Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Housing, hope and ideology, in reply to Jim Cathcart,
I very much doubt NZ is ready for self-sacrifice to ensure social housing, including those at the most benevolent end of the political spectrum
I agree with this. Not because people are hard hearted here but because they really have no idea of the scale of the problem, or the amount of money actually required to solve it. When posed with the real costs, they would be shocked, because people just don't realize how much of our wealth is actually tied up in property. Essentially, it's almost all of it.
-
Hard News: Housing, hope and ideology, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
The reality is that even if the government were interested in building new houses, which it’s not, we’d be lucky to get anywhere close to building enough to get to the point where we’re treading water with matching supply and demand.
Yup. Every time I hear a solution proposed, I think "hmmm, that might affect prices by maybe 1% at best". Our unaffordable housing is a whole economy problem, and it's been allowed to fester for so long that it's bordering on insoluble.
-
Hard News: Housing, hope and ideology, in reply to ,
It was the same in Ponsonby. I seldom wore shoes to Primary School, by choice. I had shoes, just didn't wear them.
-
I doubt shoe-less kids in this country refers to high school kids at all. Seems more likely to be about primary schools, which mostly don't have uniforms.
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Amanda Wreckonwith,
Or maybe the smell of smugness will become so nauseating that these suburbs will become uninhabitable…
You're not really making for an atmosphere conducive to discussion with that kind of comment. That was barnaclebarnes you quoted, not me, btw.
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Amanda Wreckonwith,
A massive fall in property values would do that. Or the suburb becoming very undesirable to the wealthy. Or government intervention to build houses for sale at below market rates.
None of which is going to happen, not at anything like the level we're talking about.
So why do you want to condemn them to these draughty, damp, cold houses where you can hear your neighbour fart?
I'm not sure where any of your ideas about what I want come from. I'm simply talking about something that was. You seem to think I am saying we should return to it. I'm not, that's impossible. But can we acknowledge that something unique was lost along the way?
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Rik,
it’s the thinking that we are now stuck with the 20% and that it will never change, that I reject.
So how do you see inner suburban Auckland property prices ever going back to the point where young people could afford them, then? Because I'm not seeing anything encouraging there. I'm saying it was a good thing that they were once affordable, and now they're not and that's not such a good thing. In fact, I see this intensifying until owning property in Auckland becomes something that only rich people can really do at all. That's not an improvement, it's not a social order that I think is awesome and that we need more of it. I don't see how it can be fixed, but that's part of my reason for seeing it as inevitable in the first place. Yes, somewhere else might become cheap, but then it's not going to be the center of NZ's biggest and most dynamic city any more. In other words, those days are over. The future of property ownership for young people in Auckland is going to be in outer suburbs or small detached towns, or maybe low quality urban shoe-boxes. Probably only the latter case might lead to a sufficient concentration of youth to be reminiscent of the inner West in the late 20th century.
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Dastardly Bounder,
Lamenting the loss of culture in a now gentrified suburb seems to be a global modern dinner party theme (Hackney, Harlem, The Castro, Berlin’s Graefe), but to me it’s akin to saying there’s no been no good music since the ‘insert decade here’.
I’m not saying it was the best of all worlds back then. Far from it. I’m saying that it’s not going to happen again like that, which would also be true about music too.
I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about your comment, and Amanda’s, that are annoying me so much. It’s like you’re trying to invalidate the lamentation of any change with the observation that change is inevitable. Well of course it is, but sometimes it’s not for the better, and then it is certainly lamentable. If we, for example, had unemployment rise to 20%, you could use your argument to say that I’m just hankering for the good old days of low unemployment. Which would be silly.
But in this case it’s hard to see how it could have been different. It was quite a strange set of circumstances that created that culture in the first place, a time in which for some reason the proximity to the city was highly undervalued by mainstream NZ. I’m happy for the people who went from rags to riches in property in those areas, my own parents not least. But that particularly golden opportunity is not there any more.
ETA: ...and I think that is a loss for the artistic and intellectual culture of the city.
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Dastardly Bounder,
The ‘cool’ aspects of yester-year’s inner west are achievable elsewhere, they just need your involvement.
Some of the aspects can be achieved in isolated spots, yes. But I don't see that particular combination happening again. Times have changed. Maybe in another city, or perhaps a satellite city it will be like what it was here, but in Auckland I think it's just going to be very different.
Put on free events in your local park, meet people, campaign for the change you want at your Community Board meetings…
I appreciate the positivity in that, but I still have the opinion that despite even the best efforts of many people far more competent than myself, that this will never be the new old Ponsonby. It'll be the new new Ponsonby a whole lot sooner, and we'll be lamenting that there used to be mini takeaway shops selling fried chicken where the KFC now stands.
-
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to bob daktari,
Not overly surprising as our street since we’ve moved here has been prone to the buy, lick o paint, bung in rental furniture take photo and sell again syndrome with a few houses changing speculators hands 2 to 3 times in the past year
Yup, a good friend of mine did exactly that, there. He moved to Ranui. Now, I seldom see him. Presumably this is what happens when you move to Ranui.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 204 205 206 207 208 … 1066 Older→ First