Don’t mention the C-word

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ISV

ANNUAL REPORT 20202021

Don’t mention the C-word!

In the midst of a pandemic, ISV’s messaging was dominated by you know what, writes Communications Officer Christopher Kelly.

To say it’s been quite a year would be an understatement. We began the 2020-21 financial year in lockdown 1.0 and thanking our lucky stars we weren’t living in Melbourne. Then — just when we were beginning to think we managed to dodge the worst of COVID — the Delta strain emerged and we masked up as Sydney was shut down for a second time.

Throughout the pandemic, ISV’s COVID Updates provided inner-city residents with the very latest information, including the evershifting list of restrictions. Our social feeds distributed health guidelines and encouraged people to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, the ISV website promoted numerous community support initiatives — such as food relief programs, mental health hotlines, and children’s services.

But our messaging wasn’t completely wall-to-wall COVID. ISV’s socials supported — among other causes — the Aboriginal affordable housing campaign; an elder abuse awareness drive; council recycling programs; and the push for greater social housing in the Waterloo redevelopment.

As well as circulating information through our socials, this year also saw the launch of a monthly newsletter: ISV E-NEWS. Content included a brief history of the Aboriginal Legal Service, which commemorated its 50th anniversary earlier this year; the NSW Government’s failure to address social housing in the Budget; the revised redevelopment plans for Waterloo; and efforts in eastern Sydney to tackle digital exclusion.

ISV’s flagship publication — Inner Sydney Voice magazine — continued to roll off the presses. The spring 2020 issue explored, perhaps rather optimistically, what life would be like after COVID. As Richard Florida discussed, post-pandemic two scenarios emerge. One, “the urbanist’s utopia of widened sidewalks, ample

bike lanes, parking lots converted to green spaces and extended networks of pedestrianised boulevards”. The other, “a dystopia of empty streets and boarded-up shops, and masked citizens, scurrying quickly between their jobs and their homes”.

The summer issue of ISV magazine called for urgent climate action. Despite the catastrophic damage caused by the Black Summer bushfires, the Morrison Government remains reluctant to accept climate change — let alone do anything about it. As the cover story reported: “Viewed as a ‘regressive force’ in global climate negotiations, Australia’s climate policy ranks amongst the worst-performing countries in the international Climate Change Performance Index. This year, Australia held the ignominious honour of ranking last out of 57 countries on climate policy.” All the while, “Morrison clings to coal like a junkie to a crack pipe”.

The autumn issue of Inner Sydney Voice focused on the NSW Government’s insatiable appetite for peddling off public land. One feature lamented the sell-off of the Sirius building. “Sirius was far more than prime real estate. Sirius was Aussie egalitarianism set in concrete. Where some of Sydney’s most disadvantaged citizens shared multi-million-dollar waterfront views alongside filmstars, prime ministers, and bombastic talkback hosts.” Further addressing the issue of Government land grabs, the cover story — written by Elizabeth Farrelly — offered a stark warning: “It’s time to end the habitual prostitution of our public lands and buildings to private corporations. Little by little, our politics is being debased and our environment degraded. The tipping point is close. Can the city we love survive?”

Finally, the winter issue led with a report setting out a vision to revitalise Kings Cross in which the authors called for a reclaiming of the street. “In building our neighbourhoods we focus too much on land use and the design of buildings, rather than on the much more important places in between — the street. The street is where the real life of a city happens.”

And, ahead of the local council elections, political analyst Ben Raue predicted an historic fifth win for Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore: “Remarkably, over four council elections, no one has come at all close to defeating Moore — and there doesn’t appear to be much chance of her losing on 4 September.” As it was, the elections were postponed — which brings us back to the C-word . . .

9

ISV

ANNUAL REPORT 20202021