Open mike 30/09/2022
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6:00 am, September 30th, 2022 - 67 comments
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A really bad case of design hitting reality: Old Mangere Bridge replacement.
When designed a few years ago it was all about 'Safe, welcoming spaces", bringing together "the Onehunga and Mangere communities"
Investing in New Zealand: Old Māngere Bridge replacement | Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (nzta.govt.nz)
When opened a month ago, voluminous streams of similar rhetoric about this numinous thing called community. Bounteous cornucopia of mana whenua partnership.
Ngā Hau Māngere connects communities across the harbour | Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (nzta.govt.nz)
But within days of it opening, it was in reality an unsafe, unlit, no-camera dead end encouraging any lowlife to party hearty and fuck things up. Community formation, sure. A community of antisocial crime.
Fearful, frustrated Māngere Bridge locals block night traffic (1news.co.nz)
Now sure, many projects don't get design right first time. You adjust.
But this has got to be one of the larger 'why didn't we expect that' design disasters on a major new asset.
And who is going to be held responsible? The Council? The designers? The builders? The paper shufflers and beaurocrats who signed it off? The politicians? (Like The all the others around the country on so many projects).
Funny you mention accountability.
We are in the middle of an election for Auckland Council and its local boards, both of whom had plenty of input. Those locals who have their voting papers should get them in.
Alternatively the central government elections are next year, and here's one influential view of the government performance on transport:
The government's performance on transport – 5 years on – Greater Auckland
To call this a "disaster" is well over the top.
It looks like some extra policing on Friday and Saturday nights coupled with, maybe, a few new bollards or other minor design modifications, and this problem would be largely alleviated.
There is no perfect world out there-this is a societal problem not a transport design problem.
It is precisely the transport design that has caused it.
Whether it is rectified fast enough to get it off the TV1 news remains to be seen.
This is what local politics is.
You don't build community top down by constructing nice spaces. You let it evolve bottom up by making sure there is financial security for all.
Even worse the antisocial behavior was a feature of the old bridge so it's no suprise it returned as soon as the new one opened.
Massive planning fail.
There is an on-going design practice that assesses new builds and public builds for the encouragement or discouragement that these give to opportunities to commit crime (however we define it) It has been around since at least the mid 1980s. It was part of the 'broken windows' campaign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
Now a little discredited.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/05/15/northeastern-university-researchers-find-little-evidence-for-broken-windows-theory-say-neighborhood-disorder-doesnt-cause-crime/#:~:text=Do%20more%20broken%20windows%20mean,encourages%20further%20crime%20and%20disorder.
There are other elements that do have an effect on crime.
Wellington City Council has a design guideline against crime
https://wellington.govt.nz/-/media/your-council/plans-policies-and-bylaws/district-plan/volume02/files/v2crime.pdf?la=en&hash=91AC90EF71E9FE2F0D0AE4693F2A88DED1BB9197
My view is that perhaps these new builds, public spaces builds need to be formally assessed for encouragement to commit crimes rather than just being monitored through a guideline. 'Shock, horror,' yet another central govt intervention like the Housing Intensification/Zoning and Three Waters for the fans of hands-off miniscule Govt to get their teeth into
Yes Minister…
Heh, what can you say…even Minister Nanaia has not received her Local Govt. Election voting papers!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/09/local-government-minister-nanaia-mahuta-issues-please-explain-after-voting-papers-for-local-election-fail-to-turn-up.html
If we don't get to 20% of registered voters this election, there will need to be a ministerial inquiry.
It could start off with:
That's just a start.
If anyone can remember what Councils were actually accountable for prior to 1989, that's what it would take to bring democracy back.
It is rather obvious that the vast majority, if not all, of those declared elected soon after October 8 will be there on minority votes of a minority turnout, including the Supercity and Wellington Mayors.
The causes imo…
–Increasing shift from public participation in community affairs and collectivism generally, to individualism since the 80s. Including all the neo lib contracting out and LATE fiascos etc. which basically pummelled County Councils previous roles as providers of full time employment and responsibility for local infrastructure.
–Successive Govt.s make it quite clear that Local Government is pretty well despised by Central Govt. which plays into the hands of parochialism as 3 Waters illustrates.
–Local Govt. in the provinces is often seen by locals as crony based and full of local blowhards and reactionaries, the usual response for those trying to get by is to avoid, the comfortable vote for status quo.
–sinking lid postal system, removal of post boxes, shorter hours, apart from Couriers for online shopping. Who under 35 has ever mailed a letter except for student loans etc.?
–Transient renters–less likely to enrol or receive papers, alienated/switched off ditto.
What to do?
