were "unfit for human habitation".
Absolutely insane that real time tracking of the exact positions of buses in the network is an extremely solved technology and we have this happening for whatever reason.
This can't be true. It just can't. 1 in 4 Canberra buses are late or early. No sane person would design a system which only works if the buses run precisely on time.
November 29, 2024 at 6:38 AM
Absolutely insane that real time tracking of the exact positions of buses in the network is an extremely solved technology and we have this happening for whatever reason.
One thing that hasn't been talked about as much is that the nominal surge in rents in most cities in Australia stalled hard in 2024, dropping to around or below inflation everywhere but Adelaide on marginal (asking) rents.
November 29, 2024 at 2:32 AM
One thing that hasn't been talked about as much is that the nominal surge in rents in most cities in Australia stalled hard in 2024, dropping to around or below inflation everywhere but Adelaide on marginal (asking) rents.