Thanks to may­or­al can­did­ate Al Mansell for tak­ing the time to answer our ques­tions too.

1. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?

If they don’t know how grouse Wel­ling­ton, is, maybe they’re not the sort of people we want. Pay more atten­tion.

2. How do you think traffic flow to the hos­pit­al and air­port could be improved?

Make the buses and trains free. Extend the John­son­ville line through New­town to the Air­port.

3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?

Gov­ern­ment com­mu­nic­a­tion, and legis­la­tion, needs to be in plain eng­lish. That’s the biggest obstacle to open­ness.

4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­it­ies?

Intro­duce com­post­ing scheme for inner-city busi­nesses. Pro­mote com­mun­al resources, to reduce resource use.

5. What is your policy on street alco­hol­ics?

Sup­port a wet house in the city. We don’t need liquor bans; police already have powers to arrest people if they are being offensive/violent.

6. Do you sup­port ped­es­tri­an­isa­tion of the Golden Mile? Why/Why not?

Yes. Move the buses to Jer­vois Quay. Use human/electric three-wheel­ers to link to the bus routes and to car parks.

7. What’s the last loc­al mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?

Wil­lis st mar­ket- pea­nut brittle. It’s my one weak­ness. Well, that, and methamphet­am­ine.

8. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route?

A red giant. Stolen from Wake­field st while I was dangling off the supreme court. I will find it, and I will have my revenge.

9. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?

The lib­rary, today. It is the most import­ant thing we own. With the pos­sible excep­tion of water retic­u­la­tion.

10. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies? If not, why not?

No. Any­one who trusts Rod­ney Hide needs to learn to be more dis­cern­ing.

11. Do you think the coun­cil has a role in fos­ter­ing com­munity web­sites? If so, how?

Yes. Most import­antly, by advert­ising their exist­ence. The coun­cil’s imprim­a­t­ure can give a web­site the crit­ic­al mass it needs to be suc­cess­ful.

12. Where do you stand on water privit­isa­tion, and why?

Against. The argu­ments in favour of it don’t add up. And bring water ser­vices back in-house. Abol­ish capa­city.

13. What city over­seas inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?

Havana. In a city of about two mil­lion, half the fresh food is grown in the city.

14. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?

Yes. If we don’t use polit­ic­al power, our enemies sure will. (I con­sider our enemies to be banks, and cor­por­a­tions. And Rod­ney Hide).

15. What do you think about com­muunity gar­dens on pub­lic land?

They are really import­ant, way too scarce, and will become invalu­able as the glob­al eco­nomy atrophies.