My Place Ashmore Community Survey 2023 Final report

Abstract

The Ashmore Precinct is one of the City of Sydney’s largest urban renewal areas. The 17-hectare site is being developed over the next 10 years into a mixed-use precinct which will eventually house around 6,000 residents (CoS n.d.). A retail area with cafés and a small supermarket has been delivered, with plans for a new 7,400sqm park and a green walking and cycling link between Harry Noble Park in the north and Sydney Park in the south (CoS n.d.). The City of Sydney’s Community Strategic Plan (CoS 2022) recognises that urban renewal sites such as the Ashmore Precinct provide the opportunity to make significant improvements to the social, economic and environmental performance of the City and Sydney region. So that the City can identify how it might best support communities’ social wellbeing and resilience associated with environmental, economic and social changes, it is essential to collect information about the experiences and desires of residents and workers. This includes their satisfaction with, and feelings of attachment and belonging to, the places they live and work, the nature of their social interactions and social cohesion, and their plans and desires regarding their local areas. To this end, this report presents the results of a community survey of residents and workers in the Ashmore Area in Sydney, Australia. This survey is undertaken on a recurring basis every 2-3 years, to monitor changes to the social fabric over time as the urban renewal area develops. The study was undertaken by researchers at UNSW Sydney, with the assistance and support of the City of Sydney Council. The aim of this research was to develop a survey tool for on-going assessment of social interactions and social cohesion at a large-scale urban renewal site that could be used to: * Measure the nature of social cohesion and social interaction and identify opportunities and barriers residents face in contributing to social cohesion and community development. * Understand the wellbeing of residents and workers, including their satisfaction with and attachment to the area, their local area preferences and desires, and their plans for the future. In summary, 1,318 residents and 650 workers completed the survey in Ashmore Area (454 respondents both lived and worked in Ashmore Area). The survey results reasonably reflect the total residential population (with a margin of error of 2.57%) once a weighting has been applied to correct for a bias in the age of respondents. However, the survey results for workers also have a similar degree of error, it is based on a potentially outdated workers base population. It is also possible that a large number of these workers are working from home. As such they should not be considered representative of the total working population of the area