An alarm clock sounds in a small apartment. Cars choke and crawl their way across the bridge to towering offices. The sun glistens on the water as the ferry full of chattering passengers chugs it way across the harbour.
A man waits impatiently for his skim latte, tapping his leather boot on the tiles of Martin Place. The sound of a violin bellows off the walls of Central Station. Coins clatter into the buskers' waiting hat.
The ecosystem of the city — as busy and as complex as ever. It's also an ecosystem under threat from investment predators. As more swarm into the space of the city the other people in the system are faced with two options for financial survival — move out or move far away.
This is exactly the choice that has been given to the residents of the Sirius building at The Rocks in Sydney. Its modular grey blocks, a common feature of brutalist architecture, rise high into the skyline.
The building was erected in 1979 as a solution for public housing tenants who were being displaced when the area was redeveloped. Now it is under threat as the New South Wales government plans to sell off the block along with a handful of other heritage-listed terraces in Millers Point. Most of the residents were moved out of the building in 2015 despite their protests.
Myra Demetriou is one of the last residents still in the Sirius building. It's been 60 years since Myra moved into the Millers Point area. Her hair is now greyish white and she spends a lot of her time talking to journalists and sharing her story. Now 90, she'll be painted by amateur artists when the building in open to the public for Art Month during March.
When interviewed by the ABC she said she hopes people coming along for Art Month will take time to ask her about why she wants to stay in her apartment. 'People from all walks of life should be able to live in the city. It shouldn't be an environment of investors and the wealthy because then you start causing divisions, which is dangerous.'
This danger is one of deep divide, which will eliminate entire groups of people from the city ecosystem and create a classist town.
"If the city is no longer created by everybody, then it's hard to imagine it would be sympathetic to the variety of people it could encounter