Latest news with #Honeysuckle
Time Out
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A cannabis dispensary that looks like a mini-Grand Central just opened in Midtown
Hell's Kitchen just scored a new commuter hub—only this one runs on flower, not Metro-North trains. NYC Bud, the team behind Long Island City's subway car-themed dispensary, has unveiled its second location at 405 W. 39th St. and it's a cannabis lover's ticket to ride. Instead of departures and arrivals, the 'main concourse' here is lined with curated New York-grown flower, pre-rolls, vapes and edibles. The showstopper is a scaled-down replica of Grand Central's famous turquoise-and-gold constellation ceiling, hand-painted by street artists Jamie Hef and Cern. It arches over a central information booth (clocktower coming soon) that doubles as a pick-up counter, where your order pops up on a screen like a train schedule. Even the ATM machines are dressed as Metro-North ticket kiosks—because, why not? Co-founders and longtime friends Jonpaul Pezzo and Giancarlo Pinto say the Grand Central theme was about taking their original transit nostalgia concept 'to the next station.' 'This one is more an ode to Grand Central Station,' NYC Bud co-founder and owner Jonpaul Pezzo told Honeysuckle. ' Our first location had an actual train in it. With this one, we wanted to elevate the idea—create something that feels just as epic and just as New York.' That commitment to immersive design is as much about Instagram as it is about ambiance. 'Our goal is always, what is going to get people to take pictures of this place, post about it, and become its promoters?' Pezzo told W42ST. Mission accomplished—the ribbon-cutting on Aug. 2 featured street performances (including viral act Buddy the Rat) and a steady stream of gawking visitors snapping ceiling selfies. The pair has deep roots in the neighborhood—Pezzo threw his first Hell's Kitchen party in 2003, and Pinto's been a fixture on West 39th Street for years—and they're betting on the area's continued transformation. The Port Authority's shiny new bus facility is going up next door and they see their shop as part of a more polished future for the block. While the decor is pure showpiece, the menu is all business: Every strain has been personally tested by Pezzo, with products sourced from top-tier New York farms like Dank. Whether you're into premium flower, craft gummies or sleek vape carts, it's all compliant with state law and served by an in-house crew of passionate cannabis pros.
The Advertiser
01-08-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
A park in Honeysuckle? Newcastle can do so much better
The idea is appealing, but it would be a colossal mistake. The harbourfront redevelopment site next to Newcastle Interchange should not become a park. The site is earmarked as the grand finale of the Honeysuckle development, to be called Honeysuckle Quays, or HQ. If the state government doesn't stuff up the project, we will get the spectacle of a tall city centre rising beside the water - smaller than but visually similar to such marvels as Sydney, Hong Kong and New York. Using the land as a park, on the other hand, would be a sound way of confirming our condition as good ol' country-town Newcastle. Herald letter writer Denis Hainsworth proposed the idea of a park on the site a month ago. "Instead of a high-rise, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a large park that would provide much-needed green space in this part of the city?" he wrote. And my fellow Herald columnist John Tierney took up the cause in an article on Tuesday, saying that the land could "provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West." Yes, the idea is appealing. But putting a park anywhere is always appealing. Show me a site in Newcastle where people would disagree with the statement "Wouldn't it be nice to have a park here." No one ever challenges a statement that a park is "needed". But the area that we set aside for parks is always a matter of balance. And not even inner-city Newcastle is in danger of under-doing that balance. The new core of the city centre is rising around the interchange. The most intense part will be from Tudor Street to Bank Corner; it's intended to extend towards the harbour through the HQ site. All this is as close as 150 metres from enormous National Park, 23 hectares of green space, about as big as 400 suburban residential lots. Just 600 metres west of the interchange is splendid Wickham Park, which is cut off from the city now but should become accessible as redevelopment proceeds. The harbour itself offers open space. We can't walk on it, but we can walk beside it under trees that have hardly begun to grow. No one living or working around the new city centre will feel a lack of open space. As John Tierney says, we should have had more open space along the harbourfront. But the state government, working with Newcastle council, has stuffed up Honeysuckle good and proper with the damnable concrete canyon and by failing to adequately connect the redevelopment zone with Hunter Street. Now we must not fail to make the best use of the Honeysuckle land that we have left: HQ. It must be a site for buildings because it would connect the new city-centre core with the water, making it much more alluring to go into town. In attracting people, it should breathe more life into the rest of Honeysuckle. HQ is right next to the interchange. We must maximise the use of our central railway station with its integrated tramline and bus terminal. Apartment buildings, hotels, offices and shops would do that. A park wouldn't. In extending development to the water, HQ will at last provide a bit of depth to our inconveniently skinny city centre, which has always imposed long walking distances. HQ will also offer a visual spectacle - not just for us to admire but for outsiders to notice, letting them know that, actually, we're not another country town in "regional Australia". Its effect on our national image should be enormous. That would attract more investment