Conclusions—Where to from Here?

Abstract

The concluding chapter poses the question, What kind of city do we want? I argue that the Millers Point/ Sirius displacement and sell-off go against the fundamentals of a just city as defined by Fainstein (2010). Instead of deepening democracy, diversity and equity, it has accentuated the deep class and spatial divide in Sydney. I reiterate that the policy around Millers Point was driven by what Dillard and Ruchala (2005) call administrative evil. The essence of administrative evil is that policy-making is driven primarily by financial, quantifiable considerations and the human cost of the implementation of the policy in question, is given little or no consideration. I summarise the human cost: the physical and mental health problems unleashed by the displacement announcement and subsequent relocation; the isolation of many tenants post the displacement and the destruction of a unique and strong community, what I have called communicide. The chapter very briefly reviews the impacts of gentrification, the financialisation of housing and the bureaucractic framework put in place to force tenants to move.