The City of Melbourne site has profiles of some of Melbourne's suburbs. I'm guessing these are the inner suburbs.
The site has a few paragraphs about the suburbs, and then also PDF files with more information.
Carlton is first on the list. It's the Italian hub. We can go eat Italian food on Lygon street, and then visit Carlton Gardens.
I'm looking at it on Google Maps. It's slightly west of the University of Melbourne.
Now I'm going to look at the PDF statistic file thing.
They say it has the area's largest concentration of student apartments. Yeah. Well, that makes sense since it's near the university.
52% of the population was born overseas. That's higher than Melbourne's average. I forgot what that was. Let me go check....
Okay, it's 41.7%.
The people in the Carlton suburb have one of the lowest income averages of Melbourne.
There's not just Italians in Carlton. There's also a lot of Malaysian, Chinese, and Singaporean people.
The median age is 24, which is younger than the Melbourne average of 28.
Basically, Carlton is a student type area. I'm sure there's a lot of stylish beautiful young people hanging out and they'll will me feel old and frumpy. Fun.
Next we have the Docklands. Where's that?
Oh okay. It's near the water...the pier and all that.
The area has the smallest amount of children in the city of Melbourne. It's made up mostly of couples without children. I wonder if these couples are pre-children, or do they plan to remain childless? I wonder if those planning to have kids will move when the baby is born. Or will the area eventually have more children?
It has Melbourne's smallest number of non-English speaking people.
The site keeps using the term municipality. I'm guessing that means the city area? Well, Lord Wiki says it's a defined territory. I guess it would be anything included in what the website/government deems is the City of Melbourne.
Now that we got that straight....let's continue with the Docklands.
It's an affluent area.
I'm getting a picture in my head. Lots of rich white people with no kids.
The area is residential, but also has business space. And apparently this business space is quite coveted.
The Docklands doesn't have a lot of university students. But the people who live there tend be the type who, at one point, got themselves a university education. It's a highly educated area.
Now onto East Melbourne....
On Google Maps, I find myself right above the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
This area has the highest percentage of Australian-born people. If international folks drive you nuts, best to hang out here...probably. Although, there's probably a lot of foreigners in the form of tourists.
This is also the prime area for those who have no children, and aren't partnered with a loved one. It sound a bit like the Docklands. And like the Docklands, people here tend to be well-educated.
Is there a correlation between education and not wanting to make a family?
Fitzroy Gardens is included in the area; also the Parliament and Treasury Building. We might stop to see some of these places.
This area has more elderly people than the city of Melbourne average. I can go here to make myself feel young. Honestly, I feel young most of the time. I shock myself every time I remember my true age. I definitely don't feel that old. I wonder if I look that old. I don't know. I used to look young, but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore.
Let me summarize what we have so far...before I move on. Carlton is where the young students and international people live. The Docklands and East Melbourne is where the rich Australian-born without families live.
Now I'm onto Kensington/Flemington. It sounds like the place to live if you have a problem with too much mucus in your throat.
This is the area west of Royal Park.
Lots of families live here. It probably has a lot of playgrounds. Jack is much less into playgrounds than he was in the past. They used to be the focal point of our vacations. Times have changed. But I'm sure he won't mind one or two playgrounds. I really don't know what the kid is going to enjoy when he's ten.
The profile page of the PDF says the area has a working class history. It's an industry-type place, but it's been gentrified.
Guess what takes place here? The Royal Melbourne Show! That's coming up in September. In August, you can start picking out your show bags.
Now I've moved onto the city centre area....the CBD. This includes St. Kilda Road.
The PDF says it's becoming a popular place for single folks, and couples without children. There's also a high proportion of students.
There's a lot of young adults living in the CBD, but not a lot of children or elderly folks.
There's not a lot of single-parenting going on in the area.
There IS a lot of people who were born overseas. The highest percentage comes from Malaysia.
Next we have North Melbourne. It's north of the CBD, but south of Royal Park. If you're walking to the CBD from the zoo, you'd probably pass North Melbourne.
Lots of children and elderly people live in this area. I bet you can see grandmas playing with their grandchildren.
There's a high proportion of overseas born folks, and a lot of these people are from Somalia. Cool.
North Melbourne has a low proportion of Internet users.
The houses here are low-cost compared to other Melbourne areas, and you get a lot of renters.
There's a lot of single parenting going on over here.
