Posts by Julie Fairey
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Jim Cathcart,
Transport and housing are linked. If you put your housing near the centres people need to travel to for work, education, play, shopping etc, that has a huge impact on the need to own a car in particular. And if people don't need to own a car to get around to the things they need to access then that frees up more land that otherwise ends up being used as carparking too. The up-zoning in the Unitary Plan is all about matching up increased housing capacity with frequent transport network routes and centres of employment, education and retail. It's the compact city, innit.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to Russell Brown,
Exactly right, and the Dominion Road Project is the best current example of that.
It was all set to go, construction on the parallel cycle routes underway (and now complete) when it became apparent that there simply would not be enough room in the CBD to park all the buses that you would need to carry the increased number of people from the increased bus capacity the project would deliver. Why this wasn't revealed/discovered sooner I have no idea and it is a major source of frustration - not least because the Local Board I'm on (Puketapapa) has a town centre upgrade we can't do until they do whatever they are going to do on Dominion Road (either Light Rail or a return to the bus project), and it is seriously overdue.
Trams along Dominion Road, and in time also Sandringham and Mt Eden, will increase capacity to move large numbers of people from the isthmus fringes to the centre quickly, more than buses would, and it comes with lower space requirements for parking and storing buses. It makes sense to look at it. It probably makes sense to do it, if they can sort out the funding in an equitable way (which I've seen no evidence of to date).
Buses will remain a key part of the public transport system, but on these heavily used fixed routes with town centres building around them LRT will work for a lot longer than buses. Proceeding with a bus-led Dominion Road Project could actually make bus congestion in the CBD worse sooner rather than later, based on what I've seen.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to James Littlewood*,
You'll be pleased to know it has been, from presentations I've been at around the station redevelopments for the CRL in particular.
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Hard News: After Len, in reply to James Littlewood*,
The timeframe on equalising rates was set in the legislation. Many local boards requested Council to go back to Govt to get another year or two to smooth the transition but the indication from central govt was dim at best so that wasn't pursued.
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It's been interesting to observe when the ideological leanings are clearly expressed by those in the centre-right groups on Governing Body - Denise Krum for example delivered a really full on anti-Living Wage speech but is generally considered quite moderate. (Linda Cooper of course pledged pre election to support it but has since voted against it). See also the TPPA debate, and no doubt the forthcoming oil drilling debate. Pragmatism does seem to be the order of the day (and I don't always agree with that) most of the time, but when it is something that has a whiff of criticism of central govt about it then often those who are National aligned are far from moderate.
I found it bizarre that the Herald spent a whole editorial castigating Akl Council for even debating the oil drilling issue - the report is seeking Council's feedback to the Block Offer 2016 put to them for feedback by central govt. As they have the last three years iirc. Two local boards (Puketapapa, which I chair, and Waitakere Ranges) have consistently also made submissions on this issue.
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Ah yes, kicking Council any chance central govt gets. I never used to be remotely sympathetic to Council until I was on the inside. Now I see the tangled mess we have to deal with from central govt, currently exacerbated by central govt exiting work that really has to be done and so it falls to local govt to do it (with no resources from central govt) eg migration support apart from direct employment stuff.
It would be interesting to consider how much the Rules Reduction Taskforce cost (and how much those on it were paid, I spy a number of Nats on it, not least Mark Thomas from Wellington Central 1996, who is a lovely guy in person I must say). And then take the next step and consider if this output represents good value for public money.
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Perhaps someone should ask the councillors concerned about the significantly improved offices they are getting out of the shift? They weren't allotted proper ones the first time around, and mostly ended up in window less (or at least) tiny cupboards. They now have workable spaces with nice views. Also the ASB refit has been a model of de and reconstruction, with Fletchers going the extra mile to reuse what ASB left behind. Which included a rather luscious executive suite on the top floor I believe, which has NOT become the mayor's office. I think it's the first time something like this has been tried in a major Akl building so there will have been some mistakes, and it's great to see Council leading the way on deconstruction. Finally, I would love to see someone at the Herald actually look at attendance figures for some of these councillors, and not just to the big shows like Governing Body meetings but to joint meetings with Chairs like me, workshops on the Long Term plan and so on. There's a scandal there alright, and it's not about what type of door but about people who rarely seem to come through them to get the work done.
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Someone I know a little bit, who I know is right of centre and is also reasonably politically savvy, started the conversation with me today about how awful "it" all is. I assumed she meant Dirty Politics, and made a sort of an "oh yes, it's not good is it" type response, didn't really want to talk about it tbh. She then said "that's what happens when Dotcom is involved." I just don't even. (And I don't hold a candle for KDC, but there is NO WAY you can rationally pin this stuff on him).
I don't understand why people don't care. I don't understand why this isn't immediate toxic poison for Key, given that he only grudgingly distanced himself from this way of operating for the first time last night.
But then I don't understand why people support Key in the first place. I guess this is how Tories felt from 1999 - 2007.
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Hard News: Schools: can we get a plan up…, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
No sorry, I don't seem to have retained that, I blame the Saxby's Ginger, Lime and Lemon.
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Hard News: Schools: can we get a plan up…, in reply to Max Call,
Yes, in Auckland these are called Facilities Partnerships (I was on the committee for the isthmus last term) and can apply to all sorts of things with schools, sports club, even churches. However sports fields, unless they are specifically built to a high standard for a particular code, seems to be too hard. And it's your common garden school sports field that is most threatened by the need to build more classrooms cheaply - just plonk on some pre fabs.