When travelling to the city, I usually catch a train before the morning peak hour, and I usually travel home after the evening peak hour, but in the past week I’ve caught peak hour trains twice, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Our road are too congested; our public transport is overloaded: what does the future hold for the city of Melbourne? According to an article in yesterday’s Age newspaper, no vision means no future.
The Victorian State Government does in fact have a strategy document entitled Melbourne 2030: Planning for Sustainable Growth. It says that Melbourne will grow by up to 1 million people over the next 25 years. Part of the strategy is “better management of metropolitan growth”, but I wonder whether this isn’t like a policeman standing beside a road waving at traffic as it goes past, but not actually directing the traffic.
I also wonder how Melbourne’s churches are planning to cater for the 33% increase in the number of people in the city. I wonder how much strategic planning and investment is going into starting new churches in the growth corridors. What is the best way to serve the people in the new housing estates? How the church be an active participant in creating the new communities?