Councillor Mithra Cox said the possibility of food trucks was first brought to the council in 2017 as part of a push to stimulate the night-time economy.

She said the limitations on opening hours put a stop to that.

“They’re only allowed to open during daylight hours, so essentially they’re only going to be coffee vans,” she said.

“It’s just rules for the sake of having rules, and I think we can improve it.”

Story by Zoe Cartwright in Region Illawarra, 2 August 2024.

Cr Cox said for some people, playing weekend sport was "their mental health outlet".

"It is something that anchors people's lives," Cr Cox said.

"It's a thing they look forward to on the weekend and when an entire season is wiped out like that it actually has a really big impact on people."

Cr Cox's motion said grounds like Roy Johanson Park in Figtree or Nicholson Park in Woonona could be used on a temporary basis and the council could work towards access to grounds owned by the University of Wollongong and the Department of Education. "It's a question as to whether there's anything we can do to explore saving this season by opening up, maybe a few extra grounds." Cr Cox said.

"To the question about cricket being interrupted, I think it's the reason I said 'community sport'," she said.

"My heart is with soccer, but it applies to all sports and you can easily foresee a future where it is 40 degrees every day for a lot of the summer weekends and it's not safe for the cricketers to play and they need to extend their season.

"I think this equally applies across those codes and especially cricket, which is out there in the hot sun."

"It's about planning now knowing that we're going to have droughts and we're going to have wet years again," Cr Cox said.

"What can we do to be hedging these things? I know a lot of clubs immediately look to synthetic pitches as the answer and it could be that it's part of the picture.

"But the one synthetic pitch that we already do have has provided no relief really for washed-out games because it's already 100 per cent in use."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 30 July 2024.

"Having art that is provocative, controversial to the point where it has been now immortalised in T-shirts and kind of entered the zeitgeist of ironic youth culture - that is actually what creative cities do," Cr Cox said.

"You have provocative art that gets people talking and there is no piece of art in the city that has stirred passions like this one.

"If you want to provoke people, to make people interested in art and have big philosophical conversations about the point of it, we've done a really good job." She worried if the motion was successful it would be "a sign of us being kind of small-minded and unable to kind of appreciate the complexity of art and be a grown-up city".

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 30 July 2024.

Greens Candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker is calling for a fairer deal on affordable housing from developers who capitalise from increased development throughout Wollongong.

Allowing developers to build taller apartment blocks in return for some affordable housing is a step in the wrong direction, according to Greens Wollongong City Council candidate Kit Docker.

Mr Docker opposed the changes, in part because the affordable housing it offered wasn't permanent - there is no obligation to retain it after 15 years.

"It isn't a step in the right direction in terms of giving concessions to developers," Mr Docker said.

"I don't really understand where the benefit is for the community in providing those concessions like allowing for increased density or increased height limits and the pressures that are placed on the city and on infrastructure that [see] the aesthetic of the city change.

"At the end of the day, they can sell those homes off. We need to remember developers, the first chance they will get, they have taken all those concessions from us and they will sell it off for profit."

"Our plan is from 2026, we're going to increase that 3 per cent of floor space to 10 per cent of floor space on large developments to be set aside for affordable housing," Mr Docker said.

"This will increase by 3 per cent year on year until it reaches 30 per cent by 2033. "That's aligning with the current policy but with more ambitious targets. They're still phased in to give developers an opportunity to adapt."

"Wollongong LGA has the second highest demand for homeless services in the entire state," Mr Docker said.

"That is not a title that we should have in a regional city, especially given all of the developments that we are seeing going up, but none are being put aside for the community. "That's why on council under a Greens-led council, we will be pushing for far more ambitious affordable housing targets which will actually match the crisis which we are facing."

Ms Whittaker said there was the chance to have both a vibrant city and one people in the future could afford to live in.

"Part of that is providing affordable housing and making housing accessible to everyone and keeping our communities together," Ms Whittaker said.

"We have a massive opportunity. There's a lot of development that's going to be in the pipeline in the next 10 years in Wollongong.

"If we get this right and we get the targets right, when up-zoning happens, we can do those things and we can keep our communities together."

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

More weekend soccer games have been cancelled than played this season, said Wollongong Councillor Mithra Cox, who has called for the 2024 winter sporting season to be extended.

Councillor Cox, herself a keen soccer player, will move at Monday's meeting of Wollongong City Council that the season be extended, and that the city develop a longer-term climate adaptation plan which would include better drainage and shade at council grounds.

"This is the second season in three years to have severely restricted community sports through ongoing wet weather," Cr Cox said.

"Many teams have played less than five games since April, with more games being cancelled than have been played," she said.

"This is incredibly frustrating, especially for the hundreds of new football players who have registered off the back of the Matildas' success at the World Cup.

"To keep those players engaged, we need a way to ensure they can actually play."

Cr Cox said alternative venues, including schools, could be explored for use on weekends.

"While some solutions will need time and money and planning, there are some quick fixes that could be employed to extend the season this year.

"With the simple addition of line markings and temporary goals, some unused fields could be freed up to enable the season to overlap with the cricket season, or we could work with schools to access some of their grounds."

Greens candidate for Wollongong Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said solutions would take time to they should be planned now.

"We are already seeing climate impacts significantly impacting community sport, and we know that these impacts are only forecast to get worse," she said.

"It's important to start planning now so that our community members of all ages can continue to play sport in the summer or winter seasons. Facilities like all weather multi-use sports venues are big and expensive and take many years to fund, so the work needs to start now if we are to have these sportsgrounds in the future."

Story by Ben Langford in the Illawarra Mercury, 5 July 2024.

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.

Meanwhile, Greens Cr Cath Blakey has tabled a motion for Monday's council meeting calling for support of the Warrawong Residents Forum.

"The Warrawong Residents Forum does a really essential service for people that are vulnerable by providing free meals and grocery packs and having services and advice," Cr Blakey said.

However, those new premises need a fit-out, which will cost $180,000. "To make the new premises suitable they require the fit-out with partitioned rooms for confidential services, shelving for food and seating for meals as well as basic amenities such as air-conditioning, hand washing and security systems," Cr Blakey's notice of motion said.

"Warrawong Residents Forum have local builders and trades at the ready who have generously offered their time and skills, the $180,000 is need for materials, compliance and major works."

Cr Blakey's motion does not request the council fund the works but rather recognise the work of the forum and support calls for the state government to provide funding for community and neighbourhood associations.

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 21 June 2024.

Greens council candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker called it "a win for
safety."

"Me personally, I think when it comes to crossing roads, we should
be protecting the most vulnerable," Mr Docker said.

"And there's been way too many close calls along here and, and even
one injury is far too much."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 20 June 2024.

Greens candidate for Ward 2 Kit Docker and candidate for Lord Mayor and Ward 1 Jess Whittaker joined local residents in Figtree to celebrate a new priority pedestrian crossing at Uralba street Figtree.