Parkville is next. This is the area between Royal Park and the University of Melbourne. Not surprisingly, they have a lot of youth and students living over there.
Houses are low-cost, and there are a lot of renters.
The profile page just told me that it's not just in-between the university and Royal Park. Parkville INCLUDES the university and Royal Park. If I was a student, I think I'd like living there. You could go to the zoo and see the animals, and study on a bench in Royal Park.
Now we have Port Melbourne. I might get that confused with the Docklands.
Okay. I'm looking at Google Maps. Port Melbourne is UNDER the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. It's south of the Docklands.
There's a lot of working going on in that area. The PDF says it has the highest proportion of full-time work. I don't think this means there's a lot of people fully employed living there. I think it means a lot of people come to this area to work.
Actually, it seems there are NO people living here. It's all industry, and no residential. I'm sure that will change someday.
We lived in a commercial area of Manhattan and that soon changed.
The world is getting crowded. I think most city areas are going to include both residential and business buildings. It will be like NYC. Most buildings have a storefront of the first floor. Then the floors above that have offices and/or apartments. Our apartment building had a swingers bar. Seriously.
We never tried it though.
Now that I think of it though. I might be wrong about most buildings, in NYC, having a storefront on the first floor. I think the affluent areas are less likely to have that. I'm not sure though.
I'm now on South Bank/South Wharf. Where is that? Probably somewhere in the south.
It's south of the Yarra River, and west of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Maybe it includes the gardens. I just realized the river separates the CBD from the gardens. I guess you have to go on a bridge to get across. Or...if you have really strong legs, you can maybe jump over it.
There's lots of young adults living in the area. The people here are highly educated, and in high status jobs. They're internet literate, and there's a fair amount of multicultural diversity. I think I'd probably like this type of area.
It's expensive though....unfortunately. But I don't have to move there, really. We can just stop in for lunch or something.
Lots of people here live in high rise apartments, and this area includes the Eureka tower. One of the places I lived in NYC might have been classified as a high rise apartment. I'm not sure. I don't remember how many floors it had, but I was on the 24th floor. That wasn't the place with the swingers club. In that building, we lived on the 9th floor, and then the 5th floor.
South Bank doesn't have a high proportion of children and elderly. I guess it's people are more career and education focused than family focused.
I'm seeing a trend here. If you have children, it seems less likely you'll have extra money floating about. Of course, that makes sense. There's also a difference between having one child and two or more. It's expensive to have a big family. I can't imagine having to buy plane tickets for three kids.
Instead of giving Jack a sibling, I'm giving him more vacations. That probably sounds shallow of us. But then you have to balance it out with the whole over-population thing. We're helping to keep the numbers down.
Speaking of that....Today we went to the pet store. While we were there, Jack told me that he wanted his cousins to get their new dog at a shelter. Why? It's free! He wants to save them money. I told him it's also more ethical because there are SO many animals needing a home. Why breed a new one? Then I thought about how many human babies are out there needing a home. Yet we keep making more. It actually made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. It's easy for me to say, If I had to do it over, I'd adopt. But I can't say that's true. Most of us want to breed. We want to make biological descendants. I guess it's some kind of natural Darwinian type thing. But it's a bit vain and pathetic. Well, I'm always a bit vain and pathetic. So, what else is new?
I love Jack more than anything in the world. But I'd like to imagine that if I had gone the adoption route, the universe would have reincarnated the kid in someone else's womb, and we'd find each other that way.
See, I say all this.... Then the other day, I was feeling guilty for having only one child. Why? Jack is Tim's only biological relative....well, the only one he knows. I feel I'm robbing Tim of something. But why is it so important to have biological relatives? IS it Darwinian, or an attitude pushed by society?
All right. I should stop this tangent, and move onto the next area; South Yarra. It's near Fawkner park. Or maybe it includes Fawkner park.
It has the highest proportion of old folks in the City of Melbourne. This might be the place where people go to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
People here are well-educated and have healthy-size incomes.
There's not a lot of young-adults or overseas born residents.
I'm getting tired of this post, so fortunately we have only one area left. That is West Melbourne. It's above the Docklands.
There's a lot of young adults here, and not a lot of elderly. There's also not many university students or children.
Okay. I'm bored. Hopefully I haven't bored you guys as much as I've bored myself. If I did...sorry. I WAS having fun in the beginning. Then I got a bit overwhelmed.
