Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness, in reply to James Bremner,
Life is confusing. Now Obama sounds like a neocon by saying the goal in Libya is installing a democratic system. Did he read one of Bush's speeches by mistake?
No. The statement refers to helping provide the Libyan people with "an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will."
It's the Libyans who are expected to establish -- ie "install" -- a democracy, not the US and Turkey. There's no way that the US wants to be "installing" democracy in Libya with the cost and risk that implies, still less the Turks. The story is founded on a single ambiguous line in one statement -- although I'm sure it's being vigorously washed around the noise machine.
Meanwhile, I can recommend Juan Cole's Top Ten Ways that Libya 2011 is Not Iraq 2003.
I was actually planning to raise a discussion, but a brief bout of flu has screwed up my workflow. I'll see what I can do today.
Back to kittens.
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to John Holley,
I could go through a long laundry list of stuff, but trust me, until the “Auckland City” culture is replaced with a truly inclusive culture across the region we will see these issues occurring.
You are not the first person I've heard this from.
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to peter mclennan,
I find your suggestion that you wouldn’t expect Mayor Brown to get on top of the graffiti policy in less than four months doesn’t tally with the Mayor’s own statements on the importance of clearing graffiti and tagging from Auckland.
See above. There wasn't a policy, there was an official strategy developed under a previous organisation. We now have a bit of de facto policy with respect to private walls, which is good. OTOH, you're right: this was one of his issues and he needs to man up and do it properly.
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You put your hand up for elected office, it’s just your job to either know your portfolio or have someone very close at hand who will brief you immediately. The statute of limitation on blaming the other lot is as short for Brown as it was for Banks (and everyone else) – i.e. non existent.
That doesn’t make any sense to me. Brown has inherited the anti-graffiti team involved from another council – Auckland City. He had had no role in hiring them or defining their roles and doesn’t really have much direct control over them. That’s the CEO, Doug McKay, who was chosen by the Auckland Transition Agency, which was elected by no one other than Rodney Hide.
Fields and Crampton seem to have been behaving this way for some time under the previous council and this is the first time it’s got to the mayor’s office – in part because this is the most egregious example yet, but also because Brown actually responded to the protests he got via Twitter.
Indeed, this would actually have been happily resolved by Brown if Shields had not taken it upon himself to lobby the building owner and convince him to let Shields take care of it all. Shields seems to me to have exceeded any logical role in doing so – but who knows? It’s not that Brown hadn’t caught up on policy in the four months he’s had to get a new council running, it’s that there is no policy. That’s the problem.
It’s actually beneficial that everyone has at least been obliged to agree since his intervention that this was a “mistake” and that the council cannot go painting out the walls of private buildings without asking the damn owner for permission.
Brown wouldn’t be drawn on the logical next step of having some way of gauging the local community’s wishes with respect to street art on public property, and that was disappointing. It’s a fuzzy issue, but given the power of officials under the Auckland Council set-up, it’s something that actually needs a policy, so enthusiastic ex-cops can’t turn the city grey.
Brown has also been reluctant to publicly flame Cameron and Shields, which is understandable, even given the rank ineptitude they’ve shown. I suspect he sees them as basically good guys, who act in line with the policy he campaigned on. And they do do good work tracking and cleaning up nuisance tagging. I would hope that some sterner words have been said in private, even if via the CEO. And that Askew will be left to get on with restoring his own wall.
But that doesn’t obviate the need for a sensitive policy to be discussed and developed around this. Brown did cultivate this culture when it suited him and he needs to acknowledge the good faith he was shown and have the conversation.
Askew could be a star of the kind of city Brown claims to want. But that won’t happen if he’s left to be crapped on like this.
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
And which is why they'll fund the extension of that cycleway through Spaghetti Junction down to Wellesley St, all on land owned by them, which is what they are planning to do next. Good on them.
That's confirmed now? Huzzah!
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
This package cost $3m, but received NZTA funding for 51% of the total cost. Funding from NZTA can only go towards roadworks, which is why the walk is technically a road, and was designed to be a road. Council officers aren't silly, and will happily structure things to get a subsidy even if it means creating dangerous situations.
Fascinating!
Does that mean the cycleways NZTA funds are officially roads too?
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Which is hardly a great boost to my confidence. Before Christopher swoops in and accuses me of taking a “cheap shot” at Len Brown,
I thought Brown was evasive as to the key question of council officers’ powers in his interview on Media7, but it’s only his response to the original complaints that got it this far. His office has actually been quite helpful to me in pursuing it.
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Righto: via the Mayor’s press officer:
Tony Crampton is an Auckland Council officer and performs as part of his job graffiti education and volunteer project duties.
He is not the Individual that Len referred to as an anti-graffiti volunteer and Chris referred to as a member of the public.
Unpaid members of the public work in partnership with council as part of the council’s anti-graffiti programmes across Auckland.
So this was done on the say-so of an unnamed anti-graffiti volunteer (and frankly I’m not sure if a regular volunteer can really be called a “member of the public”, unless you’re actually aiming to cloud the issue) who presumably has no connection to the K Road area and just thought he’d call in a work on a private wall that has been part of the local landscape for 10 years. And even when the contractors queried it, Crampton didn’t bother to check and told them to go ahead and paint over the wall.
And this bit from Shields is ridiculous:
Council is taking full responsibility to rectify the situation and install a new artwork as soon as possible.
Which is basically saying “sorry we wrecked your painting – but we’ll choose a new one for you. We'll dictate its style and content to save everyone else the bother.”
There was only one proper course of action to be taken here: stay the hell out of this and let the original artist repaint the wall. And pay his costs to do so.
I think any amount of fuss over this is justified if it prevents this sort of jumped-up idiocy happening in future.
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to recordari,
Not all, by any means, but mene.
I have to do this:
"Not Mene -- if any"
Thank you.
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m certain that’s true, I met Bernice Mene once, a number of years ago, and she’s charming
Furthermore, the hubby's a Hard News reader from way back ...