Thanks to Jack Yan for tak­ing the time to answer our ques­tions. 

1. You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
You’ll nev­er find a city with a bet­ter work–lifestyle mix. If I’m elect­ed, it’ll be the most for­ward-think­ing city in the world.

2. How do you think traf­fic flow to the hos­pi­tal and air­port could be improved?
By reduc­ing the traf­fic. Part of why I am pas­sion­ate about free wifi will be allow­ing more tele­work­ing and flex­i­ble hours.

3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
 I’m the only can­di­date with ideas about trans­paren­cy and open source. The more these data can be opened, the more we can col­lab­o­rate.

4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­i­ties?
 Get peo­ple involved via a city blog, and being trans­par­ent about our issues. Peo­ple can learn about set­ting up their own com­post­ing bins, for exam­ple.

5. What is your pol­i­cy on street alco­holics?
 Work­ing with police on enforce­ment. We need to get to the root cause. If it’s eco­nom­ic, it fits with why I’ve talked about job cre­ation.

6. Do you sup­port pedes­tri­an­iza­tion of the Gold­en Mile? Why/Why not?
I sup­port greater pedes­tri­an­iza­tion but not the Gold­en Mile—yet. I’ve pro­posed a car­less week­end in sum­mer 2011, as a pre­lude for the World Cup.

7. What’s the last local mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?
The Sun­day one at Chaf­fers, and a huge bunch of bananas.

8. Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?
 The Air­port Fly­er goes past my street. Com­fy seats, free wifi, and friend­ly drivers—I’d vote for any route the Fly­ers go on.

9. When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
 I used the library two months ago, and the Kil­birnie Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre one month ago.

10. Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties?
If not, why not? Not in 2010. The region is gov­ern­able; Auck­land was not. Look at the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area: the cities there didn’t need to amal­ga­mate.

11. Do you think the coun­cil has a role in fos­ter­ing com­mu­ni­ty web­sites? If so, how?
 Yes, but it needs to sort its own doorstep. The city needs to web­cast coun­cil meet­ings. With the demise of WCN, many com­mu­ni­ties found alter­na­tives.

12. Where do you stand on water pri­va­ti­za­tion, and why?
I oppose pri­vate, cor­po­rate con­trol and 35-year leas­es of the one resource that is com­plete­ly and indis­putably owned by the pub­lic.

13. What city over­seas inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
I don’t need to look over­seas. I need to look at Welling­to­ni­ans. We forge a joint vision, and the Welling­ton brand encap­su­lates what we believe.

14. Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
Vital. This is why I’ve pro­posed that city blog, get­ting com­ments from cit­i­zens. If our ideas are sharp enough, why shouldn’t we lev­el with peo­ple?

15. What do you think about com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens on pub­lic land?
 In total sup­port. Hataitai is doing one, for instance. We need com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens and free pub­lic orchards, to give us com­mu­ni­ty-based solu­tions.