According to the Times, Flinders Lane resident Nik Dow is in the heart of Melbourne's soaring population.
CBD was once nicknamed the doughnut area, meaning the working class returned to the suburbs after work, leaving an empty center. But now, CBD has become the most densely populated city in Australia.
According to the latest survey, Melbourne's CBD has 19,499 inhabitants per square kilometre, greater population density than New York's urban area.
Dow, who has lived in CBD for 15 years, says he loves the vitality of these new neighbors. "I don't mind if there are more people in CBD. If I do, I won't live here."
But some aspects of population growth are troubling the Dow. There are more and more tall buildings, less and less sunshine, and so on.
For Dow, the population density of CBD is one of the symptoms of rapid urban inequality caused by the neighborhood syndrome.
"CBD has a suitable area to accommodate more and more people, but once you step out of the area, everyone will object to you building a four-story apartment."
Last year, the population of the Greater Melbourne region grew 2.7%, faster than all major cities in the United States.
A survey of voters in Victoria found that as Melbourne's population grew faster in recent years, community residents began to worry that the trend could happen too fast.
The Ipsos public affairs department has been monitoring the attitude of the people of Victoria over the course of 10 years, investigating 750 people every quarter.
In the 2014 elections, only 7% of Melbourne (6% of Victorians) said they were worried about population growth.
In a recent Ipsos survey this month, 20 percent of Melbourne respondents said they were worried about population growth. 16 percent of Victorians shared the same view.
Of these, people aged 50 and over are most concerned about the matter.
Compared with crime, transportation, housing or the cost of living, concerns about population growth have been less intense, but are now getting more and more attention, according to the Ipsos study.
In November 2014, when voters last voted, population growth ranked 16th out of 19.
This month, population growth ranked sixth on 19 issues.
Daniel Evans, deputy operating director of Ipsos, said: "while Melbourne's population has been growing for some time, the number of new Melbourne people has seen a surge in recent years. In 2017, Melbourne became the new home for more than one hundred and twenty five thousand people. Since 2015, Melbourne's concerns about population and overpopulation have become increasingly urgent. "
On the question of population growth, respondents were more likely to support Unionparty. 24 percent of voters voted for Unionparty, 20 percent for Labour, and 26 percent for both parties, while 13 percent said they didn't know.
This means that Melbourne's population growth has largely become a bipartisan policy issue. Unionparty has said that once elected in November, they will be committed to de-centralizing population growth.
"it's about development in Victoria, not just Melbourne's population growth," said opposition party spokesman Peter Walsh on decentralization.
Census data show that the population growth rate in the sub-developed regions of Victoria is less than half that of Melbourne.
Terry Rawnsley, an economist at the SGS Bureau for Economic and Planning, said people's perception of population growth was sometimes influenced by their own socio-economic status.
"this is a kind of urban differentiation. In the inner city, immigrants provide services to residents who are taxi drivers and restaurant workers. And in those suburbs, these immigrants are often treated as job robbers. "