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.