A few weeks ago we wrote about the proposed city-wide ban on "drinking and carrying liquor in public places, 24 hours a day, seven days a week." We don’t like to harp on this issue, but the nexus of booze, urban life and social justice is catnip to the hard-drinking city-living caring folk here at the Wellingtonista.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday the 30th of March — consultation will start then.
PS: when did we all adopt the Americanism "liquor?"
The council is going to draft a by-law to ban drinking in public places.
But don’t worry, respectable citizens! It’s not aimed at you! It’s aimed at pesky boozers.
Extending the liquor ban would mean we could deal with problems in the suburbs. It wouldn’t be about stopping people having a quiet beer or a glass of wine on the beach or in the park – and the Police are already on the record as saying they would use discretion.
Another "x-ing while brown" offence in the making.
They break bottles, yell and swear, vomit and create chaos – but there’s nothing the Police can really do at the moment about the drinking of alcohol – which is generally the cause of the problems.
This is a puzzler. If people are behaving badly, that’s disorderly behaviour. If they’re not, who cares whether they’re drinking?
If only there were somewhere for hardcore street drinkers to go. Meanwhile, wasting police time on herding them around the city is apparently the only way out.
There’s a Facebook group in opposition. Here’s hoping that’s just a start.
If you’re a pedestrian, sometimes it seems as though you’re the last to be considered. Other modes of transport get all the big bucks while we get to stumble along on our own, catching our heels on the cobblestones and dodging the seemingly interminable earthworks.
So it’s nice to see that there’s a dedicated Cycling and Walking journey planner from the Greater Wellington Regional Council. I particularly like how it tells you the elevation of your route so you can see whether an apparent shortcut is going to be like scaling Everest or not. There is also a calorie counter, which I guess helps justify your morning tea when you’ve got to work.
I experimented with the route from my house to work, and the default suggestion was definitely the most practical for the unathletic, though not the shortest — it knows about the tracks over Mt Vic, but you have to drag the route over the mountain yourself.
Definitely worth exploring, even if you’re a dedicated walker, if only so you can boast about the distance to your lazy mates.
Over at Eye of the Fish, Maximus has a good report of last night’s public meeting about what should be done about the Maranui surf club.
Money quote:
… all 4 scenarios went down like a cup of cold sick in a burnt out shed on a cold wind-swept beachfront. A member of the crowd put the feeling into words and started the ball that we should vote for a Fifth Scenario. An immediate show of hands confirmed overwhelming support for this proposal, which was, as another crowd member succinctly put it into words: “The 5th Scenario is that we just want Maranui rebuilt, so why are we debating all this other shit?”
A lot of people don’t know that Wellington has quite a sizable Brazilian expatriate community. A bunch of them and their Kiwi friends have been working hard to put together the Live Brazil 2009 Festival this weekend.
The festival will comprise music, dance, capoeira, and cooking and drink workshops. It starts on Friday night with a perfomance featuring Tambolelê (from Minas Gerais) at the Memorial Theatre on the Vic campus, with most other events taking place at the Southern Cross.
Full details at this chaotic but information-rich site or in summary form here.
This particular Wellingtonista will be lurking in Carmen Miranda’s band on Saturday night — come and demonstrate your fruit-laden costume and we can have a caipirinha.