This week’s Sydney Summit, supported by this publication, heard many suggestions for improving the town – from allowing dogs on trains to rewilding Rushcutters Bay. Like everyone else, I have my own suggestions.

How many people in, say, the eastern suburbs really know the location of, say, Parramatta? The debate over the partial relocation of the Powerhouse Museum is too fraught for me to want to pick a side. What’s clear, though, is that many Sydneysiders talked of Parramatta as if it were some distant kingdom, located somewhere on the road to Timbuktu. It would be an intrepid traveller indeed to even consider a trip, and lord knows what strange customs they practice out there. That was the tone of the commentary. In truth, you can drive from the current Powerhouse to the new Powerhouse in a bit over half an hour. Just before you arrive, you could sample some of the world’s best Indian food in the restaurants of Harris Park. Or drive a little to further to Cabramatta and enjoy the world’s best Vietnamese meal.

Richard Glover has some ideas to make Sydney the best city in the world.

I agree with allowing dogs on trains, but you also need a place to take them: in particular, a beach that allows dogs (as so few do in Sydney). It needs only be a small, otherwise sparsely used part of the beach; it can even be time-limited to the early morning and late afternoon. In fact, time-limiting turns it into a party, in which the dogs get to play with each other. Around 40 per cent of Australian households include at least one dog. Don’t we deserve a fairer share of the Sydney sand?

It used to be the New South Wales Police Force, then it became the “Police Service” before someone thought that sounded a bit wimpy and shifted it back to “Force”. I know people say names don’t matter, and I know policing is one of the world’s toughest jobs. But, on my observation, the name change has been associated with the return of some unnecessary swagger and, sometimes, aggression toward normal citizens who are just going about their business. The police are here to serve; why not say so on the label?