Cr Mithra Cox felt the need for such a document focusing on better ways to get around the CBD was a sign that Wollongong had grown up.

"If you become a grown-up city that has density in the urban centre, that has employment in the city centre that has people coming from the outer suburbs into the city, it's a place where people go out," Cr Cox said.

"That's when you need to start thinking about those things. And this is what we are grappling with as a city. It's us sort of growing up and becoming a proper grown-up city."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 24 June 2024.

Cr Mithra Cox on ABC Illawarra Breakfast with Peter Riley. Starts at 1h 44m (7:15am)

Wollongong's Greens candidates for the upcoming council election are once again pitching a plan to install a "night mayor", to help boost after-dark activities across the city.

While the job - which the Greens have hoped to create for the past eight years - might have a snazzy, slightly spooky name name, a night mayor is simply a permanent part time position at the council, the party's candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said.

The new employee would responsible for prioritising the night-time economy and streamlining clunky venue approval processes, that the Greens said has left many venues delayed or unable to open at all, resulting in a struggling, empty night scene. It would also work with music venues, bars, 24-hour gyms and late-night grocery stores, and help cluster night-time businesses together to create small night-time precincts within the likes of Port Kembla or Thirroul.

"The thing we're hearing from businesses is that it can be a clunky process dealing with council DAs, so a way we can make it easier would be to have someone to support new businesses and young businesses and make it a good experience for them," she said.

Ms Whittaker said the state's first 24-Hour Economy Commissioner Michael Rodrigues, who has been working in with businesses in Sydney, demonstrated how effective having someone overseeing night time activities could be. She said the job would suit a bar or venue owner, or someone from the music or events scene, who knows the dynamics of the industry and can give the council inside knowledge about the local nightlife scene.

The Greens have been pitching the "night mayor" vision at elections since 2017, when then mayoral candidate Mithra Cox said it was based on a similar idea in Amsterdam.

Ms Whittaker said it still had a lot of merit eight years on, especially in tough economic times. "Our nighttime economy has taken a beating from COVID and a lack of adequate help for venue owners, promoters and others to get through the council's red tape and clunky channels," she said.

State Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said Wollongong was a thriving, diverse city that deserved music and the night-time economy to be a priority. "All too often owners of restaurants, cafes and bars who want to provide diverse night-time options for the community find themselves struggling with a confusing and over-the-top regulatory environment and a lack of planning," she said.

"This isn't great for business and it's not great for the community with a lack of lively, safe spaces on offer for people who want to go out late with their family and friends."

Story by Kate McIlwain in the Illawarra Mercury, 22 May 2024.

Greens councillor Mithra Cox criticised the Transport for NSW decision along similar lines, saying it meant residents who lived a few hundred metres away from the university would be forced to drive there.

"When Transport for NSW do things like this it really reduces trust for this council, for our community and for engaging with their processes," Cr Cox said.

Story by Kate McIlwain in the Illawarra Mercury, 18 May 2024.

"While everybody supported the motion, people definitely had criticisms of it and nuances of it," Cr Cox said.

"And I was certainly in that category; I'm absolutely going to support it because it's better than nothing, but it's kind of chicken feed as well. And I think there is more that we could do and we could do better.

"And so, that's what the debate is for, I think is to say 'yes, you know, this is a reasonable start, but having $1 million for affordable housing - what that will buy us? How many houses, like one house or two apartments?

"It's really not going to make a huge difference but that's not a reason not to support it."

Cr Cox said the council did pass some motions no-one needed to debate in a block at the start of the meeting.

But she added that it was important to debate some motions; for instance, if someone in the public gallery had come to the meeting for a specific motion, that was always debated.

"Overall, even if all the councillors are agreeing with something, it is a better look to actually have debate about it anyway, rather than just pass everything," Cr Cox said.

"I think it's a good culture that we do generally pass things unanimously and it's not because people are not engaged.

"But of course, there's a difference of political opinion on the council and absolutely, they should have a space to be expressed."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 9 May 2024.

Responding to the "loudest voices" wasn't the best way to deliver road safety improvements, Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox said.

Cr Cox supported the motion, adding that when she first came on the council she wanted a pedestrian crossing on Murray Road so she could take her son to pre-school - he was now almost in high school and the crossing is still not there. She felt there had to be a better approach than just responding to individual requests for crossings and the like.

"It's about having a strategic view of what's better for everybody," Cr Cox said.

"I find it frustrating that instead of achieving this through coming at it from a strategic lens of having a policy in place for the places that have preschools and shops and hairdressers all in one spot that we then have to come and say, 'okay, we want it on this road'.

"I find it's not the right process and not the right way of going about it. And you end up just advocating for the loudest voices rather than having the best outcome for the community."

Cr Cox said there should be a pedestrian focus for Murray Road, rather than catering to cars. "The only people that go up that road are the people that live at the end of it that are getting out to Memorial Drive or to Pioneer Road," she said.

"It's more important that people are able to cross the road, go to the shops in a safe way, that all of those kids are able to get to preschool and school."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 7 May 2024.

Cr Mithra Cox disagreed with [other councillors' beliefs about levies], stating the levy won't have an effect on what people were willing to pay for an apartment. She added that property investment had been a contributing factor in the current housing crisis.

about"Housing has become, instead of being primarily a place for people to live, an investment for people and a way for people to make money off the capital gains," Cr Cox said.

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 6 May 2024.

Greens councillor Mithra Cox criticised the Transport for NSW decision along similar lines, saying it meant residents who lived a few hundred metres away from the university would be forced to drive there.

"When Transport for NSW do things like this it really reduces trust for this council, for our community and for engaging with their processes," Cr Cox said.

"We've been engaging with them over a number of years on the integrated transport strategy which has all sorts of platitudes about increasing active transport, increasing permeability of the city, integrating our transport strategy to theirs and when things like this happen it really makes us question why bother engaging.

"It's just empty words written on a piece of paper that mean nothing. Shock, horror, they did exactly what we all expected and they removed all of the things that were written in this strategy at the last moment.

"When they engage with us they need to do that in good faith and they need to stick to the things that they said they were going to do."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 9 April 2024.

Councillor Mithra Cox said while Council's ability to intervene in the housing market was limited the scheme had not yet had a significant impact on housing affordability.

"It's an absolute drop in the ocean," she said. "A couple of housing units is really not going to touch the sides, but when you think about how much it costs to buy a house, it's difficult to stretch that money to a lot of people."

Ms Cox said without significant government interventions, which were out of reach of local governments, this would continue to be the case.

"Massively increasing the amount of social housing in the system is one of the key things that would improve housing affordability," she said. "That said, it's outside of council's remit to do that."

Story by Connor Pearce in the Illawarra Mercury, 14 December 2023.