I was really puzzled by the article in the Dom Post in the weekend featuring local architect Angela Foster claiming that Wellington was an “expensive and constipated drain hole that can’t get moving” – and saying, like John Key did a decade ago, that “Wellington was dying”. It appears that she is comparing Wellington to Melbourne – and that we come off very much second best….
wellington
While it is sad to see the mighty Queen City of Auckland brought to its knees over some rain, it is nice not to have Aucklanders constantly be rude about Wellington weather. And also: note that none of us down here are making fun of them up there, knowing full well that, there but for the grace of God, go us. But first up, something to…
Transport Minister Michael Wood blindsided Wellington this morning, with an announcement – and a definite decision – that Wellington is going to get Light Rail to Island Bay, a resolution to the Basin Reserve, and a new tunnel in a big diagonal from the Basin to the far end of Haitaitai, right under Mt Victoria. I’m overjoyed and excited, not just for the solution but also…
I really could not care less about the name change proposal from Victoria University, Wellington. Corporate rebranding are foolish things, undertaken by PR firms who may not really have a full understanding of the issues. Telecom changing it’s name to Spark seemed puerile and pathetic at the time, with it only just starting to be accepted several years later. But the proposal from Vic seems odd…
Front page article on the Dominion Post today, faithfully reporting that there is a good chance that Wellington may indeed have a chance at getting a light rail system. That’s quite amazing – not that we have a chance, but that the DomPost hasn’t immediately been sneering about it. Maybe they have a different attitude to it now that Celia has gone. But what is even…
Buying the latest copy of Monocle the other day, as one of the few quality, intelligent, and witty magazines out there, I could not help but notice, once again, that Wellington does not feature at all in their list of the World’s Top 25 Cities for Quality of Life. Nor does it feature in the Economist magazine’s similarly titled list. Yet we know that Lonely Planet…
Following on from the post on Trains, and some discussion there, Wellington also needs to be discussing its buses right now. You have until 4pm on Friday – ie tomorrow! to put in a submission to Greater Wellington Regional Council – gw.govt.nz – about the future of Wellington. They’re consulting on the Wellington Public Transport plan – so that means routes, and that means what goes…
So, them Mayans were wrong again. Ooops, don’t mention the end-of-the-world thing! Embarrassed silence all round from the end-of-the-world believers… Yep, the world is still here, the country is still here, and what is most important of all, the Eye of the Fish is still here. If you’re like me, having been tramping the wide open spaces, and swimming the seven seas over the holiday break,…
Just what is happening with the roads and tunnels in Wellington? Does ANYONE know? As we referred to in our previous post, there’s a whole lot of roading issues going on – not just down in Christchurch, but up here in Wellington as well. We’re all aware of the swathe of land that one day is meant to be a Memorial Park, with State Highway 1…
The bad news just never stops, does it, while you’re connected to the global media. The world grows ever smaller: I got texted from the UK for me to watch out for tsunami, before I had heard from NZ media. It was truly chilling to watch the footage from Japan, with that slow moving wave destroy all before it: an evil black slug, devouring all the…