Thursday night saw the latest in the Lord Mayor's City Talks - a series of public lectures on improving Sydney's sustainability, global status and liveability.
The keynote speaker was the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore. Moore has present at all the previous City Talks on topics like Green Transformers and the other aspects of the Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan. Her presentations have been visionary but clinical. She reads from notes and speaks in a somewhat monotone cadence. Thursday night's presentation - her first since winning the recent council elections - was clearly an enjoyable experience for the Lord Mayor. She was animated, passionate and strategically worked the crowd, who responded with appropriate applause and general support. She was actually smiling as she told the audience after two years of planning this term would be four years of solid action. (More applause.)
Moore knows that the State Government holds a lot of the authority for the projects outlined in the plan so the only way she can accomplish anything close to it is to bring pressure on the Government through the people. She attacks this problem on two fronts. First, she sells her vision to the people. The vision of the project is her greatest weapon and she used it well on Thursday night with a dazzling multimedia presentation including a new animated 3D model of the city which flies us down George Street through the three planned public squares at Circular Quay, Town Hall and Central. Other visionary projects like undergrounding the Western Distributor and building a new convention centre over the tracks at central station are old ideas but show a boldness that helps build support with the local citizens.
Her second line of action is to roll out a key project that is both within her power and at the heart of the 2030 plan - the Green Transformers. These tri-generation, gas-powered, mini power stations will be installed around the city with the bold aim of taking Sydney off the power grid by locally generating 100% of Sydney's power needs with free heating, cooling and water recycling to boot. This project is already underway with one green transformer already planned for the upcoming Fraser Broadway site. This project, along with her personal mission of a CBD cycle network, will be Moore's centrepieces over the next four years and, she hopes, will propel the project onwards to 2013 and beyond.
With the Metropolis Congress in town it wasn't hard to find additional guest speakers on Thursday night. In addition to Moore's talk, VIPs and Sydney citizens heard from two other leading women in world cities. Nicky Gavron, member of the Londonwide Assembly and former deputy mayor spoke about her role in re-establishing the Greater London Authority, and setting up the London Climate Change Agency and the C40.
Finally, Dr Shubha Raul, Mayor of Mumbai and caretaker for the city's 16 million people, spoke about the massive projects underway in Mumbai to deal with the problems of 16 million people's waste disposal, transport and housing needs. Her own multimedia presentation was every bit as good as Moores' with a touch of Bollywood flair.
For more information about City Talks, keep your eye on City of Sydney's event calendar.
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