Auckland

Len Brown’s big focus at the moment is intensification and public transport. Both of these projects are unpalatable and both have raised their head at an in-opportune time in the electoral cycle.

So what to do?

Len has problems. He promised a referendum on transport options in particular congestion charging. He has quietly backed away from that breaking yet another promise to the voters. His intensification will also start to cause him problems once residents of the areas that are signalled for massive intensification, in some cases blocks up to 18 storeys high, start to work out that their view shaft and sunlight are going to be dramatically affected by the plans.

His preferred solution is what he calls a “consensus group”. You will hear a lot about these groups in the coming months and about how wonderful they alla re in delivering the preferred outcome for “all of Auckland”.  Read more »

Every day someone spouts out verbal brouhaha about the property market not meeting the needs of population growth.

This is a myth. Here is an example of why.

In the month of March long term immigration numbers topped 7,000 for the first time in 10 years according to the Dept of Statistics.

7243 people arrived in our country.

But 7238 people departed the country.

That means the entire country had a net population increase of just 5 people.

Yes you read that right – five (5) people.

So that’s one month and there are eleven other months in a year. Plus we have natural births.

Well lets debunk the birth rate issue up front.

Babies and children don’t buy houses.

Its not until around 2030-2033 that the effects of people born in 2013 will be felt on the property market in terms of demand for houses as those wee kiddies today grow up and leave home.  Read more »

Bernard Orsman normally acts as the Albert Street branch of the Mayor’s office. However it appears that his patience has worn thin. It appears that there is now a deliberate and orchestrated attempt by Len Brown to cover things up, and the policy is now affecting the Herald as well.

Just as they have done with requests from Rodney Hide and others they are playing fast and loose with the LGOIMA regulations.

The Auckland Council is sitting on secret documents used to draw up a new planning rulebook for the city and instructed its top lawyer to keep them hidden from the public.

Mayor Len Brown and chief executive Doug McKay have rejected requests from the Herald to release background papers used by a political working party to develop the most important planning document in the history of Auckland.

The new rulebook – or Unitary Plan – sets out a new way of life for Auckland’s 1.5 million residents that includes high-rise apartments and infill housing to cope with squeezing another 1 million people into the city.  Read more »

So a report by Wellingtonian Tony Randle finds substantial errors within one of two reports by Auckland Transport on the City Rail Loop (CRL) with a combined cost value of $1.5 billion dollars!!

It is utterly disgraceful that Auckland Transport in preparing contemptuous reports to support the CRL has misled us all.

All one can conclude is that the $1.5 billion is so large a discrepancy that there must be some deliberate manipulation to the analysis rather than blundering mistakes by officials.

Surely many officials and external agencies had a hand in the preparation of the two Auckland Transport reports on the CRL?

Surely the analysis was sufficiently peer reviewed and all parties who participated in it’s preparation were sufficiently happy with the content and concluded that it was robust, prepared in a professional manner by experts and able to stand upto scrutiny?

It is not possible that those mistakes were missed by so many people. So they must have been deliberate and ‘managed’. At least from a logical or rational observation.

If that were true then the malfeasance perhaps has a smell about it that requires further investigation.  Read more »

Yesterday Rodney Hide busted Lyin’ Len Brown’s chops over the city rail loop. I know we covered it yesterday but it is worth a re-visit.

It is an outrage that he is trying to steal taxpayer and ratepayer money while his officials dane a merry tune around the Local Government Official information and Meetings Act.

… Tony Randle, who spent months trying to get the analysis underpinning the 2010 Rail Business Case, succeeding only after a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Once Tony got hold of the analysis he found:

1. Basic spreadsheet errors. The spreadsheet fails to calculate the running costs of the second purchase of 26 trains. That ignores $689 million on the train option.

2. Incorrect exclusion of costs from the rail option. The study excludes the necessary funding to extend the Northern Busway into the city centre. Building this access is a necessary part of the rail option.

3. Addition of a second bus tunnel without explanation, adding hundreds of millions to the bus option.

4. Unreasonable assumptions, including a prediction that under the rail option, present bus capacity into the city centre will carry another 20,000 passengers a day without any new bus lanes or busways.

The errors and poor assumptions total $1.5 billion. The bias is systematic; each and every mistake favours rail over buses. Correcting for the errors reverses the study’s conclusions and shows the CBD bus tunnel more cost-effective than the City Rail Link.

Tony Randle’s review is damning of Auckland Transport’s report. And it’s damning of the rail option. Auckland Transport’s response? Stony silence.  Read more »

via bombardier.com

Transport spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway says the crash shows how vulnerable the Auckland roading network is.

“And the need for a mixture of options for people to travel to and from work each day.

“And particularly it’s just a reminder of why the city rail link is such an important option, that we really should be pursuing as quickly as possible.”

Can anyone tell the difference between Labour and the Green Taliban anymore?

Read more »

NBR and TVNZ have reported about the tiny, tacky, apartment complex soon to be rising 15 stories about New Lynn.

A Hong Kong-style apartment tower destined for New Lynn, west Auckland, has received the go-ahead.

Auckland Council has granted resource consent for a 10-storey residential tower above the new Merchant Quarter building in New Lynn.

Construction is expected to begin this month.  Read more »

A bunch of nasty racist thugs are targeting asians in Auckland.

A white supremacist Christchurch group is planning to distribute anti-Chinese flyers around Auckland, a city council ethnic panel member says.

Chinese woman Bevan Chuang said she had received information that the Right Wing Resistance was planning to distribute leaflets in Titirangi, Manurewa and Onehunga attacking Chinese immigration.

“Safety is the most important thing, so please don’t confront the white power people with your bare hands,” Miss Chuang said in an email circulated to leading members of Auckland’s Chinese.

The Hong Kong-born panel member has also alerted the police Asian liaison officer to the matter.

Two years ago, the same group distributed “Stop the Asian Invasion” flyers in areas with high Asian population, such as Howick, Northcote and Pakuranga, sparking police concerns that the action would lead to racially motivated violence.

The far-right group also tried then to recruit non-Asian immigrants to join its campaign against the Chinese.

Miss Chuang said she had been receiving “crazy neo-Nazi posts” on her Facebook page, attacking her ethnicity.

This will be Kyle Chapman’s bunch of skinhead pansies.

Kyle Chapman and his bunch of pansy mates

Read more »

Not likely.

National is going to lose list MPs at the next election as its vote falls, and Auckland has too many List MPs to begin with. National have promised Wellington another MP, and that one will likely come at the expense of Auckland’s interests, despite the fact you win elections in Auckland not Wellington.

Then there will be the existing electorate MPs who lose their seats but will demand a safe list position because the world won’t function without them in parliament.  Read more »

Excuse me if I don’t just laugh till my tits fall off. John Minto wants to be Mayor.

I’ll bet he has Martyn Bradbury working assiduously in his campaign team.

Veteran activist John Minto is asking his political party to approve a run for mayor of Auckland. The trade unionist and teacher said Mayor Len Brown had disappointed him.

“What has Len Brown done which is different to what John Banks would have done if he were in? You struggle to find many significant things.”  Read more »