Cities within a city : the NSW (Australia) planning policy divergence

The shaping of any policy depends on the broader dynamics of power (Richardson, 1996). Indeed, state-led reinforcement of gentrification has become prototypical of neoliberal urban planning policies that supports the preferences of a specific class of people (Hochstenbach & Musterd, 2018). The background to these deviations lies in the neo-liberal political hegemony (Randolph & Tice, 2017), disregard for implications of urban planning reforms in different parts of the city and selective application of urban planning policies (Piracha, 2016; Saulwick, 2017). Urban planning policy consequences have been wicked and have progressively detached from tangible urban outcomes (Troy, 2018). As the socially deprived people have shifted into the suburbs, they have become increasingly distanced from opportunities (Kneebone & Holmes, 2015). Lee et al. (2018) argued for the development of affordable housing in the north, generate more white-collar jobs in the west and south, and improved public transport connectivity in Sydney to reduce the NIMBY-Land and Bogan-Land division. The socially just city should be designed in a way that all groups of the society are included (Schmitt & Hartmann, 2016). The urban policy should endeavour to establish an equitable and just city to ensure social harmony and opportunities for all in Sydney. It is acknowledged, this paper is limited to recent urban policy changes of Sydney/NSW and used secondary research methods only. However, this paper has shown light on the greater Sydney inequalities caused by the urban policy changes. This paper also describes how community resistance by affluent parts of the city is leading to unequal application of urban policies and thus patronizing urban discrimination. The scenario of greater Sydney is not necessarily unique, this sort of imbalance in urban policy application might be present in others part of the world. This paper can serve as template to study the socio-economic division in other cities