Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Here’s a snippet of the East Lindfield Fireworks.
Roseville Park
My assistant and I stopped by at Roseville Park after checking out a footpath issue nearby.
Chanukkah on the Green
This week we were joined by Julian Leeser MP, cr_christine_kay and Councillor Robert Samuel – Willoughby at our annual Chanukkah at the St Ives Village Green. There were all sort of festivities including fireworks to celebrate the Jewish people?s freedom from oppression in 2nd Century BC.
Chabad North Shore
Avoid the Heat at Gordon Library
For those braving the heat in Sydney, please know that our libraries are still open (as is the pool).
Today I visited Gordon Library to get work done and borrow some books. We also have our Christmas Tree and Nativity Scene (which we’ve been lobbying to get the last two years).
Ku-ring-gai Library
Chanukah at Council Chambers
Each year at council chambers we hold a Chanukah ceremony and for the second year running we also have a Menorah displayed outside. We do this as a symbol of our ongoing friendship and support of the Jewish community here on the North Shore.
Chanukah is an annual festival commemorating Israel’s freedom from oppression in the 2nd Century BC. It continues to be celebrated today with this year’s festival starting from 25th December to 2nd January.
Also celebrated each year is our annual Chanukah on the (St Ives Village) Green, organised by Chabad North Shore and sponsored by Council. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with shows, rides, games, entertainment, arts and craft, faceprinting, Menorah lighting and fireworks. Hope to see you there, and for more information visit.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chanukah-on-the-green-jewish-festival-tickets-1088355393279
Year 12 Results
For Year 12 students receiving their results today, it?s important to remember that this one number doesn?t control the rest of your life. There are other ways to get where you need to go, and a rewarding career doesn?t necessarily have to come from attending university either. I?m happy to meet up and chat if you want someone to listen to you or to kick ideas around.
If you know a Year 12 student who is feeling down, please give them the support that they need.
TOD Housing Scenarios – One Sleep To Go
ONE SLEEP TO GO before feedback on future housing scenarios officially closes.
This is with regard to the NSW Government?s imposition of 22,500 new dwellings within 400m of Roseville, Lindfield, Killara and Gordon Station. Please let us know whether you?d prefer to do it by demolishing the entire precinct with six storey homes, or by preserving canopy and local character by spreading out further and/or having it taller in the middle. (If so, how tall?)
In the last month we?ve heard from your concerns around traffic gridlock and inability to access the highway, transitions and isolation, impact on canopy and local character, bushfire safety, the sub-optimal timing and duration of consultation, and your preferences for or against specific scenarios. I hear you, agree that this situation imposed by the state is quite unreasonable, and know that there will be some tough decisions that have to be made. However the more feedback that we receive, the greater the chance that we?ll be able to optimise a new scenario next year.
If you have yet to make a submission, please visit the following link to view the material and fill out the survey. https://krg.engagementhub.com.au/housingscenarios (If the link does not work, try turning off wifi and switching to mobile.)
Also yet to be announced is the NSW Government?s other initiative to allow townhouses and apartments in R2 zones within 800m of ALL train stations? we expect this second announcement to come within a few weeks.
Benefits and Risks of AI in Decision Making
AI presents an enormous opportunity for us to work more quickly and create value. I’ve been using it on and off and find that while it is not always entirely accurate, it does help with giving us a good starting point.
On this particular occasion, I’ve been looking at GB11 of our December Council meeting and the staff recommendation to propose minimum lot sizes of 955 sqm for Dual Occupancies across the LGA (as compared to the State Government default of 400 sqm).
According to the AI output – which may not be entirely accurate – our Sydney metro councils offer minimum lot sizes per two homes ranging from 450 sqm (Waverley) to 600 sqm (Hornsby, Northern Beaches, Liverpool, Fairfield). So you can imagine how the Department of Planning will respond if Ku-ring-gai were to go ahead with the proposal in its current form.
In my view it’s helpful to see AI like a junior that you employ at your business. Their work may not necessarily be the most reliable or intuitive, but it gives you a good starting point to further interrogate and refine. You can see through my chat with Claude that I’ve been doing just that.
The benefit of AI over a junior, however, is the price and speed of output. If I had employed a junior to do this it may have taken hours or even days, plus hundreds of dollars. But my chat with Claude here only took a few minutes at a fraction of that cost. How reliable is the data? For someone who knows the topic really well there are likely flaws in the answer, but there will also be flaws when you employ a junior as well. That?s where some sensible scrutiny and subsequent fact checking comes in place before you place reliance on it for anything mission critical.
New Footpaths
The kids and I visited Santa?s new footpath at Crown Street earlier this week.
Our latest new footpaths are Allambie Ave East Lindfield, Grayling Road West Pymble, Collins Road St Ives and Crown Street Pymble.
We are also open to requests for new footpaths though please note that this is limited by budget and the rates capping system, where the annual increase in cost of delivering infrastructure exceeds the rates growth permitted by the State government.
With these cost constraints and far more footpaths being requested than funding available to deliver, the footpaths we prioritise with our $2.3m budget are based on a range of factors such as proximity to schools, shops, transport, hospital, other services and safety. We also need to reconstruct and maintain existing footpaths.
If you have any footpath requests, please reach out though note that the timing of delivery may be constrained by the factors above.
Tree of Joy
Seeking your help with bringing Christmas Joy to our seniors.
Each year since 1999, the Rotary Club of St Ives, NSW – District 9685 helps the community meet the Christmas gift requests of our nursing home residents.
My two older kids and I visited the tree last night to read the requests and select someone to share kindness.
There?s still over 100 requests hung up on the tree, so please visit (outside Bed, Bath & Table) and help out. Gifts are due back by 20 December 2024.
We also took a quick trip to the Return & Earn.
Quick Update
Some residents have noticed that my social media activity has dropped off in recent weeks, and have been asking how I’ve been. Yes I’m ok but have been preoccupied with other priorities – explanation below.
First of all we’re currently dealing with some family medical/health issues and what that means is that it has been far more time consuming for the last few weeks as well as the next few weeks. We are ‘sandwiched’ so to speak, simultaneously caring for the older generation (driving them to medical, providing food, looking after other logistics at home) as well as caring for three kids. It’s very time consuming, and I can see the benefits of council providing residents with the option of multi-generational homes (either a single large home, or dual occupancy).
Secondly, I’ve also been on the search for work. I previously had to quit my dayjob at Origin to serve as Mayor so now I need to find something else to pay the bills and the mortgage. There’s been a few close calls but I haven’t landed that new job yet. And for each opportunity, I need to do proper due diligence to put my best foot forward. If you know anyone who is looking for my skillset, feel free to put me in touch.
In the meanwhile there’s been a few things going on at Ku-ring-gai and when I get the chance I’ll post about them soon.
Apologies if there are some delays to answering your queries. If it’s a simple query, I can quickly attend to or flick it on. But if it’s a very complex matter which involves detailed investigation or a curated response, it’s going to take me longer to get to it. Councillors don’t have dedicated support staff to handle these matters.
