Month: June 2013

A Tale Of Two Cities

Posted on by tjonescan

Auckland. New Zealand’s largest city.

After several years of pooh-poohing the idea, the Government reverses its stance on funding (or at least partially funding) the Auckland central city rail loop. (Update: We have been told quite firmly by Auckland transport friends that it is not a loop!)

Even though the Government is delaying the project by five years and is coy on where the money will come from and how much it will pay, it’s still a big step forward for sustainable transport in Auckland and a triumph for Auckland mayor Len Brown, who has stubbornly maintained his support for the project in the face of Governmental and NZTA opposition. Well done, Auckland, and well done, Len Brown!

Wellington. New Zealand’s capital city.

The Government and the New Zealand Transport Agency push ahead with a roading-based transport ‘solution’ for Wellington that includes a proposed Basin Reserve flyover. The NZTA, Greater Wellington and the WCC release a public transport spine study that claims light rail will be too expensive for Wellington. The Mayor gives her support to a “bus rapid transit system”.

No sooner have the study’s conclusions been released than two Victoria University transport researchers expose how NZTA has cooked the books to greatly inflate the apparent cost of rail relative to other options. And transport researcher Kerry Wood also points out the biased costings in NZTA’s study.

A tale of two cities. In Auckland, civic leaders keep advocating for the best solution, and eventually, after much derision from their opponents, they get what they stood up for.

In Wellington, the Government and NZTA are using similar tactics. They have tried to tilt the playing field in favour of the ‘solution’ they want. They’ve been caught out.

Will Wellingtonians and their civic leaders see through the spin and continue to push for the best possible sustainable transport solution for Wellington, or will we cave in?

It’s up to us.

Mary Varnham Tells Dominion Post Readers Why Flyover Madness Must Stop

Posted on by tjonescan

The Dominion Post has a firmly – some might even say rabidly – pro-flyover editorial stance. But, to give them credit, they are prepared to publish opinion pieces to the contrary. On Wednesday, they published an excellent piece by Mary Varnham entitled “Why Flyover Madness Must Stop”. Mary was a Wellington City Councillor from 1998-2001 and co-founded the successful “Chaffers Park – Make It Happen!” campaign.

A few choice quotes from Mary’s article:

“Building a flyover for cars at a time when fast, non-polluting rapid transit is dramatically enhancing the charm and liveability of cities across Europe (and increasingly North America) would make our city the laughing stock of modern transport planners.”

“It’s long been known that, no matter how much you gild the lily with euphemisms like “bridge” and drawings showing trees and smiling pedestrians, elevated roads resting on concrete pillars are a seed bed for ugliness, urban blight and crime.”

“It is clearly crazy to create a monstrosity just to save rush-hour drivers a few minutes driving from the eastern suburbs to Taranaki St.”

Well said, Mary!

You can read the full article here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8813005/Why-flyover-madness-must-stop

Save the Basin Campaign Press Release: Proposed Flyover Ugly, Unnecessary and Unjustified

Posted on by tjonescan

The Save the Basin Campaign today said that the New Zealand Transport Agency could spin its proposed Basin Reserve flyover however it liked, but the very fact NZTA felt it necessary to come up with various new cosmetic measures to try to hide the flyover showed that the project remained ugly, unnecessary and unjustified.

“NZTA can dress up their proposed flyover however they like, but no amount of spin and no amount of cosmetics can disguise the fact that the agency is trying to impose an ugly, outdated transport solution on Wellington that does nothing to meet Wellington’s transport needs,” said Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Joanna Newman.

“Flyovers might have been cutting-edge in the 1960s,” Ms Newman continued. “But in the second decade of the 21st century, the idea of building a flyover near the centre of a modern nation’s capital city is ludicrous.”

“All over the world, from Seoul to Seattle, from Portland to Leicester, cities are tearing down flyovers and replacing them with good urban design and sustainable transport solutions. Unfortunately, the Government and the NZTA seem to think that Los Angeles and Auckland are the transport models that Wellington should follow.”

“The Basin Reserve has come under many threats over the years,” said Ms Newman. “In the end all retreated in the face of public opposition because Wellingtonians have placed a high value on the unique character of this reserve, held in trust for them by the Council.

