Thorny, you are the moron here, you're doing nothing but stiring up shit. Your arguments have yet to be backed up, and thats just the few that made sense.
I've lived in Sydney my entire life, but have family from rural NSW, some in towns others on properties. I absolutley love the bush, i'm moving to Bathurst next year to go to Uni and I intend on the moving up to the Northern Tablelands/Macquarie Region to eventually settle down, mainly because, as Asqy stated, I'm one of these Australians who need big back yards with a Hills Hoist and alot of wide open spaces. Just because I'd prefer to live out there doesn't mean I think very little of Sydney.
I absolutley love this city, and I live in St George and went to schools in both St George and the Shire, which is hardly the cream of the crop of Sydney. I've got alot of friends who live out at St Marys and Blacktown, in Punchbowl and Milperra, Revesby and East Hills, and a fair few out in the South Western Suburbs like Ingelburn and Minto, so I have seen a fair bit of Sydney in detail. I've been to most other places too - Yes, Asqy, I've been to Hornsby
Mostly just passing through on my way up the Coast, but I've stopped once or twice. Northern Beaches, Hills District, Parra, City including Redfern, Eastern Suburbs --> I have seen just about all of Sydney -- the good and the bad -- and I would still say its one of the best Cities in the world.
Granted the only cities outside Australia I have been to are LA and San Diego, and the only thing I prefered over Sydney was the public transport. You put that aisde, and I couldn't wait to get home. Yes, we have 'no go' areas, we have the run down suburbs in the less savory parts of town, but so what? every single city has this! In LA, I stayed across the road from the Beverly Centre on Beverly Blvd, which was in a 'nice' part of LA. Got the metro bus 15 minutes away, down to Vermont/Beverly station and it was like I was in a whole other city, the change was amazing. (and, funly enough, the people were nicer downtown) Every city has this, it's good and it's bad parts.
Sydney, in my opinion, is over populated. Not in comparrison to say London, or Tokyo, but comparred to other Australian cities and regional Centres. In fact, the entire east coast is. So many people live in sydney and sydney can not support them forever. And while I am very hesitant in saying this, people should be prepared to move inland. But, like i said, I'm not sure I'd like this to happen simply because urbanisation inland would ruin what many towns and centres have. Can you imagine hundred of city slickers flocking to Broome? That place is beatiful and it would ruin it.
I don't agree with the Sydney bashing because it is a much better city compared to international counterparts, i loved growing up here and, as yet thorny, you have yet to put forward any real agruments stating otherwise.
The only drawback is public transport, which is shocking. I rely on it to get to work. Getting there at 6 in the morning is fine, it's more often that not, on time. Get pasted, say 9 am and you're in trouble. the 400 run that does Burwood to Bondi Junction via Rockdale, Airport and East Gardens is ALWAYS without a doubt, late. I catch it from Rockdale to the International Terminal, and coming back from there is hell. They are suppose to run every 20 minutes, but usually, you get 3 all at once every hour instead, thats if they decide to come in. They quite often will just bypass the aiport entirely to make up time. The Illawarra train line too, is pretty bad. On a good day, I'm waiting half an hour for trains that are suppose to run every ten minutes. I've waited over an hour a fair bit recently too. The Waterfall train is contsantly cancelled, which is a bit of a pain in the arse for me, but for anyone living on that side of Sutho, they have to wait at least 45 minutes for the next one, if it shows of course.
But, thats what you get having a moron like Michael Coster as the Transport Minister.
Wanker...
