Going... Going...

"They paved paradise And put up a parking lot" ... nothing much has changed, thinks Agamedes

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

The government has great plans to sell off prime real estate in Subiaco. One small problem: the land is currently the site of a major children's hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital.

No worries. We'll build another hospital. But where?

Here's an idea: Let's build the new hospital on the same site as an existing hospital, Sir Charles Gardner Hospital. A site which is already short of parking -- so short of space that staff park elsewhere and catch a bus. Great, let's make the site even busier...

Oh, yes, one other small problem: While we're building -- there will be even less parking space. Builders will spread out over the existing parking areas. Builders have a strong union, no way a builder will park elsewhere and bus the remaining distance to work. What can we do?

No worries: we'll take over a nearby sports ground.

What's that? The government pays for a "Be Active" advertising campaign? Now they plan to destroy a popular sports ground? One that's used by lots of children, who are able to walk to this sports ground?

Too bad. The government has decided to spend a lot of money on a new hospital. (Probably less money than they will get from the sale of the old hospital. That one is on prime real estate.)

Spending a lot of money comes well before an active, local sports club or two. Consider it a done deal.

No real worries, though: The government say that they will return the land in two years time. Return it in its good sports ground condition, too, according to the local council.

By that time, say the sports clubs, we will have lost a lot of our membership. It will take years to rebuild. Two years is a long time for a sporting club to keep going with no sports ground.

I don't believe the two years. Do you? Three years... four years... maybe.

Mostly, I don't believe that the sports ground will ever return to being a sports ground. Because,

1. Building will be delayed.
   
2. The hospital is already short of parking. Will they really give up an area that has been a carpark for more than two years?
   
3. The cost of turning carpark into sports oval is far larger than for turning sports oval into carpark.
   
4. Then... it takes several years to get the grass growing again.
   
5. And... in two years the sports clubs will have faded away. So "no-one" will be there to fight for the return of the oval.
   

Let's just hope that Subiaco Council reject the government's offer.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com