and jobs. This aspect of HQ must not be underestimated. And we cannot achieve the same effect anywhere else on the harbour, because this is the last site. Now, there are two little opportunities for enlarging inner-city park space near the interchange that we should seize - not because we really need to, but because we can. When King Street was extended through poor old Birdwood Park in 1973, we were left with two fragments of open space that are barely more than traffic islands. On their north sides is King Street, and on the south sides each has a road that we could abolish. We'd greatly improve the little parks by adding the widths of those roads to them. The roads aren't needed because the adjoining sites, including the western part of Marketown, also front Parry Street. One of these fragmentary parks is called Little Birdwood Park, a good name that we should keep. The other is merely the "King Street Reserve", a name that we can improve on. In the 19th century, the AA Company's rail line to its coal mines at Hamilton, including the Borehole No.1 and No.2 pits, passed along what is now the King Street Reserve. In his book Coal, Railways and Mines, the historian Brian Robert Andrews reprints this report from the Maitland Mercury of 28 March 1857, when horses still hauled the trains: "A melancholy accident occurred to a boy named Joseph Newman, about 12 years of age, employed on the Borehole road [rail line], on Saturday last. It appears his regular employment was to take out a spare horse about half a mile on the road to meet the loaded trains, and that he then used to ride in on the waggons. On the day in question he had got on the waggons as usual, but it appears he got off again and went for a drink in a house close by. The driver soon after missed him, and looking back saw his body lying along the road." Little Joseph Newman, horribly injured, appears to have slipped and fallen under a train. Let's enlarge the King Street Reserve and call it Newman Park. The idea is appealing, but it would be a colossal mistake. The harbourfront redevelopment site next to Newcastle Interchange should not become a park. The site is earmarked as the grand finale of the Honeysuckle development, to be called Honeysuckle Quays, or HQ. If the state government doesn't stuff up the project, we will get the spectacle of a tall city centre rising beside the water - smaller than but visually similar to such marvels as Sydney, Hong Kong and New York. Using the land as a park, on the other hand, would be a sound way of confirming our condition as good ol' country-town Newcastle. Herald letter writer Denis Hainsworth proposed the idea of a park on the site a month ago. "Instead of a high-rise, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a large park that would provide much-needed green space in this part of the city?" he wrote. And my fellow Herald columnist John Tierney took up the cause in an article on Tuesday, saying that the land could "provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West." Yes, the idea is appealing. But putting a park anywhere is always appealing. Show me a site in Newcastle where people would disagree with the statement "Wouldn't it be nice to have a park here." No one ever challenges a statement that a park is "needed". But the area that we set aside for parks is always a matter of balance. And not even inner-city Newcastle is in danger of under-doing that balance. The new core of the city centre is rising around the interchange. The most intense part will be from Tudor Street to Bank Corner; it's intended to extend towards the harbour through the HQ site. All this is as close as 150 metres from enormous National Park, 23 hectares of green space, about as big as 400 suburban residential lots. Just 600 metres west of the interchange is splendid Wickham Park, which is cut off from the city now but should become accessible as redevelopment proceeds. The harbour itself offers open space. We can't walk on it, but we can walk beside it under trees that have hardly begun to grow. No one living or working around the new city centre will feel a lack of open space. As John Tierney says, we should have had more open space along the harbourfront. But the state government, working with Newcastle council, has stuffed up Honeysuckle good and proper with the damnable concrete canyon and by failing to adequately connect the redevelopment zone with Hunter Street. Now we must not fail to make the best use of the Honeysuckle land that we have left: HQ. It must be a site for buildings because it would connect the new city-centre core with the water, making it much more alluring to go into town. In attracting people, it should breathe more life into the rest of Honeysuckle. HQ is right next to the interchange. We must maximise the use of our central railway station with its integrated tramline and bus terminal. Apartment buildings, hotels, offices and shops would do that. A park wouldn't. In extending development to the water, HQ will at last provide a bit of depth to our inconveniently skinny city centre, which has always imposed long walking distances. HQ will also offer a visual spectacle - not just for us to admire but for outsiders to notice, letting them know that, actually, we're not another country town in "regional Australia". Its effect on our national image should be enormous. That would attract more investment and jobs. This aspect of HQ must not be underestimated. And we cannot achieve the same effect anywhere else on the harbour, because this is the last site. Now, there are two little opportunities for enlarging inner-city park space near the interchange that we should seize - not because we really need to, but because we can. When King Street was extended through poor old Birdwood Park in 1973, we were left with two fragments of open space that are barely more than traffic islands. On their north sides is King Street, and on the south sides each has a road that we could abolish. We'd greatly improve the little parks by adding the widths of those roads to