Why does Adelaide get such a bad wrap?

[Power King]

From the eastern states in particular?

Don't get me wrong, I love Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane etc, but I honestly still enjoy Adelaide and never have any negative feelings for this place.

Is it because our city simply isn't as big (we do have a smaller population) and so we have less night clubs, bars etc? It's not as though these things are rare at all though, I find there are lots of places to have a good time here with friends.

Please enlighten me, but trolls can make their own thread elsewhere.

 

[King_Tredrea]

Dunno, from my experiences with Melbourne, Adelaide is a much nicer city. Don't understand at all.

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

Nothing to do in Adelaide.

 

[Jumbo]

Adelaide is stuck in a time warp (somewhere in the mid 1970's) and the Adelaide City Council appear happy living in that era or are too scared to make decisions to allow quaint little Adelaide to progress.
When you live in Adelaide it's easy to accept the place and think it's 'normal' but when you travel to the eastern states you very easily see how backward Adelaide really is.
Having said all that Adelaide is a good place to live a nice quiet life I just wish I had bought a Torana and more lace up ugg boots when I had the chance

 

[Spadge]

Nothing to do in Adelaide.

your not looking very hard

 

[Andre]

By choice I wouldn't live anywhere else then Adelaide, but reasons it sucks in the eyes of the east (of which I agree with) are:

1. A city council stuck in 1950's (1970's is way too generous). Even having lived in Melbourne for 7 years up till the start of last year, at the age of 36 I've still seen enough plans for Victoria square that if I gathered them all together and set them alight it could make a fire visible from space. And if I added all the plans for the old Le Cornu's site it'd be enough to start a major bushfire. This leads into the whole impression the state is run by old farts, for old farts.

2. Antiquated shopping hours. This is one you really don't notice until a) you're doing your own shopping and b) you've experienced decent shopping hours (Coles etc. at least open to midnight, with some stores 24 hours). I miss that if I realise I'm in need of something at 10pm I can just duck down to Coles and grab. Especially if you work the 9 - 5 type hours during the week.

3. Regular Entertainment/dining. Ok, Melbourne has 3 - 4 times the population of Adelaide, but the Lygon street restaurant strip must be 10 - 20 times the size of Rundle street. Then take Crown casino - an integrated entertainment complex with lots of clubs, eateries, cinemas and high end stores. Adelaide casino is off on it's own. Does Adelaide even have non-art house cinemas in the city anymore?

4. Football. Swamp stadium. Sure old timers can talk about cycling 20 km in the snow, with a broken leg, with flat tires to see Port play, but if you wanted a quick catch-phrase to describe people's lives these days, one that'd be near the top of the list would be 'Time poor'. Spend half the day on the footy with travel and that's it - no decent meal or entertainment outside that without more extended travel. In Melbourne numerous times I watched Port play at Docklands and went to crown and/or southbank before or after the match. Ditto several times walked to Lygon street from the MCG after matches. I'd need to take the Monday off work if we played at Max and Leigh park the sunday and I wanted to walk to Rundle street for a post match meal (and probably keel over from lack of food on the way).

5. Concerts / events. It's not just Adelaide gets bypassed for many, it's except for ones at Adelaide oval, again you are off to the entertainment centre (or god forbid footy park). Yet another facility not connected to anything else. In Melbourne it's the docklands or Rod Laver or MCG - all in or close enough to the CBD you can go anywhere else in the city/Lygon street before/after on foot.

Edit - another one below that makes the claim Adelaide as a designed city is the best around, clearly a joke.

6. Transportation into / out of the state. An interstate rail terminal that terminates in a dead spot away from the city. And a bus terminal that's away from the Adelaide station. Back in Melbourne at the end of last year my wife and I wandered around the new DFO on top of 'Southern Cross' (Spencer st.) station. An integrated train and bus terminal, alongside tram lines and within walking distance of hotels, in the city with great shopping right on top to boot. You'd be lucky to have anything more then a snack machine at either of adelaide's terminals.

Forgetting the whole unnecessary Marj project and upgrading the RAH and building a complete integrated entertainment complex over the railyards with a Football stadium capable of hosting any events, an upgraded casino, cinemas, clubs, restaurants and kid friendly entertainment would be a massive step in the right direction, even if it meant the state government had to chip in hundreds of millions. The money saved long term by how much that would reduce the fleeing interstate out of Dullsville would more then repay it over time.

