Posts by Russell Brown
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Speaker: Why Auckland, and New Zealand,…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
With the money saved by not building Brittomart we could have had a “world class” transport system for our “world class” City.
Nowhere near it. Britomart cost a bit over $200m. I think leaving the station where it was would have been like only putting four lanes on the Habour Bridge.
Which is not to say that the process of its development wasn't extremely dodgy -- a developer who never had the money he claimed to have, a council official who pushed through a complex and questionable proposal before departing to work for that developer. Auckland City governance in the 1990s was a shambles. What we have now is a trimmed-down version of the plan, without the interest-free loans to the developer/speculator.
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Speaker: Why Auckland, and New Zealand,…, in reply to Sacha,
Well, two, I think you’ll find
Yeah, apparently Labour are on board now – and nice to see the Greens generously working together with them on it.
Jacinda Ardern and others have been very vocal in support of the project since the route was revealed by Len Brown a year ago. The two parties announced their funding commitments for the link two days apart last month. So I don't think it's particularly productive to imply they've pinched the policy, or that the Greens are somehow being "generous" in working toward a shared goal.
Oddly enough, Nikki Kaye supports the link too -- but "as part of a balanced transport strategy" or something. The presence of Joyce in government twists every issue he touches out of shape.
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Up Front: Absence in the Arcades, in reply to Hebe,
Made another foot in mouth have I? I never knew who anyone was because I was too shy to ask. Nodded and tried to look like I wasn’t 17
We were fortunate to see a great band. Did you realise Toy Love were only together for about 18 months?
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Up Front: Absence in the Arcades, in reply to Hebe,
Tony was one of those who helped shape my life.
And of course you know you were far from alone in that.
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Up Front: Absence in the Arcades, in reply to Hebe,
Yes, yes. And the Gladstone of course; did you ever see
Toy Love there? And Tony Peake’s rowdy lot?The Newtones. I have really find memories of The Gladstone, and of Tony.
One of the best things about the earthquakes is that it’s permissible to do this nostalgia stuff sometimes without being a silly old sod.
You go for it.
It's also quite awesome that you've asked Ian if he was at a Toy Love gig ;-)
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And again. There's a bedroom inside. You can see coat hangers.
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I took some photos of the dome, as it happens.
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Up Front: Absence in the Arcades, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I think it is coming down as well, they have already removed the building’s distinctive corner dome tower…
The dome is sitting incongruously on legs in Cathedral Square. I hope this means they want to rescue it.
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Up Front: Absence in the Arcades, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
That people want to reclaim the city.
For sure. I was struck when we visited last week by how important the agency of people is, especially when the official wheels seem to grind so slow.
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Hard News: Ante Up, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I checked with Sam Irvine, the GM of Freeview. He said:
Terrestrial coverage is 87% . Launch was to 75% and that was meant to be the final coverage which is why the Freeview, free to air, digital satellite solution was launched to cover the rest of new Zealand. Not economic to go past 87% . it takes 36 sites to cover 87% of the population and it would take 300+ to cover 99% of the population with terrestrial – just too costly.
