NOVOCASTRIANS who visited the Newcastle Herald website yesterday made it clear they want an end to the destructive bickering that is paralysing their city.
The departure this week of property group GPT, which had proposed a $600 million overhaul of Newcastle's mall precinct, has put the spotlight on state government delay in dealing with some important planning issues in the city.
Chief among these is the running sore of the rail debate - over the past 20 years successive governments have backed everything from maintaining the status quo to building a new terminus at Civic to cutting the line at Broadmeadow.
The challenge of improving the flow of people, traffic and commerce in the city while maintaining high quality transport has generated numerous reports and recommendations and a furious non-stop series of arguments.
The latest proposal -tentatively revealed by the government this week after GPT announced its departure - is to examine the feasibility of a light rail solution and to consider approaching the federal government for funding.
This undertaking - if it was proven to be cost-effective in the future - might offer a chance to finally win a majority consensus on Newcastle's rail transport question.
While it is obviously impossible to please everybody with an opinion in the debate, if a majority of people can agree on a workable compromise option - on the assumption that no existing facilities are taken apart unless something new and better is provided - then the city must be better off.
Cities evolve as economic and social circumstances change and some aspects of urban evolution can be difficult.
Newcastle's transformation will be smoother and more successful if the community works together.
But firm and trustworthy leadership is also needed.
This must rise above the politicking, white-anting and short-sighted expediency that has too often characterised the tired rail debate.
Herald readers have recognised the need to stop the arguing and find a solution. That, in itself, is a good place to start.
Rights of victims
NOT every convicted criminal can be expected to realise the error of their ways by sitting down, face to face, with the people they have wronged.
But some will, and in the process of seeing first-hand the harm they've caused, they might resolve to make better choices in future.
That's the reasoning behind the Forum Sentencing program, in use in other parts of NSW since 2005.
Now the program is to be extended to the Hunter, a decision welcomed by the Victims of Crime Assistance League (VOCAL).
VOCAL has campaigned for years to have the rights of victims of crime recognised by courts and to have the human impacts of crime taken into account in sentencing.
Carefully managed, this program could help victims deal with their plight and help criminals reform.
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