them. The roads aren't needed because the adjoining sites, including the western part of Marketown, also front Parry Street. One of these fragmentary parks is called Little Birdwood Park, a good name that we should keep. The other is merely the "King Street Reserve", a name that we can improve on. In the 19th century, the AA Company's rail line to its coal mines at Hamilton, including the Borehole No.1 and No.2 pits, passed along what is now the King Street Reserve. In his book Coal, Railways and Mines, the historian Brian Robert Andrews reprints this report from the Maitland Mercury of 28 March 1857, when horses still hauled the trains: "A melancholy accident occurred to a boy named Joseph Newman, about 12 years of age, employed on the Borehole road [rail line], on Saturday last. It appears his regular employment was to take out a spare horse about half a mile on the road to meet the loaded trains, and that he then used to ride in on the waggons. On the day in question he had got on the waggons as usual, but it appears he got off again and went for a drink in a house close by. The driver soon after missed him, and looking back saw his body lying along the road." Little Joseph Newman, horribly injured, appears to have slipped and fallen under a train. Let's enlarge the King Street Reserve and call it Newman Park. The idea is appealing, but it would be a colossal mistake. The harbourfront redevelopment site next to Newcastle Interchange should not become a park. The site is earmarked as the grand finale of the Honeysuckle development, to be called Honeysuckle Quays, or HQ. If the state government doesn't stuff up the project, we will get the spectacle of a tall city centre rising beside the water - smaller than but visually similar to such marvels as Sydney, Hong Kong and New York. Using the land as a park, on the other hand, would be a sound way of confirming our condition as good ol' country-town Newcastle. Herald letter writer Denis Hainsworth proposed the idea of a park on the site a month ago. "Instead of a high-rise, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a large park that would provide much-needed green space in this part of the city?" he wrote. And my fellow Herald columnist John Tierney took up the cause in an article on Tuesday, saying that the land could "provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West." Yes, the idea is appealing. But putting a park anywhere is always appealing. Show me a site in Newcastle where people would disagree with the statement "Wouldn't it be nice to have a park here." No one ever challenges a statement that a park is "needed". But the area that we set aside for parks is always a matter of balance. And not even inner-city Newcastle is in danger of under-doing that balance. The new core of the city centre is rising around the interchange. The most intense part will be from Tudor Street to Bank Corner; it's intended to extend towards the harbour through the HQ site. All this is as close as 150 metres from enormous National Park, 23 hectares of green space, about as big as 400 suburban residential lots. Just 600 metres west of the interchange is splendid Wickham Park, which is cut off from the city now but should become accessible as redevelopment proceeds. The harbour itself offers open space. We can't walk on it, but we can walk beside it under trees that have hardly begun to grow. No one living or working around the new city centre will feel a lack of open space. As John Tierney says, we should have had more open space along the harbourfront. But the state government, working with Newcastle council, has stuffed up Honeysuckle good and proper with the damnable concrete canyon and by failing to adequately connect the redevelopment zone with Hunter Street. Now we must not fail to make the best use of the Honeysuckle land that we have left: HQ. It must be a site for buildings because it would connect the new city-centre core with the water, making it much more alluring to go into town. In attracting people, it should breathe more life into the rest of Honeysuckle. HQ is right next to the interchange. We must maximise the use of our central railway station with its integrated tramline and bus terminal. Apartment buildings, hotels, offices and shops would do that. A park wouldn't. In extending development to the water, HQ will at last provide a bit of depth to our inconveniently skinny city centre, which has always imposed long walking distances. HQ will also offer a visual spectacle - not just for us to admire but for outsiders to notice, letting them know that, actually, we're not another country town in "regional Australia". Its effect on our national image should be enormous. That would attract more investment and jobs. This aspect of HQ must not be underestimated. And we cannot achieve the same effect anywhere else on the harbour, because this is the last site. Now, there are two little opportunities for enlarging inner-city park space near the interchange that we should seize - not because we really need to, but because we can. When King Street was extended through poor old Birdwood Park in 1973, we were left with two fragments of open space that are barely more than traffic islands. On their north sides is King Street, and on the south sides each has a road that we could abolish. We'd greatly improve the little parks by adding the widths of those roads to them. The roads aren't needed because the adjoining sites, including the western part of Marketown, also front Parry Street. One of these fragmentary parks is called Little Birdwood Park, a good name that we should keep. The other is merely the "King Street Reserve", a name that we can improve on. In the 19th century, the AA Company's rail line to its coal mines at Hamilton, including the Borehole No.1 and No.2 pits, passed along what is now the King Street Reserve. In his book Coal, Railways and Mines, the historian Brian Robert Andrews reprints this report from the Maitland Mercury of 28 March 1857, when horses still hauled the trains: "A melancholy accident