MEDIAWATCH: The awful moment when Mike Hosking is right
We all hate Mike Hosking.
That is righteous and that is proper and his most recent column stating he is considering leaving Auckland was met with the usual howls of mirth and people begging him to do so.
Hahahaha.
But what he is articulating is actually a very visceral scream by many, many, many Aucklanders who hate the gridlock we are now living with.
We are all left asking the question, ‘Sweet Jesus, how long does it take to build a fucking cycle lane in Auckland??????”
Are these the pyramids of the modern world are they? Complicated engineering feats beyond the capacity of today’s machines?
Just. Build. The. Bloody. Things!
I’ve lived in Auckland for 40 years, 25 of those years in central Auckland, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt it’s never been a shittier time to live here.
The gridlock, the fucking gridlock, just kills me. I don’t even own a car, never have! I do what I’m supposed to do, I walk, I catch public transport or I ride share, and yet every day, every single fucking day I am stuck in gridlock.
While I’m stuck in gridlock, I see more and more friends and family who can’t afford to live in the city that they were born into.
Local Government doesn’t set the immigration levels, central Government does, yet central Government does sweet fuck all in actually funding the infrastructure needs of the city coping with that influx.
Migrant workers and International students are exploited and cause huge pressures on housing and transport and central Government do nothing more than promise to build more bloody roads as if that’s the solution and not the endless exploitation of migrant workers, international students and intensive tourism.
Goff can tell us all that he’s managed to wrestle $9b in infrastructure, but none of us are benefitting from that, we are just stuck in the fucking gridlock. It’s like Simon Wilson bitching about cycle lanes, or Russel Brown bitching about cycle lanes or David Slack bitching about cycle lanes. At some point you just don’t care about fucking cycle lanes, you just want to get to your fucking destination across town in less than 4 hours!
By the way, let’s just comment quickly on the joy of ‘Enhancing K Rd’
We all have to say how wonderful it is that K Rd is being dug up for some bullshit cycle lane thing, and how great it is to have K Rd dug up and what a joy it is to have K Rd dug up because if anyone DARE criticise it an enraged Russel Brown will declare a militant cycle Fatwa on you and demand you are cancelled by the woke.
So. Yay, my favourite street is shit.
2.7million tourists pour into Auckland via the airport every year, gridlocking the roads around the airport. Immigration draws in tens of thousands every year, gridlocking the city and those floating swine palaces, the cruise ships, block off the waterfront whenever they visit.
All those new roads the Government are borrowing billions for will result in the exact same gridlock of building that Auckland is currently being strangled by.
We may all righteously hate Mike Hosking, but he is articulating a real rage that is going to be exploited by National in the election despite National’s underfunding of infrastructure and exploitation of migration for the entire decade they were in power being the root cause of this gridlock.
The coalition is fixing what National broke………………….. but it will take longer than two and a bit years.
Just saying
Yeah they arent actually. You may love Arderns slogans and promises but she’s delivering sweet f**k all. Wake up!
Absolutely all those kids living in poverty disgraceful. Never trust the labour party their focus groups will be telling them the middle class don’t like beneficaries or the low paid to receive more benefits. Pathetic!
Well these kids you care about are guaranteed to be treated with pure contempt by National. In it’s dying days National could not flog off state housing fast enough.
It only took 9 years for National to place those kids in poverty, pathetic!
What did Ardern actually promise using the word “promise”
Let’s do this was the slogan, as I remember.
What happened to the year of delivery? The light rail your queen stated would be built? Mike is justified in his criticism
To be honest Auckland needs at least ten light rail routes, and another four or five ordinary rail links to connect the spread out suburbia, which would cost tens of billions to build. But rest assured, the idiots running the show in Wellington and Auckland will carry on building expensive roads that will never be used in a few decades, when fossil fuel energy will no longer be used, and where only an elite can afford to run electric or other alternatively powered cars.
Auckland is a FAILED PROJECT, a total stuff up for a large sprawling city.
Typical uninformed responses to a good comment. Kat is correct, it will take longer than 27 months to even get planning through let alone the first spades in the ground on these infrastructure projects. Idiotic comments like why isn’t the light rail built and accusing the govt of delivering f..all is just keyboard wankery by simpleton mouth offs.
