Wellington Woes – vote them out
Labour/Greens have this excellent idea to intensify housing: less farmland destroyed, reduced new infrastructure costs, and better public transport. They want affordable housing. Excellent! I’m right behind all of it. Let’s look at the detail.
Hang on. In Wellington intenfication to 6 stories is being forced in low rise zoned residential suburbs that aren’t central? e.g. Newtown, Berhampore, and Island Bay. The true inner suburbs, Te Aro and up Adelaide road are zoned for business and are without requirements to intensify. Business can and have sprawled with asphelt field carparks. (In the 70’s high rise carparks were built to maximise and intensify land use; why don’t we bring back those old rates).
And intensification in the suburbs is where many Labour/Green voters live, and they aren’t going to be too happy to lose sun, privacy and greenery. And blue suburbs are largely left alone. Is this clever politics? Would other politicians punch down on their voting supporters?
More people do want to live central, want less commuting, want more local activities and eateries, proximity to public transport options. All these exist in spades in the true central city areas, Te Aro and Adelaide road, not our low rise historic green character suburbs.
Supporting suburban intensification is light rail but its only going to Island Bay? In rush hour the bus timetable says 25 minutes to Courteney Place. So it would save maybe 15 minutes maximum over a bus. For a massive project cost. But tight corners near the basin means slower times and in Berhampoore it runs on roads so it could get stuck in rush hour traffic. It’s unlikely to have huge time savings. Whose dumb idea is this?
A rail has to go to the eastern suburbs and airport to get the distances to make the best time savings and connect regional assets, and to make it cost effective. If it can’t go east don’t bother. The via the south coast extension idea is too costly and commuters don’t want long journeys.
Can I hear somebody laughing? Wouldn’t the cost of a not very efficient light rail be hung round the neck of Labour/Green politicians/councillors for years?
Labour/Greens propose a new tunnel through Mt Vic for cars/buses – I can see why. But the old Mount Victoria tunnel is turned into a green bike, walking tunnel. Who would believe that? Once a new tunnel is built any conservative council would just say, ‘We’ll take that. Look 4 lanes to the planes’. But nobody would campaign on that; oh they have already, and they still want to do it, and Wellington previously didn’t vote for it, but now the idea wears a green coat that can be discarded.
Am I being lied to as a voter? Or is somebody else being conned? Are young green thinking local councillers and politicians being snickered at behind their backs while this car futurama is openly embeded in the thinking?
If green thinking is serious, and you want a new tunnel (somebody in government wants a new car tunnel; it must go to the back of the hospital to link regional assets. It must include cars and buses and either/or both:
- A dedicated bike and pedestrian ability. (Not that pilot tunnel idea – inconvenient, and potentially dangerous for women).
- A rail tunnel ‘Light rail?’ (Heavy rail?)
Green thinking politicians have to get green concessions out of the new tunnel idea or I’m not voting for them. The new tunnel is key to getting green concessions.
Light rail is a fantastic idea but this proposal doesn’t work. Low time savings kill it, and as a new small stand alone asset, maintenance costs will be high, and it lacks flexibility to switch across rail stock. It looks left in as a negotiation technique by those wanting a car tunnel, i.e. get an expensive car tunnel by promising a light rail so it looks balanced for each side. Then later drag out all these cost and support problems so the idea is unpalatable to the public and rots. Are some political people are being taken for a ride; in a car?
The intensification plans are not honest as they are not in true central areas. If you truly intensified to Te Aro flats, Adelaide road, Kent, Cambridge terrace, you wouldn’t need the huge cost of light rail.
I’m not voting for intensfiication that ruins our city and makes it look like any 3rd world city.
Our city, Wellington, is green and distinctive and its wooden housing is all we have left of the majestic forests that covered this land. By respecting those houses we respect those trees existence, and I have no desire to support those who would trash the environment all over again.
p.s. Stuff also did not publish this article. Is their pro-intensification stance getting in their way of allowing alternative viewpoints?
If Wellington was stuff on a whiteboard you’d wipe it off and start again. And you would not have it as the seat of government.
