Here’s to bold and beautiful ideas to help transform our city

One of the criticisms that news journalism faces is that we focus too much on the negative – a lot of our coverage revolves around a miasma of disputes, disruptions, disasters, delays and discord. It’s true that our news values elevate conflict over concept because we know that conflict and negative consequence is a surefire way to get readers’ attention. But that is not all we do. It has been exciting to be involved over the past months with the Sydney Summit, a one-day conference hosted by the Committee for Sydney that looks at how we live and work and tries to imagine how our great city can be improved for future generations.

Thanks to a survey presented at the summit, we know that cost-of-living pressures and housing affordability are overwhelmingly identified as the biggest problems facing Sydneysiders. Behind these two concerns lurk the ongoing negative effects of climate change. So how can we climate-proof Sydney, increase housing affordability, and make sure our urban spaces are liveable and fun while also moving to higher-density living?

Today’s conference, sponsored by the Herald, is aimed at politicians, planners, the corporate sector and academics and aims to articulate the big ideas that will make our lives better. Federal Minister for Cities Clare O’Neil gave the keynote address this morning, in which she called on councils to accept sensible increases in housing density, saying urban sprawl is “baking inequality into the fabric of Sydney”. Earlier, in a chat with incoming Herald editor Jordan Baker, NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully acknowledged the state is falling short of where it hoped to be in meeting national housing targets.

The second session will include former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and new state Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane.

In a series of articles in the lead up, we have written about:

It’s exciting to be involved with passionate civic leaders working together to plan for a brighter tomorrow. To keep up with all the key events today, follow our live blog. Speaking of big ideas, I think my favourite column of the week came from Matt Wade.

While most of us agree cost of living is our biggest concern, Matt looked at the data – which tells a slightly different story to our perception. While there is a small percentage of Australians who are really doing it tough – and are genuinely deserving of more government help – most of us are not significantly worse off than a few years ago, and many of us are, in fact, better off. Matt’s thesis goes against the populist narrative (that I confess I get swept up in) and argues powerfully and logically that our obsession with the cost-of-living crisis, happily pandered to by politicians, is actually leading to bad policy and political priorities. I hope our politicians, federal and state, read this and take note. Read his piece here. My other favourite article this week was a beautifully tender piece of writing from Jacqueline Maley to farewell the much admired former governor of NSW Marie Bashir. Jacqueline is a class act and brings an intelligence and warmth to her writing that always elevates her prose above the rest. Her description of Phillip Street coming to a halt as the funeral procession passed was both sombre but also unexpectedly uplifting. Read her piece here. Let me know what you liked about our work this week – and what you would like to see more of. I love getting your feedback. Have a great weekend. Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.