Queen St shut-off

whatever happened to banksie's crusade to have queen st shut-off to traffic at night? This seems to have just crashed and burned?

Was this due to Boy racers or something? What was the reason for closing down the street?

yea, it is, i think its gotta go throu all the council shit 1st or sumthing like that, but i havent heard ne thing 4 a while

Typical bloody Major/councilors always talk the talk but never do the do !!! All to get into council

The nazi (banks) is all talk with so many things. Still he has done some good for Aucks.

Did he bring the rates down in Auckland! That's our biggest prob with council at the moment down here.

John Banks is only one person on the council, they all have to vote on it. And I also believe that a group of people brought it to the councils attention that they can't actually legally shut off Queen st ...I may be wrong on that, can't remember the exact details.

Much like Banks saying he wouldn't support a tree on One Tree Hill without realising that it'd already been passed by council and movements were already underway for new trees....

It's sounds all pretty FARKED up to me !!!!

a bit think Bush saying they defend taiwan from a chinese invasion when according to the US taiwan a part of china....

so the general consensus is that it's still something that needs to be voted on?

so are we getting a new tree on one tree hill then?

Legally the council can not close the street.
The police have to do this and willnot unless it is for a special event, like the santa parade.

Anyway fuck closing queen street have any of you seen anything on the council budget report for the coming year.
bye bye funding for parks
bye bye funding for arts and culture (dancin' in the streets)
bye bye cheap parking in the city (wilson's will take over)
Bye bye Auckland city assets, all so Banks can build the John Banks memorial motorway loop through South Auckland
Queen street should be the lest of your concerns. John Banks is going to gut this city and leave it an empty pile of shit

thanks for that molatov. I had no idea! being new-ish to auckland i hadn't really concerned myself with any of that, but that all sounds pretty sheit.
...

That sounds really bad.

So will Banks be voted next time around!!

He shouldn't have even been voted in this time round. I wish more people weren't so ignorant and got off their lazy arses and voted, then we wouldn't have to put up with idiots like Banks.

Well, I guess the idiots who don't vote are bigger idiots than banks ah?

And apathy was the winenr on the day.

So true and the ones that don't vote moan!!!!!

Actually, Banks is merely the figuerhead.
The coming budget has been designed by Bill Birch former national finance minister under Bolger and Shipley.
Remember them they sold our country to overseas 'investors'. (VIU no coments on how good this is, investment is one thing selling all our assets is another)
So having completely raped or country they are going to start on our city.
The next election does not matter, it will be to late.
This all goes down in March.
So enjoy places like the domain or Albert Park or Western Springs, $5 a day parking, the art gallery, dancing in the streets..... while you can

Molatov are you a Council Member or in Parliament, you seem to know area well

Ouch Sunshine that really hurt.
No i am not a politician and i would not want to be.

It is just a matter of keeping yourself informed b4 bad things happen and you wake up in the morning with an 'oh shit where did all the good things in auckland go?'

Just read the newspaper and you can know these things too.
And maybe some else out there might care enough about their city, cause it is yours, to do something

molatov, what does birch have to do with the auckland city council?

Sorry matie didn't mean to step on your toes bud...just looks like your so interested in the council etc..which is bloody good.

My mums a Regional Councilor so I can't say much on the subject hehe.

Well he was not elected but he seems to be running things.
Birch was contracted by the Auckland city council, at the request of Mayor Banks, to draw up a financial plan for the city.
He got paid around $60k for his trouble.
In this plan he has advocated selling all major assests the council has, airport shares (worth 12million a year) parking buildings downtown civic victoria street, pensioner flats.
Funding to arts and culture is to be cut along with funding for parks and recreational reserves.
Inorganic rubbish collections are to stop (this saves a whopping 80k a year, more birch reports)
All these great ideas are because arts culture parks rubbish collection etc are not 'core council functions'
So we get a right wing maniac that was never elected selling our city off.
Nice eh!

No, you elected John Banks, knowing full well that he had right wing tendencies, and was likely to make right wing decisions. It's called democracy, or should I bitch on about how we elected Helen Clark and the labour-goons and now we've got all these left-wing people advising he government that we didn't elect? Bah.


Incidentally, stop using the term 'raped'. it's stupid. Have you seen our telecomunications infrastructure lately? Compared it to before the 1984 labour government? Yeah, that's been 'REALLY' raped. Uhhhhh......... no.

banks has no power he needs the council to get anything done...

Personally I think Queen St should be blocked off 24/7 and become a pedestrian mall style think with trams running up and down the middle.

No VIU i did not elect banks or his advisors.
Second i think you will find that the people that did vote for him voted on the basis of solving the traffic problem not to sell of the city

Fine we have a nice telecommunications network.
Meanwhile the 800 million profit telecom makes each year goes overseas.
And i use raped as this is the correct word. ie taking against ones will. We did not ask the 84 labour/ act govt to sell everything off but then that is the joy of a representive democracy.
And oh my god a left wing govt. heaven forbid that the government actually aim thier policies at the people of a country. Much better that they assist big business get richer. We had right wing politics run this country for 14 years and we were fucked as a result.
Standards of living have dropped, the gap between rich and poor has grown larger. We do not own our own nations infrastructure, which was paid for by the people of the country. Pull your head out and try thinking about things that have a value beyond a dollar amount.

jono, hear hear on the trams idea. I tried getting the council to buy this idea, but apparently they are only selling...

molatov: Ahh, mildy incorrect? Do you know what it means for a country to be bankrupt? Do you know what a "bank run" is? Do you understand what happens to a country when there is a foreign exchange crisis as there was in 84? What about the differences between fixed and floating excange rates? Inflation? Do you understand about the 'real human consequences' of such issues? Until you do, be careful about what you say about the reforms that took place after '84, as you need to understand what the 'problems' were before you can criticise the attempts at solving them that took place.

Look at South America - many of those countries will tell you quite clearly what happens when 'money' suddenly becomes a big issue relvant to real people.

You're peddling the incorrect philosophy that right wingers don't care about people. They do, they just believe in different policies for improving the standards of living _for everyone_. Don't try and hijack a political stance you clearly do not understand in order to paint it as something it is not. Misinformation helps no-one make good decisions about which policies to support....

Anyway, that's not what this thread is about, and I don't want to hijack another thread arguing / teaching economics when that wasn't the intention of the creator.

So what is happening with Queen Street guys? *big cheesy smile*

I think you will find that we are debating different things Viu. One of us is shouting about social policy the other about economic reforms

In answer to all your questions yes, except i don't quite get the relationship between inflation and interest rates.
And you are right this is not a debate about left/right economic principles. They tend to go round in circles as i am sure you have noticed and neither of us is going budge from our position.
But I did not post regarding this with any comment on left/right. You bought that in. You say mis-information is bad for helping people make a decision. All i did was post what is in the budget report. I think you will find distracting the issue to an ideological debate is even more damaging

What i am questioning is whether right wing principles can be appropiatly applied to a city? It has tried at a national level with debatable results in social services. (Health care social welfare, state housing).
Auckland city is not in a state of financial crisis as NZ was in the early 80's (Banks does not drink unlike drunken Ol' Muldoon)
As an entity that by definition is a social thing should the priority of the council be socially directed rather than a business model.

This is not an issue of whether you are right or left and i regret this thread being dragged that way. what is at question is do you like about Auckland and whether these things are under threat from the plan put by Birch.
I know that which i like definatly is.
How about you?
Or are your believes more important than where you live?