One voter says, ‘Hi, when I show people around Wellington I feel really ashamed of how our beautiful city has been covered in graffiti.’ And she is right. So what can we do? I responded in an email: You are right, and believe it or not, $500,000 of our rates are going toward the […]
Category: New Zealand
Posts relating to New Zealand.
Mind the gap
People have rightly asked me my positions on transport, the environment, the Basin Reserve flyover, and libraries. These weren’t put in my manifesto in April 2013 because I expected that candidates (whomever they might be—since only Dr Keith Johnson had declared then) would have largely the same views on them. I was wrong. […]
Campaign update: videos three to five
I have been posting these on the videos’ page as they became public, but maybe I should have added them to this blog, too, for those of you following on RSS. The multilingual one seems to have had a lot of hits. They have been directed by Isaac Cleland, with Khadeeja Dean on sound. Lawrance […]
Being answerable to your public (or, if you can’t engage now, can we expect you to in office?)
One of my supporters Tweeted to say I was the only candidate at Vote.co.nz who has bothered to reply to citizens’ questions. It’s good for me, but sad to see my opponents so disengaged. I was also surprised to see that only three of us have bothered to register for the website this time, despite […]
The statistics back up my manifesto: we need to help young Wellingtonians
One of the things I hear when campaigning is that one should not focus too much on youth, because young people do not vote as much. I think the first part of that is bollocks. While it’s true that the youth vote has never been strong, no one can claim to represent a city […]
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Cities are, or at least should be, driving globalization
My friend and colleague William Shepherd directed me to a piece at Quartz by Michele Acuto and Parag Khanna, on how cities are driving globalization more than nations—a theme I touched upon on this blog in March 2010. As he said, I had called it three years ago, though admittedly Acuto and Khanna have […]
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Staying a step ahead: the economic benefit of gimmicks
Wifi on the waterfront is now a normal part of Wellington life—but in 2009 some felt it was a gimmick. When I proposed free wifi as a campaign policy in 2009, it was seen as gimmicky by some. I wasn’t a serious candidate, some thought. But those ideas that have demand, such as wifi, have […]
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Park: wise
Earlier today, the following press release was issued by my campaign team. And so far, judging by comments on my personal Facebook and my mayoral campaign page, the mood seems to be in favour of a park at Cuba Street. I realize other policies won’t be as cut-and-dry, and discussion remains very welcome (as evidenced […]
In Wellington, the players need to change
The below was written on April 22, 2013, in response to an article in The Dominion Post. It was offered to the newspaper as an op–ed, then to The Wellingtonian, but it was eventually declined. The Dominion Post’s headline on April 22 confirmed what many of us knew after numerous friends and colleagues left Wellington […]
When it comes to convention centres, it pays to think ahead
The New Zealand International Convention Centre has been announced in Auckland. In 2010, my campaign team proposed a convention centre for Miramar Wharf, which would include a technology complex, in a format that could have been licensed to other countries, earning royalties for the Wellington business that came up with the idea. The location was […]
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