“Yet again, the Basin is under threat, and we are sure that, as they have in the past, Wellingtonians and cricket fans from around the world will rally round to protect it.”

“The Save the Basin Campaign is committed to stopping this ugly blight on the urban landscape from ever being built,” Joanna Newman concluded. “We have a range of methods available to us, and we look forward to using them.”

Joanna Newman
Spokesperson
Save the Basin Campaign

It’s Time For Kevin Lavery To Pipe Down

Posted on by tjonescan

New Wellington City Council Chief Executive Kevin Lavery has been in Wellington for 10 weeks. He says he misses British television, British TV news, and his family. We sympathise.

Unfortunately, he also seems to be missing the point that he is a paid servant of Wellington City Council and of Wellington ratepayers, not their master. Not content with proposing the demolition of Wellington Town Hall, he has now told The Wellingtonian that:

“I could understand the debate over the Basin Reserve flyover, but the decision has been made and it’s time to move on, just making sure there is good mitigation.”

It seems to have escaped Dr Lavery’s attention that no decision has been made about a Basin Reserve flyover. Wellington City Council voted neither to support nor oppose a flyover, and not only has no resource consent been issued for a flyover, no resource consent application has yet been made.

And as for mitigation – if Dr Lavery thinks that a 9-metre-high, 380-metre-long flyover can be mitigated, then he is living on a different planet to the rest of us.

Wellingtonians pay Kevin Lavery a very handsome salary to do his job. We suggest he stops trying to set the agenda and gets on with the work a paid employee of Wellington’s ratepayers should do.

An Inspiring Saturday With Save Kapiti

Posted on by tjonescan

A number of us from the Save the Basin Campaign spent last Saturday at Whakarongotai Marae in Waikanae, at a hui organised by Save Kapiti spokesperson Bianca Begovich, and wonderfully hosted by the tangata whenua.

Save Kapiti are campaigning against the proposed Kapiti Expressway, which, like the proposed Basin Reserve flyover, is one of the current National Government’s “Roads of National Significance” proposals. The Kapiti Expressway would be a massive and (yet again) unnecessary motorway, designed to meet the interests of the trucking industry, that would destroy many homes and split Kapiti Coast communities apart.

The Government sent the Kapiti Expressway proposal to an EPA Board of Inquiry hearing which, true to the EPA’s role as a rubber-stamping mechanism, ignored the evidence presented to it by anyone other than NZTA, and decided in favour of the Expressway. Save Kapiti have appealed this decision, and their appeal will be heard in the High Court on 10 July – but, whatever the result of the appeal, they are also exploring other means of opposition that will become public in due course.

Save Kapiti, and other groups such as Alliance for Sustainable Kapiti (ASK) have spent three years and a great deal of money fighting this appalling proposal. It’s been hard, demanding work. But guess what? They are still going strong.

100 people attended the hui – even setting aside the contingents from Save the Basin and Generation Zero who attended, that is 90 Kapiti Coast residents who said, loud and clear, that they are not going to give in to NZTA and Government bullying, that they are going to keep fighting, and that the Kapiti Expressway is going to be stopped.

I was inspired by their commitment, determination, and unity. I was impressed by the strong support for Save Kapiti expressed at the hui by Greens transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter and Labour transport spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway (Labour and the Greens being two of the five parties who also oppose a Basin flyover). And it was great to get a sense of where Save Kapiti is going next. Much as NZTA and the Government would wish otherwise, one place they aren’t going is away.

But the hui was also a valuable source of tactical insight for the Save the Basin Campaign. One of the most interesting contributions came from a former NZTA manager who had resigned in protest over NZTA’s Expressway plans. I asked her what NZTA hated most, and the answer was: bad publicity. Every critical media release, every Letter to the Editor slamming their plans and calling attention to their bad faith, is something NZTA’s managers have to explain away to their bosses and to the Minister.

So the takeaway message here is: keep the bad news coming for NZTA. Keep writing letters to the paper. Keep commenting on flyover-related articles on Wellington Scoop and elsewhere. Tell your MP and your councillors that you don’t want and will oppose a Basin flyover. And watch out for some major opportunities to help Save the Basin with publicity over the next few months.

Also, remember that one of the best ways you can help right now is by donating to Save the Basin. Find out how here: http://savethebasin.org.nz/donate/