occurred to a boy named Joseph Newman, about 12 years of age, employed on the Borehole road [rail line], on Saturday last. It appears his regular employment was to take out a spare horse about half a mile on the road to meet the loaded trains, and that he then used to ride in on the waggons. On the day in question he had got on the waggons as usual, but it appears he got off again and went for a drink in a house close by. The driver soon after missed him, and looking back saw his body lying along the road." Little Joseph Newman, horribly injured, appears to have slipped and fallen under a train. Let's enlarge the King Street Reserve and call it Newman Park. The idea is appealing, but it would be a colossal mistake. The harbourfront redevelopment site next to Newcastle Interchange should not become a park. The site is earmarked as the grand finale of the Honeysuckle development, to be called Honeysuckle Quays, or HQ. If the state government doesn't stuff up the project, we will get the spectacle of a tall city centre rising beside the water - smaller than but visually similar to such marvels as Sydney, Hong Kong and New York. Using the land as a park, on the other hand, would be a sound way of confirming our condition as good ol' country-town Newcastle. Herald letter writer Denis Hainsworth proposed the idea of a park on the site a month ago. "Instead of a high-rise, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a large park that would provide much-needed green space in this part of the city?" he wrote. And my fellow Herald columnist John Tierney took up the cause in an article on Tuesday, saying that the land could "provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West." Yes, the idea is appealing. But putting a park anywhere is always appealing. Show me a site in Newcastle where people would disagree with the statement "Wouldn't it be nice to have a park here." No one ever challenges a statement that a park is "needed". But the area that we set aside for parks is always a matter of balance. And not even inner-city Newcastle is in danger of under-doing that balance. The new core of the city centre is rising around the interchange. The most intense part will be from Tudor Street to Bank Corner; it's intended to extend towards the harbour through the HQ site. All this is as close as 150 metres from enormous National Park, 23 hectares of green space, about as big as 400 suburban residential lots. Just 600 metres west of the interchange is splendid Wickham Park, which is cut off from the city now but should become accessible as redevelopment proceeds. The harbour itself offers open space. We can't walk on it, but we can walk beside it under trees that have hardly begun to grow. No one living or working around the new city centre will feel a lack of open space. As John Tierney says, we should have had more open space along the harbourfront. But the state government, working with Newcastle council, has stuffed up Honeysuckle good and proper with the damnable concrete canyon and by failing to adequately connect the redevelopment zone with Hunter Street. Now we must not fail to make the best use of the Honeysuckle land that we have left: HQ. It must be a site for buildings because it would connect the new city-centre core with the water, making it much more alluring to go into town. In attracting people, it should breathe more life into the rest of Honeysuckle. HQ is right next to the interchange. We must maximise the use of our central railway station with its integrated tramline and bus terminal. Apartment buildings, hotels, offices and shops would do that. A park wouldn't. In extending development to the water, HQ will at last provide a bit of depth to our inconveniently skinny city centre, which has always imposed long walking distances. HQ will also offer a visual spectacle - not just for us to admire but for outsiders to notice, letting them know that, actually, we're not another country town in "regional Australia". Its effect on our national image should be enormous. That would attract more investment and jobs. This aspect of HQ must not be underestimated. And we cannot achieve the same effect anywhere else on the harbour, because this is the last site. Now, there are two little opportunities for enlarging inner-city park space near the interchange that we should seize - not because we really need to, but because we can. When King Street was extended through poor old Birdwood Park in 1973, we were left with two fragments of open space that are barely more than traffic islands. On their north sides is King Street, and on the south sides each has a road that we could abolish. We'd greatly improve the little parks by adding the widths of those roads to them. The roads aren't needed because the adjoining sites, including the western part of Marketown, also front Parry Street. One of these fragmentary parks is called Little Birdwood Park, a good name that we should keep. The other is merely the "King Street Reserve", a name that we can improve on. In the 19th century, the AA Company's rail line to its coal mines at Hamilton, including the Borehole No.1 and No.2 pits, passed along what is now the King Street Reserve. In his book Coal, Railways and Mines, the historian Brian Robert Andrews reprints this report from the Maitland Mercury of 28 March 1857, when horses still hauled the trains: "A melancholy accident occurred to a boy named Joseph Newman, about 12 years of age, employed on the Borehole road [rail line], on Saturday last. It appears his regular employment was to take out a spare horse about half a mile on the road to meet the loaded trains, and that he then used to ride in on the waggons. On the day in question he had got on the waggons as usual, but it appears he got off again and went for a drink in a house close by. The driver soon after missed him, and looking back saw his body lying along the road." Little Joseph Newman, horribly injured, appears to have slipped and fallen under a train. Let's enlarge the King Street Reserve and call it Newman Park.
