Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood is an urban warrior
LORD Mayor Stephen Yarwood draws on his passion for cities as he works to transform Adelaide
LORD Mayor Stephen Yarwood draws on his passion for cities as he works to transform Adelaide
There is no doubt Stephen Yarwood is something of an unusual man. Not many Lord Mayors, or people generally, will point you towards some 19th century French poetry and tell you it describes “the essence” of their personality.
The poetry in question is by Charles Baudelaire, the poems I am being guided towards are about a particular type of person described as “La Flaneur”.
The flaneur in literary terms being a watcher of cities. A person who is part of, but separate, from all those around him.
“It is the person who sits on the park bench and physically watches how everything works. I am an active observer of cities,” he says.
Yarwood says he has been to around 60 cities worldwide - “some people collect snow domes I collect destinations” - and his routine is always similar.
“Literally going to these cities with a camera and really comfortable shoes and walking for days and days and days and just experiencing watching,” he says.
Yarwood is the 42-year-old Lord Mayor of Adelaide. He carries himself with an extraordinary self-confidence, more than happy to talk about his achievements or how hard he works.
He tells me that he “stood out like a sore thumb” as the ideal man to be Lord Mayor at the council elections in 2010.
Some of his colleagues describe him as arrogant and self-centred, yet it is not difficult to warm to him.
Under that layer of bluster, jargon and self-promotion lies a genuine desire to improve the city of Adelaide. To bring to it what he has learned from his globetrotting.
His enthusiasm for the job and the sincerity and passion of his views over-ride the suspicion he is just another politician over-spruiking his wares. Not that he wants to be known as a politician. “Professional leader” is the term he prefers.
But amid all the quirks and peculiarities it’s impossible to deny that Yarwood has worked hard and has chalked up some progress during his term.
After 40 years of wrangling and inaction work is under way on improving Victoria Square, Rundle Mall is having another spit-and-polish, the Adelaide Oval is being rebuilt, there is a concentration on improving the liveliness of the city through closing off lanes and promoting small bars and food trucks.
Yarwood does not claim to be the sole author of all these changes, but he has been a significant driving force in promoting it and shifting the perception of the Adelaide City Council as being home to reactionaries and dullards violently opposed to any alterations to their precious city.
In truth Yarwood was never going to be satisfied presiding over the genteel decline of an elegant city.
He sees himself as a man of action and came to the job with the idea that he could do something.
He is, he says, a believer in the ability of cities to transform themselves and that is what is happening to Adelaide now.
“I think Adelaide is so genuinely unique with the design it has and the culture we have that we can be something that is truly unique, niche and special on a global scale. It’s not New York, it’s never going to be big,” he says, before choosing a different role model.
“People love Copenhagen not because it’s big, but because it’s beautiful, and Adelaide is kind of like that.”
Cities are Yarwood’s passion. He says he knew he wanted to be a town planner when he was 15 and subsequently went to the University of South Australia to study urban planning.
More strangely he says the passion was reinforced in 1990 when then premier John Bannon announced Adelaide was to be home to an ambitious future city project called the Multi-Function Polis - a scheme which has since been twinned with the State Bank debacle as part of the Bannon legacy.
But for Yarwood it was a moment of inspiration.
“I have very clear memories of John Bannon standing on a mound pointing down towards Gilman,” he says.The idea of the MFP and its visions of building a city for the 21st century combined with Yarwood’s boyhood love of Star Wars and science fiction to powerful effect.
“I really did combine my interest in urban planning and geography with my interest in the future and really decided when the MFP came out it was a pivotal thing for me because it combined the future of cities in a project that came to South Australia,” he says.
Yarwood though was not born to the city. He started life in Whyalla and lived in the regional town until he was five years old. But when his parents’ marriage ended he shifted to Adelaide with his mother Lyn and his sister Susan and moved to Magill in the eastern suburbs.
Yarwood barely saw his father Ron again. “I saw him for an hour when I was 18 and he passed away a couple of years ago and didn’t want to see me,” he says.
Yarwood does not reflect much on how not having a father has affected his life. His rationale is his mother raised him, put him on the right road in life, whatever else has happened is because of his hard work and ambition.
He says his father made his decisions and he has made his. “I can’t change it anyway, it was a decision he made, not me, and sitting where I am now I have never been so happy in my personal life as well as my professional life,” he says.
Yarwood’s mother is an English teacher and impressed on him the need for a good education, the joys of grammar and literacy and the benefits of being a good public speaker. It was also a non-political household.
He says he had no particular ambitions to become involved in politics when he was younger.
At university he wasn’t part of either Young Liberals or Young Labor.
“My obsession going through universities was cities. So when people imply ‘he is only doing this so he can get himself into politics’ it couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says.
If you listen to Yarwood every stage of his professional development was expertly planned. He describes his progression as “textbook”.
After completing his graduate diploma in town planning he joined the State Government through PlanningSA. He completed two years in development assessment, two years in state policy, two years in strategic planning before landing a job as research officer to parliament’s Environment Resources Development committee.