–Reverse the above!
–Online voting, and or a voting day public holiday. Cynics have decryed online voting on technical or potential tampering grounds, and given the last Census who could blame them in a way. But if online is good enough for finance capital to zing billions around the globe, surely it can be used for local democracy.
–Restore a Public Works Dept. with local depots, restore the mana of local Govt.
Tiger-agree that online voting is the way to go.
I think this should be used at general elections too though I'm aware of considerable pushback on this on TS, especially with regard to vote data security, which personally I don't see as a problem with the right safeguards/checks in place.
Another big issue with online voting is accessibility.
Access to Internet, computer literacy, disabilities, ID verification. All barriers to online-only.
Yes, there are ways around this. No, these are not reliably in place for everyday living, let alone once-every-3-years voting.
I'd say a hybrid solution (opt for online or print) might be a better way to go – but given that apparently they can't get voting papers to people reliably when there is only one option, it seems to be a recipe for disastrous voter exclusion.
Actually Belladonna, online voting as a Special Vote enabled me to vote in the last two General Elections as I have a disability.
I'm glad that online voting works for you.
However, digital exclusion is a real issue – and many disabled people are disproportionally affected by it.
https://www.digital.govt.nz/dmsdocument/170~digital-inclusion-user-insights-for-disabled-people/html
The idea is that you have the option to vote online OR by posting your vote. It is not an either/or.
Yes. However, given the reported failure in delivery of physical voting papers when that's the only option; I don't have confidence that a dual option will have a better success rate.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/475774/local-body-elections-undelivered-voting-papers-will-deter-some-official
Where do you get 20% from Ad? Sources please.
Most aren't yet at 10% turnout.
'Abysmal' early voter turnout raises questions around approach to local elections | RNZ
Hi Ad.
I have had a regular engagement with individual Auckland Councillors, a number of local boards, and the council bureaucracy over the past 3 years. With a few notable exceptions, I have found the 'machine' to be an oppressive beast.
Council itself uses it's enormous powers to fight against it's own citizens, rather than engaging in authentic conversations with them. There is an unhealthy level of 'tethering' of councillors (this is described by this piece by Chris Trotter) by the ironically named 'democracy services' division of Auckland Council (and I'm sure others). And then there's the 'consultation' process, that Aucklanders now realise is nothing more than a box ticking exercises designed to achieve a particular predetermined outcome.
I have found the LGOIMA process is one way to hold Council to account, but this is a time consuming and laborious process, particularly when some parts of the 'machine' (notably the Tūpuna Maunga Authority) behave in a secretive and belligerent manner. What is reassuring is that our current Ombudsman is very effective in unlocking the subterfuge.
I get the sense that Aucklanders are sick of being ignored by their own elected leadership, and are disengaging from the democratic process as a result. It's an irrational response, to be sure, but there it is.
I worked inside the machine for 5 years.
Elected members are less than .5% of what occurs there.
The disengagement is very strong.
Killing off democracy was in the design and very, very hard to bring back.
Thanks Ad.
We live in a low decile part of Papakura. We didn't receive our voting papers. Neither did our neighbours. My partner was convinced it was a voting suppression conspiracy. He phoned every agency he could, to find out what happened to our voting papers and could get no answers.
In the end we both went down to the Papakura Marae where a walk in voting booth had been set up. After showing our driver licence to prove who we were, the election official checked that our names were on the electoral roll. (And sure enough they were). Nothing had changed from last Local Body elections. But we both still had to fill out the forms to cast a 'Special Vote'.
Nanaia Mahuta didn’t receive her voting papers?
Half the people I saw diligently going to the effort to enroll to make a special vote were Maori.
Not just in Papakura. Family friends in Northcote – husband and wife, both in their 70s, lived in the same house for the last 40 years (so clearly electoral details haven't changed). He received his voting pack in the mail; her one never arrived.
Phone calls got nowhere. Finally, she had to go down and register for a special vote.
Luckily she's in active good health, and has the time and energy to follow up – as well as being a committed voter (no idea for what party, but believes it's her civic duty to vote).
I agree, Jenny, many people simply won't have bothered.
Impressive effort. Sacred right.
Does NZ have any funny comedians?
Watched a stand up comedy show last night on T.V….nothing.
Guy Williams can be amusing at times but 'names' like Urzilla Carson,Rhys Darby,Tom Sainsbury seem mediocre at best.
Well Blazer, you do pretty well here on The Standard, put some Converses on and give it a go!
“Funny Comedians”–think about it…
I actually prefer Urzilla Carson to Guy Williams. I think Paul Ego, Dai Henwood and Ben Hurley are quite good but I agree we do not have a great talent pool of comedians.
