西区如洪水猛兽？

西关少爷

鉴于本坛有不少人对悉尼西区有严重的误解，我想谈谈自己的感受，欢迎各位参与讨论（不是攻击）。 由于中文打字太慢，我用英文写吧。

背景：对于象我这样来澳已近20年的移民，思维方式已或多或少地接近了当地人，因而没人会谈这样的话题。这里只是为新来的朋友提供一些个人看法

I had spent most of my time living in Ryde-Eastwood area (north-west Sydney) prior to moving to the west. Like many of us, I was scared of the western suburbs，even looking down on them to be honest.  


For all these years, I had lived in the rented units until I bought my first property in late 1990s. As much as I loved to stay in Eastwood, I found my choices were either buying a small 30 year old 2 bedroom unit in Eastwood or owning a few years old double storey modern townhouse with an en-suit and a garage in addition.

Over the last ten years or so, I must say one thing that I am totally impressed with the west is the traffic, in comparison to any other area in Sydney. I am a few minutes away from M4 which takes me to Strathfield just for 15 minutes and another 15 minutes to the City from there. Furthermore, it’s very easy to access to the M2, M5 and M7. Mind you the toll for M4 and M5 are reimbursed by the government except GST.

I heard a lot less racial discrimination cases in the western suburbs than in north shore, and eastern suburbs and some of the southern suburbs where they are primarily dominated by the Anglo-Saxons. E.g. Caringbah, Cronulla. This explains why someone in Austep experienced the racial abuse in the street of the eastern suburb. I don’t think many of us understand this.

While it’s almost commonly misunderstood that only the low income blue collars live in the western suburbs, I have seen number of high income earners who I worked with or for lived over our great west. They include managers, senior managers and executives in the major banks in Australia. All of these people are highly educated high income earners.

When I was ready to move on into a house, I chose to stay in the west. I have been able to afford a decent house with a swimming pool and have a full time house wife looking after our children. Life is not perfect but awesome over here. I can see myself staying in the west until I am retired.

I have absolutely no intention to convince anyone to live in the west but to share my own experience. You can live in a tiny unit in the east while I continue myself in a much bigger family house in the filthy western suburb. There must be a reason for whatever choice you made in your life as long as you think it is right for you.

Criticism is welcome.

[ 本帖最后由 西关少爷 于 2008-7-20 04:15 编辑 ]

买房子啊

我也住过WESTMEAD, NORTH PARRAMATTA, 不过自从在NORTH PARRAMATTA走回家的时候差点给人从后面抢包之后，怕啊。。

我女朋友从她家南区坐火车到PARRAMATTA找我的时候， 在火车上， 被一个从AUBURN上的道友拿着针， 抢钱。 怕怕。。

degra

agree.

however, for kids, the schools are much worse than the north ones

西关少爷

crimes around hurstfiled in recent years:
- a chinese man worked in the petrol station in penhurst was robbed and killed after handed in cash demended
- a chinese man was stabbed more than 100 times on his way home with his wife and young child

plenty more............

西关少爷

原帖由 gandu 于 2007-10-22 21:09 发表


agree.

however, for kids, the schools are much worse than the north ones

if you are taking about public non-selective schools, yes.

degra

I would say Hurstville is no better than the west.

degra

原帖由 西区穷人 于 2007-10-22 21:13 发表

if you are taking about public non-selective schools, yes.

of coz, there are good selective/private schools like John Paul X, Girraween, Penrith high... etc, public non-selective schools are usually under funded

bffbffbff

lz 写的不错,++

dashaguaus

从环境上上讲，比中国大部分城市都好。 从气候上讲，住哪个区都不错，只要自己家庭美满幸福。
但是，如果从投资角度讲，还是要买别人都想买的，（住的）区。因为投资是为了利益最大化，这个时候，就不能只考虑自己的生活方式，还要兼顾潜在的买家的生活方式。说到racialab abuse, as long as you are foreigner, it will always exist. get used to it.

黑山老妖

I would say every suburb would have its own appeal. Be it price, location, transport or the feel good factor.
We all have certain criteria when we make decisions.

For me, I want my family to be safe. I also want my kids to be able to go to a decent public school if they can't get into a selective school. I don't want them to get on a train and be harassed by a drug addict for change. I want my parents to be able to go shopping without the fear of been mugged. So I choose the north side. At the same time I am fully aware that I am paying (a lot???) more for the place I live. It may also be a bit smaller too. But that's a conscious decision I make just like any other decisions in life.

