Sensational-Adelaide.com

I was wondering for those that have been around for longer than me, does anyone know when the negativity in Adelaide came about?
Was it after the state bank collapse? Was it something before that? Or has it always been here? Or has public commenting on articles brought it all to the surface?

Every time there is a proposal the same people seem to come out.

I was reading comments on AdelaideNow about the Vue opening. The comments were full of people being critical. One was saying something like, "another dud, it's an empty building as there are no lights on at night". But no one had moved in yet, so of course there were no lights on!

It seems if there is any proposal, regardless of if its private or not, people shoot it down. There was an article about Flinders Uni developing a new rail system.
The comments were full of waste of money, why not spend it on pensioners and hospitals, etc. It's private money, what does it matter to individuals what a private entity wants to do with their own money.

How can we move on from this constant stream of negativity?

One charismatic party leader that has the guts to tell them to shut the fuck up

With some of the people we have running the state (Jack Snelling, Ian Hunter, John Rau .etc) I can see why people here are so negative.

duke wrote:How can we move on from this constant stream of negativity?

My thoughts on this:

- I make it a rule to never read AdelaideNow comments anymore. Everytime I do I get this physical sensation of anger because of that same illogical thing you noticed - the $4 rise in the ESL was a disaster, but $87 back on water bills was 'nothing'. There's basically a hard core of about 3 or 4 posters who have what I have previously labelled 'Jay derangement syndrome' - no matter what the issue (or non-issue is), it's down to Jay. Regardless of one's politics, blaming the Premier personally for everything is kind of stupid.

- I also think it is part of the internet comments thing, which of course we never used to have. I think about what sort of person has all day long to comment on almost every story on AdelaideNow - day in, day out - and I can only assume they have very little to do or are very angry at life. Political parties are also known to pay people to try and 'massage' public opinion these days via comments sections.

- I think the State Bank thing definitely gave people's 'inner critic' free run and it has continued, and certainly this State has faced a lot of challenges that others haven't in regards to deindustrialisation and loss of relative status versus other states. However I think it had deeper roots than that.

- Part of it is just human nature. Other cities in Australia (and elsewhere) when you read their local papers seem very full of 'only in city x' type thinking. I do agree there's more of this here in Adelaide, perhaps as a reaction to the relative decline in this State. I still think it shows how full of sh*t people are when they all claim to be leaving this state because of public transport delays, slight rise in state taxes or health system issues - as if life in other states isn't plagued by the same concerns. Maybe it's people who just haven't travelled beyond a day or two holiday to inner CBDs.

I agree with Duke in relation to the decline of the state, but I would suggest becuase of the demographic we haveemore people yearning for the good old days.

If you think about the number of people who have left the state, everyone here has a family member or close friend who has left, so you hear more and more about how much better it is elsewhere (which I have no doubt aren't 100% accurate).

On a personal note, If I look at the broader direction over the last decade it isn't hard to see how people bcome negative, we have centralised the state at the cost of the regions, we have vastly increased the cost of living in comparison to the income that you earn (and for people who suggest cost of living is a benefit of living here, I would suiggest that advantage is being eroded every year), not only did we miss the mining boom, we are now copping the brunt of the decline in manufacturing, so it isn't a pretty view

but to counter that, Adelaide is a great place to live and if you don't need directions written out for you, or a prepared to look, there are heaps of fun things to do and in general the people are great.

however i reckon negativity is now so ingrained in out nature that we can't bring ourselves to be positive.

As one of the expats, I would say its not so much negativity, but a conservative attitude that holds Adelaide and SA back. Ironically, 3 projects that spring to mind that were steamrolled through in the face of carping and requests for justification of expenditure 1. Superway. 2. RAH 3. Adelaide Oval have proven to be the catalyst for change. The Superway made the momentum for the motorway impossible to stop. The RAH has lead to the medical precinct now taking shape, and the the AO...well that speaks for itself. If only the conservative attitude could be sidelined long enough to look for reasons to do things rather than against. My neighbour here in Perth, also from Adelaide puts the SA conservatism down to our Presbetarian forefathers.

Just a case of the grass is always greener on the other side I think. All my friends that Come to Adelaide think it's great.

People go to Melbourne and Sydney for a weekend. Stay in a nice hotel, go to a cool cafe, a nice bar, visit attractions and come back and go on about how they want to move there. Of course it's gonna seem great your on holidays! It's completely different to living there







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I agree with Claybro that a conservative attitude has too much influence over our city, but as for negativity, I wouldn't take Adelaide Now for anything but a load of shit. Ive mentioned somewhere before that Ive heard a significant number of hideous posts are actually Advertiser staff deliberately posting nonsense to try to get a reaction and inflame an issue to encourage click baits to make online advertising seem more lucrative.

