Posts by Don Christie
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Has anyone yet seen a real poll on the stadium options? So far we have been treated to countless stories around self selecting surveys, even National radio fails to mention the dubious nature of these sort of "polls".
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Ah yes, more from the Coddington/Franks stable. Amazing the courage to be found at the bottom of a bottle of fine Martinborough pinot noire.
If my article was racist, how come I've had so much positive feedback from Asian immigrants
Part of the "old immigrant good new immigrant bad" tale I mentioned earlier in the thread. Classic wedge politics. How about phrasing it another way - if her article was so good, how come the "facts" are so wrong? If it was so "right" how come even the likes of DPF are dissing it?
She questions the propensity of "Asians" to indulge in shady business. Well, pot meet kettle. Remember "Who's Who"? More like "Who's Paid".
Damian Christie (no relation) had some gory details a while back.
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gah s/ through / throw
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Oh, boy, glass sides, under water, we get the Olympic Stadium and Sydney Aquarium for the price of one. If the ABs dare go out in the semi's again we just through them to the sharks in tank 3. Now that's the sort if Kiwi ingenuity I was talking about :-)
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So let me get this straight, Clarkson builds 20,000 seater for $21 mill and extrapolates that 60,000 seats will cost (puts on best Dr. Evil voice) one point eight billion dollars.
That is quite some cost multiplier Bob's working on.
Lets say, though, that 60,000 seats are three times the amount - the cost should be $63 million. Ok, no savings allowed for scale. Must be because bigger buildings and projects lose out due to increase complexity (as all readers of the "Mythical Man Month" will tell you).
So, instead of a linear scale, lets apply an exponential one to Bob's personal experience.
$21million times 9 equals $189 million dollars, still about 10 times less than Bob's $1.8billion estimate.
Personally, I am not a builder, I have no idea how much this stadium will cost. My experience with builders is that they are not always the best at estimating cost either and Clarkson's efforts have done nothing to change my mind on impression.
Last thing, if anyone has extended an old house they will tell you that the costs involved are invariably higher than building from scratch. There is also often more uncertainty as builders are good at uncovering problems with the old structure that appearently could not have been anticipated before work began. Something worth considering when people bang on about the certainty of Eden Park costings.
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James, I hope you are correct. All I was pointing out was that the article was an echo of similar noises being made by close associates of DC. This is not a one off, isolated incident.
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Keith, this has nothing to do with poor journalism. It's all about politics. Coddington is pushing the same barrow I heard Stephen Franks push earlier this year. The audience was smaller and the message more nuanced but the message is clear, these ex-Act MPs are attempting to push some buttons to appeal to our innate xenophobic tendencies. Whilst Coddington has a reputation as an enthusiastic messenger she is not renowned for her original thinking.
To paraphrase their 2006 message, its all about "new" immigrants who simply "don't fit in". They are either going to blow us out of the sky or hide the fact that they are a bunch of hardened criminals by having the effrontery not to tattoo this fact on their foreheads. Oh, they also have no respect for mainstream NZ values. If you are a recent immigrant like me, white, then you are generally ok, despite the fact that my "cultural fit" with the Asia Pacific societies is pretty pathetic.
"Old" immigrants, by the way, are generally ok. Irish Catholics are a better "cultural fit" then they used to be and so are Asians who have been here for period of time that is hard to define but is not recent. So, please give us your votes.
As you point out this is a message used by other political leaders in the past, it is not new to NZ. Someone is trying to swipe one part of the NZ First vote. What I am not clear on is whether Coddington or Franks and others are floating an Act lead or a National one. I have not heard Rodney Hide push this line and given recent Brash's Orewa speaches I am inclined to suspect more defections from Act to the National banner.
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From Terry Ealgeton:
"Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds,"
Well Terry, we don't have to "imagine". The God squad do it all the time. Annoying, isn't it.
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John et al. If you want the waterfront then you need to convince Don Brash. Mallard, for all his gun boat diplomacy, has at least said he will go with whatever decision Auckland comes up with. Brash has plumped for Eden Park. Mallard and Brash seem to be in a bit of a pissing contest to see who can most disrespect Auckland, Brash just nosed ahead with that decision.
Another thing, a 67 floor tower block is just about to be dumped into Auckland's city centre, no doubt blocking off plenty sky, space and having a lot of other impacts. The plan is for it to be built by 2011. Where are the cries of anguish? Where are the damning Herald editorials and crappy photoshop impressions? How many Aucklanders were aware of that "rushed" little idea and have been consulted on position, design and so on.
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Craig, the "successful" developments you point to had as much to do with politicians as Queens Wharf. In fact, it could be argued that the latter's awfulness was a result of a misguided attempt to hand over our waterfront to private interests. Anyway, now that it is no longer a massive food hall that area has improved beyond recognition.
The reality is, that no-one is immune to building terrible stuff. Where I think Aucklanders should be very vigilant is in the design phases of this stadium and its surrounds. If we are paying for the best, you guys just need to make sure we get it!