Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Hug Reform, in reply to Stephen Judd,
*cough*
I literally laughed out loud. Bravo.
-
Hard News: Hug Reform, in reply to Richard Irvine,
Ali Williams doesn't just hug JC, he nails him with his shoulder flush on the chin.
That's why JC is crying.
-
Weird headline alert: Trans-Pacific Partnership accord’s copyright details leaked on Ars Technica.
You know, I don't think a backgrounder published by the New Zealand government really counts as a "leak".
-
Speaker: Built heritage, special places…, in reply to Luke Christensen,
High housing prices have already pushed some of the community away, if people can easily make it to K Rd from areas with lower housing prices this will help keep K Road as a place for this community to congregate.
The CRL is certainly going to enable that.
-
Speaker: Built heritage, special places…, in reply to Tina Plunkett,
Yes! Tito has been another great example of new additions to K rd, and also 'Uncle Mans' if you are in for left great Malaysian street food.
They make an unabashedly pungent nasi lemak, I'll tell you that.
-
Speaker: Built heritage, special places…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Example of a development has has complemented K Road: Ironbank.
It has a dark, but public, courtyard a ground level, with a hireable event space opening onto it.
But more so, upstairs it has BizDojo, where a bunch of small ventures pay for shared office space. So you get all these creative, young, entrepreneurial people on K Road.
It was also the BizDojo people who first opened up the basement space across the road, where Neck of the Woods (another welcome arrival this year) is.
So yeah, there are ways to do this. But it needs thinking about, is all.
-
Speaker: Built heritage, special places…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Why can't both work? I love both renovation man and grand designs. You don't have space for a grand design without removing something old but you also lose something if you destroy all the old. I personally want both kinds of space to work. But that doesn't seem to be easy.
It's not. Different tenants tend to be sought for new developments – although the Telecom building didn't get them.
One of the problems with the Real Groovy development is the crappy retail space planned. Compare and contrast with the developers at the St James site, who are actively on board with preserving the theatre.
But if the "Chinatown" strip of eateries uphill from Real Groovy goes, where else would you have those kinds of restaurants? It's tricky.
-
Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to ,
And on autos, American consumers will get slightly cheaper Japanese-brand vehicles, which will hurt Detroit. But the Senate is probably past doing favours for Detroit after the auto bailouts.
You really ought to think about the way that comes across, to working class people.
I think it's fair comment. The US government spent $80 billion rescuing GM and Chrysler and even after it found buyers for the stock, still wound up with an $11 billion loss. Compare with the much-reviled bank bailouts, on which the government actually made money.
So yeah, Big Auto has probably had all the favours it's going to get for a while.
-
I worry about K Road. It's the only place in the Auckland CBD I'd feel good about recommending to, say, a visiting band. But its culture is tied up with older, undeveloped retail space. That's a hard thing to preserve.
Look at the retail dead zone created by the former Telecom (and now Fairfax) building up the west end. And then look across the road at the galleries and fashion shops side-by-side with the Prostitutes Collective in the old buildings. It's pretty clear which one works.
-
Coco's Cantina and Flying Out records are both prime examples of new businesses that are wholeheartedly embraced by our community, and by their own cultural communities.
It's interesting that since the gentrification panic around St Kevin's Arcade, K Road has gained Rebel Soul Records and become the new home of the Hemp Store. They're both a good cultural fit for K Road.
Ben Howe at Flying Out has also embarked on a strategy of getting people into the shop by hosting events in the basement there. He's very much open to letting third parties use the space. And Tito at Rebel Soul is about to start running little events in the barely-used fale of Samoa House, right next to his shop. These are really good developments.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 272 273 274 275 276 … 2279 Older→ First