Posts by Roger
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We had an Atomic machine in our house that was used twice a day, every day and even taken camping and used on a white spirit primus stove... In the late 1960's. Beans came from a little specialized coffe and tea shop in an alley off Garden Place in Hamilton. So coffee a recent development in NZ!!?
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ETA: QFT, Roger. I remember when Campbell Live was launched, and we were promised the anti-Holmes. Substantive prime time current affairs for grown-up put together by actual journalists. Mission definitely not accomplished, guys. And what drives me aboslutely nuts is that there's a lot of talented people at Three -- not least John Campbell himself. So WTF is going on?
Yes indeed... after Holmes and the other prime time dross masquerading as news or current affairs, Campbell was a breath of fresh air... but unfortunately since the start of 2010 it has been all down hill.
I guess that it was around the time of rumours of him being carpeted and threatened with cancellation if he did not lift the ratings... bringing on the immediate production of an item about bare breasts on Takapuna Beach. Thank God for 7:00-7:30 re-runs of the Simpsons!
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I couldn’t bring myself to watch Campbell Live.
I gave up on Campbell Live early this year when he joined the race to the lowest common denominator of human 'interest' stories, and as someone else so eloquently put it... disaster and accident porn. He used to be a journalist, not a ratings ambulance chaser.. though I guess that that is what increasingly passes for news now.
The media, however, seem to be determined to stage their own version of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and there’s nowhere near enough good.
I just can't stand it... over an hour of 'news' on TV3 of experts saying they have nothing to tell us and un-informed journalists and presenters speculating to each other. Tried channel hoping but TV1 did not seem much different. Although I do want to know what is going on in the mine, I have given up and switched to BBC/CNN to actually get some NEWS. Or am I just becoming a curmudgeon?
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Coming to this a bit late, but a couple of thoughts... raised medium strips, pedestrian refuges or pedestrian curb extensions may well have a purpose but they do not consider ALL road users and they are bloody dangerous for cyclists. I was hit by a boat on Tamaki Drive... yes a boat! The SUV pulled in onto me to avoid the pedestrian refuge... swinging the large boat even further in... forgetting it was wider than his car... if that is he thought at all.
But it is the behaviour of us as a people once we get into cars... I can sort of understand someone not seeing a large person dressed in flouro colours on a bike... perhaps they should not be driving if that is their sight ability... but I guess that they are the same people unable to see a train at a railway crossing!
A couple of years ago I had a few weeks cycling in France... It was a joy! Narrow, steep mountain roads with no shoulder mixed with large trucks and camper vans and I never felt threatened once.
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In unrelated news, anyone else notice that Peter Tennent in New Plymouth has been selected as one of 25 Mayors from around the world in the 'World Mayor' 2010? You can vote here, by the looks of it.
No idea what kind of Mayor he is, but hard to imagine either of the two AKL candidates making this list. Perhaps he could retire in Auckland?
Peter Tennent is awsome, but has too much sense to try Auckland
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The airport train route also allows connection of another chunk of people living and working along the route - which would loop around to connect with Manukau's CBD too.
If it makes sense on that basis, then go for it but Sydney and Brisbane airports were not able to generate the traffic to make it viable. Interestingly, there is not a rail link to Melbourne airport despite their excellent light rail system as the the operator of the PPP toll motorway to the CBD had a clause put in the contract banning such a rail link to maintain the road monopoly.
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What's interesting is that they're both so clearly aligned with the major political parties. The Lord Mayor of Sydney, broadly equivalent I believe, is an independent
The reason is that Sydney City is geographically tiny and has a population of about 110,000 people. People are under the misconception that NZ local government is small and cities are fragmented, while there are 'big' councils in Australia... however the converse is true. There are over 20 councils in the Sydney urban area.
Given Auckland's very large geographic area and huge population (by world standards - 1.4 million is very big outside of Asia), it is simply not possible for an independant to fund a campain... or at least very unlikely.
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"We're going to buy a new train set and make Brittomart work like a real train station and buy lots of really neat stuff, it's going to be great" ... As soon as Brown mentioned the rail link to Albany I thought "Oh, so you think you're going to win instant Kiwi too?"
Both Brisbane and Sydney built rail to their airports in recent times as PPPs, and both ran into financial trouble, leading (so I understand and correct me if I am wrong) to the state governments having to bail them out. If those two cities can't make an airport rail link work, we should at least be asking why before we blindly follow.
As for rail to Albany... there is a nice new busway, noweher near capacity, except for inadequate parking at stations... let us concentrate on making that work first!
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I'm not ideologically opposed to public-private partnerships, but I'd sure like to know what kind of safeguards and controls Greater Auckland would have in place
PPP arrangements certainly have their place, but there needs to be a better debate around what these are and how they apply:
1. The 'public sector' does not want to take on the risk. In some cases this may be valid (a convention centre?), where if the project failed or became a white elephant it could be simply demolished. This clearly does not apply to basic city infrastructure, where if the private operator fails, the public sector just has to step in and pick up the project and its liabilities... as has happened in Australia a few times.
2. The private sector can deliver operating efficiencies and therefore a cheaper project. In NZ the public sector is far more experienced and skilled at managing basic infrastructure and it is hard to see that the private sector could do any better. In any event all of the construction and maintenance (roads and pipes etc) is done by private sector contract these days.
3. The 'public sector' can't take on more debt. In NZ at the moment it is the private sector that has a debt problem, not the public sector. In almost all cases the cost of debt would be cheaper to the public sector.
We need to be careful that we do not pursue a PPP agenda on a mantra of 'private management-good, public management-bad', and in the process use more expensive money and pointlessly try and trade out of unavoidable risk.
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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!