space, but they are doing little to nothing to eliminate their footprint in regards to single-use plastics and cigarette butts being flushed down the stormwater drains. Marina DeBris Coogee
The Beast's Monthly Mailbag Words The Wonderful People of the Eastern Suburbs PUNCH UP Hi James - We were disgusted to read Kieran Blake’s article in the November edition, titled ‘Safe Injecting Space Planned for Mackenzies Bay’. Sure, dogs pooping freely in the bay sucks, but what an awful way to write about it. And the accompanying photo and caption?! Shame on The Beast for publishing this. Words are powerful. Stigmatising language supports negative attitudes. It is distressing, marginalising and dehumanising, and leads to poor outcomes for everyone. People who use drugs deserve the same love and respect that we extend to our friends, family and community, because we guarantee that everyone knows someone who uses drugs. Articles like this only serve to make people feel ashamed and afraid to disclose or seek help if needed. It has been proven that safer injecting saves lives! Since the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) opened in 2001, they have managed thousands of overdoses without a fatality. How dare you trivialise this vital public health service in the name of ‘satire’. We look forward to future content that is compassionate, better informed, and doesn’t punch down. Lizzie & Sarah Jane Clovelly
12 The Beast December 2020
POOR PENNY Hello James - First, let me send loving wishes in memory of Dan. I still think of him each time The Beast arrives, and of how brave he was. Turn to this November issue of The Beast’s Monthly Mail bag, page 14, and “Outraged Penny from Bronte” is complaining about an advertisement plastered on the back of a bus that “doesn’t belong in this century”. It offends her! Try and move forward from your bitter nook, Penny! Three men and one woman holding a ball “outrages you”?! A severe imbalance of power on an advertisement, on the back of a bus, for all to see... OMG! Does anything else vex you? Maybe you should start a page of your own somewhere, reporting such indecencies. “Penny’s painful pursuit purges pitiful posting propriety.” I wish you a day full of anything that does not offend, dear Penny. Francine Randwick MY COOGEE Bravo Mike Ougie on the article about Coogee Pavilion’s massive footprint, er, expansion request (Coogee Pavilion Proposes Privatisation of Public Space, The Beast, November 2020). As the article states, not only does the building already devour public
SOMETHING FISHY Randwick Council is currently waiving all application fees and footpath dining charges for businesses until June 30, 2021. That probably means that if the DA is approved for the Coogee Pavilion, it will not have to pay any usage fees for the public space until July next year. The usage fee for the whole Coogee Primary Zone is only $741 per square metre per year. The Pavilion would be paying the same rate to use that public space with absolute water views - and no passing traffic - for 18 hours a day, as a small restaurant at the top of busy Coogee Bay Road that is open for only 8 hours a day would pay. Something wrong here! Brian Coogee DOESN'T PASS THE PUB TEST The public furniture proposed in the DA excludes the possibility of use by a person who lives with disabilities. It’s difficult to assert that the proposal is in the public interest while ever that is the case. Gary Coogee OH, SWEET GLADYS Some might call Gladys’ school funding for her - no longer secret - former boyfriend’s electorate in Wagga Wagga outright corruption. Others might see it as classical Liberal Party criminality. Still, others might say it’s just Liberal Party pork barrelling - using government funds to win votes. Yet there is a term that evolutionary psychology calls SSS - sexual selection strategies, albeit SSS comes a bit late for the 50-year-old NSW Premier. Indeed, many of our