The Advertiser
29-07-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
I was there when Honeysuckle was signed off. What went wrong?
I witnessed one of the best examples of co-operation between our three levels of government and our two main political parties when the Honeysuckle project was launched in Newcastle in 1992, three years after the earthquake. The initial $100 million fund to support the conversion of disused railway land in the Newcastle CBD was enabled by the Keating ALP government's Better Cities program, which provided two-thirds of the funding, with the remaining amount and management of the development being provided by the NSW Fahey Liberal government. The City of Newcastle, under the leadership of lord mayor John McNaughton, also played a critical role in supporting the changes required locally to make this urban renewal project happen. As the Hunter-based federal senator, I joined a roundtable in Newcastle City Hall when this bipartisan intergovernmental agreement was signed off in 1992. We had high hopes that the conversion of 50 hectares of derelict CBD railway land on the harbour would be a game-changer for the renewal of the city centre. Politicians then stepped back, and NSW bureaucrats took over the Honeysuckle project approvals process. Now, 33 years later, it's crucial to ask: has the Honeysuckle project, which is nearing completion, lived up to our initial high expectations? Regrettably, many of the planned green spaces have not materialised. The potential for the impressive 1988 Bicentennial Newcastle Foreshore greenspace project to extend down the harbour as far as Wickham was lost when apartment and hotel developments were approved on Honeysuckle land, encroaching on the harbour's edge. Near the restored former railway workshops, a very imaginative plan for a small boat harbour inlet was also scrapped. Initially, a mix of commercial and residential buildings was envisioned, but apart from notable exceptions such as NIB and Hunter Water, and a scattering of small businesses, Honeysuckle now predominantly has a concrete canyon of apartment buildings, all about the same height, for its entire length. There is, however, one last chance to offset some of this urban planning disaster. Next to the Interchange, on the western edge of the Honeysuckle land, are two remaining large parcels of undeveloped land west of Cottage Creek. The current plan is to create a 'gateway' to the CBD with even more intensive urban development, including additional apartments. This plan should be scrapped. The last thing Newcastle City needs is an extension of the current concrete canyon along Honeysuckle Drive. A much better gateway to the city would be open parkland, stretching from the Interchange to the harbour foreshore. This would provide an additional green space for the city, where it is needed most. This land is currently a car park by default. However, converted to parkland, it would provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West. I think this new park should be called Henry Lawson Park. It has only one small historic building, the forlorn and partially restored Wickham School of Arts. It was here that a teenage Lawson, who worked nearby, attended adult education classes in the evening in the 1890s - presumably to improve his English! Herald columnist Bradley Perrett called for the creation of a park in the city to rival Sydney's grand Hyde Park (Herald, 20/6). He suggested Lambton Park for extensive modification, and others have suggested Gregson Park, in Hamilton. There were objections published in the Herald to these locations because many families are keen to keep using the park facilities that had been developed and extensively used over many years. However, the proposed park space in Wickham at the end of Honeysuckle Drive is a blank canvas, and Perrett's idea of creating an impressive parkland to rival Sydney's Hyde Park would be well placed there, as a gateway to the CBD between the Interchange and the harbour. An additional lung for Newcastle in its most densely populated area should be the highest priority for the final stage of the Honeysuckle development. I witnessed one of the best examples of co-operation between our three levels of government and our two main political parties when the Honeysuckle project was launched in Newcastle in 1992, three years after the earthquake. The initial $100 million fund to support the conversion of disused railway land in the Newcastle CBD was enabled by the Keating ALP government's Better Cities program, which provided two-thirds of the funding, with the remaining amount and management of the development being provided by the NSW Fahey Liberal government. The City of Newcastle, under the leadership of lord mayor John McNaughton, also played a critical role in supporting the changes required locally to make this urban renewal project happen. As the Hunter-based federal senator, I joined a roundtable in Newcastle City Hall when this bipartisan intergovernmental agreement was signed off in 1992. We had high hopes that the conversion of 50 hectares of derelict CBD railway land on the harbour would be a game-changer for the renewal of the city centre. Politicians then stepped back, and NSW bureaucrats took over the Honeysuckle project approvals process. Now, 33 years later, it's crucial to ask: has the Honeysuckle project, which is nearing completion, lived up to our initial high expectations? Regrettably, many