It’s a problem with any bureaucracy, anywhere in the world – and it’s also the reason strong figures in politics prevail – doing the right thing the “right way” takes a lot longer than just getting stuff done when it’s most needed.

The principle of “it’s easier to apologise than it is to get permission” gets things moving but it also leaves the door wide open for knee-jerk, half-baked solutions.

Somewhere in the middle are logical, sensible decisions that can be made quickly and seen through efficiently.

One project that slipped through that net was the plan to turn a former Wesley Mission hostel for the indigent elderly into affordable homes for essential workers.

How that all fell apart, despite a $3m city grant, and why it’s now being sold for commercial development, is our main topic in this week’s podcast.

Meanwhile we leave Poland with fond memories of some fantastic buildings and arrive in Prague disappointed that the only freely accessible paternoster elevator left in the city (the one shown in this video) is out of action for repairs.

And finally, Jimmy has a brilliant plan to solve special levy stress. That’sall in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

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Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to mail@flatchat.com.au.
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

Don’t be put off by a tinkle or two of classical music at the start of this week’s podcast. It’s just a small acknowledgement of the fact that we are in Warsaw, where Polish-born piano master composer Frederic Chopin was raised.

What do Warsaw and Gdansk have to do with apartments? Heaps as it turns out. Having been flattened by the Nazis during the Warsaw uprising of 1944, the city was completely restored to its former glory by Soviet overlords after WWII.

And you can take a guess at what the reward was for outstanding contributions to the project, whether it was as an architect or a bricklayer.

A couple of hours north in Gdansk, the shipyards made famous by union leader and eventually president Lech Walesa are mostly silent now. But there are still cranes sweeping the skyline – only now they are building apartments rather than boats.

Oh, and in out mini-rant about how to keep electric bikes and scooters under control, we should have said they have similar system in Hobart.

Closer to home we examine the result of wayward strata manager Whitney Wang’s appeal against having his licence cancelled.

And we look at the pile of money it took to by Australia’s most expensive property -almost as high as the building in which it sits.

That’s all in this weeks’ Flat Chat Wrap (although Jimmy can’t believe he didn’t describe Warsaw as a Chopin centre). Enjoy.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to mail@flatchat.com.au.
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.

This week we’ve taken the podcast overseas as we’re recording on a cruise ship off the coast of Norway.

But it gives us an opportunity to look at one of the vexed questions of living in strata in Australia.

You may not know this but there is already one city in Australia that has rent controls. Do they work? Do they keep rents low or just set a benchmark for rent hikes at every opportunity.

We take advantage of a stop-over in Amsterdam to find out how rent controls work there – where 45 per cent of the population are tenants – and do they solve the housing problems that it too suffers?

And we take a look at the strangest “hotel” rooms in the world and what our cities might be like if everyone rode bikes. That’s all in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap.

____________________________________________________


Flat Chat is all about apartment living, especially in Australia.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter and the Flat Chat website.
Send comments and questions to mail@flatchat.com.au.
Register to ask and answer questions about apartment living anonymously on the website.
Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.