Letters, Jul 7
Transport woes
What on earth is going on with transport management in the inner city? On the one hand we have the City Council raising parking charges to discourage private cars in the city, and streamlining bus lanes to make bus travel more attractive. On the other hand we have Greater Wellington doubling the cost of inner city bus services!
To a frequent user, the productivity of the city’s bus services seems to be increasing with the use of snapper cards and adjustments to routes, but why is this not being reflected in prices?
What is the regional council doing to constrain the cost of the service? Is Greater Wellington sure it has the right regulatory approach? Is it providing the right incentives to encourage the bus companies to run their services as economically as possible and limit their profits to a reasonable level?
A regulatory approach that allows a 100% increase in a key fare and which undermines the City Council’s strategy for limiting private vehicles in the city is not a regulatory approach that is working well for Wellington’s citizens.
Dianne Buchan, Thorndon.
ACC hike
The ACC Hike story. Perhaps those who make these kinds of decisions at ACC have noticed what I have: scooters/mopeds and motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic, driving between car lanes, and illegally passing lines of cars sitting at stoplights in order to get to the front of the queue? I’ve read The Road Code - these actions are all illegal, not to mention incredibly unsafe. Maybe once they all learn to follow the traffic laws, ACC will cut them a break and the rest of us will actually care about their parking and registration woes.
Dawn Logan, Mt Victoria.
Drug rules
Your article about the drug law reforms in Wellington highlights a recurring thought to me as a marijuana smoker who has only experienced positive effects from smoking. Have the people involved in laws about marijuana ever regularly experienced the effects of it? I am constantly amazed that the people who want to be at the centre of decision-making about marijuana laws don’t even smoke the stuff, and probably don’t know anyone who does. The negative effects of marijuana may be true for some people, especially minors, but there is constantly a lack of opinion from people who enjoy smoking dak. From the 1,000 people in Wellington treated by CareNZ, how many of them are marijuana smokers, and how many people in New Zealand are in drug rehab for smoking marijuana? Tim Harding is correct in pointing out that 65% of our youth could be considered criminals under the existing laws, but they are hardly going to be affected by the law as much as a casual adult smoker is, if caught with weed. Why should a recreational cannabis smoker feel like a criminal? It seems with the recent public debate that alcohol is massively destructive in our nation, but where is the evidence that cannabis smoking is as harmful and should be illegal? The law needs to be reviewed by various organisations who have involved viewpoints about marijuana laws. Current laws are obviously out of date in relationship to our highly modern rational minds.
Nick Boyd, Auckland (abridged).
Get harsh
David R Currie commented in his recent letter that prohibition (with regard to marijuana) does not work, but leads to burgeoning crime with high costs of enforcement. The same could be said of many crimes. Campaigns against driving under the influence of alcohol are not exactly roaring successes, and the cost of having police checking for tipsy motorists is high. Should we just give up? Of course not!
Using Dave’s logic, we would not stop at legalising marijuana, but all drugs.
Prohibition may not be working in its current state, but that is only because our punishments are so weak. Instead of giving up and letting the youth of today run riot with their heads in the clouds, we should crack down on them harshly. Fines and community service are a waste of time, jobless drug users rarely have any money, and are far too lazy for community service.
A public caning would be far more beneficial. We need to be more creative with our punishments, and Singapore is an ideal role model.
Ronald R Smythe, Mt Cook (abridged).
Link the wind sculpture
There’s been a lot of self-congratulatory stuff in the media about the wind sculptures on Cobham Drive. That latest one has a couple of its posts on the south side of the road where they’re hard to see, and often protected from the wind by the large building beside them. They’d be far better sited and the whole thing would look a lot better, if those two were re-sited across the road and a bit further out to sea from those that are already there.
Andrew Jamieson, Hataitai.
Free press
Your campaign against low-grade intensive inner city accommodation and against slipshod constructor practices demonstrates the importance of a privately owned and thus independent press.
Chain-owned newspapers step lightly around these immense problems because their revenues are substantially derived from the property sector.
Peter Isaac, president, National Press Club.
Drinking culture
I see the media have the Evers-Swindell twins voicing opinions supporting Sir G. Palmer’s law commission report about NZ’s drinking culture. I for one think it is a liberty that two girls who say they don’t drink in the course of their social life, should espouse a negative view on something they know nothing about. In stating that they don’t get into drinking, surely that would negate either of them being qualified to have an informed opinion. I thought the “nanny state” went out the door with Helen’s demise.