It’s a great place but it’s a dumb place to try to cram hundreds of thousands of people in. It’s a worse place to have scores of thousands try to get in and out of and around and through easily based on a model of the middle of the 1800s.
Isn’t it time we got rid of the Basin Reserve. It seems to be badly placed, getting in the way of traffic flows; and parking spaces around it are limited. surely a better cricket ground could be set up somewhere outside the city, with plenty of parking.
Foster might be the most “ normal” candidate. First picture I saw of Tory Whanau she seemed to be posturing like a model or a celeb, so it was thumbs down from me. The initial Green Party MP photos showed the females posing and posturing hands on hips like pin-ups in a way that Margaret Thatcher and Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley and even Jacinda Ardern certainly never did. It’s odd. Unprofessional. Hard to take seriously. People like what Eagle says about drains pipes/water, but all the council candidates are saying much the same thing; I’m sure Eagle is a nice man, but if I recall correctly, his maiden Parliamentary speech, was yet another person, just like mouthy Green Elizabeth Kerekere’s, talking about themselves. I am sorry if Mr Eagle had a tough early life, but so have so many, and globally the whole lot of them are playing the victim nowadays, it’s the international currency, so at this stage, I’ll probably go for Foster, and at least he knows what he’s up against.
A real Hobson’s choice in Wellington although Whanau might just be solid enough to not take the bullshit and spin from the upper ranks of the Council administration whilst the lower ranks cop the flak. Especially bullshit artist in chief Mclean. At least the long serving ‘resilience manager’ resigned. I guess he had too really given the state of shit and water pipes and crumbling infrastructure that he watched and did SFA about.
I’d recommend 1 Whanau 2 Eagle and 3 Little Man Complex as things stand even tho’ in many ways they’re as bad as each other
OnceWasTim If Whanau presided over the divisive identity politics gender obsessive policies of the Parliamentary Greens, then I’d query whether her decision making and prioritising is based upon values and practicalities in line with what the city wants or needs – the Greens have left many of their long term supporters profoundly disappointed, but the Green label may carry clout with younger voters. I recall and may still have record of Kerry Prendergast publicly criticising Foster for his utilisation of the democratic process, and that’s a point in his favour, albeit a small one.
Yep, well it’s a bloody mess for sure. And then there’s Stephen Minto’s brilliant contribution on housing the Greens primarily, but also Labour seem utterly out of touch with.
What he (Minto) hasn’t said is that many (and growing in number) are a lot of heritage houses ( not those owned by slumlords ) that are in much better nik than many recent builds.
It’s likely I’ll change my mind before too long once I see their grandstanding bios. It’s a shame there are people who haven’t put their names forward, but I can understand why (E.g. Ian Apperly)
OnceWasTim. Good point re heritage houses. I owned one previously, and have owned three 1930’s houses sounder and much better built than my current 1980’s place. Many, maybe all of the old state houses were also top quality builds.
I note that Whanau has referred to pale stale males, and as a former public servant you’ll know that the anti-pale male brigade are the ones who can score preferential advancement in government departments. Whether this is a sound basis for the position of mayor is debatable. Neither Eagle or Chung look particularly pale, but they’re still male-looking, although when it comes to the gender bender Greens that can be a moveable feast anyway. I suppose Whanau is the person who told Genter to refer to Pakeha males that way. They all need to grow up and Foster should get himself a suntan just to be on the safe side, wear a frock.
🙂
I know what you mean. I did a 10 year lag at the Colonial Office. Thankfully it slightly improved after I and the then CEO left
https://democracyproject.nz/2022/09/19/bryce-edwards-the-uninspiring-wellington-mayoral-election/
Fantail. Thanks. Thanks again. I just watched it. I saw Tory talk of ‘pale stale males.’
Kaput, that ‘s her out, even if just for using worn out old Greenie cliches and putting me in the dreadful position of having to stand by a man, without even knowing which one to stand by. As an already long-standing Wellington rate-payer who has probably worked harder and more for this community than Tory Whanau has – and paid significantly more rates than her – I think that the last thing which this city needs is any mayor who spouts racist sexist poppycock – or who pops cheap shots.