I've been thinking for a while that the best way to feel closer to a place is to actually know the people in it. So this week The Hardt is starting something new: a run of interviews with locals, one at a time, to hear their stories and get to know each other a little better. Call it a first step toward a tighter Leichhardt.

First up is Aisling, who runs the Vinnies on the corner of Marion and Edith. 14 years with the society, about 3 of them here, and she reckons Leichhardt hands in better bric-a-brac than anywhere she's worked. Off the shop floor she's a freelance artist with a show opening this week. And HUGE thanks to Penny who did the interview.

Read the full interview (4 min)

So who should we sit down with next? Reply and tell me about a local worth knowing - the shopkeeper, the neighbour, the neighbour on your street.

The pitch for a wood-fired oven in Pioneer Park is starting to gather a few backers, and the first to write in is a firm yes. Nick of BBQAroma on Parramatta Road (and Viva Leichhardt co-founder), is keen: "We would definitely support a wood-fired oven in Pioneer Park!" He sees the catches too: "who would fund and maintain it, and whether there'd be community concerns around burning wood, smoke and emissions." So, over to the Hardt readers:

The Leichhardt Bowlo has a proper bistro now. Blue Ribbon Bistro opened on 23 July, the work of three chefs who first met on the line at Rockpool twenty years back and have reunited to do pub classics properly. The mission is straightforward pub food done right: a burger with the lot (beetroot included), fish and calamari battered in-house, and chips with more sauce than you can poke a stick at. Best enjoyed while the kids tear around the playground (which is about as Leichhardt as it gets). (Source: Broadsheet's first look)

Last week we asked where you landed on the 11-storey plan for the old Cyclops Toys site on William St, the one that came back bigger after a five-storey version was knocked back in the Land and Environment Court in 2023. About 67% of readers who took part want it rejected as too tall, roughly 21% would settle for a 5-6 storey version, and the remaining 12% would back it if more of the units were affordable. Submissions closed on 28 July. Full comments run in Letters, below.

Plenty stirring along the bay run. The diggers are into the new 50m and 25m pools at the pool (LPAC to the rest of us), and council has broken ground on the Callan Park Tidal Baths - the first new harbour swim spot in the Inner West in more than a century, since the Dawn Fraser Baths opened over in Balmain back in 1882. There's movement near Le Montage too, where council wants a new pontoon in place of the old timber wharf that's been shut on safety grounds - a bigger deck, a kayak landing and an accessible ramp. All this in a week where the Leichhardt Oval upgrade got locked in - all $40m of it, with a new grandstand but the same capacity, and works starting in the off-season. (Source: Philippa Scott FB Page, Inner West Council news)

The BayRun is back around Iron Cove this Sunday, 2 August, for its 22nd go, with the money raised heading to local public schools. Dobroyd Point Public School is doing the organising this year. There's a 7km and a shorter 2km for those pacing themselves, and the kids get a free inflatable obstacle course and ice creams once the running's done. You can register here.

Something good caught my eye on Facebook. A Ferris St local came home last weekend to a hand-drawn card and a box of pansies on the doorstep. The note was from a girl named Millie, who'd clipped the pots hanging on the front fence while riding past, carefully scooped the soil back in, then returned with new plants and an apology. A beautiful read: link.

Sincerely,

The Hardt