Podcast 78 – Affordable flats, WhatsApp to the rescue & dining redefined FLAT CHAT WRAP

After what has felt like several weeks of doom and gloom, we are looking on the bright side in this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.First of all we chat about Sue’s story in Domain about a new mixed development where affordable rentals will be mixed in with full-price apartments … and you will never know who’s paying full fare and who isn’t.The apartments will be identical so there will be no discrimination … unlike other efforts where the affordable units had a different front door from the other flats in the same building.App chat Then we talk to Brent Clark, best known for WattBlock a company that helps apartment buildings with energy saving, solar feasibility studies, NABERS ratings and electric vehicle charging reports.But that’s not why Brent is on the Pod – maybe next time – he’s Zoomed in to tell us about the WhatsApp community in his block in Chatswood, Sydney, which has blossomed from a casual social tool to an essential piece of community infrastructure.From tracking down a noisy shower that was waking up a dozen or more residents every night, to identifying spiders and establishing whether or not they are venomous, the WhatsApp group has now spread to other buildings in the street.Finally, we discuss whether or not our dining habits will change after the restaurants reopen, Jimmy’s relates his encounter with a protesting martial artist and marks one year since the evacuation of residents from the Mascot Towers while Sue notes the election of a very unusual mayor in Vermont, in the USA.Listen hereIf you haven’t already done so you can subscribe to this podcast, completely free, on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or your favourite podcatcher.If the link doesn’t take you straight there, just search for Flat Chat Wrap, click on subscribe, and you’ll get this podcast every week without even trying. And please give us a rating or review … it all helps to keep us going.____________________________________________________


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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai; Transcription tidied up and sensified by Raphie.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.