Edit: Add to that as part of that whole development shift the bus terminal there and bring interstate trains back to unload/loaded at Adelaide (a handful both ways a day so not impossible). Fix up all these bloody idiotic a bit here away from everything, a bit here connected to nothing idiocies the place is littered with.

 

[Papa G]

Good observations there Andre and I agree with them all.

I personally also think the Parklands, insanely vaunted and protected by many in this city, are in many ways the worst design flaw in this city and have stifled growth, progress and what I think Adelaide lacks in a big way - inner city vibe.

Having said that, Adelaide has it's benefits as well. Being in the market for a new home, the quality character homes, with great architecture in very nice neighbourhood/suburbs close to the city at not too ridiculous prices absolutely kills every other city in Australia. I have been trawling realestate.com over the last 6 months and it absolutely amazes me what say $1 million buys you in Adelaide compared to any other mainland capital. Sure there's things that suck about Adelaide but we have a very good quality of life as well.

 

[Wildmanwok]

Interesting question and hard to answer.

Personal opinions only for this one hey.

Having lived in SA / Adelaide for 35 year and now 4 years in the Tropics I can say:

When I visit Adelaide I notice:
How dry it is.
How brown it is.
How hot it is.
How cold it is.
How much people whinge.
How people don't smile.
How people look at the footpath when they walk down the street.
How people look at the cup as being half empty not half full.
How insecure people seem about outsiders.
How corrupt it is. You know its corrupt because no one gets busted for being corrupt. Human nature simply doesnt allow for no corruption to exist.
How the government governs for the next election and power, not for the people.
How subservient Mike Rann is to Kevin Rudd instead of the people of SA.
How there doesn't seem to be any backpackers in Adelaide.
How very little has changed. Other than crazy s**t like the Trams to Parliament.
No Papua New Guineans.


I also notice:
How nice food is.
How great a diversity of food that exists.
How good restaurants are. (dont take it for granted)
How good wine is.
How good beer tastes.
How parochial (sic), and how proud people are.
How uselesss the opposition party is.
How there is 4 seasons.
How great Adelaide Oval is.
Swimming in the ocean every day if you want to.
No crocodiles LOL

 

[Andre]

Having said that, Adelaide has it's benefits as well.

Oh definitely, I wouldn't be back here if it didn't. If I was going to put a football analogy on it the state, in particular the Adelaide city council and state government are like the crows, thinking they have the 'admiration of the nation' for the status quo. Where as embracing the port ethos of 'Proud of the past, confident of the future', realising starting with what I've suggested doesn't equate to tearing down every heritage listed house in North Adelaide to be replaced with 20 story gray square apartment blocks, is the way to go

 

[cortez]

I have lived in just about every major city in Australia and Adelaide is the best place to live by far, but its the worst place to visit. In general people dont get excited when they visit Adelaide. The Cities in the Eastern States have a buzz, positive energy and excitement most of the year around. Adelaide only gets this in February/March (fringe, clipsal, Tour) and when Port/Crows play finals footy.

 

[MrMeaner]

the Lygon street restaurant strip must be 10 - 20 times the size of Rundle street.

Why the emphasis on Lygon Street? There are much better places to eat in Melbourne. There are even much better places to eat in Carlton. There are certainly much better places to eat in Adelaide. Besides which, in those other locations, you don't have to put up with the touts.

I guess as long as people keep talking up Lygon St, my wife and I won't have to put up with the after footy rabble. So, please keep talking it up.

Overall, you can usually get a better meal cheaper in Adelaide than in Melbourne. The wine list in Adelaide is usually more reasonably priced too. You just have to know where to look.

 

[Andre]

Why the emphasis on Lygon Street?

Just the most obvious one to indicate, even taking population sizes into account, that there's a lot more centrally located places to eat in Melbourne then Adelaide. Part of the whole 'dead city' once everyone's left for home from work feel it has.

 

[Power King]

Good post Andre.

As a resident of Adelaide, you would get used to those things, however as someone else mentioned, for an interstate visitor, I can imagine how those things can be quite annoying to have to put up with.

I still think we get shat on too much by the eastern states and that we do have a lot on offer.

Out of curiosity, how does Perth and Darwin compare to Adelaide? Perth seems to be a similar size to Adelaide and Darwin smaller, yet these two places escape every criticism under the sun (not sure if this is warranted).

