Author: Joanna

Mike Mellor answers our questions

We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Mike Mel­lor who is stand­ing in the East­ern Ward has stepped up.

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

John Bishop answers our questions

We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and John Bish­op who is stand­ing in Lamb­ton Ward has stepped up.

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

A raft of won­der­ful enter­tain­ment and recre­ation in a com­pact city – good for mind, body and soul

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

Wider roads, more buses and more space for cyc­lists. Per­haps light rail too depend­ing on cost

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

Shine the light.

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

Lids on bins to reduce rub­bish blow­ing about. Sup­port council’s new plan for kerb­side sort­ing

Marcus Ganley answers our questions

We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Mar­cus Gangley who is stand­ing in the Lamb­ton Ward has stepped up.

Mark Greening answers our questions

 We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Mark Green­ing who is stand­ing in the Lamb­ton Ward has stepped up.

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

Wow, a cap­it­al city with the heart of a vil­lage. Water­front vis­tas, green hills, amaz­ing: cof­fee, food, art and cul­ture!

Rex Nairn answers our questions

 We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Rex Nairn who is stand­ing in South­ern Ward has stepped up.

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

Cent­ral city har­bour jew­el

A zephyr blows through

Event and party H.Q.

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

Can’t get through the CBD

Trans­port sys­tem, hah!

Buses, not auto­mo­biles

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

Sorry some stuff you can’t see

Most of it you should

Noth­ing to hide from no-one

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

We need to reduce our waste

Com­post organ­ics

Put it on pub­lic gar­dens

Kris Price answers our questions

We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Kris Price who is stand­ing in the Lamb­ton Ward stepped up for his “15 page views of fame”. 

1. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
Show them a photo of our beau­ti­ful Wel­ling­ton at its best on a sunny day. (Then tell them not to come dur­ing winter.)

2. How do you think traffic flow to the hos­pit­al and air­port could be improved?
Two words: Light Rail.

3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
Mmm sweet data. I’m ser­i­ously anal retent­ive about data. Let’s open it all up.

4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­it­ies?
I want to see our bor­ing ovoid black trash cans replaced with col­our­ful trash cans that sep­ar­ate glass, plastic, paper, and gen­er­al trash.

5. What is your policy on street alco­hol­ics?
I sup­port a wet house and get­ting the DHB involved in treat­ment.

6. Do you sup­port ped­es­tri­an­isa­tion of the Golden Mile? Why/Why not?
Yes. Ped­es­tri­ans are equal users of our streets­cape. It beau­ti­fies, increases val­ues, gives recre­ation, and goes hand-in-hand with PT route, which must hap­pen.

7. What’s the last loc­al mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?
Uh-oh. I’m guess­ing New World isn’t the answer you’re look­ing for. Hilo farm­ers mar­ket about a month back count? ‘Spose that’s hardly loc­al.

And the rest of the election

 Some people have asked why we only sent out ques­tions to the may­or­al can­did­ates, not coun­cil­lor-wan­nabes or people run­ning for com­munity and health boards. That’s a val­id ques­tion. To be hon­est, it was partly because may­ors tend to be the ones that attract the head­lines, but also because there are a met­ric butt­load of can­did­ates from all over the city and I just did not have the time to deal with all of them. How­ever, since I’ve now dis­covered that one of my favour­ite tutors from uni is run­ning (he had such a hard-on for the NZ elect­or­al sys­tem, it was ador­able), I’ve thought a little bit more about the whole thing. So, let’s see if the can­did­ates are at where you are at. If any­one run­ning for any pos­i­tion is read­ing this (I won’t be approach­ing any­one), please feel free to answer the ques­tions that we asked the may­or­al can­did­ates, answer accord­ing to the rules, and send them to me – joanna@wellingtonista.com, and you’ll get your moment in the sun here on the Wel­ling­tonista. 

Bryan Pepperell answers our questions

Thanks to Bry­an Pepper­ell for answer­ing our ques­tions.

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

Wel­ling­ton is one of the most beau­ti­ful com­pact cafe and cul­tur­al centres in the world.

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

Traffic flow to the hos­pit­al and air­port could be improved by hav­ing mode shift from private to pub­lic with light rail, park and ride on bus and cycle.

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

I believe gov­ern­ment data should be made more open to the pub­lic.

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

Pub­lic com­post­ing and recyc­ling while energy intens­ive should take place here rather than in China as is the case with most recycled mater­i­als now.

5. What is your policy on street alco­hol­ics?

Help find a place for the drink­ers

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

Not sure it would work but would be happy to give it a try in parts with the agree­ment of stake­hold­ers and the com­munity.

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

Vic­tor­ia Mar­ket to buy Broc­coli, cel­ery, bok choy.

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

Avanti Montari dual pur­pose bike with road tyres and twenty four gear options and disc brakes

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

New­town com­munity Centre for a res­id­ents meet­ing.

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

Jack Yan answers our questions

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.