Greg Vann
@gregvann.bsky.social
Australian urbanist at large based in Brisbane, 46+ years experience. Founder Urban Mentors Collective. Co founder Ethos Urban, President Queensland Walks. Keen to make cities better and to help those who want to do that.
“We tend to treat the car as a closed thing, ignoring its impact on the environment, the climate, & the pedestrian,. We need to think about big cars in the same way that we think about cigarettes: Affecting not just the user, but everyone around the user.”
.
.
November 8, 2025 at 9:06 AM
“We tend to treat the car as a closed thing, ignoring its impact on the environment, the climate, & the pedestrian,. We need to think about big cars in the same way that we think about cigarettes: Affecting not just the user, but everyone around the user.”
.
.
As the jacarandas pass their peak purple in Brisbane, it’s time for the poincianas to shine!
November 5, 2025 at 11:17 PM
As the jacarandas pass their peak purple in Brisbane, it’s time for the poincianas to shine!
Plenty out enjoying a splendid spring day at Plant 4 in Bowden, Adelaide’s biggest urban renewal project. It’s brilliantly done.
November 1, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Plenty out enjoying a splendid spring day at Plant 4 in Bowden, Adelaide’s biggest urban renewal project. It’s brilliantly done.
Staying with my mate Stephen Yarwood at his place in Bowden, Adelaide’s biggest urban renewal area. It really is world class!
October 30, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Staying with my mate Stephen Yarwood at his place in Bowden, Adelaide’s biggest urban renewal area. It really is world class!
Excellent Keeble Lecture by Professor Jua Cilliers tonight on the essential role of green infrastructure. It’s not optional, beauty & amenity, it’s an essential asset.
A real call to action for all of us:
“the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”.
A real call to action for all of us:
“the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”.
October 29, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Excellent Keeble Lecture by Professor Jua Cilliers tonight on the essential role of green infrastructure. It’s not optional, beauty & amenity, it’s an essential asset.
A real call to action for all of us:
“the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”.
A real call to action for all of us:
“the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”.
My local school has organised a walking bus this morning to raise funds for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
It must be an articulated bus as it’s at least 100m long! 😊
Wonderful to see.
It must be an articulated bus as it’s at least 100m long! 😊
Wonderful to see.
October 29, 2025 at 12:40 AM
My local school has organised a walking bus this morning to raise funds for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
It must be an articulated bus as it’s at least 100m long! 😊
Wonderful to see.
It must be an articulated bus as it’s at least 100m long! 😊
Wonderful to see.
Been drawing some faces lately, with mixed success but lots of enthusiasm.
October 28, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Been drawing some faces lately, with mixed success but lots of enthusiasm.
Two cafes and oat piccolos into this wet and delightfully cool Brisbane day and life is good!
October 28, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Two cafes and oat piccolos into this wet and delightfully cool Brisbane day and life is good!
Hey @bsky.app , I’m enjoying your platform and its relatively cordial tone. It also is developing good conversations about cities and urbanism, which @brenttoderian.bsky.social has done much to foster. Keep it up!
October 26, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Hey @bsky.app , I’m enjoying your platform and its relatively cordial tone. It also is developing good conversations about cities and urbanism, which @brenttoderian.bsky.social has done much to foster. Keep it up!
After a couple of hot muggy days, Brisbane delivered a cracker of a thunderstorm this arvo, complete with some brief but full on hail.
October 26, 2025 at 8:32 AM
After a couple of hot muggy days, Brisbane delivered a cracker of a thunderstorm this arvo, complete with some brief but full on hail.
Despite the rhetoric peddled by self interested groups blaming the planning system for the housing crisis, new research by the University of Melbourne shows most Australian rate it very low (2%). Let’s start dealing with the real issues. theconversation.com/most-austral...
October 22, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Despite the rhetoric peddled by self interested groups blaming the planning system for the housing crisis, new research by the University of Melbourne shows most Australian rate it very low (2%). Let’s start dealing with the real issues. theconversation.com/most-austral...
Doing the rounds on Australian social media:
October 22, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Doing the rounds on Australian social media:
“smart policy (like money) can buy happiness – not by making everyone rich, but by making life less precarious for those at the bottom.”
Interesting commentary on the relationship between money & well being/happiness. It helps, but in itself is not the answer
www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2025...
Interesting commentary on the relationship between money & well being/happiness. It helps, but in itself is not the answer
www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2025...
Turns out money really can buy you happiness, or does it?
Despite the prevailing US$75,000 happiness myth, higher incomes make us more likely to say we live a good life.
www.thenewdaily.com.au
October 21, 2025 at 11:40 PM
“smart policy (like money) can buy happiness – not by making everyone rich, but by making life less precarious for those at the bottom.”
