When Len Brown and Cameron Brewer are shoulder to shoulder on any issue, you know the slimy has met the politically expedient.
Len must be in a fantasy world if he thinks for one second he is going to be allowed to run unopposed in the next Mayoral election. His terrible lapse in judgment means he is tolerated by the Left because the nature of his sins are private, but that level of tolerance extends only to Len remaining in power for his set term, not beyond that.
What will hasten that demise is Len’s quest to hock off parts of Auckland’s dwindling public spaces to corporates in exchange for bullshit ‘public access’.
There are a host of places in Auckland that removed public space for corporations in exchange for ‘public access’. It is access that is never publicised and is quickly forgotten. BNZ Tower is supposed to give free access to the rooftop in exchange for taking up public space when it was built, try gaining access and you will get told it costs money to go to the roof. Sky City just gained all the space above Federal Street for what? The security goons at Sky City block Federal Street at the drop of hat for VIPs to the extent that the Sky City Security goons will force you to cross the road and walk on the other side of Federal Street. This is a public bloody road in the middle of the city that a Corporation literally controls. Adding to that list, we now have these Corporate interests wanting to privatize QE2 Square and one of our wharfs.
Len, you were elected to upgrade our public transport system from 4th world to 3rd world, you need to find that money by demanding it from Wellington as payback for the decades of underfunding in Auckland’s infrastructure. You were not elected to privatise public space in order to find that public transport money.
+100 Martyn.
Our most valuable public spaces seem to be up for grabs.
This is Len Brown doing the business thing. For now he’s over doing the people thing.
From what I’ve seen Len Brown being mayor is about the betterment of Len Brown and if flogging off the few last remaining bits of public space in down town Auckland means he will possibly survive as mayor (delusional as this is), then this chameleon of a man will be businesses best friend and he’ll do it in a heart beat too.
Property developers who will personally financially benefit from the public’s loss will of course quite rightly think him a schmuck to be toyed with and they won’t vote for him anyway. Then again neither will anyone else by then!
So if Len gets stupid we’ll all loose, well except a handful of the business community.
I agree, Martyn..I’d also refer to the latest Metro article about the waterfront development…how the ‘three musketeers’ sold the waterfont development to China…and about the proposal from a ‘silent party’ registered in ther Caymans whith a proposal to redevelop Queens Wharf and the ferry terminal..
…and todays herald article about developing the city attractions for the tourist industry…
What about developing the city for the benefit of the bloody residents?? not the traffic, not the big business, not the vested interests… but the residents. Do that well,and everything else will follow.
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