Try watching 8 out of 10 Cats do Countdown to see the British comedians. IMO they are far funnier and cleverer than our comedians.
Yup, they call themselves the National Party, led by a clown who thinks he can fly.
I know a few people that bought lifetime Ruapehu ski passes.
The ski pass that is the worst $4000 I've ever spent | Stuff.co.nz
Sic transit gloria mundi.
yay, sarcasm in Latin.
So do I. However, most have had their money's worth over 5-6 years. They live locally (or within a 3 hour drive) – so head down for weekends.
A reporter who bought her pass 6 years ago, and has lived overseas ever since – what did she expect?
But when the guy bought the pass in 2016 we'd already had 25 years of warnings about climate change. Was he about 12 at the time? If so, I'd sympathise. This morning – shock and horror about what's happening with the record hurricane in Florida – by now we've had 30 years of warnings. What the hell does it take?
I know someone who's well into a multi-unit chalet development in Ohakune.
Looking for an admirable, eloquent candidate in these local body elections?
This guy is genius!
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=426114809631081
Yes We need more like him!!
Primo linking 👍
Can't find much about Robert Guyton's election campaign online. Do you have a link to something?
For those who suggest not much is happening with housing and that they are just building ghettos for gang members.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/video/local-focus-more-social-housing-is-on-the-way/M77F2JEQW43I2JFFJV2H4BSP5Y/
That is uplifting and reaffirming. D.O.S. Thank you.
Nice.
In Whangārei recently 37 new homes and apartments will soon ready for occupation in Puriri Park Rd. An open day was held recently for neighbours to have a look. Local Labour MP Emily Henderson says 500 more are planned by Kainga Ora.
Yes, they are a nice selection of houses, all different sizes, complimentary but not cookie cutter.
Tough time to be a Russian soldier, surrounded in Lyman.
Maybe they hold out for a week, maybe they are overrun.
Either ain't pretty.
Even worse if last week you were a 52 year old tubby tractor driver from Tyuman who gets puffed walking up the stairs to his second floor apartment thinking of nothing more than how to mash the potatoes for dinner and this week you are sitting in a muddy hole in the rain in a dark forest with a rusty AK-47 that you haven't used in thirty years and with a whole bunch of battle hardened Ukrainians less than 200m away…
I think that (if you look at the map in the article below) the Russians were not over-run in Kharkiv as were led to believe by the western propaganda, but that they (largely) strategically withdrew. Putin seems to have decided to annex just the 4 provinces along the Russian frontier (see map-I think these are largely Russian speaking?) and call it a day. Peace talks to follow next year?
The problem is he still has to keep the war going to finish off conquering Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia-he has probably moved forces from Kharkiv to attack these.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/29/putin-to-sign-treaty-annexing-territories-in-ukraine-kremlin-says
Minsk outcome? but with much bloodshed and continuing outbreaks of violence into the future. Not to mention economic damage to EU.
Some people look at Ukraine today and see a rousing success for US policy. I see more than six months of propaganda like the world has never seen, of death and destruction, of economic fiasco in the EU, a vast military-industrial boondoggle, scary nuclear brinksmanship and escalatory spiral with the recent destruction of gas lines in international waters. The EU in particular is between a rock and a hard place.
Well said AJ
Serve him right for being a Putin supporter ( if he is of course, but at 98% approval the odds are good).
‘
Now here’s a great Idea. Even better, how about a permanent Climate War Crimes Tribunal, to hear evidence against all alleged climate war criminals for crimes against the climate?
I could think of a some New Zealanders who could be arraigned on this charge.
In comparison New Zealand's annual CO2 equivalent emissions are over 82.3 million tonnes, year in, year out. Those responsible for this shocking statistic would definitely be in the dock.
The capability to sabotage these pipelines narrows down the suspects.
My pick either the U.S Navy or the RN.
What about the motives?
Who gains?
Russia has just lost its leverage over an energy hungry Germany in particular.
Previously it had the option of turning gas on or off, (citing technical problems to give itself plausible deniability) now its lost that , probably for ever
Germany has lost, probably for ever , the cheapest form of presently available energy to fuel its economy
The US has just bolstered its expensive LNG sales and dealt a blow to both the Russian economy and the Eu.
I dunno,I just can't make my mind up …lol
No surprise that long time deniers of Assad's genocide and Putin's mass murder in Syria also support Putin's slaughter in Ukraine.
Well I'm going for the Swedish Assessment atm, who said that there were 2-3 Russian Special Operations Vessels (A more fancy/ upmarket name for a spy/covert ship) design for Grey Warfare Operations.
