Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Still not all that Super?

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  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Welcome to Auckland.Oh look! a pretty jail.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    You build one little toilet...:) Kawakawa has never looked back.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    "For people coming into the city, it says: 'Welcome to the aspirational capital of New Zealand, where you jail people ... and it's great'," he said.

    Mr Banks said.

    Oh dear.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Christopher Dempsey,

    Ha! Did you see the lovely new architectural buildiing going up beside spaghetti junction, that adorned the front page of the Herald today. Wonder what colour that will be. my guess is, an enchanting grey like Watford.

    It'll look like an office block with glass outer wall. Something that looks vaugely 80s but an office block. So no colour there, but lots of glass.

    You build one little toilet...:) Kawakawa has never looked back.

    I've been there and actually went out of my way to go there not surprisingly enough. That toilet is quite cool, and the success of it has meant that Kawakawa is now starting to talk about reviving the train journey that used to run from there out to the coast.

    There's something to be said for small decisive interventions in the environment, urban or otherwise.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg,

    Newmarket Business Association chief Cameron Brewer was a lone voice of support for the project. He said the $250 million-plus being spent on upgrading the site "is arguably going to improve the area aesthetically".

    "What [the] block rising from the ashes does is clearly remind people travelling through Spaghetti Junction in particular that there is a prison in the neighbourhood."

    Can someone parse this quote for me? How is this in support of the project?

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg,

    Thanks Stephen. I thought I had English comprehension FAIL. Seems to be more like English writing FAIL.

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    I can see it now.

    John Minto teams up with & arms Steve Crows Boobs on Bikes. Culminating in the Storming of Mt Eden.

    http://chattahbox.com/images/2009/04/storming_the_bastille.jpg

    Prisons need to be where the people are. I'm not alone in advocating for many on the empty apartments to be used for this purpose. The joke will lose its humour in 10-15yrs when many apartments true worth is realised.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Current ARC councillor Joel Cayford is a fan of Curitiba's transport system. We have components like integrated ticketing on the way but others have been thwarted by central government decisions and poor local prioritising over the years.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Editing te Herald ftw. Fantastic description of the town cheerleader:

    a man whose professional responsibility it is to have a massive hard-on for anything happening in the vicinity of Newmarket

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    empty apartments

    That picture does look strikingly similar to other parts of the cbd where rampant shoebox building at all costs was the order of the day earlier in the decade. Add some razorwire and guard towers to upper Nelson St and no one would tell the difference.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Christopher Dempsey,

    In discussion with a PhD student this morning I failed to move beyond the descriptor 'chicken coops' for the upper Nelson/Hobson St apartment blocks, but I shall pass on your descriptor.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    In 2011, the crime rate in New Zealand rises four hundred percent. The once-great city of Manukau becomes the one maximum-security prison for the entire country. A twenty-metre containment wall is erected along the Mangere Inlet, across the East Tamaki and Manurewa Domains, and down along the Manukau shoreline. It completely surrounds southern Auckland.

    All bridges and waterways are mined.

    The NZ Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the area.

    There are no guards inside the prison: only prisoners and the worlds they have made.

    The rules are simple: Once you go in, you don't come out.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    I shall pass on your descriptor

    Which I absorbed by osmosis some years back, no doubt from a journo or online commenter.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    The rules are simple: Once you go in, you don't come out.

    "Stairway to Heaven." Led Zepp.
    "Build it and they will come."Some movie about a baseball park.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Welcome to Auckland.Oh look! a pretty jail.

    Ah, yes, it blocks the inspirational view of Auckland Grammar's Californicated kitsch, card yards, and the sprawl of anodyne small office buildings. Don't tell me -- there's an election this year, right? :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Christopher Dempsey,

    And within minutes of passing it visitors will be exiting the motorway on to Nelson St where they'll drive down a bleak avenue of much more ghastly, jail-like, accommodation blocks.

    By the time they pass the monolithic SkyCity block, they'll be asking the taxi driver to turn back to the nice new building we first passed, thinking the new prison must have been Auckland's classiest hotel.

    (source: Brian Rudman, Granny H, 28 May 2010)

    Which reminds me of the time driving an elderly friend of the family along Fanshawe St just after the new office buildings were built, fronting onto the Viaduct. "Is that a new prison?" she asked. "Excuse me?". "Are those the new prison buildings?" she said pointing to the battleship grey fortress like buildings. I laughed and told her they were new office buildings but yes, they were prisons of a sort.

    Rudman's take on the entire blowup during election year is correct; we love locking poor brown people up, which costs both a pretty penny ($90k a year) and requires space.

    Grrr if I were dictator I'd be finding better ways of spending that $90k/year/prisoner.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And within minutes of passing it visitors will be exiting the motorway on to Nelson St where they'll drive down a bleak avenue of much more ghastly, jail-like, accommodation blocks.

    Yawn... isn't it time for another Herald sob-story about how damn unfair it is that nice white middle-class double-income couples have to service the mortgage on over-priced villas in chi-chi suburbs? Oh, the humanity... the humanity!

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    Seems those who whine loudest about the RMA see fit to invoke it when it suits them. Would they rather have a nuclear reactor built there instead?

    And I'm reminded of this little gem in leafy Khandallah a couple of years back.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • andin,

    andin, thanks so much for that! Muito obrigado! I am loving what I read about Curitiba and Lerne

    My pleasure.

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Seems those who whine loudest about the RMA see fit to invoke it when it suits them. Would they rather have a nuclear reactor built there instead?

    Well, I do remember a deliciously snappy observation from Annette King that the Thorndonites bitching about the Cake Tin should remember that plenty of her constituents had to just suck it up and deal with having a medium security prison, a couple of major sewage treatment plants and the fragging airport in their backyards. For once, I have to grant that Nettie has a point. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    I do think there is a beautifully timed irony to this situation in leafy Mt Eden.The same week that tougher sentencing is introduced with 3 strikes becoming reality, thanks to the Act Party. Most who will see the jail will be those from Rodney's electorate. Reap what you sow?

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I do think there is a beautifully timed irony to this situation in leafy Mt Eden

    Sofie: Any estate agent who calls Boston Road "leafy Mount Eden" should be done for fraud, and forbidden from selling property to the blind. Seriously, the more I think about the story the thicker the stench of bullshit becomes.

    And to be honest, Sofie, the only way any evil ACT-supporting scum are going to notice shit about what happens in Mount Eden Prison is if Ian McKellen uses his magical-mutant powers to stage a jail break next month.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Roger,

    That toilet is quite cool, and the success of it has meant that Kawakawa is now starting to talk about reviving the train journey that used to run from there out to the coast.

    Just in time for the government and Kiwi Rail to shut all the branch lines!

    Hamilton • Since Jun 2007 • 179 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    the only way any evil ACT-supporting scum are going to notice shit about what happens in Mount Eden Prison is

    ...if any of the fraudulent feckers who fleeced the elderly through finance companies actually get sent there. Fat chance, I know, especially with toothless wastes of space like our "securities commission" in charge.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

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