I am sure you have your own reasons too. Like you said you get a bigger better place to live in for the same price. Your wife can afford to stay at home. I am sure they are important to you and I respect your choice.

It's just comes down to choice. And we all make different choices in our lives.
So there is really no criticism really. :)

villa

原帖由 黑山老妖 于 2007-10-22 21:22 发表
I would say every suburb would have its own appeal. Be it price, location, transport or the feel good factor.
We all have certain criteria when we make decisions.

For me, I want my family to be safe. I also want my kids to be able to go to a decent public school if they can't get into a selective school. I don't want them to get on a train and be harassed by a drug addict for change. I want my parents to be able to go shopping without the fear of been mugged. So I choose the north side. At the same time I am fully aware that I am paying (a lot???) more for the place I live. It may also be a bit smaller too. But that's a conscious decision I make just like any other decisions in life.

I am sure you have your own reasons too. Like you said you get a bigger better place to live in for the same price. Your wife can afford to stay at home. I am sure they are important to you and I respect your choice.

It's just comes down to choice. And we all make different choices in our lives.
So there is really no criticism really. ...

Well said! I can't agree more......++

As a matter of fact, we're going to see more and more people happy to compromise on the size of their house because they're looking more at the
location where they want to live than the enormity of the house.



:si89

wil

楼上有个桐子说到悉尼的周边比国内大部分城市都好，我也算认可。比如说我来自东北一个城市，安全上来讲，我家乡一定比auburn恶劣的多。不过我也活这么大了，也挺有出息的（自己觉得的），也挺上进的，也挺有良心的，不是坏人。我相信三十年河东三十年河西，我也相信乱世出英雄。记得以前看过一个报道，说澳洲的长大的孩子普遍比欧美的孩子soft。就我个人而言，我更希望自己的后代tough。打架，受骗，被抢，这些算什么呢？这就是人生。我不希望自己的孩子太娇气软弱，自己也是。

xiangjia

诚然有人愿意花高价买旧房子住北区东区。有人不愿背债还想住得舒服买西区南区，选择哪里是个人的自由，本无可厚非。可是一些并不住在西边的桐子总用一种高高在上 上等人的口吻，评论指点嘲讽就显得过分了，没实际住过的只是道听途说的了解是片面的，没有借鉴意义的。请不要一说西边就和偷盗吸毒抢劫联系在一起，西边很大，在这里安居乐业的是绝大多数，没你们想的那么恐怖。恐怖也是用人为的宣传误导这种方法制造出来的，看看论坛里被偷被抢被砸的事情，有多少是西区以外的？如果用这种逻辑来分析，那悉尼根本没法住了。

philgu

Just moved out of inner west and I have been living there for long long time. I can categorically say things are turning for the worse in the past few years. A number of years ago, there wasn't that much racial slurrs on the streets and my off street car wouldn't get tyres slashed and my sunroom window wouldn't get smashed with a large metal bolt. It all happened in the past two years. It is all about choices that is absolutely correct. But above everything safe home is first priority for me. It is much more convenient to live in Western surburbs with all those chinese shops & restaurants but it is not the most important for us.

At least I felt very welcome in north. neighbours gave welcome cards & greet us warmly & invite us over. My car insurance got 30% reduction which was a nice surprise.

黑山老妖

原帖由 philgu 于 2007-10-23 08:56 发表
My car insurance got 30% reduction which was a nice surprise.

Yes, and I wonder why?

We can talk all the BS we want but insurance companies don't lie cos they are in the money making business.

Same discount also applies to home and content insurance. Doesn't that say something?

Look at life span and other social welfare indicators too. Let the numbers do the talking.

I rest my case.

休

不考虑治安因素,西区还有很多不可改变的弱点,温度高于其它区,没有漂亮的海景,离city 远,没有好的私校...........

philgu

原帖由 黑山老妖 于 2007-10-23 09:19 发表

Yes, and I wonder why?

We can talk all the BS we want but insurance companies don't lie cos they are in the money making business.

Same discount also applies to home and content insur ...

Agree. Just as a colleague said that living in north has a number of non-monetary benefits. (now I have to exclude health service as RNS is such a bad shape.)

