Ten Visionary Things Sydney Will Have By 2030

Sydney is getting itself a high-tech, cultural-savvy facelift. The City of Sydney has a vision for the future of the city, and while devastatingly that future does not appear to include robot butlers or hover boards, what it does promise is an infrastructural makeover to reflect the growing recognition that Sydney is now a global cultural hub.

Under the umbrella Sydney 2030, the council is working on a raft of policies to make that vision a reality. In a political culture that continues to disappoint and defy expectations through its perennial short-sightedness, the bold and far-reaching planning initiative is a breath of carbon-reduced air. Under this umbrella, the City of Sydney is focusing on creating a city that better accommodates Sydney's ever-growing population by tackling global warming head-on, building bigger and better cultural venues and introducing structural changes to facilitate economic and cultural growth.

Despite their ambitious scope, the goals of Sydney 2030 appear to be totally within our grasp. What's more, the council is calling for you to submit your ideas for their cultural policy right now, so it's the perfect time to be thinking about what else could help make our urban lives even better. Here are just 10 City of Sydney projects confirmed or floated so far that look set to create a greener, more prosperous and more globally connected future.

1. Trigeneration

The City of Sydney, unlike their state and federal counterparts, are refusing to pass the buck on tackling greenhouse emissions. Instead they've undertaken the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target in Australia, hoping to cut emissions by 70 percent by 2030 (based on 2006 levels). To make this possible, the City of Sydney has invested in some pretty awesome new green technology. Most notable has been trigeneration, a process twice as energy efficient as coal-powered stations, which generates electricity by using household waste converted into natural gas. It seems we ain't that far behind science fiction anymore.

2. Late-Night Childcare

A research paper by the City of Sydney has made a surprising and potentially game-changing discovery. What is stopping Sydneysiders from their late 20s up until their mid-40s from going to the theatre? The answer: children. This startlingly simple discovery has provided the reasoning behind the proposed introduction of late-night childcare. With extended hours at the City of Sydney's four childcare centres, Sydneysiders will no longer have to forfeit their love of the theatre and our city's booming nightlife for their parental responsibilities.

3. Green Square's Library of the Future

Even the humble library is getting a space-age twist under the City of Sydney's new policy. Last year, architects from around the world were invited to enter their own design for a new library and plaza for the Green Square Town Centre. The winning design by local boy Stewart Hollenstein is particularly ingenious as it positions the building slightly below ground, allowing the library to flow into the open spaces of Green Square and creating an incredible indoor/outdoor hybrid. Not simply a place to borrow textbooks, the Green Square Library has been envisaged as a centre for community activity with everything from an amphitheatre to a storytelling garden and water play zone to be a part of the expansive and innovative design.

4. Pop-Up Pissoirs

It may not sound that glamourous, but pop-up pissoirs, or 'high-tech toilets', may play a huge role in revitalising Sydney's nightlife. These funky, self-cleaning thunderboxes completely disappear during the day and can then, via the push of a button, be hydraulically 'popped-up' at night. The incredible usefulness of these funny little contraptions is hard to overstate, with the introduction of portable loos last summer diverting an estimated 5000 litres of pee that otherwise would have covered our streets. These pop-up pissoirs look likely to transform the city into a significantly cleaner, more family-friendly and just all-round nicer place to live and party.

5. Eora Journey

Sydney's makeover is not simply about modernising and reinventing but also about paying acknowledgement to its Indigenous past. The Eora Journey, an Indigenous cultural walk from Redfern to the harbour, plans to do exactly this. The walk will take travellers on a tour through some of the city's most significant Indigenous sites, with everything from murals to plaques and bushtucker. With the first of the murals already complete (a gloriously minimalist mural in Caroline Street, Redfern entitled Welcome to Redfern), the Eora Journey looks set to be an enchanting tour of Sydney's Indigenous culture and history.

6. A New Main-Stage Lyric Theatre

Bigger seems to be better for the City of Sydney, who are hoping to transform Sydney into a global artistic hotspot, in the vein of Vienna or even New York. Carriageworks is getting a renovation, the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall is having its acoustics redone and Sydney is about to get itself a collection of exciting new theatres. While these projects are still in their infancy, one proposed development that has the theatre-folk a-tremblin' is a 2000-seat main-stage lyric theatre set to be built in Barangaroo. Sydney may soon become the Broadway of down under if the City of Sydney has its way.

7. Ultimo Goods Line

How do you turn an abandoned stretch of industrial railway into something worthwhile? Transform it into a New York-inspired elevated park of course. This multimillion-dollar project will see the disused goods line from Ultimo to Haymarket become a lush park and walkway, built four metres above street level. The Ultimo Goods Line is set to include community gardens, street art and ping pong tables. Linking in with nearby UTS, it will spice up this infamously drab harbourside area.

8. Light Rail

I don't think you can call yourself a Sydney local unless you whine on a daily basis about the city's abhorrent excuse for public transport and the dire state of CBD traffic. The City of Sydney are responding to our complaints through a hefty investment in Sydney's light rail system. Not only could light rail cut the need for city bus services but will, we hope, allow for the council to block off all traffic between Bathurst and Hunter Street such that George Street could be repurposed as a user-friendly boulevard. With a new station already under construction in Dulwich Hill and extensions planned for the light rail line from Central Station to Circular Quay, the dream of a city free from significant congestion may be possible come 2030.

9. Prince Alfred Park Pool

It's overdue, overpriced and an overwhelming hassle for the City of Sydney, but the revamped Prince Alfred Park Pool has finally reached the last stages of construction. While the outdoor facility was once seen as an embarrassing eyesore for the residents of Surry Hills, there ain't much that a $30 million renovation can't fix. Picture a nostalgically beautiful yet deceptively high-tech complex complete with a 50-metre pool powered by innovative green technology, oversized umbrellas, a huge play area and a new cafe and you have yourself the city's newest outdoor attraction.

10. Harbour Bay Leafy Pathways

The City of Sydney's proposal to build more tree-lined pathways around the harbour area is not simply an aesthetic choice (though who doesn't like leafy paths?) but represents the defining feature of the Sustainable Sydney policy: making the city more liveable. More paths equals more walkers and cyclists, greater community safety, a move away from diesel-guzzling congestion and a greater commitment to local fauna and flora in the city area. Simple it may be, but it just might make our fair city that little bit more inviting to wander around in.