You’ve got it. Loose lips not connected to cerebral matter.
Let’s face it, there is a disconnect between central and local governments, but local government is part of the strategic operations of the country now, and is the most able to deal with the issues of environmental care, consents and land zoning, Martyn correctly identified that aucklands growth is outstripping it’s means. Sadly bike lanes for the well to do in the inner city suburbs won’t increase mobility for the majority. All previous governments have had their head in the sand for the last two decades… housing is too expensive for owners and renters alike. Getting around town is and greater auckland is a logistical pain in the ass if you don’t want to sit in traffic. Looking back It seems that Auckland is ripped apart almost every generation with some ‘fix it up scheme’ and often we loose more than we gain.
A few things we should do…
Encourage new arrivals elsewhere than auckland… One step is to have a seperate commuter fast train service running auckland- Hamilton- tauranga. Ban house auctions, this will ease price spiking in real estate. Charge high rates for unoccupied homes. Increase capabilities in water and power utilites. Making public transport tickets capped at a low flat rate. Force heavy trucks to travel off peak hours only. Stagger school hours to conflict less with peak commuter hours. Build larger apartments for family living. Better controls /inspection of rental standards/price increases. Many people find renting a struggle because the uncertainty of the landlord selling the property.
There needs to be a serious review as to WHY these projects take so long to complete and why costs are so high
Expensive machinery only being used 5 days from 9 to 5!
People actively carrying out the work outnumbered 2 to 1 by “safety” personnel and managers.
Vast area’s coned off when it’s completely unnecessary.
When downtown last week there were 4 staff directing how to cross the road at a construction site area ffs. There were crossing lights !!!
We are wasting millions!!
If you find you usually don’t agree with Mike Hosking, but do on occasion. Really just an indicator you are wrong on this occasion.
At a certain point, people start to realize that money IS NOT a magic wand! Governments’ job is to legislate. Also to reward good and punish evil.
Unfortunately consecutive governments have acted as if printing, borrowing and air-marking money will solve all out problems – clearly not!
Though it is true that ‘with many advisers plans succeed’ – at a certain point you have to act on recommendations and have structures in place to funnel money to competent people .. you also have to enable/allow people to meaningfully engage to become competent.
People almost always take the path of least resistance – when will the status quo become a resistor and force a change in the current?
At lease David Lange and Roger Douglas boldly seized their opportunity to open up the NZ economy and make much needed changes! They weren’t concerned with winning the next election .. they saw their opportunity and took it! This is history, this is their story!
Jacinda seems incapable of walking in her authority as Prime Minister. Granted the Lange Government went too far with Rogernomics/neoliberalism. Conversely the Clark Government was too concerned with hanging onto power.
The sad fact is Labour, NZ First and the Greens haven’t learnt from History. They don’t deserve your vote, they deserve your proverbial boot. New Zealand is a small island Nation – population of 5 million .. yet for 30 years our governing elites have been progressively woeful in managing political power.
Our population is much less virtuous than in years gone buy – VERY BAD for democracy! The rich use the poor to funnel them money, the middle class hate and blame the poor. Many WINZ workers hate, resent and blame all our countries problems on “solo-mothers”. These same barren WINZ workers often own no property, live off family and are actively planning to vote National. And no, I don’t have children. And yes, there are solo-fathers.
Though once a hospitable country, we are now turning on immigrants and travelers .. probably because of the poor immigration, social, land and justice policies.
Drop Mic.
Roger Douglas David Lange et.al. should have been strung up for the damage they did to NZ society.
In my opinion anyone receiving income via the government is a beneficiary, especially WINZ employees.
The wouldn’t have a job were it not for the “beneficiaries” it is their job to assist.
\It’s impossible to kn ow what New Zealand would have been like if not for the Lange -Douglas government. It might have been lovely – or it might have been a basket case,
and dont think it won’t come here .. so perepare yourself .. and “fortress aotearoa” cause the wuhan Virus ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.
