Not much movement at the top of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting “Most Livable Cities” rankings this year, with, like last year, Wellington coming in 12th, trailing our northern neighbours Auckland, who come in at a very credible 5th. In fact, there’s really no movement at all in the top 20, with Zurich and Geneva still 1st and 2nd respectively, Vancouver 3rd, Vienna 4th, before a bunch of German cities slot in below Auckland. The rankings are …
based on 39 key quality-of-life issues. They include political stability, currency-exchange regulations, political and media censorship, school quality, housing, the environment and public safety.
Our very own Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart has been up for months now, and remains as ugly as ever.
Looking south towards Friedrichstraße *cough* I mean Abel Smith Street:
… and north towards Ghuznee Street. In the distance, over the wall, we see the symbols of capitalism brazenly and proudly flaunted:
All we are really missing are some sentry towers, razor wire, and anti-personnel mines. Somebody really needs to finish this damn “bypass” already.
Ben Hana, aka Blanket Man, and the inaugural Wellingtonista Wellingtonian of the Year, has been ordered to stay out of bus lanes, after complaints that he was sitting in the middle of Dixon St, forcing buses to steer around him.
Blanket Man remains adamant he will not obey the court order, claiming that the bus lanes and adjoining gutters (where he also spends a fair amount of time) are part of Aotearoa, and that, to quote him: “I represent the whanau of Aotearoa”.
This case follows another brush with the law in September, when Ben was cited for drink-driving. His defense that time was equally inventive, this time claiming that the vehicle he was driving was not a car but a “waka”, and thus he was not bound by normal road rules. Not surprisingly he lost the case, but not the war, as his punishment of community service was unable to be enforced, as he had no suitable footwear to complete the work in.
[hat-tip: somewhere along the way…]
I’ve been asked to give a brief talk to the board and management of Wellington Waterfront Ltd (WWL) about my “three top priority ideas for the waterfront”. It will be no suprise to most of you that I won’t struggle for things to say, but while I’ve been asked to speak as an individual rather than as a representative for any group, I’d like to get your input into this.
In a recent post, I mentioned that I had seen projections of an extra 3,000 inner-city residents within the next few years, but that I couldn’t find a reference to the study. As it turns out, the campaigners against the controversial Harbour Quays development have come to my rescue: their report on the potential economic impacts (530kB PDF) includes a table of actual and forecast CBD household numbers from 1991 to 2021 (page 14). They list the sources as Statistics NZ, Bayleys and Property Economics (the authors of the report), but I couldn’t find out whether the future figures were based upon economic and demographic modelling or simple extrapolation.
But let’s take the numbers as read, and use them to estimate the increase in inner-city population by taking a nominal average household size of 3. This is a bit smaller than the current average for the CBD, but household sizes are generally falling, so it seems a reasonable guesstimate. This gives an extra 3,300 people by 2011, and 11,000 extra by 2021: a 75% increase over the current CBD population!
You’ve probably seen the articles and full-page ads in the Dominion Post by a group opposing the Harbour Quays development, and may have looked at their Vibrant Wellington website. I’ve written about Harbour Quays several times before, and while I’ve always been sceptical of the “office park” concept, I must admit I was a little wary of the opposing campaign, since it seems to be driven by a group of property developers and commercial landlords worried that cheap competition might undercut the soaring office rents that they’re currently enjoying. But last Thursday’s “open letter to the city of Wellington” was also signed by retailers, restaurateurs and three of Wellington’s most prominent architects, so clearly there’s a broader base to the opposition.
Submissions on the North Wellington Public Transport Study close on Wednesday, and while this is obviously of major interest to those who live in that area, everyone else could be forgiven for thinking it irrelevant. However, there are many reasons why other Wellingtonians should care.
A guest post from Kenno…
Waitangi Park, yeah, sigh, it leaves me flat. Be warned, that will become the most overused description of the next few years. It’s an urban space surrounding the marvellous Te Papa and thereby it’s not simply a Wellington space but a space that should mightily reflect the national character.
Well, if the idea was to reflect bland conservative conformism and lock-step simple mindedness with all the individuality and self expression of a schoolgirl uniform, then it will succeed. I, for one, thought we might want to reflect other, perhaps more appealing aspects of the national character. Don’t get me wrong, this place would really wow them in Nelson or Timaru, but, this city is a little beyond that, a bit more mature, slightly more cosmopolitan and farther away from pig-dogs and paddocks. Right? God, I was really trying to understate the case.
This weekend, if you can tear yourself away from free bacon sarnies and aren’t too busy having a bit of a look-see behind the scenes of Wellington’s art powerhouses, pop into the Overseas Passenger Terminal to get a glimpse of its proposed transformation. There will be a public open day on Saturday from 10am to […]
A new survey published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting rates Wellington as the 12th best city to live in, based on the quality of living offered to residents. Auckland comes in a very respectable 5th, with the rest of the top 12 filled out by Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bern, Sydney and Copenhagen.
American cities don’t get a show-in until Honolulu gets them off the mark at 27th (much to the delight of the Canadian press, who aren’t shy about pointing out their southern neighbours lower placings).
Can’t say the presence of Dusseldorf and Bern in the top 10 fills us with a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of the survey, though.