Ron Blair, Te Aro.
Noisy annoyances
Two things that have been bothering me in Wellington lately: Car horns in the Mount Victoria tunnel. If you have a compulsion to hammer your horn endlessly, please take the Oriental Bay route. You may not realise it, but what you seem to think is ‘fun’ is doing long-term damage to everyone who has to walk through the tunnel every day. Have you ever tried strapping your head to the bonnet of your car, and giving the horn to a four-year-old? That is what my life is like, twice a day for eight minutes. Scarves. A scarf is a piece of wool or similar fabric wrapped around the neck to keep the heat in and the rainwater out. A strip of organza or taffeta draped over the collarbone is hardly going to achieve the same thing. You probably also paid more for it, you mugs.
David Thomsen, Hataitai, abridged.
Film festival bummer
Festival Bummer Congrats to Ant Timpson for a really radical Incredibly Strange Film Festival programme this year. Mostly these programmers seem to ignore the younger audiences and its all been a bit conservative and dull. [And news is] Gaspar Noe’s hallucinatory epic shot in Tokyo, Enter the Void, is only getting one screening in Auckland. This is a major bummer for fans of this great, avant-garde French filmmaker, whose films have to be experienced on a huge screen with thundering mega-watt sound systems. Wellington cinemagoers are not very happy that they are being ignored. Why?
Jamie Wisseau, Wellington (abridged).
Too much money
What is the real cost to the rate payer? While walking to and from work each day, I can help but notice the road and kerb realignment works on the four corners of Taranaki Street and Courtney Place. The works have been going on for over three weeks now, causing major disturbances to pedestrian and traffic flow. My questions are; why is it taking so long? If this task was done in a country like China, it would be finished in three days – working around the clock until completed. How much is it costing the city/rate payers? I see a lot of workers and construction vehicles but not a lot progress being made. I hope the City is not paying these contractors by the hour. My very rough guess so far the bill would be topping $2 million. Great value!
Chris Young, Wellington.
What on earth is going on with transport management in the inner city? On the one hand we have the City Council raising parking charges to discourage private cars in the city, and streamlining bus lanes to make bus travel more attractive. On the other hand we have Greater Wellington doubling the cost of inner city bus services!
To a frequent user, the productivity of the city’s bus services seems to be increasing with the use of snapper cards and adjustments to routes, but why is this not being reflected in prices?
What is the regional council doing to constrain the cost of the service? Is Greater Wellington sure it has the right regulatory approach? Is it providing the right incentives to encourage the bus companies to run their services as economically as possible and limit their profits to a reasonable level?
A regulatory approach that allows a 100% increase in a key fare and which undermines the City Council’s strategy for limiting private vehicles in the city is not a regulatory approach that is working well for Wellington’s citizens.
Dianne Buchan, Thorndon.
ACC hike
The ACC Hike story. Perhaps those who make these kinds of decisions at ACC have noticed what I have: scooters/mopeds and motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic, driving between car lanes, and illegally passing lines of cars sitting at stoplights in order to get to the front of the queue? I’ve read The Road Code - these actions are all illegal, not to mention incredibly unsafe. Maybe once they all learn to follow the traffic laws, ACC will cut them a break and the rest of us will actually care about their parking and registration woes.
Dawn Logan, Mt Victoria.
Drug rules
Your article about the drug law reforms in Wellington highlights a recurring thought to me as a marijuana smoker who has only experienced positive effects from smoking. Have the people involved in laws about marijuana ever regularly experienced the effects of it? I am constantly amazed that the people who want to be at the centre of decision-making about marijuana laws don’t even smoke the stuff, and probably don’t know anyone who does. The negative effects of marijuana may be true for some people, especially minors, but there is constantly a lack of opinion from people who enjoy smoking dak. From the 1,000 people in Wellington treated by CareNZ, how many of them are marijuana smokers, and how many people in New Zealand are in drug rehab for smoking marijuana? Tim Harding is correct in pointing out that 65% of our youth could be considered criminals under the existing laws, but they are hardly going to be affected by the law as much as a casual adult smoker is, if caught with weed. Why should a recreational cannabis smoker feel like a criminal? It seems with the recent public debate that alcohol is massively destructive in our nation, but where is the evidence that cannabis smoking is as harmful and should be illegal? The law needs to be reviewed by various organisations who have involved viewpoints about marijuana laws. Current laws are obviously out of date in relationship to our highly modern rational minds.