I have never seen Auckland City so bad. And I totally agree the pricks that lobby for cycle lanes purpose is anything but sensible and anything but cycled lanes
You know these goofy bastards riding pedal bikes ride where they want how they want with contempt at worst and indifference at best at pedestrians or any other mode. The ultimate martyrs, the ultimate victims.
Cycling isn’t helping us, it’s stuffing is, it’s excludng those who don’t live and do Grey Lynn or PT Chev.
Goff thinks he’s on the a winner. It will only take a half decent inoffensive mayoral candidate to propose a stop to this madness to see him thrown out.
And yes Central government has failed is miserably. And yet the most USELESS transport minister in history remains such is Jacindas indifference. I can only hope Te Atatu vote the idiot out.
How many people use these so called cycle lanes? I live in the south and we have large chunks of the lanes taken away for cycle lanes nobody uses. There is no really thought out plan we just seem to patch things up and hope nobody gets to pissed off. How about have someone sit and see how many people actually use the cycle lanes? The majority don’t as our thought is to jump in the car and get what we need. The speed at which we complete our construction in this country is a farce. You have 4 people directing traffic and putting down cones and one standing knee deep digging a hole. All these are knee jerk reactions to finding a solution. Even the airport instead of fixing a runway and reducing stress levels of passengers and public they are pottering around trying to fix a road which seems to take ages. For a city that is supposed to be the gateway to NZ why are we not thinking more about the future get it right instead of patching things up. For the airport the new runway should have been first then the infrastructure around it not the other way around.
Just a f***ing shambles IMHO ?
Maybe if some of the infrastructure stuff had been done years ago the massive explosion would be less now.
Maybe if some of the workers worked right through the night or double the hours things would be completed earlier. Then Hosking could moan about the costs because of workers being paid more. And everyone could grizzle about the noisy workers at 3.00am.
The best solution has been suggested before. Hosking has the answers, he’s always letting us know them, has for years, on just about everything to do with Auckland. He should have stood for mayor. His supporters tell us there are untold of them. They tell us he’s brilliant. He makes out he’s brilliant.
Too much like hard work. Too much accountability. Too democratic a system for him.
Auckland should strike up a sister city relationship with some place deep in Trumpland and as a sign of good faith give them their outstanding citizen Mike as a koha.
This was reported nearly a year ago, prepare for further cost blow outs:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/budget-blowout-cost-aucklands-city-rail-link-increases-1-billion
Auckland’s transport woes will NEVER be fixed, and Aucklanders will pay for mad dreams for decades to come.
Mad dreams are when you put 40,000 new people in an area in a year and expect services which are hardly functioning well or suitable, to cope.
Then, to celebrate, you do the same thing again the next year and wonder why there are problems.
Then, to celebrate that you add a similar dollop of people again.
All the while you complain about rates and taxes and the inaction of elected official and their inability to cope with the growth. Then when there is action which causes disruption to the normal flow of your life you moan and bitch.
So mad sprinting is going on but no serious headway is being made, it’s running madly on the spot. The answer? Get an advocate like Mike Hosking to word all the frustration. He gets told to leave – I’ve suggested he be given away.
Here’s the thing, (as he says), he needs take about 500,000 with him. Pick zb listeners, pick the moaners, pick those who would follow him as the prophet. Then everyone remaining would profit too.
Kiwis love the convenience of personal motor vehicles, this will not change any time soon as long as we offer policy to be determined by the public vote. Turkey’s do not vote for an early Xmas:
https://at.govt.nz/media/1981275/traffic-counts-to-august-2019.xlsx
See that the bulk of transport is by private care, and the City Rail Link will not change this much at all, I am afraid. So fossil fuel use will continue until it is prohibitively expensive to use it, or until an economic crisis, perhaps linked to an environmental crisis, forces people to give up driving their beloved cars.
Poor JAFFA’s. No but seriously this is why after many years I moved back from the bustle of Sydney and went to live in a country town. Everything is five minutes away. Its heaven.
Why anyone, aside from the young would want to live in a big city is beyond me but there you have it.
I think too what I’m hearing is again a statement on govt in general in NZ.
So why do people keep voting for more of the same when they want something better?
Absolute crap,ban all pokies ,then watch child poverty decrease dramatically, Adern will not have a bar of doing that because of the money coming back as tax