Oh well.
The site has a few paragraphs about the suburbs, and then also PDF files with more information.
Carlton is first on the list. It's the Italian hub. We can go eat Italian food on Lygon street, and then visit Carlton Gardens.
I'm looking at it on Google Maps. It's slightly west of the University of Melbourne.
Now I'm going to look at the PDF statistic file thing.
They say it has the area's largest concentration of student apartments. Yeah. Well, that makes sense since it's near the university.
52% of the population was born overseas. That's higher than Melbourne's average. I forgot what that was. Let me go check....
Okay, it's 41.7%.
The people in the Carlton suburb have one of the lowest income averages of Melbourne.
There's not just Italians in Carlton. There's also a lot of Malaysian, Chinese, and Singaporean people.
The median age is 24, which is younger than the Melbourne average of 28.
Basically, Carlton is a student type area. I'm sure there's a lot of stylish beautiful young people hanging out and they'll will me feel old and frumpy. Fun.
Next we have the Docklands. Where's that?
Oh okay. It's near the water...the pier and all that.
The area has the smallest amount of children in the city of Melbourne. It's made up mostly of couples without children. I wonder if these couples are pre-children, or do they plan to remain childless? I wonder if those planning to have kids will move when the baby is born. Or will the area eventually have more children?
It has Melbourne's smallest number of non-English speaking people.
The site keeps using the term municipality. I'm guessing that means the city area? Well, Lord Wiki says it's a defined territory. I guess it would be anything included in what the website/government deems is the City of Melbourne.
Now that we got that straight....let's continue with the Docklands.
It's an affluent area.
I'm getting a picture in my head. Lots of rich white people with no kids.
The area is residential, but also has business space. And apparently this business space is quite coveted.
The Docklands doesn't have a lot of university students. But the people who live there tend be the type who, at one point, got themselves a university education. It's a highly educated area.
Now onto East Melbourne....
On Google Maps, I find myself right above the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
This area has the highest percentage of Australian-born people. If international folks drive you nuts, best to hang out here...probably. Although, there's probably a lot of foreigners in the form of tourists.
This is also the prime area for those who have no children, and aren't partnered with a loved one. It sound a bit like the Docklands. And like the Docklands, people here tend to be well-educated.
Is there a correlation between education and not wanting to make a family?
Fitzroy Gardens is included in the area; also the Parliament and Treasury Building. We might stop to see some of these places.
This area has more elderly people than the city of Melbourne average. I can go here to make myself feel young. Honestly, I feel young most of the time. I shock myself every time I remember my true age. I definitely don't feel that old. I wonder if I look that old. I don't know. I used to look young, but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore.
Let me summarize what we have so far...before I move on. Carlton is where the young students and international people live. The Docklands and East Melbourne is where the rich Australian-born without families live.
Now I'm onto Kensington/Flemington. It sounds like the place to live if you have a problem with too much mucus in your throat.
This is the area west of Royal Park.
Lots of families live here. It probably has a lot of playgrounds. Jack is much less into playgrounds than he was in the past. They used to be the focal point of our vacations. Times have changed. But I'm sure he won't mind one or two playgrounds. I really don't know what the kid is going to enjoy when he's ten.
The profile page of the PDF says the area has a working class history. It's an industry-type place, but it's been gentrified.
Guess what takes place here? The Royal Melbourne Show! That's coming up in September. In August, you can start picking out your show bags.
Now I've moved onto the city centre area....the CBD. This includes St. Kilda Road.
The PDF says it's becoming a popular place for single folks, and couples without children. There's also a high proportion of students.
There's a lot of young adults living in the CBD, but not a lot of children or elderly folks.
There's not a lot of single-parenting going on in the area.
There IS a lot of people who were born overseas. The highest percentage comes from Malaysia.
Next we have North Melbourne. It's north of the CBD, but south of Royal Park. If you're walking to the CBD from the zoo, you'd probably pass North Melbourne.
Lots of children and elderly people live in this area. I bet you can see grandmas playing with their grandchildren.
There's a high proportion of overseas born folks, and a lot of these people are from Somalia. Cool.
North Melbourne has a low proportion of Internet users.
The houses here are low-cost compared to other Melbourne areas, and you get a lot of renters.
There's a lot of single parenting going on over here.
Parkville is next. This is the area between Royal Park and the University of Melbourne. Not surprisingly, they have a lot of youth and students living over there.
