Posts by Christopher Dempsey
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The third time, a kindly neighbour disconnected the alarm somehow. I don't care if it involved a 2x4, breaking and entering, or a small bomb. They were the best neighbour EVER.
Neighbours that have a spot of electrical training or what not are the best neighbours EVER (only if they are completely normal in other respects). Mine thankfully crawled under a car which had been parked in our street for weeks on end with a very sensitive car alarm that paused, periodically, you know, so that Noise control couldn't do anything. He sniped some wire or something. Noise stopped but I made sure to leave a note for the car owner explaining this. Never saw the car again.
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Enjoyed it, welcome back Wests.
Good lines, good laughs. But yeah, Cheryl in orange boiler-suit - how will the storyline pan out?
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Not a bad idea Phillip, in fact, why stop at Crummer Road?. Include Myers park and K' road and we have a winner, bugger the CBD.
I'll be very interested in what the Naval and Family pub, Urge Bar, and Family nightclub will have in store as entertainment for the great mass of rugby fans wandering down K'rd....
Well yes, but it's mostly a shopping street rather than a boozing street. And "closing a street to traffic" is presumably heresy in Auckland, right?
Well, CitRats had an apoplexy over the mere suggestion that a bus lane be run up Queen street, so closing roads would induce a coma for them. Luckily for them the Transport CCO will have that power to close roads next year.
(Fly in the ointment is the appointment of David Hay, current Deputy Mayor, to the Board of the Transport CCO. Bonus for him - he gets his Hay Memorial Highway to Pakuranga along Dominion Rd.)
I presume Aotea Square has already been looked at and dismissed. Would it collapse under the weight? How about the yet-to-be-developed spaces at Britomart?
As I said elsewhere, Aotea Sq will hold 20k, so if someone at council has calculated wrongly I think Aotea Sq would be a good place to have a party.
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Someone was asking about the capacity of Aotea Sq for people.
The answer is 20k.
Which sounds about right for a nice party central.
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If the issue was the distance from the city's pulsing nerve centre at Britomart, what price two of those buses that ferry passengers across airport tarmacs when there is no airbridge room, running on endless shuttle from the Viaduct to the Ferry Building? A few hundred grand plus freight to hire a couple from Changi or Sydney? Am I missing something here?
Political will and officer smarts.
With my elected rep hat on I say:
I was given, along with other ERs a presentation about this new shiny box down on the far side of the Viaduct. Shiny, boxy, glassy, new. I asked a simple question: how are people to get to there from say Britomart? (or anywhere along Queen St for that matter? I am elected to point these small things out)
Cue blinking eyes and a quick smooth 'don't worry there's that bridge that buses will run along.' (meaning Te Wero). I pointed out that that bridge will be bobbin' up and down like a yo-yo letting in and out boats into the inner viaduct. How will buses cope? No answer to this.
I didn't ask the following questions, but: Which buses? What are these buses? Is NZBus/Ritchies/Newmans/whatever going to be doing this as part of some contract? [disclaimer, I own shares in Infratil, that owns NZBus].
A) officers haven't thought that far ahead. As is usual with these things, something will be cobbled together at some point to plug this obvious gap.
B) there's a lack of political will that says yep, we'll pay for free buses to run say from 11am to 11pm every 15 minutes from Britomart along Fanshawe St to this Council-owned shiny new box, during events (which could include RWC2011).
Doffing said hat.
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Lindsay Perigo speaks for the downtrodden and oppressed old white men of New Zealand, calling Haden's neanderthal utterances "courageous".
Interesting given that Hayden would be one of those old skool Dad's that wouldn't give a fag like Perigo the time of the day. Adherence to the 'I may disagree with what you say but I'll fight for your right to say it' principle still has mileage I see.
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Patronage analysis? So they have contacted a good sample of the potential visitors and asked them if they would like to disembark from our imaginary trains somewhere other than the Central City?
I bet they have... NOT!I don't know whether they have or haven't but I suggest the following. Getting around the city requires a mental image of places one would like to get to, and hence disembark from the nearest station.
For thousands of tourists one can forgive them for only having an image of the CBD, and their preference in taking the bus or train to there and then sample the delights of downtown. It's what happens when we go o'seas - we quickly locate the major part of the city and build a referential locational mental map around that as our experience of the city grows. So the good delights of Newmarket and Mt Eden won't be on the radar of tourists.
However, the challenge for Nwmkt and Mt Eden is to reinforce the relational locational mental image of people who live in Auckland, and make the pitch to them that the bars of these areas will be less crowded and heaving than those downtown. An exclusivity pitch if you like.
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I presume this might have been in some of the briefing papers available to elected reps.
Sorry it was a verbal briefing. Presumably a report will come out in due course.
I don't know the capacity of Aotea Square but I'll find out.
People are going to watch the rugby not the interior decorating. I can't see why the $20 million is needed to be spent. What crowd do our civic and national leaders think they are catering to?
It's a point I've endeavoured to make time and time again: rugby fans coming here are not interested terribly in the fancy lights or the fact that council has thoughfully provided a new road for them, but they are very interested in the game.
It's the game that they are after, and so long as you can transport them to the game and back to their hotel or someplace central, they'll be happy. And that most emphatically does not take $20m (and counting) of ratepayer money.
My nephew and his wife suggested that instead of party central money should be spent on making public transport free for the period of the games. For everyone. That alone would put more people in a party mood than any 'slug' could.
I am accutely aware of that well known condition that afflicits officials and elected reps whenever a big event turns up: rush-of-blood-to-the-head-itis. It's curable but requires the likes of Craig to be deployed at every meeting.
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What happened to Aotea Square with its big screen?
It's still there. The Square (undergoing renovation) is due to be opened on October the 2nd. I've said to officers that it'll open then come hell or high water and if we have to wear safety hats and steel capped boots, we will.
Tournament runs from September 9 to October 23 which is in spring, not winter.
I'm still picking nasty southerlies - they still come in spring making it feel like a loooong winter.
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@ Alan - oh, didn't you know - we are descended from the stars you know and that was one big rainbow. Besides, Judy Garland sang about rainbows so it must be true.