Posts by Steve Barnes
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Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Russell Brown,
there goes my rates bill up 10%.
There's always Ranui ;-)
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Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to bob daktari,
a renewed sense of community and lack of pretension. Greeting people as you pass on the street, knowing your neighbours,
the sounds of children3 outa 4 ain't bad.
Seriously though, when we moved "out" to Mt Roskill it was an eye opener in that regard. It was a bit like how I remember Ponsonby Road, a community. Now I shudder every time I get north of K' Road into the heaving bosom of the Nouveau Riche and the home of Mike Hosking, what a wanker. -
Speaker: David Fisher: The OIA arms race, in reply to FletcherB,
ASB has not always been a privately held business
Someone, no doubt, will correct me if I am wrong but wasn't having an account at a trust bank a proviso for getting a mortgage years back, a bit like the old British "Building Societies"?
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Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to BenWilson,
Elm St is a pretty primo location in Avondale
I had an estate agent door-knocking, hoping to sell my Avondale place and suggesting I move to Ranui.
Sounds like a Nightmare...... :-O
/coat
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Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Jeffrey Busbridge,
Myself and a lot of people I know who flatted in Grey Lynn or Ponsonby in the 90's have gone on to be successful enough to now buy in the area.
Define success....
If success is an overpriced house in an under resourced city with a growing underclass then I guess you and yours have hit the big time. But if you believe, as I do, that success is not a personal achievement but a social one then the wealth you have accumulated is actually something to feel a little guilty about. Every dollar you have is a dollar a child could be fed and clothed with and somewhere a little girl, or boy, waits...... -
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Amanda Wreckonwith,
and why Epsom
Because... Epsom voted to get ACT into Parliament so National could smash the RMA
making it possible for developers to build ugly high rise slums, so Epsom it is. -
Ponsonby Road 1988
NZ On Screen
Takes ya back eh? -
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to bob daktari,
Ponsonby is rare in that its main street wasn't and still isn't dominated by the same chain stores many other suburbs are -
The was a reason for that. Ponsonby was a poor area dominated by the Pacific community, students and the bohemian sector of Auckland, hence no market for the big stores which were, anyway, just down the hill on Queen Street.
Ponsonby followed the usual pattern inner urban decay. First it was an area of cheap workers housing serving the Docks and the industries that were served by them. Once those industries moved away to newer, more modern facilities, that were serviced by new roads, rail and more efficient transport, then the rot set in.
From that point it followed in the footsteps of places like West Palm BeachBy the early 1990s there were very high vacancy rates downtown, and serious levels of urban blight.
Since the 1990s, developments such as CityPlace and the preservation and renovation of 1920s architecture in the nightlife hub of Clematis Street have seen a downtown resurgence in the entertainment and shopping district. The city has also placed emphasis on neighborhood development and revitalization, in neighborhood districts such as Northwood Village, Old Northwood, Flamingo Park and El Cid.
As the area went down hill (not literally of course or it would have ended up in the gasworks that dominated the bottom of College Hill, later to become Victoria park market but that is another part of another story) houses became cheaper and the slumlords moved in. This actually suited the bohemian community which expanded into a hotbed of creativity with cafes, such as the Open Late and the growth of entertainment at the notorious Gluepot
The changing of the liquor laws in the late eighties and early nineties saw an explosion of bars and cafes which attracted the notice of the nouveau riche, the yuppies if you will.
And that, my friend, was the beginning of the end. The uncooling had begun.
You see, once the "cool" people arrive the uncool wanabees start to buy their way in and from then on, its all about the money. -
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Stephen R,
I think Lianne said on the radio that they hope it would be self-sustaining once it's up and running.
Which it would as long as the amount borrowed is not huge. Maintenance is not a massive cost, especially if it is carried out by the corporation and not tendered out to profit making companies. Rents are, at the moment, running at about the same level, if not higher, as the interest on borrowing for the property and subsidies are available from MSD for those that cannot afford market rents and qualify.
So it would not be unreasonable for the project to, eventually, become self funding. -
Hard News: The uncooling of the inner West, in reply to Russell Brown,
Everything Amanda W suggested would make long-term renting a less attractive alternative.
Not necessarily. It would be counter productive to regulate landlords out of existence but there should be a large and professional section of that market to make it unnecessary for the slumlord to exist. To have a reliable supply of rentable property we have to reduce the number of small landlords, people with one or two properties as rental/investment properties who tend to sell up and thus create unstable tenancies, and increase the "professional" large scale operations that are in it as a serious rental agency. This will happen naturally as property, in itself, loses its attractiveness as an investment and investors turn to better investments such as shares in productive businesses.
ETA
Oh and Russ
Amanda Wreckonwith / A Man to Reckon With., not, I believe, someone called Amanda,.
I think he's a Man... Duh!