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Friday, September 18, 2009

My Region Greater Springfield Has a Soul!

It has been an interesting few days in my community. Our local state MP made some interesting comments in state parliament about the progress of community infrastructure.

Here is a sample of what hit the media:


Satellite city in a soulless orbit: MP
Natasha Bita September 18, 2009

SPRINGFIELD Lakes is an award-winning prototype for a 21st-century city -- but does it have soul?
A half-hour's drive west of Brisbane, the city-under-construction offers its 18,000 residents every convenience. The shopping centre will be the biggest in the southern hemisphere; it has a university campus, golf course and man-made lake; and bulldozers are clearing bushland to build a medical precinct to be known as Health City.

But local member Jo-Ann Miller reckons the satellite city in suburbia has "no soul". The Labor Bundamba MP's tirade on developer "greed" has triggered a debate on the future of low-density development in the 'burbs......

I knew something was "on the go" Thursday morning... an ABC twitter entry used the 2 words "Springfield" and "soulless" - and then I turned on my mobile phone and there were 3 messages - one from Ipswich City Mayor Paul Pisasale, one from Channel 7 TV reporter Neil Warren and another from ABC TV reporter, Josh Beavis.

Here are some TV media clips (below) about the story.

This one is from ABC TV - I get to appear in this one with a snappy quote about "new options" as pastor of Westlife Church.


Here is another from Channel 7


It was great to see and hear how vocal my community is about it's value - powerful stuff!

I'll write some more soon about my thoughts on community infrastructure and social capital development. All this means that my community is continuing to grow and mature.

(if you are viewing this post in my Facebook "notes" section click the link below somewhere called "view original post" - it will redirect you to my blog page with the media links)

Special thanks again to Peter Williams for his great HDD work!
Here is what was on the front page of the Queensland Times on Thursday.

3 comments:

Luke said...

50Ha! we only want 50 acres....

Luke said...

50Ha! We only want 50 acres...

MarsandVenus said...

I think that 'soulless' is an overstatement but she does have a point in that the congregations don't have a place to call home... so maybe the developers and pollies should put their money where their mouth is and do something about it.
Question is though, which church group will get a building 1st? The one with most members,the one that has been in operation the longest or the one that is the most community focussed?? Or perhaps the one with the most funds available?