News & Discussion: Population Growth

[Ben]

Why would trains and buses suddenly become useless because people are living in a small area? I know in many other large cities where some people live only a few hundred metres from where they work, they still take the train one or two stops, because time is money.

If you had 65000 people living in the CBD today, assuming that our public transport system remains the same, and our roads the way they are, there would be gridlock during peak hours

What i was trying to say is that with such an increase in population in one confined area, there will need to be large infrustructure upgrades!

There would be less congestion having more people who work in the CBD living in the CBD.

[Tyler_Durden]

Ide be following very carefully, even though i think that achieving 2million people in the next 10 years is a little laughable....

Im struggling with the concept that people from the eastern seaboard and to the North of Australia, would move en mass to Adelaide.

Mass migration won't help in my opinion either, because other than refugee's you would be hard pushed to get 1 million people moving from the US, England and Europe.

I get the impression from your post (mainly your last sentence) that you may have confused this target as being one for the city of Adelaide which it isn't, but rather for the whole state of South Australia.

I agree with you anyway, but the state population is currently 1,558,200 according to wikipedia, so while it's an ambitious 10 year target it wouldn't be overly ridiculous. As the article claims, a 2 million target is rather conservative aim for 2050.

[stelaras]

Yes i may have confused the issue a little bit with the other post on the 65000 people target...I was going back and forth on those posts last night almost simultaneously.

It would be interesting to see the population growth in 50 year periods from from the time SA was commemorated.

For the life of me, i cannot remember the growth rate of SA...

I seriously can not see us picking up 500,000 people in 43 years though?

[Howie]

We're on track to hit 2m at current growth rates by 2035.

I seriously can not see us picking up 500,000 people in 43 years though?

Why not? WA did twice that in 20 years.

[crawf]

How did I miss this, awesome vision harbo

I'm liking you more and more. Hope you win the election

[crawf]

Soon that rate will be 2025 or even lower if the population growth rate continues to improve

[stelaras]

FANTASTIC

i stand corrected!

[Shuz]

If theres 1,558,200 people now, and theres going to be 2,000,000 in the state - where are the 441,800 people are going?

AFAIK in two decades the following is to occur-
Port Augusta currently at 14,000 people - set to double to 28-30k. (14,000)
Murray Bridge set to have 30,000 - up from 18,000. (12,000)
Roxby Downs currently with about 5,000 people - set to increase sixfold to 30,000. (25,000)
21,000 strong town of Whyalla is set to boom again to its old peak population of 33,000, even more. (12,000)
Adelaide CBD core could hold 65,000 up from 17,000. (48,000)
Adelaide metro grows by about 11,000 a year by latest population stats. 20 years = 220,000.
Rest of state growth about 3,000 per annum (severly underestimated methinks), more like 6,000 if boom continues. 20 years = 120,000.

Sums up to about 450,000 people, which pars on the number needed for the big 2 million.

It has been noted that population growth is expected to increase over time, Adelaide's metro population growth is only scenario subject to no change - contrary to figures, so could easily increase and tip off the 2 million figure at an earlier date - say 15 years.

[Bulldozer]

Wow, I was just thinking of starting a thread on the CBD population and how to encourage growth and I see this!

65K is even more ambitious than the target that I was thinking of - 30K by 2020. The trick is not to have a huge burst of growth and then a period of no growth or even worse, shrinkage. A reasonable figure would be somewhere around 1K new apartments brought to market per year and I think this demand could be achieved by the state government abolishing stamp duty on owner-occupier apartments and investing in public infrastructure (trams, schools, police & fire stations, hospitals, libraries, etc.) throughout the city.

Adelaide is ideally suited for apartment living as you're never more than 10 minutes walking away from a park so there's loads of recreational space. Bringing so many apartments to market each year would put a serious dent in the need for urban sprawl and will actually decrease traffic congestion as everything is within walking distance and not everyone will be able to have a car because of the lack of parking space - it'd be like Brisbane is today, where you can buy a car park for the low-low price of around $60,000 (BTW: I think there's around 30K living in Brisbane CBD.) Cutting the cost of registration for motorbikes and scooters and ensuring every street has bicycle lanes would go a fair way to helping out as well.

