It wasn’t just this week’s guests who got us thinking about quality of life, from friendly streets to Sydney Rock Oysters. Seems like everywhere we go at the moment there’s a chainsaw or a whipper snipper, an Ausgrid team or a bull dozer, menacing Sydney streets and knocking down things we love. When you see yet another green park shrouded in tarp, monstered by industrial machinery behind walls of metal mesh, it’s easy to think our city is under attack, but most of us would hesitate to think the destruction is being generated by our own state government.

So don’t miss our podcast with Shaun Carter the NSW President of the Australian Institute of Architects – an outspoken critic of the process that approved James Packer’s Crown Sydney Hotel Resort, and the State Government’s decision to reject the Sirius building down at Circular Quay, in what has been described as “a blatant cash grab”, which will replace the iconic building with expensive apartments for the city’s elite. It seems there is no room for lower income housing or old buildings in the brand new Sydney currently under construction- let alone humans who are not the shiny, air-brushed creatures of the realty brochure and investment portfolio. In the process of extolling the Sirius building’s many charms and virtues, and filling us in on the green bans which the Save Our Sirius campaign have attracted, Carter widened the discussion from architecture to humanism, city planning to biodiversity. We talked about the elements that have always made Sydney such a fascinating city – its subcultures, social mix and diversity; the artist’s studio and squats, the heritage trees and harbour foreshores.Have a listen. These habitats are crucial to our cultural and biological ecosystems. You could get involved with saving Sirius or the metropolitan wide campaign SOS Green Spaces which is giving communities across Sydney the tools to fight for their parks and trees.

The conversation then progressed to another threatened local, the Sydney Rock Oyster. Documentary filmmaker Kim Beanish grew up with the oyster farmers around Merimbula Lake on the South East coast of NSW, so this intimate portrait of a second generation family-run business as it confronts the ravages of climate change and the impact of a voracious introduced species, the Pacific Oyster, comes from the heart. Oyster has a kickstarter crowd funder which ends on the 30th September so consider making a small contribution to this wonderful local storytelling. It’s all about saving our estuaries and wildlife, as well as protecting jobs and families.

On that note we want to congratulate Greg Miller who was on the show a few weeks ago talking about Cultivating Murder, a new Australian documentary film exploring the clash between rural extremists and our environmental laws that resulted in the death of Glen Turner, a good man just doing his job. The filmmakers hit their target for crowdfunding so a big thanks to any Eastside listeners who were moved to help. Our Aussie storytellers need all the support we can give them – like the Sydney Rock Oyster they face an uphill battle to survive.

Finally Riley Lavelle Long reviewed Don’t Breathe a home invasion horror film without a sense of humour. The podcast will be up later this week.

Keep your ears peeled!

Ruth, Riley and Cassie