 

[Papa G]

I have noticed lately that Perth people bag Adelaide almost as much as Victorian's, but quite frankly they really don't have any right to. I'm not bagging Perth here but in many ways Perth is Adelaide with 3 taller buildings and less character. They're shopping hours are even more draconian than ours.

The one thing I do admire about Perth is, I guess due to it's isolation, it seems to have more get up and go, a more can do attitude to most things. You can certainly feel the mineral wealth, but on the other hand it is the capital of the cashed up bogan. At one stage in the last couple of years, Perth's median house price was higher than Sydney's. I mean for FFS! Every thing in Perth seems new and although I am one of the biggest critics of the Adelaide "keep everything old and don't build anything new attitude", I think Perth has gone too far the other way.

 

[Andre]

Perth's a strange one. As Papa G states on something's they are more progressive, yet they are worse then us for shopping hours AND they just had a bunch of cow farmers and housewives worried about fading curtains vote down daylight saving after a 3 year trial. Christ if SA ever did that I'd move back to Melbourne in embarrassment. Still on the whole they've got a better balance of progress versus holding onto what's important then we do.

 

[Mufc1975]

#1 reason Adelaide gets a bad wrap ..............we have Mike Rann as premier

 

[Peck]

Adelaide is flat... boring
Adelaide has no great beaches. (compared to sydney / brisbane)
City is much smaller than that of Melbourne/Sydney
Hence less night life etc etc
Water tastes bad

I used to live in adelaide and i liked it and now live in melbourne, i probably wouldnt move back.
Its really just the size of the city for mine, but yea other factors are there.

 

[Spadge]

why do people care about the size of the city? is it really that big a deal?

 

[morell]

As someone else said, Adelaide is a great place to live and a terrible place to visit. So when people pop in for a weekend it really does leave a lot to be desired.

I have lived in Melbourne and Sydney. As a single lad in his 20's both had vastly superior lifestyles compared to Adelaide. Better infrastructure, more events, more restaurants, more club and pubs, just more of everything, really.

Sure, Adelaide has its good spots and can be a lot of fun, its just bigger, better and easier in Melbourne and Sydney if you're after that cosmopolitan style of living.

If you want to raise a family or relax or get away from the bustle but still have pretty much everything at your finger tips, Adelaide is perfect.

 

[birdmanptr]

There always something happening in Melb i love it over there.I went for 3 weeks every year for the Spring Racing Carnival easy to get around people are friendly

Jan they have the Tennis and endless ODI Feb More ODI's and Major racing March Grand Prix the race the Libs lost for us.More Major horse racing Then footy till Sept then the spring Racing Carnival plus endless musicals

Over here in sleepy hollow what do we get that would attract any one for a holliday

 

[Wildmanwok]

...March Grand Prix the race the Libs lost for us....

Paul your stretching the truth a bit.

Its the race Arnold (Labor) gave to the Vics out of spite. Due to the fact that the Libs were going to win the next election because of John Bannon's State Bank con job.

The GP was already gone before the state election.

 

[Andre]

Paul your stretching the truth a bit.

Its the race Arnold (Labor) gave to the Vics out of spite. Due to the fact that the Libs were going to win the next election because of John Bannon's State Bank con job.

The GP was already gone before the state election.

Exactly. Labor just sat on the news we wouldn't be keeping it to try and minimise any election effect. That worked

 

[240volt]

I miss those hot northerly winds in summer followed by the eventual Dust storm.
Bumper to bumper South Rd, Train breakdown Dry Creek, A truck turned over on devils elbow and the grand daddy of them all....The Magic roundabout (please tell me its still not there)

 

[Pinepower]

I miss those hot northerly winds in summer followed by the eventual Dust storm.
Bumper to bumper South Rd, Train breakdown Dry Creek, A truck turned over on devils elbow and the grand daddy of them all....The Magic roundabout (please tell me its still not there)

Devils Elbow is not used by trucks it is now the South Eastern Freeway, and I think you are saying the Britannia Roundabout and that is still there.(Blast)

 

[Magpiespower]

Moved East about ten years ago. Here to stay now.

Prefer Sydney because of work, lifestyle and opportunities.

Even though Adelaide will always be 'home' I still find it to be a stifled, conservative, navel-gazing city.

Frustrating really, because it's got a-lot to offer.

Only reason I head back now is to see Mum who's getting on a bit. Once the old duck goes, I really won't have a reason to return.

Hell, I even love league these days!