of the planned green spaces have not materialised. The potential for the impressive 1988 Bicentennial Newcastle Foreshore greenspace project to extend down the harbour as far as Wickham was lost when apartment and hotel developments were approved on Honeysuckle land, encroaching on the harbour's edge. Near the restored former railway workshops, a very imaginative plan for a small boat harbour inlet was also scrapped. Initially, a mix of commercial and residential buildings was envisioned, but apart from notable exceptions such as NIB and Hunter Water, and a scattering of small businesses, Honeysuckle now predominantly has a concrete canyon of apartment buildings, all about the same height, for its entire length. There is, however, one last chance to offset some of this urban planning disaster. Next to the Interchange, on the western edge of the Honeysuckle land, are two remaining large parcels of undeveloped land west of Cottage Creek. The current plan is to create a 'gateway' to the CBD with even more intensive urban development, including additional apartments. This plan should be scrapped. The last thing Newcastle City needs is an extension of the current concrete canyon along Honeysuckle Drive. A much better gateway to the city would be open parkland, stretching from the Interchange to the harbour foreshore. This would provide an additional green space for the city, where it is needed most. This land is currently a car park by default. However, converted to parkland, it would provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West. I think this new park should be called Henry Lawson Park. It has only one small historic building, the forlorn and partially restored Wickham School of Arts. It was here that a teenage Lawson, who worked nearby, attended adult education classes in the evening in the 1890s - presumably to improve his English! Herald columnist Bradley Perrett called for the creation of a park in the city to rival Sydney's grand Hyde Park (Herald, 20/6). He suggested Lambton Park for extensive modification, and others have suggested Gregson Park, in Hamilton. There were objections published in the Herald to these locations because many families are keen to keep using the park facilities that had been developed and extensively used over many years. However, the proposed park space in Wickham at the end of Honeysuckle Drive is a blank canvas, and Perrett's idea of creating an impressive parkland to rival Sydney's Hyde Park would be well placed there, as a gateway to the CBD between the Interchange and the harbour. An additional lung for Newcastle in its most densely populated area should be the highest priority for the final stage of the Honeysuckle development. I witnessed one of the best examples of co-operation between our three levels of government and our two main political parties when the Honeysuckle project was launched in Newcastle in 1992, three years after the earthquake. The initial $100 million fund to support the conversion of disused railway land in the Newcastle CBD was enabled by the Keating ALP government's Better Cities program, which provided two-thirds of the funding, with the remaining amount and management of the development being provided by the NSW Fahey Liberal government. The City of Newcastle, under the leadership of lord mayor John McNaughton, also played a critical role in supporting the changes required locally to make this urban renewal project happen. As the Hunter-based federal senator, I joined a roundtable in Newcastle City Hall when this bipartisan intergovernmental agreement was signed off in 1992. We had high hopes that the conversion of 50 hectares of derelict CBD railway land on the harbour would be a game-changer for the renewal of the city centre. Politicians then stepped back, and NSW bureaucrats took over the Honeysuckle project approvals process. Now, 33 years later, it's crucial to ask: has the Honeysuckle project, which is nearing completion, lived up to our initial high expectations? Regrettably, many of the planned green spaces have not materialised. The potential for the impressive 1988 Bicentennial Newcastle Foreshore greenspace project to extend down the harbour as far as Wickham was lost when apartment and hotel developments were approved on Honeysuckle land, encroaching on the harbour's edge. Near the restored former railway workshops, a very imaginative plan for a small boat harbour inlet was also scrapped. Initially, a mix of commercial and residential buildings was envisioned, but apart from notable exceptions such as NIB and Hunter Water, and a scattering of small businesses, Honeysuckle now predominantly has a concrete canyon of apartment buildings, all about the same height, for its entire length. There is, however, one last chance to offset some of this urban planning disaster. Next to the Interchange, on the western edge of the Honeysuckle land, are two remaining large parcels of undeveloped land west of Cottage Creek. The current plan is to create a 'gateway' to the CBD with even more intensive urban development, including additional apartments. This plan should be scrapped. The last thing Newcastle City needs is an extension of the current concrete canyon along Honeysuckle Drive. A much better gateway to the city would be open parkland, stretching from the Interchange to the harbour foreshore. This would provide an additional green space for the city, where it is needed most. This