The other point probably is not quite in the scope of this discussion. It is better to make those hard decision earlier than later. My first landlord bought their first home for $320k about 10 yrs ago in the well located old house. Back then, it is a very very large sum for them & I heard their friends asked why they wanted to burden themselves that much (mind you back then they all work hard but earn quite little). I saw them a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that their house is now worth $900k easily. Other things did not go very well for them. But they have such a nice equity tax free sitting in the house. They have a number of option to them. They made the hard call and good call back then and now they are reaping the rewards. Eastwood/Epping have registered such strong growth in the last few years, its prices I think are comparable with some UNS suburbs.

patrickzhu

老妖说的好！Always rest your conclusion on that fact (statistic/number is one of the facts).
当然有些事情不可能严格的理性分析也不可能很全面,很多人（包括我自己）只是看到了一部分而已。
足迹网上的相关讨论的确帮助了很多人，多听听总是没错。
说“西区不好”的确是代表了大部分人的意见。
虽然我不是很了解西区的情况，但我个人是不会住在西区的（不管是买还是租）。

wil

事实是西区住了很多很多中国人。其实西区确实有它的种种缺点，不然房价也不能低一块。有得必有失，每个人都有自己选择的理由。这个论坛维护西区的人都不是在争西区有多好，而是在说西区没那么差。其实大家是接受客观评价的，反对的是“region discrimination”。很多人都有成了“强人啊”的经历吧。。。

说到投资，有些事情我看不明白。上海房价起飞，连郊区都过万。为什么悉尼这么大的移民都市，周边房价差距有这么大？西区条件不好，和北区的差距总比上海农村和市区的差距小吧，是因为澳洲市场太小，选择太偏个性化的原因么？就像可以想象北京某个方向的二环以里的房价却远远低于另一个方向五环以外么？

黑山老妖

I hope I have spoken in a objective way. I am against discrimination too. Like I said it's just one of the choices we have to make in our limited lives. And it will not be a perfect choice but we use our own judgments to do our best. :)

As to why the prices vary so much. In a MATURE market, the market is divided into lots of small sub-segments, each targeting specific customers. That's what you see in Australia. Chinese market is no where near mature.

daniel11

The location is a duble-edeged weapon, I am living in the top area in my city. I am enjoying the convience and beautiful streets, so many reading clubs, and other facilities and often some famous guys come to offer free tutorials. Even the public school is the best, the children will still go to the private, also top and in this area. But as a new immigrant, I really need something not so "nice", such as cheap car service, cheap shopping, etc.while our neighbours would say " not hungary for money","help the poor ".They are fat cats,they drive all kinds of nice cars and live in big houses. Everything here is nice and is about money. What I need to do is to try my best to earn as much money as I can, for a decent life for my future children.They would grow up with the sons and daughters of doctors, lawyers, successful business men, and politicians. They would grow up with a high social status and do much more better than their parents.Maybe I would need to move to a cheaper area, but when settling down, top area is the best choice.

[ 本帖最后由 daniel11 于 2007-10-23 11:24 编辑 ]

wasskinnyhenry

you r talking liverpool or campsie?

bffbffbff

原帖由 wasskinnyhenry 于 2007-10-23 11:33 发表
you r talking liverpool or campsie?

I think West, SouthWest are different concepts.

xiangjia

别用insurance 说事，可以查查除了几个著名的差的地方以外，其他的地方的insurance 相差很小，甚至一样。我要说的是不用总用那几个差的地方来覆盖所有的西边。

philgu

原帖由 xiangjia 于 2007-10-23 12:03 发表
别用insurance 说事，可以查查除了几个著名的差的地方以外，其他的地方的insurance 相差很小，甚至一样。我要说的是不用总用那几个差的地方来覆盖所有的西边。

Where I lived is not considerred bad in inner west at all. A reasonable house 600-700sqm is being sold for at least 800k-900k. It is very quiet (or used to be a lot quieter before). I am talking down on west suburbs at all given I have lived that very long time. I didn't do any research on insurance on other suburbs. So can't say how much difference are there.

wasskinnyhenry

黑山老妖

Easiest way of doing it is go onto insurance website and get quote. Change your suburb or postcode and notice the change in price. That will tell you crime rate associated with that suburb and the type of insurance. Simple.

wasskinnyhenry

wasskinnyhenry

wasskinnyhenry