Houses are low-cost, and there are a lot of renters.
The profile page just told me that it's not just in-between the university and Royal Park. Parkville INCLUDES the university and Royal Park. If I was a student, I think I'd like living there. You could go to the zoo and see the animals, and study on a bench in Royal Park.
Now we have Port Melbourne. I might get that confused with the Docklands.
Okay. I'm looking at Google Maps. Port Melbourne is UNDER the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. It's south of the Docklands.
There's a lot of working going on in that area. The PDF says it has the highest proportion of full-time work. I don't think this means there's a lot of people fully employed living there. I think it means a lot of people come to this area to work.
Actually, it seems there are NO people living here. It's all industry, and no residential. I'm sure that will change someday.
We lived in a commercial area of Manhattan and that soon changed.
The world is getting crowded. I think most city areas are going to include both residential and business buildings. It will be like NYC. Most buildings have a storefront of the first floor. Then the floors above that have offices and/or apartments. Our apartment building had a swingers bar. Seriously.
We never tried it though.
Now that I think of it though. I might be wrong about most buildings, in NYC, having a storefront on the first floor. I think the affluent areas are less likely to have that. I'm not sure though.
I'm now on South Bank/South Wharf. Where is that? Probably somewhere in the south.
It's south of the Yarra River, and west of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Maybe it includes the gardens. I just realized the river separates the CBD from the gardens. I guess you have to go on a bridge to get across. Or...if you have really strong legs, you can maybe jump over it.
There's lots of young adults living in the area. The people here are highly educated, and in high status jobs. They're internet literate, and there's a fair amount of multicultural diversity. I think I'd probably like this type of area.
It's expensive though....unfortunately. But I don't have to move there, really. We can just stop in for lunch or something.
Lots of people here live in high rise apartments, and this area includes the Eureka tower. One of the places I lived in NYC might have been classified as a high rise apartment. I'm not sure. I don't remember how many floors it had, but I was on the 24th floor. That wasn't the place with the swingers club. In that building, we lived on the 9th floor, and then the 5th floor.
South Bank doesn't have a high proportion of children and elderly. I guess it's people are more career and education focused than family focused.
I'm seeing a trend here. If you have children, it seems less likely you'll have extra money floating about. Of course, that makes sense. There's also a difference between having one child and two or more. It's expensive to have a big family. I can't imagine having to buy plane tickets for three kids.
Instead of giving Jack a sibling, I'm giving him more vacations. That probably sounds shallow of us. But then you have to balance it out with the whole over-population thing. We're helping to keep the numbers down.
Speaking of that....Today we went to the pet store. While we were there, Jack told me that he wanted his cousins to get their new dog at a shelter. Why? It's free! He wants to save them money. I told him it's also more ethical because there are SO many animals needing a home. Why breed a new one? Then I thought about how many human babies are out there needing a home. Yet we keep making more. It actually made me feel a bit sick to my stomach. It's easy for me to say, If I had to do it over, I'd adopt. But I can't say that's true. Most of us want to breed. We want to make biological descendants. I guess it's some kind of natural Darwinian type thing. But it's a bit vain and pathetic. Well, I'm always a bit vain and pathetic. So, what else is new?
I love Jack more than anything in the world. But I'd like to imagine that if I had gone the adoption route, the universe would have reincarnated the kid in someone else's womb, and we'd find each other that way.
See, I say all this.... Then the other day, I was feeling guilty for having only one child. Why? Jack is Tim's only biological relative....well, the only one he knows. I feel I'm robbing Tim of something. But why is it so important to have biological relatives? IS it Darwinian, or an attitude pushed by society?
All right. I should stop this tangent, and move onto the next area; South Yarra. It's near Fawkner park. Or maybe it includes Fawkner park.
It has the highest proportion of old folks in the City of Melbourne. This might be the place where people go to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
People here are well-educated and have healthy-size incomes.
There's not a lot of young-adults or overseas born residents.
I'm getting tired of this post, so fortunately we have only one area left. That is West Melbourne. It's above the Docklands.
There's a lot of young adults here, and not a lot of elderly. There's also not many university students or children.
Okay. I'm bored. Hopefully I haven't bored you guys as much as I've bored myself. If I did...sorry. I WAS having fun in the beginning. Then I got a bit overwhelmed.
Oh well.