Posts by Christopher Dempsey
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An idea that floated around the campaign launch today was to cost public transport options to see what kind of public transport alternative Waterview could buy instead. Would be great to see how they stack up…
Joshua Arbury has already had a look at this issue on his excellent Auckland Transport Blog (hit me if he doesn't become Auckland's Transport Czar in 20 years time).
Basically, it's 2.2b for a surface and exactly the same, give or take a couple of million, for a fabulous rail option with links north and south, and four stations.
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I'm glad to hear that the wheels are finallystarting to turn for Auckland to get a farmers' market of its own. It's really taken long enough for a city of that size, and in a location that is surrounded by producers galore.
Oh it's got a few already - Parnell, Britomart, La Cigale, Alexandra Racecourse, so the wheels are turning to get them into other suburbs where one would be much appreciated, like Point Chevalier.
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Yes, Simon. I object to the thought of sharing a city with a patronising slab of cock cheese like Joseph Barratt too. Could we force Parnell to become sort of like the Vatican City?
I'm mystified by this comment. The point is...?
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sticking my merino wool Chair of Eden Albert Community Board beanine on...
There will be a
By-election Candidates Q&A session on Transport
Wednesday 13 May, 7.30pm,
at the Faumuina Gold Theatre, Building 180 (Main Student Building containing ‘The HUB’/quad), entrance GATE 4, use 2nd public carpark, building is 100m from there or so.
Thanks.
whipping beanie off....
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Oh lordy, what could happen in the Chev in a retail sense .... if only.
I've almost given up thinking about it now, but try this: a Saturday morning market in the shopping centre car park. The westernmost inner-city suburb presents the best of the West's food and drink and art and craft. It'd be like Nelson, only with cheaper restaurants.
Parking? Loads of it, unused, behind the shops on the south side of the road.
I think Lindsay Mace at Native Agent in Kingsland is working with a group in Grey Lynn looking at opening up a farmers market in the area. I'll pass on your idea to her.
I see that the Western Bays Community Board have passed a resolution regarding a farmers market in Grey Lynn, so at least the idea is floating around Council now.
I've been to farmers markets in Dunedin (small and very friendly), Auckland (well, it's Auckland) and Whangarei (which is an absolute gem - very Northland and good supply of honey, cheeses, fruits/veges, and quite large), but Wellington was a puzzle - a basic range of fruit/veges, repeated over the whole site. Weird.
I used to work at Glengarry, in Newmarket, right opposite the mall, which had Woolies in it, with its massive wine/beer area. We did fine with that competition - what gave GG the edge was a good selection of stuff, and the training we got - massive amounts of it - which meant I was exposed to alot of stuff and could confidently recommend stuff. It comes back to service, which you don't get in a supermarket.
I did have a customer (who worked in the area) who switched to getting wine from the supermarket, because it was cheaper, but I used to stop by his store occassionally and basically tell him that I had a six pack of wine ready for him, which I knew he'd like, and was at his price point. He was happy with that.
The amount of smaller/good quality wine shops, good butchers, and fruit/vege greengrocers (there's a term the young ones won't know), along with good bookstores, fromageries, patisseries, etc all point to a resonably healthy food/good living scene outside of supermarkets (as evidenced by the number of people mentioning good stores in this thread) which is good to know.
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whoops - offical hat wearing ends there
But it's such a nice hat ...
Thankyou.
I'm sorry to be whipping hats on and off, but its for my protection. :)
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whoops - offical hat wearing ends there
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Official hat wearing begins here...
Plus also the primary school was another consideration being so close to the new motorway.
The primary school is very problematic in either option; the tunnel portals would exit at a point just north of there, while the surface option would see a 'spagetti' junction around the same spot.
I note that Auckland Public Health are refusing childcare / pre-school licences for locations that are close to main roads / motorways; international research has shown a link between air pollution and the adverse effect on children's growing bodies.
In this instance, the best option would be to move the school, for the sake of the children's health.
Again, building a motorway through an urban area is problematic, and yes,
I think Christopher regards himself as backing the option that costs less in the long run.
, I'm playing the long game here.
Christopher, quickly whilst I'm here, just wanted to say good on you for fighting on behalf of the elderly and the disabled with regards to the Sandringham Kiwibank. Could you not try get a mobile service for these people?I imagine the difficulty for the Focus 2000 group and all those wheelchairs getting across St Lukes road.
Not a problem - that's what we do. Advocate for local communities. I can suggest a mobile service, but I suspect that the Focus 2000 community would welcome the chance to wander down to the local village to do their banking and posting.
St Lukes Rd is such a barrier to alot of people in the area, so much so that many state that they avoid going to the mall. The intersection there continues to tax the brains of Council's traffic engineers,has done so for many a year, and I can't see any improvement soon. If Kiwibank closes at Sandringham then I imagine Focus 2000 people will reluctantly go to the St Lukes Mall Kiwibank outlet.
My best option, now and in the future, is to encourage the local shopping centre, to encourage companies such as NZ Post / Kiwibank to stay and to work on making the village an attractive place for locals.
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Ok, sticking my official Eden Albert Community Board Chair hat on, the following comments are from that perspective (note, this is a potted version of events).
The SH20 route runs at the far western edge of the ward bordering Avondale ward.
When SH20 was being mooted several years ago, the Board worked in the background to argue for tunnels, rather than a surface option. Fortunately, at the time, technology was around that meant tunnels could be considered, which were selected as the best option.
For reasons unknown, the current government has decided to revisit this decision. The Board has written to the PM, pointing out that surface motorways cost more when you include the costs to human populations of air, noise and light pollution (there is a raft of international studies that demonstrate such pollution), that those costs falls on local residents, and that building a motorway through an urban area and over one of Auckland's jewels, Te Auaunga Oakley Creek, is problematic at best.
Mr McShane's pronouncements are indeed written from a lifestyle block in Northland.
Even the "overground" options call for cut-and-cover underground sections. If you ignore Joyce's fiddly maths and take out the SH16 upgrade, the tunnel isn't that much more expensive than other reasonable options. There is no cheap way of doing this.
There really isn't any cheap way. Federated Farmers are dreaming pie in the sky stuff if they think building a 4 lane motorway in an urban area only spews out perfume.
Jesus... am I the only person who gets the shits at lobbyists (and that's what Cam is) who talk about hundreds of millions of dollars like its petty cash? Russell, you're quite right that there's no Warehouse option here, but I just cringe at how tone-deaf these people are.
Lobbyists such as Connor English, Tony Riley, Roger Kerr, Tony Friedlander for example?
And as for the new road network being around for hundreds of years, well, I would have thought future proofing said network by incorporating rail would have made sense. But that's another story.
Actually, that is part of the story. The original SH20 route through Mt Albert was and still is a designation for a rail line. The old Transit brought that designation from Ontrack or whoever. The designation has not been changed to my knowledge.
Any engineering problems arising from a tunnel so close to the water table?
The 'dirt' to be tunnelled through is actually solidified lava flows, orginiating, not surprisingly, from Owairaka (Auckland isthumus, with it's multitude of volcanic cones, has a lot of lava around).
End of official hat wearing.
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I couldn't think of anywhere to put this, but could someone find the National Party an irony bone for them to use?
Agriculture Minister David Carter has rejected a call to ban pesticides which put bees in jeopardy.
Green MP Sue Kedgley yesterday urged the Government to follow the European Union in phasing out pesticides that kill bees. But that would be impractical, Mr Carter said.
"Prohibiting all pesticides capable of killing bees would expose farmers and growers to the risk of significant crop losses," he said.