land is currently a car park by default. However, converted to parkland, it would provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West. I think this new park should be called Henry Lawson Park. It has only one small historic building, the forlorn and partially restored Wickham School of Arts. It was here that a teenage Lawson, who worked nearby, attended adult education classes in the evening in the 1890s - presumably to improve his English! Herald columnist Bradley Perrett called for the creation of a park in the city to rival Sydney's grand Hyde Park (Herald, 20/6). He suggested Lambton Park for extensive modification, and others have suggested Gregson Park, in Hamilton. There were objections published in the Herald to these locations because many families are keen to keep using the park facilities that had been developed and extensively used over many years. However, the proposed park space in Wickham at the end of Honeysuckle Drive is a blank canvas, and Perrett's idea of creating an impressive parkland to rival Sydney's Hyde Park would be well placed there, as a gateway to the CBD between the Interchange and the harbour. An additional lung for Newcastle in its most densely populated area should be the highest priority for the final stage of the Honeysuckle development. I witnessed one of the best examples of co-operation between our three levels of government and our two main political parties when the Honeysuckle project was launched in Newcastle in 1992, three years after the earthquake. The initial $100 million fund to support the conversion of disused railway land in the Newcastle CBD was enabled by the Keating ALP government's Better Cities program, which provided two-thirds of the funding, with the remaining amount and management of the development being provided by the NSW Fahey Liberal government. The City of Newcastle, under the leadership of lord mayor John McNaughton, also played a critical role in supporting the changes required locally to make this urban renewal project happen. As the Hunter-based federal senator, I joined a roundtable in Newcastle City Hall when this bipartisan intergovernmental agreement was signed off in 1992. We had high hopes that the conversion of 50 hectares of derelict CBD railway land on the harbour would be a game-changer for the renewal of the city centre. Politicians then stepped back, and NSW bureaucrats took over the Honeysuckle project approvals process. Now, 33 years later, it's crucial to ask: has the Honeysuckle project, which is nearing completion, lived up to our initial high expectations? Regrettably, many of the planned green spaces have not materialised. The potential for the impressive 1988 Bicentennial Newcastle Foreshore greenspace project to extend down the harbour as far as Wickham was lost when apartment and hotel developments were approved on Honeysuckle land, encroaching on the harbour's edge. Near the restored former railway workshops, a very imaginative plan for a small boat harbour inlet was also scrapped. Initially, a mix of commercial and residential buildings was envisioned, but apart from notable exceptions such as NIB and Hunter Water, and a scattering of small businesses, Honeysuckle now predominantly has a concrete canyon of apartment buildings, all about the same height, for its entire length. There is, however, one last chance to offset some of this urban planning disaster. Next to the Interchange, on the western edge of the Honeysuckle land, are two remaining large parcels of undeveloped land west of Cottage Creek. The current plan is to create a 'gateway' to the CBD with even more intensive urban development, including additional apartments. This plan should be scrapped. The last thing Newcastle City needs is an extension of the current concrete canyon along Honeysuckle Drive. A much better gateway to the city would be open parkland, stretching from the Interchange to the harbour foreshore. This would provide an additional green space for the city, where it is needed most. This land is currently a car park by default. However, converted to parkland, it would provide critically needed open green space for the series of tower apartment buildings, some over 20 storeys, that have been built or are now under construction on nearby land in Newcastle West. I think this new park should be called Henry Lawson Park. It has only one small historic building, the forlorn and partially restored Wickham School of Arts. It was here that a teenage Lawson, who worked nearby, attended adult education classes in the evening in the 1890s - presumably to improve his English! Herald columnist Bradley Perrett called for the creation of a park in the city to rival Sydney's grand Hyde Park (Herald, 20/6). He suggested Lambton Park for extensive modification, and others have suggested Gregson Park, in Hamilton. There were objections published in the Herald to these locations because many families are keen to keep using the park facilities that had been developed and extensively used over many years. However, the proposed park space in Wickham at the end of Honeysuckle Drive is a blank canvas, and Perrett's idea of creating an impressive parkland to rival Sydney's Hyde Park would be well placed there, as a gateway to the CBD between the Interchange and the harbour. An additional lung for Newcastle in its most densely populated area should be the highest priority for the final stage of the Honeysuckle development.
