Hard News: Some Monday Things
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The Nats won the election by appealing to the middle. I suspect Key knows that if he lets Hide loose it would be political suicide.
They won by reducing the labour vote by 5% and keeping NZ first out by a voting change of 1%.....
W.P was forced to run the filthiest and weakest campaign in the history of prominent third parties . 1%.
Who the hell is the middle? They're just a tiny bunch of floating voters. The real problem is the right wings of both our major parties are out of touch and the army of blue well heeled "joe hockeysticks" cheerleaders that National seem to effortlessly breed in this country.
Hide is an embarrassment, he is a light entertainer not a fking politician,if there is a opposite word for "vision" it should be attributed to him.
The Act Party are just full of outrageous and sometimes quite scary lies.Welcome to 2009 ,our governing coalition has a bad joke in it.
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And if Mt Smart was to be levelled, wherefore the Big Day Out? I can't think of another suitable venue.
North Harbour stadium could be made to work well with a range of noise-insulatable sites surounding a central spot for a main stage. But as others have said security would be the issue, but not impossible.
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Had, in some parallel world, Sarah Palin entered the office of vice-president, things would have been mighty entertaining about now.
Bristol will now, allegedly, focus on "advocating abstinence".
cf. Obama and nukes
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Trying to control access to either Ellerslie or Cornwall Park or The Domain? Forget it.
Ah yes, I hadn't thought of that.
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North Harbour stadium
Yeah Right. Every Munter from Bluff to Herne Bay crossing the Harbour Bridge. Now that would be a Big Day Out on Spaghetti junction. ;-)
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North Harbour stadium could be made to work well
One word: transport.
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Simultaneous postings are strangely reassuring..
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Big Day Out on Spaghetti junction
Hey, there's an idea. Well they were willing to consider closing off the motorway for the V8s to do their thing..
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Big Day Out on Spaghetti junction
Hey, there's an idea. Well they were willing to consider closing off the motorway for the V8s to do their thing..
You could do both at the same time. Think of the reality TV opportunities.
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Every Munter from Bluff to Herne Bay crossing the Harbour Bridge. Now that would be a Big Day Out on Spaghetti junction.
What?
With the Stadium being adjacent to the end of the new busway, transport from town could not be easier. Certainly no need to drive.
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Certainly no need to drive.
Since when has lack of need stopped us exercising our god-given right to drive everywhere?
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crossing the Harbour Bridge.
You mean that up-to-5-lane, largest piece of motorway we have?
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Busway? Do you mean concrete thing between Takapuna and North Harbour Stadium? Oh I see, it's all about you isn't it? ;-)
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North Harbour stadium could be made to work well with a range of noise-insulatable sites surounding a central spot for a main stage. But as others have said security would be the issue, but not impossible.
It's not my favourite venue, but it probably is the next practical choice after Mt Smart.
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crossing the Harbour Bridge.
You mean that up-to-5-lane, largest piece of motorway we have?
No, I mean the Harbour Bridge, funnily enough.
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This may be sacrilege but is it compulsary to hold BDO in Auckland? My experience of Mt. Smart* is that it is one damn ugly place but I guess you aren't looking for scenery at such events. Western Springs would be good.
* on the bus to the 2008 BDO, I overheard the following conversation;
Q. Why do they call it Mt. Smart?
A. Because only intelligent people are allowed to go there! -
* on the bus to the 2008 BDO, I overheard the following conversation;
Q. Why do they call it Mt. Smart?
A. Because only intelligent people are allowed to go there!It's Knowedge Bro, :-D
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It's Knowedge Bro, :-D
But not enough Knowledge to spell his/her own name, eh?
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Perhaps we should have ordered up that waterfront stadium after all.
No shit. It was always a good idea.
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This may be sacrilege but is it compulsary to hold BDO in Auckland?
Pretty much, yes. In a word: population. A quarter of the country's population live in the same city. Trying to shift venue would require massive logistical coordination to get the same number of punters through the gates. Trains, planes, automobiles... The other choices would be Wellington or Christchurch. Christchurch is pretty much ruled out by the fact that it's on an island populated by fewer people than Greater Auckland. That leaves Wellington, with roughly 1/4 the population and correspondingly fewer places to try and accommodate invading hordes.
As for North Harbour, transport would be the main problem. Mt Smart is walking distance from Penrose train station, well-served by buses, close to three motorways from all directions, and generally accessible. All North Harbour has going for it is the busway, and that's not going to cut it for 40-something-thousand people. Sorry, but it's not. The North Shore is effectively accessible by two roads from the rest of Auckland, and they wouldn't cope with the numbers associated with BDO.
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North Harbour stadium? I would doubt it would last five minutes running a music festival before some God-fearing shore denizen with a massive sense of entitlement got the whole thing shut down for noise.
That is one of the beauties of Mt Smart - it is in the middle of an ugly industrial area.Thinking about it, Alexandra park would be about the only place I could imagine moving the BDO to - it would depend on security considerations.
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Perhaps we should have ordered up that waterfront stadium after all.
No shit. It was always a good idea.
Except that NZ's chronic inability to build anything of significance on schedule meant that it would've been finished around 2013. We'd have been a global laughing stock. It would also have seen massive cost overruns, as the drop in the value of the dollar has pushed up prices for cement and steel inordinately. It might have been a really great stadium, but I have zero faith in it having been built in time, or for anything vaguely resembling the budgeted cost.
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No, I mean the Harbour Bridge, funnily enough.
Christ, like pulling teeth...
The bridge itself isn't the issue most people make it to be - it's huge and just another piece of motorway. And while it's a single chokepoint for those coming from the South or East, the pretty large population in the North and West are either already there or can access via the Upper Harbour Highway. I would wager that a pretty good percentage of BDOers are already coming on motorways through Spaghetti Junction from either the west or north to get to Mt Smart.
I just don't believe that getting to the North Shore is the traffic abomination most people make it out to be, although admittedly this arose as a train of thought for me re RWC stadium discussions and is partly dependent on some investment in the busway etc.
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Gareth, the two largest constituent cities in Greater Auckland are south of the Bridge. The second-largest is south of Mt Smart, with the stadium being on the south side of the largest. That alone gives it centrality to the population that North Harbour severely lacks, especially when you look at where North Harbour resides inside North Shore City. North Harbour is also totally disconnected from the airport, which makes for a total nightmare for people coming in from other cities.
Another consideration is the delicacy of the connection to the rest of Auckland. If something significant happens in the precincts of the Bridge, traffic turns to custard in a matter of minutes before taking hours to clear. There's a single alternative route and it's woefully inadequate for handling the traffic volumes that the primary route takes, never mind being a horribly long detour.
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Perhaps we should have ordered up that waterfront stadium after all.
No shit. It was always a good idea.
Except that NZ's chronic inability to build anything of significance on schedule
I loved the idea. Every morning I gaze from the ferry at two piers of run down sheds and used cars and think, "that'll make a wonderful office tower one day".
Imagine if we had done it - berths for 3 cruise liners in a modern, light atrium. Booths for immigration and customs that double as ticket entry. A surrounding walkway, cafes etc. feeling like the area around the Opera House - after all, that was only delivered 10 years late at 14 times the cost :) Concerts and stuff close to a transport hub (and parking) that can cope. All that infrastructure to support big crowds of people. <sigh>
But you're right Matthew, we shouldn't even attempt such things - better we just acknowledge our general crapness and accept our place in the world... that's what makes Auckland such a great city!
One way would have been to make the up-front purchase of the Mt Eden land (for residential development) part of the contract... but that it couldn't be sold until the new stadium was finished. I bet it would have been finished early.
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