“The Human Scale” Fundraising Film Screening, Sat 22 Feb, 4-6pm, New Crossways

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We hope you’ll turn up to show your love for the Basin Reserve on Valentine’s Day, 14 February, at 10am, but there’s another opportunity to help Save the Basin later this month – and watch an award-winnng film while you do so.

“The Human Scale” is a Danish documentary which has been a huge success at film festivals, including a sold-out festival screening in Wellington. Here’s the synopsis from the film’s website at http://thehumanscale.dk/the-film/:

50 % of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account

Save the Basin are hosting a fundraising screening of “The Human Scale” this month.

When: Saturday 22 February, 4-6pm

Where: New Crossways, Level 1, 6 Roxburgh St, Mt Victoria

How much: Recommended $10 koha at the door (no advance sales).

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/201696636694730/

This is your chance to help us pay for for our legal and publicity to oppose NZTA’s planned flyover – a project which would stand in absolute contradiction to everything “The Human Scale” is about.

Awards won

Aljazeera Int. Documentary Film Festival 2013- Winner of the Child and Family Award for Long Film

Planete Doc, Warsaw 2013 – Green Cross Award

Kinookus, Croatia 2013 – Best Feature Documentary

Youth Award – Bergen International Film Festival 2013

“Helpful” Government Gives Our Public Meeting On Saturday 3 August A Publicity Boost

Want a good reason to attend the Save the Basin Public Meeting at St Joseph’s Church, cnr Brougham and Paterson Sts, Mt Victoria, from 4-5pm tomorrow, Saturday 3 August?

Well, if our original invitation wasn’t enough, now you have a new reason: The Government has just announced that the resource consent hearing will be before an EPA Board of Inquiry hearing rather than before the Environment Court, as Wellington City Council had recommended.

You can read the Minister’s announcement, and find out the names of those she has appointed to the Board of Inquiry, on Wellington Scoop.

We’d rather the Minister had taken a few more months – or years – to make her decision, but now we know exactly what we’re up against. We were already going to tell you about NZTA’s flawed and sloppy flyover proposal, and what it means for you.

Now we can also tell you with more confidence what the submission process will be, and how you can tell the Board, the Government, opposition political parties and the world at large that we do not want this ugly, outdated and unnecessary concrete monstrosity within a bull’s roar of the historic Basin Reserve.

Save the Basin Public Meeting, Saturday 3 August: NZTA’s Flyover Plans Revealed

The New Zealand Transport Agency has submitted its resource consent application for a Basin Reserve flyover. There are details hidden in NZTA’s plans that will affect you if a Basin flyover goes ahead. What is NZTA up to? What can you do about it? This is your chance to find out.

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Public Meeting, 4-5pm, Saturday 3 August, St Joseph’s Church, cnr Brougham and Paterson Streets, Mt Victoria

  • What is the Save the Basin Campaign doing to stop the proposed flyover? What’s been happening, and what’s coming next?
  • What are the key points in NZTA’s Basin flyover plans?
  • There are some issues that NZTA has been trying to keep quiet – but we’re onto them. What are the things NZTA doesn’t want you to know about?
  • What can you do to make sure your voice is heard in the resource consent hearing process?

After the meeting, we’ll have people who’ve been studying NZTA’s plans available to answer questions and help you make your own response to these proposals.

Don’t be left in the dark. Find out what NZTA is planning and what you can do about it.

 

A Great Meeting – And Some Great Videos!

Our Save the Basin public meeting went very well this afternoon. Despite weather that was a touch on the damp side, over 70 people joined us at the Film Archive to watch videos, hear speakers, buy Save the Basin T-shirts, talk, and offer lots of support and many great ideas to the campaign.

As we’ve said before, the NZTA is, sadly, the last refuge of outdated 1960s transport thinking: the belief that motorways and flyovers are the way to build a modern transport system has gone the way of walk shorts and the 3 o’clock tea trolley elsewhere in the world, but it’s still alive and well at NZTA HQ and in the Beehive.

The three videos we watched from Streetfilms.org, a US organisation that makes short videos about ways to make transport and urban centres better, made this point very, very clear. We recommend that you watch them and share them:

Check out the whole “Moving Beyond the Automobile” series here: http://www.streetfilms.org/moving-beyond-the-automobile/

 

Why The Delay, NZTA?

In the leadup to our public meeting on Saturday 20 April, a very interesting story has appeared today in Wellington Scoop asking questions about the delay in NZTA’s expected application to lodge its resource consent application for its proposed Basin Reserve flyover:

What’s the reason for the delay?

Wellington Scoop suggests that the reason for the delay may be a long list of requirements that such a concrete monstrosity could not possible meet. Lindsay Shelton, Editor of Wellington Scoop, is one of the speakers at our public meeting, and I’ll be keen to hear more about his thinking on this.

We don’t know how long this delay may continue: NZTA may lodge its application tomorrow, or they may take months. But let’s make one thing very clear: the Save the Basin Campaign is very much in favour of these delays. Long may they continue!

In fact, if NZTA delays long enough, maybe they will eventually come to the realisation that the entire misguided, unnecessary and just plain ugly Basin flyover project should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

How We Plan To Save The Basin: Saturday 20 April, 4.30pm, The Film Archive

How do we plan to save the Basin Reserve from the Government and the NZTA’s flyover plans? And what can our supporters do to help? That’s the focus of our “Rally to Save the Basin”, which is being held at The Film Archive, cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets, from 4.30-6.30pm on Saturday 20 April – that’s this coming Saturday, folks!

We’ve got videos. We’ve got Save the Basin T-shirts. We’ve got raffles with some great prizes. And we’ve got a lineup of speakers who are going to tell you how we plan to get this done, and how you can help us do it. Speakers include:

  • Lindsay Shelton, editor of Wellington.Scoop and co-founder of Waterfront Watch.
  • Mary Varnham, publisher at Awa Press and founder of the “Chaffers Park Make it Happen” campaign.
  • Joanna Newman, Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson and Mt Victoria Historical Society Chair, with the wider historical perspective.
  • Tim Jones, co-Convenor of the Save the Basin Campaign, on the current state of play on the flyover campaign. Who stands where? What happens next? What are the key things the campaign needs to achieve?
  • Murray Parker, active Save the Basin Campaign member, on how supporters can get actively involved in the campaign and what help we need.

So if you want to know where the campaign stands, what happens next, and how you can help, this is the place to be.

Please invite your friends, join the event and invite your friends if you’re on Facebook, and come along!

Rally To Save The Basin: 20 April, 4.30pm, The Film Archive

Show your support for the iconic Basin Reserve and tell the politicians to “bowl the flyover”. Join us for speakers, films and support for better transport, better urban design and a better Basin neighbourhood. Find out where the campaign to Save the Basin is at and what you can do to help.

Where: The Film Archive, corner Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets

When: Saturday 20 April, 4.30-6.30pm

What: Save The Basin Campaign rally and public meeting with short films, speakers, T-shirts for sale and lots of other goodies.

Speakers will include Mary Varnham and Lindsay Shelton. More details to follow.

You can join the Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/529946067057428/

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