Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Although, to be fair to the Council, it can take surreal amounts of time, money and brute persistence to take on property owners whose approach to maintenance is "malign neglect". If I was being entirely cynical, it isn't entirely without precedent for owners to run down listed buildings (and crying too poor to catch up on maintenance deferred for decades) until demolition is the only option left. Also helps if you have local government which, for all kinds of reasons from outright corruption to simple indifference, aren't disposed to enforce their own rules.
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Hard News: The Golden Mile, in reply to Sacha,
only viable deal on the table however was the one that the govt said no to.
OK, Sacha, we'll blame the Government for every thing up to and including the wicked bad cramps I've been having lately. But it seems for years Auckland City's only "viable" solution for the St James has been repeated long-term cranial-rectal insertion. Do what you've always done, get what you've always got -- which in this case is fuck all with a side of zilch-drizzled nada.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Deborah,
Petra Bagust asked me if it was a matter of morality vs. equality. She didn't quite know how to respond when I replied, "Whose morality?"
I'd have had the presence of mind to give Petra Bagust a quick primer on various people who regarded equality as a moral imperative -- Reverend Martin Luther King, anyone? William Wilberforce, who like many Evangelicals regarded the slave trade as depraved and unchristian?
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Hard News: The Golden Mile, in reply to Sacha,
let's be clear where the responsibility lies.
Sasha: I'll hold successive Councils (and the owners) fully responsible for the state of the Saint James. Sorry if "please break with tradition and learn something from history" was atypically obscure on the subject because the damn place has been derelict for almost five years -- and there were concerns about safety, code compliance and the condition of a listed heritage building long before that.
I'm sorry, but does nobody remember the state The Civic was in when it was handed over to the Auckland City Council, and how close it came to being demolished?
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Will de Cleene,
Would you prefer if I replace the offending term with puritans or religious extremists?
Yes - because I'd feel perfectly comfortable joining you then. I'm a Catholic with a Church of England "Good Lord, is there any need to make a fuss?" kind of sensibility. :)
“There are those for whom faith certainly is a crutch. It’s easier than fronting up to the full complexity and uncertainty of our existence.”
Replace "faith" with "fucking" or "politics" or "a well-stocked liquor cabinet" and that statement seems equally valid to me.
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to vangam,
There has been something of a reaction in NZ history against Sinclair's secular interpretation. Some contemporary scholars believe he underestimates the importance of religion in early NZ
Like much else, and with no disrespect to Sinclair, I think historiography is in large part about people drawing bold lines, followed by others to shade in the nuances, ambiguities and down right contradictions that make human beings so delightful. :)
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Hard News: Belief Media, in reply to Will de Cleene,
godbotherers
You know what, Will, far be it from me to tone police anyone but you think that's a particularly helpful turn of phrase in this context?
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Hard News: The Golden Mile, in reply to Simon Bennett,
I have my fingers crossed for the restoration of the St James Theatre, as this was a terrific live music venue, and I used to love going to gigs there.
Sorry for sounding like a broken record on the subject, but Len? If you’re lurking, commissioning another report that says exactly the same as the last one is a stalling tactic well past its use-by date. I know cultural infrastructure is seldom politically easy or popular, but neither is having a rotting eye sore across the street from The Civic. Please break with tradition and learn something from history.
Back street shops open up presumably because the lease is cheaper on the back street.
Up to a point, yes - and there are plenty of business models where high foot traffic(and paying a rental premium for it) isn't that relevant. Why would Unity Books in High Street, or Strangely Normal around the corner in O'Connell Street, even think about moving onto Queen Street? It makes sense for Whitcoulls or Hallensteins, but one size doesn't fit all -- or even, necessarily, most.
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No offence, but in a lot of ways, Newmarket sucks.
I stopped going to Newmarket regularly when The Downlow Concept moved from Khyber Pass Road to Halsey Street but since the Film Society moved to the Rialto this season I’m back… And, boy, it’s hard to miss there’s an awful lot of empty “medium to large” retail space there.
I’m surprised I need to tell Brewer this, but you know why landlord are carving up their properties into “shoebox” stores? It’s called the market adapting to meet demand, and the simple reality that an empty shell is making a nil return on investment.
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I should probably be too embarrassed to share this, but when in a really good mood I've been known to sing this in the shower...
And an orchestral arrangement, conducted by the composer
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