Nick Boyd, Auckland (abridged).
Get harsh
David R Currie commented in his recent letter that prohibition (with regard to marijuana) does not work, but leads to burgeoning crime with high costs of enforcement. The same could be said of many crimes. Campaigns against driving under the influence of alcohol are not exactly roaring successes, and the cost of having police checking for tipsy motorists is high. Should we just give up? Of course not!
Using Dave’s logic, we would not stop at legalising marijuana, but all drugs.
Prohibition may not be working in its current state, but that is only because our punishments are so weak. Instead of giving up and letting the youth of today run riot with their heads in the clouds, we should crack down on them harshly. Fines and community service are a waste of time, jobless drug users rarely have any money, and are far too lazy for community service.
A public caning would be far more beneficial. We need to be more creative with our punishments, and Singapore is an ideal role model.
Ronald R Smythe, Mt Cook (abridged).
Link the wind sculpture
There’s been a lot of self-congratulatory stuff in the media about the wind sculptures on Cobham Drive. That latest one has a couple of its posts on the south side of the road where they’re hard to see, and often protected from the wind by the large building beside them. They’d be far better sited and the whole thing would look a lot better, if those two were re-sited across the road and a bit further out to sea from those that are already there.
Andrew Jamieson, Hataitai.
Free press
Your campaign against low-grade intensive inner city accommodation and against slipshod constructor practices demonstrates the importance of a privately owned and thus independent press.
Chain-owned newspapers step lightly around these immense problems because their revenues are substantially derived from the property sector.
Peter Isaac, president, National Press Club.
Drinking culture
I see the media have the Evers-Swindell twins voicing opinions supporting Sir G. Palmer’s law commission report about NZ’s drinking culture. I for one think it is a liberty that two girls who say they don’t drink in the course of their social life, should espouse a negative view on something they know nothing about. In stating that they don’t get into drinking, surely that would negate either of them being qualified to have an informed opinion. I thought the “nanny state” went out the door with Helen’s demise.
Ron Blair, Te Aro.
Noisy annoyances
Two things that have been bothering me in Wellington lately: Car horns in the Mount Victoria tunnel. If you have a compulsion to hammer your horn endlessly, please take the Oriental Bay route. You may not realise it, but what you seem to think is ‘fun’ is doing long-term damage to everyone who has to walk through the tunnel every day. Have you ever tried strapping your head to the bonnet of your car, and giving the horn to a four-year-old? That is what my life is like, twice a day for eight minutes. Scarves. A scarf is a piece of wool or similar fabric wrapped around the neck to keep the heat in and the rainwater out. A strip of organza or taffeta draped over the collarbone is hardly going to achieve the same thing. You probably also paid more for it, you mugs.
David Thomsen, Hataitai, abridged.
Film festival bummer
Festival Bummer Congrats to Ant Timpson for a really radical Incredibly Strange Film Festival programme this year. Mostly these programmers seem to ignore the younger audiences and its all been a bit conservative and dull. [And news is] Gaspar Noe’s hallucinatory epic shot in Tokyo, Enter the Void, is only getting one screening in Auckland. This is a major bummer for fans of this great, avant-garde French filmmaker, whose films have to be experienced on a huge screen with thundering mega-watt sound systems. Wellington cinemagoers are not very happy that they are being ignored. Why?
Jamie Wisseau, Wellington (abridged).
Too much money
What is the real cost to the rate payer? While walking to and from work each day, I can help but notice the road and kerb realignment works on the four corners of Taranaki Street and Courtney Place. The works have been going on for over three weeks now, causing major disturbances to pedestrian and traffic flow. My questions are; why is it taking so long? If this task was done in a country like China, it would be finished in three days – working around the clock until completed. How much is it costing the city/rate payers? I see a lot of workers and construction vehicles but not a lot progress being made. I hope the City is not paying these contractors by the hour. My very rough guess so far the bill would be topping $2 million. Great value!
Chris Young, Wellington.
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