COMMENT: We’ve been hearing a lot about Nimby protests recently and we all happily join in the chorus of disapproval aimed at the privileged minority undermining the struggle to house our population by pressuring the local and state governments not to approve even medium-rise apartment blocks.

But it’s a different story when it’s YOUR backyard that’s been target for new multi-storey high rises.

Today I was editing the story about the plan to build 230 apartments on the site of the Holiday Inn Hotel in very former red light area of Kings Cross, Sydney, and realised I’m a little bit Nimby myself.

We have lived in Kings Cross for more than 35 years and we have seen plenty of change – but nothing like this. It’s not just the Holiday Inn plan – or One Kings Cross, as it’s to be known – there seems to be a new building, or plan for one, on every corner.

The block behind and to the side of the old Bourbon and Beefsteak bar on Darlinghurst Rd, all the way to Roslyn Street, is now a huge building site and the classic Edwardian frontage of what was once a hospital hovers above the ground on a steel beam, waiting for the new building to go up around and beyond it.

A new build-to-rent has been constructed in a spot that was best known as a dumping site for old beds and broken bookcases, so there is some progress.

The low-rent building on the opposite corner of where we live now has been sold for demolition and replacement with fewer but fancier dwellings than it has at the moment.

One resident who realised he was about to be evicted has taken his own life while the chair and secretary of the block were thwarted in efforts to award themselves almost $200k from strata funds for organisng the collective sale. Very Kings Cross!

On Bayswater Road, the Cresent, the huge curved former serviced apartment hotel and once home of Hugo’s nightclub, is about to be given a major refurb – again, we suspect, with fewer homes being the end result.

The classically styled gallery apartments opposite the Crescent have also been targeted for a tasteful major renovation, if not complete rebuild. That will be a plus on the new homes ledger.

Meanwhile, James Packer recently won his legal battle with a hold-out owner in the Chimes and the wrecking ball is already en route.

On top of all that, now we have One Kings Cross, a monolithic block of 35 to 40 storeys, plus shops, cafes, a designer railway station and, most importantly, hundreds of apartments.

In the past week, since I wrote this comment for our newsletter, I have gradually gone from not liking the idea to actually liking it. I didn’t like it to begin with but I couldn’t think of any good reason for feeling that way.

Maybe it’s a sign that the old Kings Cross has finally gone for good (if not for the better). We walked home from a restaurant the other night and the streets were almost devoid of life. Or maybe familiarity breeds contentment, rather than contempt.

Among the empty shop and restaurant frontages, there is a plethora of vape and illegal ciggie shops, more gyms than you could flex a muscle at and one new strip club. But even the long-standing, all-night newsagent is selling bongs and other drug-related paraphernalia.

The fact that Kings Cross is changing is nothing new. The area is an organic beast that has always tended to expose the more extreme social trends, rather than follow them. And new homes will bring more people and more life into the area.

One thing we know – since it is a hotel right now, changing the Holiday Inn to apartments means One Kings Cross will be a net gain in the battle to house more people. At least, it will be until half the units end up on airbnb.

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