Posts by kris_b

  • Hard News: A tale of two festivals,

    Indeed, classic George event. One day they must realise they aren't a niche broadcaster anymore, but part of a large corporate media conglomerate with a huge reach. This, combined with fond memories of those older, much smaller gigs (the Domain events standing out from that) attracts huge crowds they seem unable or unwilling to deal with. It's their own success that's screwing it up.

    Ironically, I wonder if more frequent, smaller events is the go, there's clearly a huge thirst for it, and whilst the Music in Parks programme is excellent, I wonder about it's appeal to the George demographic. Auckland still lacks enough summer outdoor gigs, paid or free.

    Edit to add: I was involved in the LPFM scene back in the day, and the state George left parks in after their events back in the mid-2000's screwed over the rest of us trying to put on smaller events. (UpFM et al) Council requirements for rubbish removal and toilets were far in excess of what our events warranted and effectively killed them, and yet George seemed able to just steamroll ahead and do whatever they liked.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Victoria Crone and what…,

    "I'm not a politician!" seems like an odd pitch for someone running for political office.

    Let's say I was pitching Crone to take over the legal work for her company. Would she take me at all seriously if I opened with "I'm not a lawyer!". What is it about the right that makes them think politics is in any way related to running a business?

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: After Len, in reply to James Littlewood*,

    We pay separately for our rubbish, we have to separate paper from plastic and glass, and we don't get the inorganic collection.

    Sure, you pay for your rubbish bags. But in areas with wheelie bins, we pay a higher waste charge on our rates for it. Home on Te Atatu Peninsula Waste Charges: $88.68. Home in Newton Waste Charges: $225.56. And you also have the advantage of reducing your spend on rubbish bags if you reduce your rubbish output. I can't.

    And no one gets free-for-all inorganic collections anymore, the new scheme is simply being phased in, as any large scale rollout should be. Hell where I live in the CBD we've never had inorganic collections!

    I do however agree with the lack of public pools across the west and northwest, especially considering the massive growth planned for the northwest corridor. West Wave in Henderson is the only council-owned public pool in the area that stretches in an arc from Mt Albert to Albany. The North Shore, already flush with public pools, got a brand new National Aquatics Center right next to the existing Olympic sized pool at the Millennium Institute, and I understand another is planned for near North Harbour Stadium. Council owns I think 25 pools across Auckland, and ONE of them serves West Auckland.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: A better thing to believe in,

    There's something really remarkable about this. It's a consultation process that paid most attention to its least influential respondents. It's the opposite of top-down.

    It's also the complete opposite of how many other sports do it, instead letting adults dead set on reliving the glory days of their youth run riot over the structure and organisation of kids and teens sport, leading to the exact kind of half-arsed results the All Blacks and NZ rowing have avoided. The miserable condition of NZ swimming is a prime example of this.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Sky Trench,

    Love to know why some fairly simple looking steel or aluminium box sections need to come all the way from fucking Germany.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Nelson Street: Not too…,

    Connect it, open it. Getting it in use is vastly more important than making it pretty in the short term.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The humanity,

    Gower was a petulant child even in the pre-caucus conference, like he hasn't realised the election is over now.

    The abuse piled on those in the news media is sometimes shocking - ask the people who are tasked with managing the social media feeds for various outlets, it's almost a continual torrent of hate.

    There's actually *people* behind @OneNews/@3News etc, not just a faceless corporate entity and it comes back to Russell's point about humanity.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Schools: can we get a plan up…,

    The school I work at is sitting down with the Ministry tomorrow to discuss exactly this problem. They've done a Roll Growth Analyisis Report, which ultimately comes to a different conclusion than the data within suggests, but even worse - it only projects out to 2016. It's taken us 2 years of struggle to get a new 4-class permanent block built (which we just opened), and now we're basing future work on projections for only the next 2 years? Even though the report mentions the future intensification planned for our neighbourhood?

    The Ministry has dug this hole for themselves - almost all growth in the last 20 years+ had been dealt with by simply slapping prefab rooms on site - building out instead of up, and now they are facing a massively expensive and massively disruptive building programme around the country, involving shifting prefabs around the site so permanent blocks can be built in their place then removing prefabs afterwards.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Games with Attitude,

    Just checked out the site today after hearing the interview on RNZ Mediawatch, what an awesome result. Site is fast as hell, defaulted to 720p, HTML5 video, very clear layout and love the accessibility options. Blows away every local and many of the big name international streaming sites.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Cycle Frolic, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    Rail bus replacements are of course no use in this case anyway, since you can't take your bike on a bus.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2012 • 16 posts Report Reply

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