Adelaide is a doughnut city growing ever outwards. The suburban sprawl primarily runs north and south as the city is hedged in between the sea and the hills on its west and east sides. A doughnut city is one where growth is faster on the edge of the city than it is in the centre; where businesses and people start to abandon the downtown core; where, just like a doughnut, the centre is empty. The suburbs were designed as a refuge from the bustle of inner city life.
It is a "doughnut" because it has nothing in the centre outside of the 9-5 work hours. There is not much inner city life in Adelaide. Often the streets are empty. What inner city life there is clusters around the shopping precinct in Rundle Mall or the restaurant precincts in Rundle and Gouger Streets. Elsewhere the streets are empty. So much for "the community" appealed to by urban planners and politicians, or the talk of the transition to a cafe society.
If I want to include people in the 'urban view' along the lines of the nineteenth century photographer's trade views, then I hang out on Hindley Street, early in the morning. This is when it is not jammed with cars and it is recovering from a night out in the alcohol focused late night economy. By definition, liveable cities are where people want to live. The Adelaide City Council is committed to renewing Adelaide by encouraging people to return to living in the the inner city --its goal is a vibrant, populous and sustainable city. Similarly with the state government, as stated in its 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide. Urban renewal means city-centre regeneration.
The assumption of this new urbanism for both appears to be that if you push enough people into the city, it’ll become ‘vibrant’ and ‘diverse’. Another assumption is that those living in the city seek the sight of emptiness as it means order and quiet that is ensured by a strong administration that controls urban life. What the policy of renewing Adelaide needs is actively trying to develop a cultural economy that helps cultural producers create financially sustainable enterprises.They would then stay in the city rather than migrate to Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. Underpinning this is the idea of a European city, proposed as counter-model to the modernist idea of the city.Instead of redevelopment projects that swept away everything in their path, urban motorways, brutalist concrete estates and segregated commercial centres, the European city model is built around density, mixed use areas and protecting the historic built fabric.