[duke]

I was thinking recently that there are a lot of new 7/11 type stores around the city these days. Is this a sign that our city is finally starting to become more alive? I can't imagine what it would be like with 65,000 people.

Also the new apartments across from the RAH, there is a sign that says IGA. Is this actually a supermarket?

I hope we do dramatically increase our CBD population. I hope that we start building some underground shopping centers like in Sydney. I love it how you can just go underground into a center and pop out on another street. Makes it so easy to get around.
I think we also need to get more things like K-Mart and BigW in the CBD. There is a Target but anyone thats been there would know its pathetic compared to any of the suburban stores.
More shops will bring in more people, more people will bring in more shops

[Shuz]

Oh those darned 24/7 convinience stores... can't remember the retail name of them. I would love to see Adelaide be swarmed with 7/11's, in true convinience fashion.

Having 65,000 people in the CBD permanently, with an additional 108,000 workers from the suburbs commuting seriously rings alarms for crucial transportation (particulary PT) upgrades. Parking garages would need to be built, tramlines laid city-wide, taxi/bus only lanes, footpaths upgraded, walking accessibility through laneways opened up, the rail system undergrounded in a loop. I could go on and on. That would be great in the weekday daytime!

If a stadium ever went ahead on the NT railyards, say 80k filled, that also gives saturday nightlife a boost with about 100,000 odd people, not including the 10-20k population of pro-teens who swarm the clubs. It would be an incredible vision.

[AtD]

Adelaide's CBD apparently has more car parks than Sydney's, so I think we've got plenty. Either way, it's a private sector issue.

[Ho Really]

Adelaide will have no problem with the additional 65,000 people in its square mile. If European and some North American cities can do it so could we. I agree some infrastructure will have to be improved, especially public transport, but I think this will happen anyway (with good government).

Cheers

[urban]

Upgrading pedestrian & cycling infrastructure is the main transport change that would be needed. Additional intra-city pt loops might be needed.

The water, sewer, electrical & data infrastructure would all require significant upgrades but this would be significantly cheaper than accommodating an extra 45,000 in a suburban layout.

[Will]

More people flock to city
Chris Day
24Jul07

THE city is racing ahead with more offices, houses, workers, students, cafes and restaurants, key indicators show.

Since 2002 the number of city workers has climbed from 93,000 to 108,000, according to the Adelaide City Council's 2006 Land Use Survey.
The number of businesses in the city and North Adelaide has grown 11.4 percent, to 5488.
The area now boasts 490 licensed venues, up from 414 in 2002.
Between 2001 and 2006 the student population grew by more than 10,000 to nearly 63,000.
The value of developments has almost tripled from $158 million in 2001/2 to $431 million in 2005/6.
The number of houses and apartments jumped more than 21 percent to nearly 9000, while office space in the CBD has risen by nearly 30,000 sqm to more than 921,000 sqm.
``In 2001 it was definitely a case of do or die (for the city) but a lot of people didn't think it could be done,'' Lord Mayor Michael Harbison said.
``What really excites me is that we're no longer apologising for the state of our city and saying `if only we could do that'.
``We're getting on with being a successful city and losing our inferiority complex. The tramline extension is the turning point in many ways.
``The resistance has turned into people saying `what the heck, we're going somewhere'.''
He said, however, the 2006 census highlighted the city's growing need for more affordable housing, with average rents and mortgage payments topping a list of SA metropolitan councils.
``The area that's not understood is affordable housing and that is the most important challenge.
``We're not just talking about welfare housing but affordable housing for young workers.''
The council will spend $3 million this year to build 28 affordable apartments in Whitmore Square.
The project was delayed from last year's budget because of drawn out funding negotiations with the State Government. But Mr Harbison knows it is not enough.
``The council simply going out there and building apartments won't solve the problem, we can't afford it.
``But we can bring together financiers who are interested in affordable housing and put all the parties together.
``Until we have enough places for young people to live we can't rest.''