RTÉ News
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Rachael Blackmore: It wasn't a massive plan, it just felt like the right time
Just a week after announcing her retirement as a jockey, Rachael Blackmore says it wasn't part of a "massive plan" and that the timing just "felt right." The Tipperary rider announced her retirement last week after a glittering 16-year career, in which she became the first female jockey to win the Aintree Grand National in 2021 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2022 - won aboard Minella Times and A Plus Tard respectively. Blackmore rode a total of 18 winners at Cheltenham over the course of her career and also became the first woman to be leading jockey at the festival in 2022. Reflecting in the wake of her retirement and the tributes which followed, Blackmore spoke to Ruby Walsh and Damien O'Meara on RTÉ 2fm's Game On, admitting she was "blown away" by the response to the news. "It wasn't a massive plan. I never knew how that day would come. But it did come," Blackmore said of her decision to retire. "It just felt right in that moment. It felt like the right time. "I'm so blown away by the response. Obviously, I knew it would be a news story in some shape. The amount of coverage in the newspapers. The amount of articles. "The amount of people that have written to me and rang me and sent me messages. People that you might pass and you know them but you don't have their numbers. But they've gone out of their way to get my number and send me a message. I'm just so blown away by that." Asked to cite her most memorable victory, Blackmore first plumped for her final win aboard Honeysuckle in the 2023 Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham, though acknowledged that few things in racing could top the joy of a Grand National victory. "I think coming back into the winners' enclosure on Honeysuckle on her last race was a phenomenal feeling. "Even visually, I hope I'll never forget what it looked like. It was just black with people. There was no space anywhere. "It was different. It didn't feel like it was just about me riding a winner. It wasn't about that. It was about loads of other things. It was a very special moment. "I don't know would I love to live it again because it was sad as well. But it was a standout moment. "Obviously, winning the Grand National was just phenomenal. You just don't feel joy like that instantaneously when you cross the line. I've never felt such a kick of joy straight away. "You ride winners in Cheltenham and you feel relief because there's pressure and so on. But the Grand National is just joy straight away. "I was very lucky when I got linked up with Henry DeBromhead. He had a serious yard of horses. "It just elevated my career to a whole new level. You need to get the bounce of the ball essentially and I feel like I got that. "There's so many good riders in the weighing room and there's only a certain amount of races in a day. There can only be seven jockeys or whatever ride a winner in a day. You have to be getting on the right horses to achieve these things." On her future plans, the 35-year old said she was taking her time before deciding what to pursue next but stressed that she felt lucky to be retiring on her own terms. "I wish I knew. I never thought about what I'd do when I'd finish. Because I felt so lucky to be in the position I was. I just wanted to focus on what I was doing. I'm very lucky that I can take a few weeks and try and figure everything out. "I'm so lucky I got to finish when I wanted to. Physically I'm fine. I could go out and ride in the morning if I wanted to. My body is good. "I've had my injuries, I've had my breaks. But I had very good people looking after me. I'm well patched up now. "I was very lucky throughout my career in that sense. I didn't come off too badly on the injury side of it. Every jockey has their falls and I got my share of them. But they could always have been a lot worse."
France 24
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Blackmore's history-making exploits inspiring to all: de Bromhead
Blackmore caught people -- including de Bromhead -- by surprise announcing she was retiring with immediate effect on Monday. The 35-year-old Irish sporting star would be best known to a global audience having become the first woman jockey to win the world's greatest steeplechase, the Grand National, in 2021 on Minella Times. She also retires as the only woman jockey to have won all four of the Cheltenham Festival's major races. She won two Champion Hurdles -- on the race mare she adored Honeysuckle (2021/22) -- the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard and the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Captain Guinness in 2024. She completed the sweep with victory in this year's Stayers Hurdle on Bob Ollinger. For good measure Blackmore -- who turned professional in 2015 -- became in 2021 the first woman jockey to be crowned leading jockey at the festival with six winners, she rode 18 in all. Blackmore, whose mother Eimir said she knew she was blessed with an adventurous spirit as even as a baby she climbed out of her cot regularly, always played down being a woman jockey. De Bromhead agreed that her achievements were an inspiration to all and sundry. "I do not think she likes to focus on that (being a woman)," he told AFP by phone. "She has definitely inspired a lot of people to follow their dreams. "That grit and determination can help you realise them whether you are male or female." De Bromhead said it was hard to quantify what they had achieved together since he brought her on board on a permanent basis in the 2018/19 campaign. "Even if you read it now or watch replays it is pinch yourself stuff. "When we both set out we never thought we would achieve all that. "It is incredible," said de Bromhead before adding with his trademark humility she was the rider, he was the front man as the trainer but there was a "massive team, a lot of cogs behind it (the success)." 'All the attributes' For de Bromhead the most memorable moment in their extraordinary journey together was not the Grand National -- though he said her ride was "amazing" on Minella Times "she could see round corners that day" -- nor the marquee races at Cheltenham. It was Honeysuckle's emotion-packed farewell win in the 2023 Mares' Hurdle at the Festival. It came months after de Bromhead's 13-year-old son Jack died as a result of a fall from a horse. "Honeysuckle's win that day both for personal and professional reasons," he said. "It was massive for me and massive for her (Blackmore)." De Bromhead, 52, said the reason he took her on was because he liked "her profile, she had come up the hard way and showed her determination," that despite not enjoying immediate success she "had not stopped riding". He said Blackmore, who was known for riding out and then going to help her farmer father milk 100 cows, brought a lot to the table in the partnership. "Her work ethic stood out and her attention to detail," he said. "She had natural ability, plus humility as she knew what it took to get to the top. "She was also a really good reader of a race, she was fitter and stronger than anyone else, she had all the attributes." De Bromhead says he does not know her reasons for bowing out but "she would have thought everything through" and whilst it must have been tough as she "loved the game" she is going out "at the top." Some trainer/jockey relationships can be fraught and end on a sour note but not this one. "She is a lovely lady," said de Bromhead.