Interesting commentary on the relationship between money & well being/happiness. It helps, but in itself is not the answer
www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2025...
Interesting commentary on the relationship between money & well being/happiness. It helps, but in itself is not the answer
www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2025...
It’s jacaranda time in Brisbane. They are emblematic here & bloom in a riot of purple sprinkled over the city. The local story for university students is they signal time to study for end of year exams. For everyone else, time to enjoy their vibrancy and the purple carpet as their flowers fall.
October 20, 2025 at 10:29 PM
It’s jacaranda time in Brisbane. They are emblematic here & bloom in a riot of purple sprinkled over the city. The local story for university students is they signal time to study for end of year exams. For everyone else, time to enjoy their vibrancy and the purple carpet as their flowers fall.
In Tasmania, our island state, this week, I visited the town of Sheffield, which has a great story. On its knees in the 1980s, citizens got together & helped transform it into an outdoor art gallery as the “Town of Murals”, with an annual Murals Fest too. Now attracts over 200k visitors a year!
October 16, 2025 at 6:15 AM
In Tasmania, our island state, this week, I visited the town of Sheffield, which has a great story. On its knees in the 1980s, citizens got together & helped transform it into an outdoor art gallery as the “Town of Murals”, with an annual Murals Fest too. Now attracts over 200k visitors a year!
Down at the Gold Coast for work today, got here early for a quick swim at Main Beach and a spot of breakfast at its old school pavilion. The beach is till recovering from Cyclone Alfred earlier this year but is coming back from the hard work being done to restore it.
October 9, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Down at the Gold Coast for work today, got here early for a quick swim at Main Beach and a spot of breakfast at its old school pavilion. The beach is till recovering from Cyclone Alfred earlier this year but is coming back from the hard work being done to restore it.
Will the car based suburbs of the last 60+ years be looked at in the future as an aberration in the history of human civilization?
October 9, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Will the car based suburbs of the last 60+ years be looked at in the future as an aberration in the history of human civilization?
A colleague I spoke to today said they’d done some work a while ago researching how cities and communities worked before cheap land and power happened so as to work out how to plan them after that finishes. great way to describe new urbanism, I’d say!
October 9, 2025 at 8:03 AM
A colleague I spoke to today said they’d done some work a while ago researching how cities and communities worked before cheap land and power happened so as to work out how to plan them after that finishes. great way to describe new urbanism, I’d say!
Well, Urban Mentors Collective is off and running. Have started the process with 3 people this week (2 in NZ!) and will be in Tasmania next week working with another senior person there. I find it very energising…
urbanmentorscollective.com.au
urbanmentorscollective.com.au
Urban Mentors Collective
At Urban Mentors Collective, we connect professionals involved in community building with highly experienced mentors—practitioners who’ve spent decades working in the field.
urbanmentorscollective.com.au
October 9, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Well, Urban Mentors Collective is off and running. Have started the process with 3 people this week (2 in NZ!) and will be in Tasmania next week working with another senior person there. I find it very energising…
urbanmentorscollective.com.au
urbanmentorscollective.com.au
Some quick brush pen faces of varying quality!
October 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Some quick brush pen faces of varying quality!
Australians lose more money on falling per capita than anywhere else in the world. Sports events are awash with gambling ads (which I find corrosive & offensive) & government has ignored recommendations of its own inquiry to stop this.
This 4 Corners tells the story. youtu.be/D4MSHGEw2U8?...
This 4 Corners tells the story. youtu.be/D4MSHGEw2U8?...
Exposing the honeypot for the world’s biggest betting companies | Four Corners Documentary
YouTube video by ABC News In-depth
youtu.be
October 8, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Australians lose more money on falling per capita than anywhere else in the world. Sports events are awash with gambling ads (which I find corrosive & offensive) & government has ignored recommendations of its own inquiry to stop this.
This 4 Corners tells the story. youtu.be/D4MSHGEw2U8?...
This 4 Corners tells the story. youtu.be/D4MSHGEw2U8?...
It’s grandkids time!
October 7, 2025 at 2:21 AM
It’s grandkids time!
Today’s incidental urban wildlife spotting was this tawny frogmouth who decided to sit on the road for a while.
October 6, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Today’s incidental urban wildlife spotting was this tawny frogmouth who decided to sit on the road for a while.
Great to meet up with @uytaelee.bsky.social and show him around Brisbane today. What a great contribution he makes to making city
planning meaningful to the average punter!
planning meaningful to the average punter!
October 6, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Great to meet up with @uytaelee.bsky.social and show him around Brisbane today. What a great contribution he makes to making city
planning meaningful to the average punter!
planning meaningful to the average punter!