Every so often one of those "liveability" surveys comes out and either makes complete, sweet sense - or stinks of utter rubbish.
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There's one place that's always missing, though: Wollongong. We all know how great we have it here - located between the escarpment and the sea, many beautiful beaches, lots of drive-through fast food. So why no love on the liveability lists?
Maybe we weren't invited to the party. But now Wollongong City Council has signed up for the 2023 Australian Liveability Census and everyone has their chance to tell the world what you love - and don't love - about where you live, suburb by suburb.
You can tell Wollongong is great because we never leave. OK, it's also because there's no jobs further south, and the escarpment is big and scary so we can't go west. And north? Why spend ages in traffic to Sydney just so you can be stuck in traffic in Sydney?
So let's tell the world. We mightn't have crop circles, but we have some of the finest exponents of circlework - from Stuart Park to soccer fields to the Sea Cliff Bridge.
It's so liveable, real estate agents sell off the plan residential blocks in new housing estates 30km away as being "beachside living". You can have it all here, even the impossible. People in Wilton want to pretend they live in Wollongong.
Not to mention how we're always punching above our weight in the reality TV stakes - living here you stand a chance of bumping into someone who has been ON TV every single day.
Sporting champions too: McKeon, Volkanovski, Foord, Gardner, Hornby, Lee, Saville. The Dragons player who was alleged to have attacked a tradie on a roof with a hammer.
Even the rougher parts of the city have their own appeal. Port Kembla is rich in culture and just gorgeous from the right angle, Berkeley has Lake Illawarra on the edge of it, and in Wollongong CBD the hospital's just a quick hobble if you get into trouble at the train station.
And our prime entertainment centre regularly makes headlines. Sure, it may be when the roof leaks or international acts say it's a crap venue, but all publicity is good publicity, right?
If that's true, let's also remember that a small Wollongong beach was the place chosen to scatter the ashes of backpacker murderer Ivan Milat.
We used to have a chip on our shoulder about this kind of stuff, about Wollongong's worthiness in general, but the city has matured. Since we got a music festival, a drive-through taco joint and thousands of wealthy Sydney people buying up all the property and moving here, folks are a little less sensitive.
People actually choose to move here - and now we can't afford the suburbs we've always lived in. That has to register on some property lobby list for something. Not only were we right about this place, but the secret is well out.
The good thing is, Wollongong City Council says it's "data-driven" so it will listen to what you say, somehow, sometime. So let's be honest.
How's your suburb? Are your footpaths in a decent state of repair - or are you still waiting for the day your streets are lucky enough to get footpaths?
Thirroul still has a few shopfronts that aren't gifts and homewares - is its trendiness going off the boil? And is there good enough "connectivity" so you can ride your e-bike from the wellness centre to the day spa?
Port Kembla too - has the long-doubted revitalisation gone so far there are now people whispering that the streets are filled with too many boutiques?
Corrimal's a great location, there's a Centrelink right there in town. But is the new over-60s gym bringing too many undesirable seniors and lowering the tone of the street full of gyms?
There's different ideas of what liveability means. Does having some weird bike path streets where you park cars in the middle count?
Is it safety? Wollongong has long been proudly nuclear-free, but with Canberra maybe plotting a base for US and Australian submarines at Port Kembla, does that add to the liveability or the opposite?
Is liveability about excitement? Fairy Meadow is buzzing - it's a great place to spend a few hours stuck in traffic on a Saturday.
Life's most definitely better in Albion Park Rail now the bypass has cleared out much of the traffic, so you can feed the whole family faster at Hungry Jack's, then Taco Bell, KFC, Maccas, 7-11, Sneaky Burger, Subway and Sam's Kebabs?
And where's the traffic gone? Well, with the population increasingly headed south to live, how do you handle coming to an enforced standstill on the M1 at Dapto on your way in to work? Every. Single. Morning. Hey, at least the Albion Park Bypass makes life easier for Sydney holidaymakers who don't want to stop here on the way down the south coast.
Do we value a suburb that's nice and quiet without much crime - or would you rather be a part of the action and the nightlife, and even be able to afford a house there?
Perhaps that's asking too much. Save it for the Affordability Census.