If you want to protect wilderness, live in a dense urban centre. Same if you want to avert climate change. Same if you want cheaper housing, better transport, decent coffee or a choice of walk-to tapas.
As Richard Rogers told the House of Lords last week, Britain’s urban renaissance over the past decade has been driven by tight controls on out-of-town development. Put more simply, opposing high-density development on inner-city sites such as Barangaroo or Broadway (as ”greens” and NIMBYs still archaically do) drives sprawl.
Australia needs four more Sydneys (or 16 more Adelaides) within four decades. If it doesn’t go here, it goes somewhere else.
Work it out. Grow it up.
