Posts by Sacha
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Only during the day, in our coffins. We come out at night to suck the creative juices from the necks of starving artists.
rofflenui
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Kia ora
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I thought "Big" wasn't enough, though "Wide" was my first choice. Still, it's George's phrase to explain. You still on holidays?
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Paul, flex that reo.
The Great World, if I'm not mistaken.
Very skillful, I thought - though I see your reservation.
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This is worth a bump. Te DomPost casts an eye northwards and considers whether Auckland's amalgamation is likely to be duplicated in Wellington and Hawkes Bay. Has some revealing quotes.
One candidate being perhaps too frank about his campaign strategy:
Uptown, Auckland Mayor John Banks, a former police minister and radio talkback host, is doing his best to soften his public image.
"If I wear my policy on my sleeve, I won't get elected. I have got to reach across to blue collar Labour," he says.
One of the key business cheerleaders exposes their agenda (emphasis mine):
The new council is based on the recommendations of a royal commission established by the last Labour government at the urging of a trio of business organisations, the Committee for Auckland, the Employers and Manufacturers Association and the Council for Infrastructure Development.
"You couldn't get a bloody decision made anywhere," says Committee for Auckland executive director Kaaren Goodall of the frustrations that caused it to press for change. "You could get lots of plans. We had eight lots of plans. They didn't necessarily fit together."
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Ms Goodall worries that too much effort has been put into placating concerns about the loss of local decision-making: "We weren't looking for democratic reform. We were looking for leadership and decision-making." The demise of at-large councillors is particularly disappointing, she says." If you try to think Auckland-wide and then you have got all these people one by one thinking about their local area, it's very difficult to make progress. So we thought that a small number of elected-at-large people, elected on the same basis as the mayor, would give the mayor a fighting chance of more of a team approach. More unity."
Like many, the journo missed that the Royal Commission only proposed at-large seats to balance the more powerful local focus of its proposed six sub-Councils. With a couple of dozen weak local boards instead, that imperative disappeared.
And speaking of "progress", yes that's the same Council for Infrastructure Development which is just delighted at the government's renewed focus on building more roads.
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I want what Joe's having.
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+1
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I know, totally rude and as you say unfortunately symbolic. Was explaining that to someone yesterday.
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land taken for road does need to be paid for, and at market value too.
Mrs Skin, good point and there are usually practical reasons for most decisions (which is why some of the more absurd recent ones stand out).
Both the Eastern and Waterview motorways involve land set aside long ago when it was cheaper. Compare the responses to the destruction of much used community parks near Hendon Ave with the pony grazing precincts of Hobson Bay. I don't see the residents of Mt Roskill having the social capital and resources to form local political movements like their Remuera equivalents did to defeat the Hobson folly.
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US "old Europe" bigotry
"freedom fries", in defence of liberte.
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