TANGOING at 11pm in Martin Place, being more like Barcelona and putting the brake on whingeing NIMBYs are some of the ideas being floated to turn around Sydney which is seeing locals flee to other capitals in ever greater numbers.

At a forum organised by the Sydney Writers’ Festival, axing the state government and pop-up pocket parks was also seen as possible solutions to the Harbour City’s malaise.

The city had become a “pay to play” city, said one panellist. Another said current transport policies were “anti-Sydney”.

Last year, Sydney dropped out of the internationally respected Economist magazine’s global liveability index. Adelaide and Perth were in the top flight while Melbourne topped the index for the seventh consecutive year.

In further concerning news for Sydney, in April the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that while the city’s population was increasing that was largely fuelled by overseas migrants. In contrast, established residents were leaving in their tens of thousands to Melbourne and Brisbane.

Much of the exodus is down to house prices, but City of Sydney Councillor Jess Scully said there were other reasons why Sydney was falling behind.

“Sydney is a struggle. I have friends who have moved to the Blue Mountains or the South Coast. And I’ve often thought I could have a really nice life somewhere else where I could go out dancing all weekend and live cheaply and make creative work.

“I can see why people would leave.”

Tyson Koh is the founder of the Keep Sydney Open campaign — which protests against the NSW Government’s controversial lockouts that placed heavy restrictions on venues serving alcohol late at night. He said Sydney was now unaffordable for many of its residents.

“Increasingly, Sydney is a city which is pay to play. If you don’t come from a good family and can’t rely on your parents’ money, it’s just not going to be the city for you.”

The panel, which also included Felicity Fenner, a curator of contemporary art, were asked to come up with their solutions to get Sydney back in the global top 10 of liveable cities.

1. SYDNEY NEEDS TO WORK OUT WHAT IT IS

“It’s important to set out what city we want to become,” Mr Koh said. “It’s a basic question but because we don’t know we’re completely lost, we have this tangle of legislation and regulation and we end up putting out spot fires.”

Successful cities, he said, often built their characters on one or two things they were good at.

Melbourne excelled at taking grassroots initiatives and building them up, be it festivals or how the graffiti in laneways has become not a menace but an internationally known landmark. London was known for integrating exceptional new architecture alongside historic buildings.

Sydney already had the best foodie scene in Australia and exceptional major festivals, such as Vivid, which should act as building blocks to help the city define its character.

2. STOP BUILDING APARTMENTS ON WORKSPACES

Ms Scully said development in Sydney was now too far skewed towards units, forcing people to commute further.

“The most [profitable] use of land is to tear it down and turn it into apartments and the problem with that is you don’t get places where people can work.

“You don’t get the warehouses or light industrial space that allow start-ups or people to make furniture or have an industrial kitchen to make food. We’re losing that space to real estate.”

Mr Koh said that, like in London, developers in Sydney should be forced to contribute towards local facilities, for instance, a new theatre.

“It’s about compromise and at the moment there is no compromise with developers.”

3. DITCH THE STATE

Sydney, like most major cities in Australia, has no citywide government.

Yet in London, New York and Paris, a large authority coordinates activities like transport and the police.

“We’ve got people in Condobolin or Orange voting on what happens on Oxford St but they’ve hardly travelled there” Mr Koh said.

4. TANGO IN MARTIN PLACE AT 11PM

Post-lockouts, Sydney is seen as the city that goes to sleep when the sun goes down; where noise is hushed and the lights go off. Yet in cities with similar Mediterranean climates that’s when the metropolis comes alive.

Mr Koh lamented the recent closure of one of the city’s most prominent music venues, The Basement. He asked why Sydney couldn’t be more like Barcelona, a city that is full of life long after dark.

“A vibrant night life should be for all of us. Why isn’t there tangoing at Martin Place at 11pm?”

Ms Scully suggested the streets could be enlivened by tai chi in the morning, music at night and chestnut sellers on wintry days — a proposal she dubbed a “multi-sensory city”.

5. PARTY IN PARKING SPACES

Ms Fenner said Sydney had lost its sense of fun. She suggested the temporary takeover of parking spaces into picnic spots. The initiative has been pioneered by the San Francisco Rebar Park(ing) Day project where parking spaces are hired as normal but can be used for anything from the playing of chess to a lunch place once some AstroTurf is stretched out.

“I know it’s been tried in Sydney but the police very promptly moved people on,” Ms Scully said.

6. SORT OUT THE TRAINS

“Transport is a huge issue,” Ms Scully said. “Ninety-eight per cent of people who access the inner city come by public transport yet last year we saw $700 million taken out of the NSW transport budget and billions put into a toll road. That’s absurd, that’s anti-liveability. That’s anti-Sydney.”

7. BE WARY OF NIMBYS

“Not in my backyard” types, known as NIMBYs, are the scourge of developers. The panel didn’t suggest all residents concerned about developments were in the wrong. Rather that new residents moving into established entertainment areas shouldn’t immediately complain to the council because of some noise.

There were astonished looks all around last year when a live music venue in Kings Cross was forced to shut at 9pm following a complaint by a local resident.

Ms Scully also said residents should be consistent in their worries, again citing grumbles in Kings Cross.

“[A residents group] said, ‘This is a residential area,’ when all of the entertainment stuff was happening — and when the residential developments came, they said, ‘This is an entertainment area.’

“Really, take a side people,” she said.

The Sydney Writers’ Festival is on until May 6 at Carriageworks in Eveleigh.