IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Failure of existing models of recreation clubs provides an opportunity to reimagine how space can be transformed to engage new demographics. Established in 1896, Petersham Bowling Club in inner-city Sydney was a failing lawn bowls club that had lost the ability to engage with its local community as the demographics changed. In 2006, after long resistance, it was strategically taken over by the local community who resisted the old guards’ desire to develop the greens into townhouses. The author became President/Chair of the club. The local community saw the protection of the recreational club and green space as more valuable than the development opportunity of the land. None of the new community board were bowlers or had run a club or worked in a bar (the main source of revenue). Unencumbered by traditional ways of doing things allowed new ideas to be tested on how to transform a 19th-century institution into a 21st-century club that was relevant to the broader community such that it wasn’t just surviving but thriving. Music, culture, and recreation for a variety of ages became core business. In 2022 the club celebrated its 125th birthday and 15 years of being community-run. On a social level, the author is a big believer in communalism. It is kind of the secret of a healthy society that we all meet each other, we bump into each other, different parts of our society, and we interact. For a city to be liveable we need to create and/or maintain secular places where people can commune. It’s the only way we learn about each other. As a small club, Petersham has lots of disparate groups come through intersecting, and we all have to figure out how to get on with each other. Existing sports clubs can be reimagined to include users outside the core sport such that the space expands to include cultural and social users who are allowed to co-habitat the space.