In what can only be described as typical Yarwood he says it was his time in parliament that proved to himself he had what it took to rise a long way in public life. “I realised one day when I was older and wiser I would be equally as capable of doing what they did,” he says.
Yarwood’s wife Emily helps decode what seems to be her husband’s penchant for talking himself up. She reckons it’s a mixture of enthusiasm for life, a genuine love of his job and a wonder at what he has achieved given his background coming from a single-parent family.
“He’s had a few people say to him that he comes across as being arrogant, but it’s not that. He can’t believe what he is doing. He can’t believe he managed to succeed and do it. He questions it every day,” she says.
The 39-year-old Emily, who is juggling work as an accountant, study and the demands of four-year-old Oliver, as well as her husband’s hectic schedule, is Yarwood’s second wife. He also has a 17-year-old daughter, Megan, from his first marriage.
The pair have been married five years and met through mutual friends. It was the softer side of Yarwood’s personality that appealed to her.
“He has genuine interest in listening to what you have to say,” she says. “He is a very sensitive person so he is very sensitive to other people’s feelings as well.”
And even more surprisingly it turns out the Lord Mayor is an excellent shopper, with an eye for a bargain, who likes to go dress shopping with his wife.
“I think it’s also because he grew up with just his mum and his sister around, so he is in touch with his feminine side,” she says with a laugh.
Emily understood when they met Yarwood had ambitions to become involved in local politics. By then he had left the State Government and was working as the principal planning officer at the City of Playford council.
But eight years ago he bought a house in the CBD and his mind immediately turned to thoughts of running for city council.
He was elected in 2007 and took to it “like a duck to water”. He says he didn’t run for council with the idea of becoming Lord Mayor, but when he was elected deputy Lord Mayor he quit his job at Playford, undertook a Masters of Business Administration and decided to run for the top job.
There were five other candidates in the 2010 Lord Mayoral race but it was quickly seen as a race in three with former Labor Party deputy leader and fellow councillor Ralph Clarke, businessman Francis Wong and Yarwood the favoured trio.
But even then Clarke and Wong were the clear frontrunners, and spent most of the campaign sniping at each other, with Yarwood the outsider.
Wong ran a high-visibility campaign and attracted the backing of former foreign minister Alexander Downer and union leader Peter Malinauskas and spent $40,000 on a campaign co-ordinated by PR identity Leigh McClusky.
Clarke meanwhile managed to gain the endorsement of Senator Nick Xenophon.
In contrast, Yarwood knocked on doors and conducted an extensive social media campaign on Twitter and Facebook.
It was a three-month campaign that saw him knock on 10,000 front doors and it left him with the firm conviction that he was a big chance to win the mayoral robes.
He was encouraged because 40 per cent of the CBD population was, like him, under 40.
“I was the only genuine candidate under the age of 60. I was the only candidate who was professionally qualified and professionally experienced in local government. I stood out like a sore thumb so I knew I was in with a red-hot chance,” he says.
It was a gruelling experience that left him hobbling for months but all that looking into every nook and cranny of the city and its people left him with a new appreciation of the city. He was surprised by the diversity of people who lived in it.
“People assume that people who live in the city of Adelaide are wealthy, but there is a lot of social housing here, people with mental, physical, emotional disabilities,” he says. “But you also sit in these incredible mansions. I know where the drug addicts live, I know where most of the celebrities live.”
And in what he says is a riposte to those who believe he’s a bighead he conducted his campaign without putting up a single poster featuring his face. A feat unheard of in modern politics.
The upshot was he defied all predictions and won easily, becoming Adelaide’s youngest-ever Lord Mayor. The final count was Yarwood 3169 votes, Wong 2285 and Clarke 1427.
Clarke says now he didn’t underestimate Yarwood but that his main focus had been picking fights with Wong.
“Francis and I belted one another a bit,” he says. “When two candidates start getting stuck into each other the one in the middle, such as Stephen, can come up through the middle.”
Clarke, who is considering running again for council, thinks his opponent has done a good job, especially in driving through the rejuvenation of Victoria Square and repairing what had been a toxic relationship with the State Government.
Conversely, one of the criticisms of Yarwood is he has become too close to the State Government and Premier Jay Weatherill.
Yarwood’s philosophy is he has to work closely with whoever is in charge on North Tce, as it is impossible for the council to change the city on its own.
Yarwood has found a fan in Weatherill who says the current relationship between North Tce and King William St is the strongest it has been in the 11 years of the Labor Government.
“He has a boyish enthusiasm which is infectious and it is obvious to anyone who knows him that he loves Adelaide - which makes him a very effective advocate for change in the city,” he says.
It’s fair to say the ACC has not enjoyed the best of reputations over the years. Seen as the preserve of the do-nothing North Adelaide set who want the city preserved in aspic.
And if you wander into one of the council’s fortnightly meetings you sense why. The big room at the back of the Town Hall advertises its history with stained-glass windows commemorating the coronation of Edward III, the massive portraits of previous mayors going back to the 1880s, all set amid dark wooden furniture, vomit-yellow carpet and a vulgar chandelier.
