Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Competing for Auckland

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  • BenWilson, in reply to George Darroch,

    A number of my friends who frequently travel through Asia will leave things like getting their teeth done, or their eyes lasered, or a suit tailored, until they pass through Thailand.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    This is good: in Myths of the Unitary Plan, Ben Ross fact-checks both a fearful press release from an anti-Plan group (No More Rates -- although wtf that has to do with the Unitary Plan is beyond me) and the council's own myth-busting messaging. The council washes up rather better.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Russell Brown,

    No More Rates -- although wtf that has to do with the Unitary Plan is beyond me

    NMR has always been utterly paranoid about anything that could hike up their council rates.

    David Thornton of No More Rates says the plan could "radically affect" property values.

    "These zoning changes will affect market assessments of property values, especially where higher densities are proposed, either increasing value because of development potential, or reducing value because of loss of amenity."

    I suspect NMR is party to the Quarter-Acre Cartel that thinks the Demographia studies are the Bible - if they don't sleep with guns under their pillows to deal to any marauding Trayvon Martins from the Bronx-on-the-Waitemata that exists in their paranoid imaginations.

    In any case, what NMR seems to favour is about the only other way to gather city council income - the kind that led to Maggie Thatcher's political hara-kiri, not to mention lots of angry-looking broken glass.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    the Quarter-Acre Cartel that thinks the Demographia studies are the Bible

    Unfortunately that includes English, Joyce and lord knows how many other dolts in cabinet.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Sacha,

    Unfortunately that includes English, Joyce and lord knows how many other dolts in cabinet.

    I've come to the realisation that even basic public goods like housing and education have effectively been invaded by the textbook economic cartel model. In other words, the "market society".

    Just as a cartel puts up barriers to entry by way of making it illegal or horribly expensive to enter a market, so too we're seeing barriers to entering the housing market and higher education. While anyone is legally allowed to buy a house or a decent qualification, it's become prohibitively expensive to do so, unless one is effectively born into wealth.

    And as seen with the Unitary Plan and the NZ Power announcement, it's gotten to the point where the remotest threat to break up the cartel orthodoxy is met with howls of Reds Under the Bed. Those preserving the cartels have far more in common with the ideology they hate than they care to admit.

    The British class system could be thought of as a state-sanctioned social cartel, while in America it's more like a private cartel where you buy your way into the system. In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy has gone from relieving food shortages to an effective farming cartel by way of protectionism.

    It all goes to show, with apologies to Ronnie Reagan, that the usual suspects read Adam Smith but don't necessarily understand Adam Smith:

    "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Arggh. Another shock-horror Unitary Plan story in the Herald from Bernard Orsman:

    Half of suburban Auckland could be built up with three-storey apartments and residents will have no say when developers move into their street.

    After nine weeks of telling Aucklanders the maximum height of “small-scale apartment buildings” in neighbourhoods was two storeys, the Auckland Council has admitted the height limit is three storeys.

    Three-storey apartments are possible in the “mixed housing” zone in the city’s new planning rulebook. The zone covers 49 per cent of urban Auckland and most suburban streets have some degree of mixed housing.

    Half of suburban Auckland? Or half of urban Auckland? It doesn’t seem to matter. The main thing is that evil developers are going to come to your street.

    Further down, it transpires that that are substantial caveats. Developers would have to meet what seem to be the current rules on proximity to boundaries, shade, etc, to go from 8m to 10m, and it’s not possible at all unless the property is at least 1200m. It’s not at all clear to me how much this actually differs from the present planning rules. [Edit: I’m informed that this represents only a very modest loosening of current rules, mostly in the reduction of the minimum section size.]

    Ben Ross says the “shock” detail has actually been available for weeks. He’s done yet another fisking.

    Orsman namechecks Auckland 2040, which endorses Quax, Brewer, et al, and even directs its audience to Whale Oil. The website’s domain appears to be registered to this Takapuna rich-lister.

    I think we’re seeing the anti-Brown strategy for the municipal elections taking shape here. It’s disappointing that the the city’s newspaper isn’t so much reporting the story as giving one political group a megaphone.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Russell Brown,

    It's as if Campbell Live was campaigning against food in schools.

    The Herald's ongoing bias on the issue has been shocking, and a Press Council compaint wouldn't seem out of place.

    Their practice of keeping on ignorant time-servers when there are smarter young journos to promote also lets them down hugely.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Russell Brown,

    the anti-Brown strategy for the municipal elections

    Why bother standing candidates when you can just get your mates in govt and media to move the goalposts?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Metro editor Simon Wilson paints a word-picture of what our future St Heliers and Quay St might be like.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole, in reply to Sacha,

    Talk about going out of his way to spook the horses!

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

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