Who were in close proximity to were gas pipelines ruptures as they had their Transponders turned off & were caught/ spotted inside the Swedish EEZ.
Every other Tom, Dick & Harry had their Nav Transponders on apart from these larrikins.
Heck even the Norwegian's in the last 72hrs have picked up some dodgy shit since they've stepped up their Maritime Security/ Defence Posture in the Nth Sea which they can't explain either.
Just waiting for the Dane's & Finn's now who are more on ball than the Boxheads these days. IRT the coming & going on's in the Baltic To build up the intelligence picture.
Also there is not alot they can do about either, unless they catch whatever country in the act as most of what has or is happening is international waters & not ones EEZ where a Nation does have the right to search suspect vessels.
It occurred a long way from Russia.Would have thought submarines would be employed.
Not sure how Russia benefits from this.
Of course—-'
ABC News (2/7/2022): Pres. Biden: "If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it." Reporter: "But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany's control?" Biden: "I promise you, we will be able to do that."
That is quite a definitive statement from the U.S President.
It occurred in the vicinity of Baltic Fleet bases in Kaliningrad, Leningrad and Saint Petersburg.
You need to bush up on your geography sport & while you are doing that read up on the USSR Covert activities in Baltic during the Cold War in-particular in the Swedish EEZ including inside it's 12m limit.
The Swedish Military weren't dropping live depth charges for shits & giggles either.
You need to bush up on your geography sport & while you are doing that read up on the USSR Covert activities in Baltic during the Cold War in-particular in the Swedish EEZ including inside it's 12m limit.
The Swedish Military weren't dropping live depth charges for shits & giggles either.
Oh btw the Baltic Sea is just as busy as the Channel in terms of Shipping Volume. Turning off your Navigation Transponder is a rather a idiotic & stupid thing to do in Peacetime as it has the potential to put countless lives at risk & let alone the potential environmental damage within the Baltic Sea.
Pretty short. short list there Blazer. What are you trying to say?
That Russia doesn't have this capability?
Or just venting your one eyed partisan support for the Russian aggressor?
Not sure I understand the tactical advantage of Russia attacking it’s own pipeline which was its biggest bargaining chip with the EU
Does this not make the US the largest LNG producer?
Machiavelli was Italian, not Russian.
Nord Stream 2 was developed and is operated by Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of the Russian state energy company Gazprom. Nord Stream 2 AG filed for bankruptcy on 1 March 2022. Half the costs of Nordstrom Stream 2 was financed via a loan from Uniper, Wintershall Dea, OMV, Engie, and Royal Dutch Shell.
Presumably Gazprom will not being paying the loan back. And presumably they are now looking to supply gas to others via other pipelines.
Numerous Gazprom connected businessmen have met sticky ends this year.
Trashing assets and walking away from debt would tidy things up rather nicely.
Read this and…w..
ABC News (2/7/2022): Pres. Biden: "If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it." Reporter: "But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany's control?" Biden: "I promise you, we will be able to do that."
That is quite a definitive statement from the U.S President.
Probably not as hard as you think – they're only 500m down – any modern trawler could drop gear on them.
More likely torpedoed, as the shock wave from some sort of underwater detonation, was picked by onshore seismic monitoring.
Why would Russia torpedo the gas pipeline?
For the same reason Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon
Because they can.
Thrashing around like some wounded monster the Russian Federation is lashing out where ever they can however they can.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/swedish-seismic-network-registers-blasts-near-baltic-natgas-pipeline-leaks-01664292442
Scotland Today online
https://scotlandtoday.online/gas-leaks-in-russian-pipelines-to-europe-point-to-possible-sabotage-by-the-united-states
For my own part, I would expect a mine. Easier to place by a static target, I think, though there may be a bit of current through there.
Motives are curious things – I'm sure Putin didn't invade Ukraine to destroy his army and force himself out of power – history may attribute just such a motive to him however, because it seems to be what he has achieved.
Ki te aha whano.
Well I tryed must best to use other avenues to get a message to the sandflys bosses but one cannot get a direct ph to contact them.
As I can see there are consequences from using Eco Maori blog??????.
Sandflys bosses this is my message tell your boys to stop stuffing with my Daughters and my mokopuna.
You see whanau they don't care that they are affecting my mokopuna negatively just some bloody Maori in their small minds i can see the negative effects on all 3 of my daughter so get your boys to heel or there will be consequences.
I know how they work cheat do what ever they want they know the bosses will cover it all up can't have negative news about the popo.
Just have as much negative as much news about Tangata Whenua as they can get away with.
Ka kite Ano