As for the councillors themselves, most of them are unlikely to be candidates for Mensa.
Yarwood, sitting in a ridiculously overblown carved wooden chair, presides over all this and tries to inject some energy into proceedings.
You can sense his frustration with more than a few of the councillors who seem to operate under the motto: “Something has to be done, but not today, not tomorrow and maybe not ever”.
Yet Yarwood has managed to corral enough support within the 11-member council to make things happen. This is a feat especially as Yarwood has no vote on council, he has no power to hire and fire employees. It suggests he is an effective backroom player.
On the Victoria Square redevelopment for instance he squeaked in 6-5 but he pushed it hard because he saw the repeated failure to fix the problem (five plans in 40 years were proposed) as a “national disgrace”.
“It has always been my never-ending grit and determination to start this process,” he says. “I have always seen it as defining the psyche of Adelaide.”
Veteran councillor David Plumridge has been an ally, and something of a mentor to Yarwood. He believes Yarwood is maturing into the job.
“He has been a good Lord Mayor,” he says. Although, he says, he has had to encourage him to apply the handbrake at different times to ensure at least a majority in council were behind him.
“He’s out there in front as a creative person and that is good, but sometimes on more fundamental practical issues he needs to slow down at times and take on board other people’s ideas,” Plumridge says.
But fellow councillor Anne Moran believes Yarwood’s bull-at-the-gate approach has produced a highly-factional council, most evident in that 6-5 vote to proceed with the Victoria Square project.
Moran says she admires his “indomitable” approach but says he has to learn to listen to others. She is also worried his big-spending plans will leave the council with too much debt and force rate rises.
“He takes personal confidence to a level I have never seen before in my life,” she says. “In my 56 years I have never met anybody as confident and of course that translates into arrogance too.”
Outside of council though he has his fans. Property Council chief Nathan Paine says Yarwood’s energy has been vital in improving the city and bringing some vision to the council. He says focus on projects such as Rundle Mall will help the city grow and help retailers.
“I genuinely get the sense he wants to see Adelaide change and grow and move forward which I think is really exciting about having him in that role,” he says.
Yarwood acknowledges the last few years have been a swift learning curve. And there have been bumps along the way.
In May he was outraged by reports of a debt blow-out in the council’s budget, so much so he was texting journalists after midnight from Dubai to vent his displeasure.
Then there was the whole Lance Armstrong farrago. Before Armstrong was outed as the world’s biggest drug cheat he was awarded the key to the city of Adelaide.
It had been reported by one newspaper Yarwood had visited Armstrong’s home town Austin, Texas, to deliver the key only to find the cyclist wasn’t at home. More than a year later it is something that still burns.
“I knew four months before I left Lance wasn’t going to be there,” he says. “I would go as far as to say it was one average journalist looking for an angle then every journalist after, frankly, quoting that story rather than actually speaking to me.”
If occasionally Yarwood comes across as thin-skinned and quick to temper, it’s probably only an extension of his passion for the job and a frustration that others don’t share his particular world vision.
The next mayoral race isn’t due until November next year. He hasn’t committed to running again but also says he isn’t planning any overseas trips in 2014 because it’s an election year.
He has been approached informally by both parties about a role in State Parliament but, while not definitively ruling it out, appears cold on the idea.
For now, Yarwood seems the happiest man in Adelaide in his current job. He has a plan for Adelaide: to make it edgy, creative and vibrant.
“I am mayor of one of the great cities in the world,” he proclaims with typical enthusiasm and panache. “I think it’s really important the mayor is the mood of the city and that means I must be optimistic and I think that also means I have to be dignified and that’s what I have tried to do.”
Stephen’s favourite cities
Melbourne Has actively demonstrated that you are able to transform a downtown district. Something that has gone from being rundown and unattractive to being the world’s most liveable city and a world-class city that is second to none. I would celebrate Melbourne for its transformational example.
Austin Fifteenth biggest city in the US. A university town, 1.3 million, live music capital of the world. They have a festival season, with the second biggest festival in the country called South by Southwest, all held during a period they call Mad March. Focus on keeping young people in their town making it a liveable, fun, Keep Austin Weird destination.
San Francisco Just a gorgeous city. They have made a name for themselves out of using public transport as a tourist feature. It reminds me of the climate and lifestyle of Adelaide.
Vancouver A global benchmark for liveability. They have really been able to increase densities in their downtown core, reduce the number of cars coming in but dramatically increasing the number of people. That is a great story of transformation.
Varanasi This city, in India, is the oldest singly inhabited city in the entire world. It’s an arts and culture destination which has an absolutely spiritual underbelly that’s just enviable the world over.
Copenhagen I do love this city and not just because of the bikes. The capital of Denmark has been able to carve out for itself an intelligent niche in the creative industries. Forty years ago they were a car-congested CBD with every public square used for car parking. The city itself is just so beautiful as to be a fairytale.