Posts by Hayden East
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Well appearing in your blog as an opinionated friend certainly feels nicer than a mere retweet :)
Further on National’s softening on the idea of densification – Key’s comments to media after his speech square with what you point out:
If you look around cities around the world you’ve seen quite a big change of patterns in recent decades – you’ve seen a lot more people choosing to live actually in cities – a lot more apartments being built – and that has not been at all controversial…it’s where people want to work often, it’s certainly where people want to eat and often live…
and
…there’s no question that the structure of Auckland housing is going to change because it has to change
You can watch his standup here (but the embedded player won’t skip to the time you need, which is 1:09:25 – or click the ‘from youtube’ link) :
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Despite my efforts encouraging the tactical vote in Epsom, I'm quite glad I live in Auckland Central and get to vote for a candidate I actually want in parliament. MMP definitely makes the campaign period a bit more of a democratic buffet. I've been out door knocking for Jacinda, campaigning for the Green party vote, and flyering for MMP.
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National's effort was just bizarre. It was like high school production levels. And, like you say, surely National have to be careful not to balance their entire campaign on Key's personality. It was like they forgot what you can actually do with television as a medium. Modern audiences get bored hearing one person talk for five minutes, let alone twenty.
Like someone on twitter said, maybe their strategy was to bore the audience into switching channels so they'd miss Labour's broadcast.
It's just a shame that for the most part these opening broadcasts will go unnoticed by the apathetic electorate. Will be interesting to see the ratings.
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Legal Beagle: Now it's up to you, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
No. FPP is a perfectly defensible system if you take certain starting points of this and this are important and this and that are not.
Just jokes. For the record I'm going with
Q1: Retain MMP
Q2: STVWhat I'm concerned about is the potential for people who vote for retention of MMP in Q1 to skip Q2 all together, which could skew the results of that part of the referendum away from a proportional system.
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If you end up with FPP does that make you a bad person?
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Russell Brown,
Indeed, some of the materials they've used do look quite attractive in photos.
But yes, it does just feel wrong. I think partly because it's so exposed compared to the rest of the street. The old overbridge was admittedly dingy, but so is K Rd, so at least there was some sort of continuity. And better still, it managed to provide shelter while still giving a great view of spaghetti junction and the city beyond. Those new white panels are bafflingly awful. They're straight from a Wairau Park call centre building, circa 1992.
The few stalls that have returned in an attempt to rekindle the K Rd markets are further proof of how unworkable the space is.
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Also, I'm out of Auckland, but if it's a nice day tomorrow I'd encourage all lovers of beer and public spaces to enjoy a drink down on the wharf at Wynyard Quarter before the RWC liquor ban comes into effect on Thursday!
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I live right next to the K Rd overbridge and had high hopes for its redevelopment. But alas, not only is it a painfully grey and bland piece of typical Auckland urban design, it isn't even functional! The bus stops leak, there aren't any rubbish bins (which on K Rd inevitably means rubbish on the ground), and the use of space is just plain bizarre (especially the piss alley path way behind the shelters).
Far from 'smartening up' K Rd, it's just made this end feel cold and lifeless.
But hey, at least the council's consistently carrying out their greywash manifesto.
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The least Christchurch deserves is sensible, positive outcomes like this. I've passed this article on to my Dad who is doing some work with the council on temporary and long term public transport plans/solutions.
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Hard News: I'm not a "f***ing cyclist".…, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Depressingly it seems as if it's just another of NZ's societal/cultural problems, like drinking or domestic abuse, that gets prodded with a bit of legislation here and there but ultimately ends up in the too-hard basket.
Sorry. Gosh, what a major downer.
FRIDAY!