On Len Brown handing over public space to corporate interests

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So Len Brown is handing over a public square (Queen Elizabeth Square) to corporate interests (Precinct Properties), (that may or may not have anything to do with the business interests of the secret trust who backed Len for Mayor) so he can get his blessed City Rail Link built, despite reports that even if we build the City Rail Link, traffic will be gridlocked in Auckland past 2030

“even with a significant increase in investment, the forecast performance of key parts of the transport system will be worse from 2031 than it is today”.

…so even with the City Rail Link, past 2031 we will have worse gridlock than now?

Cough, cough.

So let me recap. We are losing public space for corporate property interests who may or may not have membership in the secret trusts Len used to become Mayor to build a City Rail Link which even if was fully funded, past 2031 will result in worse traffic gridlock than we have now?

This is what progress on public transport looks like in Auckland? I wish people who actually caught public transport made the decisions rather than those trying to make a buck out of it because the pittance being put into public transport makes the ‘Liveable City’ brand look like vacant bullshit.

14 COMMENTS

  1. This country has a massive corruption problem. Barely 1% of it actually surfaces … and that’s a reflection of how pervasive it is. The conch shell is well and truly shattered.

    • I call it The Great New Zealand Institutionalised Lie @ Murray Smith .

      When the SS Dunedin sailed to the UK with a cargo of frozen meat the swindle began .

      Source Wikipedia .
      ” The Dunedin (1876–82) was the first ship to successfully transport a cargo of refrigerated meat. In this capacity, it provided the impetus to develop the capacity of New Zealand as a major provider of agricultural exports, notwithstanding its remoteness from most markets.”

      and that swindle has never abated but has permeated our culture and our psyche and taints our everyday lives like a virus .

  2. Brown has got this so wrong but I’ll say it over and over, he doesn’t have any real control over this monster.

    And this is exactly what Key, Hide and National had in mind when they created the Auckland Council, a goldmine of assets and property just waiting to be exploited with no democratic control.

    Another $650 million worth of council assets is currently lined up too for sale.

    Be very worried!

  3. For any interested people

    You can check where parties got their donations from last year and what they spent the money on here:
    “http://electoral-returns.newsapps.nz”

  4. Brown has been an unmitigated disaster for Auckland. His insistence on a high density Auckland, for no other reason than to support an uneconomic public transport ideology, will destroy this city. But he’s not alone. The corruption and outright incompetence within the Auckland Council is at a level where the Govt. should step in and appoint an Administrator until this mob can be cleaned out and new elections held.

    • @NW: replace ‘Auckland Council’ with “National Government” and ‘Govt.’ with “Governor General” in your last sentence and you’d be about right. Idiot!

    • Thereby, Nehemia, suggesting that you think the present government is not corrupt and outright incompetent?

  5. Any person who follows developments within Auckland Council closely knows what is going on. It is going to mean more PPPs, more asset sales, more privatisation and outsourcing, and Len is just a Sellout Mayor, as I have known for some time.

    He is on buddy terms with the big knobs that run Auckland, and he will jump when they say jump.

    The train system we have now is still very micky mouse style, more third world standard, or shall we say a little Lego type network.

    Unless driving cars is seriously discouraged, we will never have a real change towards significant and better public transport. I know, because I use it all the time, and see most traveling by car instead, no matter what the price of petrol and diesel.

    And going the way Len is now, he is for me totally unelectable, not much different to ones like Cameron Brewer and the other mercenaries we have.

    Having learned a bit about the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan hearings going on, they are also dominated by the big business and other key stakeholder submitters, colluding with Auckland Council on the megalo-maniacal dream to nearly double the population of Auckland by 2030 or so.

    It is all about growth, population growth, business growth and so forth, and the environment and resources are being compromised. If only more people would inform themselves how their city is sold from under their feet and arses, something may change.

    But as the MSM does report stuff all about what goes on, and only focuses on some single issues like the harbour extension Ports of Auckland are planning, nobody knows that they are being sold out, by a Council and Mayor being like putty in the hand of big developers and big business.

    Here is who really determines where the journey goes:

    http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/31/falls-the-shadow-everything-you-didnt-know-about-the-committee-for-auckland/

    That is where politicians meet big business, and cosy up with each other!

    RIP Auckland !

    • Totally agree, especially about the unitary plan and council planners being incompetent. The unitary plan process was full of barristers paid to enrich their lobbyists by creating a district plan that made the rich stakeholders of Auckland more money.

      The council planners have their own agenda and fiefdom and approve everything. The whole process is now such a rubber stamping exercise at great cost to anyone involved with outcomes that do Auckland no justice what so ever. Welcome to an ugly city with no urban design as planning restrictions are just ignored.

      In 5 years the suburbs will be horrible around Auckland, forget having light in your house or open space views. It will be McMansions that most Kiwi’s can’t afford, a cross between the USA and China. Guess what, plaster houses tilt slabs are coming to a suburb near you, the developers can’t make enough money from the CBD as too many ugly buildings previously consented. The real money is now developing the suburbs.

  6. Brown looks like a clone of Shonkey, with browns backroom deals.

    Good grief! where does corruption stop and honest begin in this highly corrupt Planet Key era?

    History will record NZ as another Chicago, run by a similar mob mentality!

  7. Deep breath, people. The sale of the square to Precinct was approved by the Development Committee of the Council last year. (http://www.precinct.co.nz/about-us/news-and-events/2015/)
    The rail link would have happened without it, but possibly would have been more difficult and expensive.
    The issue here is the privatisation of public space, not Len’s train tunnels. I too am very concerned about selling off public space and the Council’s willingness to use PPPs to hide its debt burden (also see the paragraph on PFIs in the article linked below). But I suggest that conflating this with public transport is not helpful.
    To see where this might go, here is a link to a wonderful article on the privatisation of London from the Guardian a couple of days ago. It’s well worth a read if you’re interested in such matters.
    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/24/the-city-that-privatised-itself-to-death-london-is-now-a-set-of-improbable-sex-toys-poking-gormlessly-into-the-air

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