The main problem of Adelaide is the image we portray to the rest of the country. There is a large % of Australians that seriously think we are just as bad as Detroit, and I can't help but think this rubs off on some potential investment and retailers like H&M, Uniqlo, TopShop who have no plans to open here, because we aint 'cool' and no one has a job here

edit, how many times do I hear from people who visit here exclaim "oh Adelaide is no where as bad as I thought it would be, I actually liked it"

thecityguy wrote:Just a case of the grass is always greener on the other side I think. All my friends that Come to Adelaide think it's great.

People go to Melbourne and Sydney for a weekend. Stay in a nice hotel, go to a cool cafe, a nice bar, visit attractions and come back and go on about how they want to move there. Of course it's gonna seem great your on holidays! It's completely different to living there

ha, I have 3 mates that I'm still close with, who only ever lived with their parents in the outer suburbs while growing up in Adelaide. They moved to inner Sydney in share houses and couldn't get over how cosmopolitan it was compared to Adelaide ie cafes, bars etc. Well it is but derrr, so is living close to the city here. They all now bought a house for heaps miles out from the Sydney CBD in suburbs just as boring as they came from here. They all know of Sydney's attractions but have no idea of what to do in Adelaide other than drive to Hahndorf or Glenelg or go for a night out at the Austral or Heaven Funny thing when I went to visit last month, 2 of them were making enquiries with work about possibly moving back, however they didn't want a pay cut

jk1237 wrote:I agree with Claybro that a conservative attitude has too much influence over our city, but as for negativity, I wouldn't take Adelaide Now for anything but a load of shit. Ive mentioned somewhere before that Ive heard a significant number of hideous posts are actually Advertiser staff deliberately posting nonsense to try to get a reaction and inflame an issue to encourage click baits to make online advertising seem more lucrative.

Wouldn't surprise me. Back when I was naive (and before you had to register to do so) I tried posting on a few articles and I think less than half were posted. Now bear in mind, I was careful to follow their 'rules' so there was no insult, nothing personal, nothing inflammatory. Just disagreeing with the slant of the article or pointing out factual inaccuracies. Yet they were happy to post stuff that was (frankly) crazy... so now I can see why.

phenom wrote:Now bear in mind, I was careful to follow their 'rules' so there was no insult, nothing personal, nothing inflammatory. Just disagreeing with the slant of the article or pointing out factual inaccuracies.

That's an instant delete. They don't like people pointing out errors in their reporting.

There is negativity in Adelaide. Some of it is simple resistance to change, to be expected in a fairly isolated community like SA. Some of it is due to disappointment when we fail to be competitive in the league we imagine ourselves to be in.

We tend to take for granted the positive things we have, and we tend to overlook opportunities where we would be competitive, if only we could see the chance and apply some assets - not always cash - to them.

Instead of whingeing being our preferred sport, it would be good to see the whingers actually do something about it rather than complain.

If you were a tourist coming to Australia from overseas, would you come to Adelaide? Having been to America and had no problems finding things to do, Adelaide would get boring in about half a day. Yes there's museums and beaches, but they're no different to the rest of Australia. There is no one single item that would draw people in. The City Loop bus is about #8 on the Trip Advisor list of "Things to Do", that about sums it up.

It doesn't help that we have a pee wee PT network that consists of one electrified line and a half done job on another. It feels incomplete and doesn't create a good image. Also the fare structure needs work, starting with getting rid of the paper tickets, unless you're using the airport transfer.

Then living here is an issue, with just about the most expensive power prices in the world and water not much better.

We also happen to have one of the most expensive buildings ever constructed, that's only 8 stories tall. Its certainly no the Freedom Tower

OlympusAnt wrote:We also happen to have one of the most expensive buildings ever constructed, that's only 8 stories tall. Its certainly no the Freedom Tower

It's been brought up many times before that the "fact" of the RAH being one of the most expensive buildings in the world is false.

OlympusAnt wrote:If you were a tourist coming to Australia from overseas, would you come to Adelaide? Having been to America and had no problems finding things to do, Adelaide would get boring in about half a day. Yes there's museums and beaches, but they're no different to the rest of Australia. There is no one single item that would draw people in. The City Loop bus is about #8 on the Trip Advisor list of "Things to Do", that about sums it up.

It doesn't help that we have a pee wee PT network that consists of one electrified line and a half done job on another. It feels incomplete and doesn't create a good image. Also the fare structure needs work, starting with getting rid of the paper tickets, unless you're using the airport transfer.

Then living here is an issue, with just about the most expensive power prices in the world and water not much better.

We also happen to have one of the most expensive buildings ever constructed, that's only 8 stories tall. Its certainly no the Freedom Tower

I suggest the reason there is so much negativity in Adelaide, is because we have so many citizens with your toxic way of thinking. Only focus on the negative. Completely overlook the positives.

You are probably the kind of person who whinges why no tourists come here, yet when a friend or family member from interstate or overseas dares mention coming here, you probably talk them out of it.

I find it interesting that you participate in this forum. Why? If you hate Adelaide so much, why bother?