Yay, we have our first response! Thanks to Celia Wade-Brown for her answers to our ques­tions.

1. You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
Wild nature close to cos­mopoli­tan cen­tre! Kayak with dol­phins, buy eco-fash­ion, eat fresh seafood, drink Fair­trade cof­fee and see bril­liant exhi­bi­tions and inspir­ing the­atre.

2. How do you think traf­fic flow to the hos­pi­tal and air­port could be improved?
Light rail (mod­ern trams), flex­i­ble office hours, trav­el plan for hos­pi­tal day shift, safer cycling, bus pri­or­i­ty lanes, trades­peo­ple park­ing per­mits, down­town air­port check-in.

3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
Share GIS lay­ers between Coun­cils, DoC, NIWA and make pub­lic. Most Coun­cil deci­sions and data must be open while also respect­ing indi­vid­ual pri­va­cy.

4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­i­ties?
Recy­cling wheeli-bins for plas­tic, paper and tins. Green bins for glass. More NZ recy­cling. Home com­post bins, Bokashi for apart­ments and Kai2Compost for cafes.

5. What is your pol­i­cy on street alco­holics?
 Sup­port wet house, DHB invest­ment in treat­ment facil­i­ties. Look at root caus­es for peo­ple feel­ing despair, vio­lence and alien­ation. Lim­it­ed liquor ban not city-wide.

6. Do you sup­port pedes­tri­an­i­sa­tion of the Gold­en Mile? Why/Why not?
Pub­lic trans­port essen­tial for work­ers and shop­pers. Car-free peak hour bus pri­or­i­ty then light rail. Bikes, pedes­tri­ans, street trees coex­ist­ing with good pub­lic trans­port.

7. What’s the last local mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?
John­sonville Play­cen­tre gala – yum­my cup­cakes and a sec­ond-hand wood­en toy for Iona’s tod­dler. I love Hill St, New­town, Vic­to­ria St, Tawa and Har­bour­side Mar­kets.

8. Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?
Scott with enough gears for going up-hill, Kevlar tyres and bright lights. Most scenic bus route is no 23 Mairan­gi to Houghton Bay.

9. When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
30/8 Library on-line tonight – search of sci­en­tif­ic jour­nal,
30/8 Kil­birnie pool today for son’s reha­bil­i­ta­tion.
22/8 Brook­lyn Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre for orchard plant­i­ng.

10. Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties? If not, why not?
No, would Hutt or Porirua politi­cians be pas­sion­ate about Welling­ton City’s ambi­ence, arts, reserves, her­itage or infra­struc­ture? Pre­fer coop­er­a­tion, shared ser­vices and local democ­ra­cy.

11. Do you think the coun­cil has a role in fos­ter­ing com­mu­ni­ty web­sites? If so, how?
Improve WCC Com­mu­ni­ty Direc­to­ry. Help com­mu­ni­ty groups use cycber­space. Sup­port mod­est grant for Wellign­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Net. Need North­ern Net­work Cen­tre for elders and dis­ad­van­taged.

12. Where do you stand on water privi­ti­sa­tion, and why?
I’m against both water pri­vati­sa­tion com­pul­so­ry meter­ing. UK and French exam­ples – high prices, poor qual­i­ty. Coun­cil can help schools, house­holds and busi­ness­es reduce leaks and wastage.

13. What city over­seas inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
Online and phys­i­cal inspi­ra­tions: Bogo­ta – lead­er­ship, New York – green­ing Broad­way , Lon­don — hous­ing asso­ci­a­tions, Copen­hagen – cycling, Zurich – medi­um den­si­ty hous­ing and pub­lic trans­port.

14. Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
Yes — par­tic­i­pa­to­ry democ­ra­cy, not “elect us and leave it to us”. Qual­i­ty and quan­ti­ty of input is impor­tant. Com­plex issues need com­mu­ni­ty wis­dom.

15. What do you think about com­muu­ni­ty gar­dens on pub­lic land?
I love them. WCC now has sup­port­ive oper­a­tional pol­i­cy. I’ve plant­ed home­grown grapevines on Coun­cil, church and school land. Pub­lic gar­dens grow friend­ships.