Mayors say a lot about cities.
When good ol’ Lenny Brown announced his latest idea for Macheteville, my jaw dropped so low it just about broke on the floor.  Auckland, he says, is going to introduce trams.  Trams?!  Wellington got rid of trams 50 years ago!  What will they try next? – Flushing toilets?
The logic, apparently, is trams have worked elsewhere so maybe they’ll work in Auckland.  They might.  And maybe Auckland needs something new (or old) like that just as circuit-breaker with the past.  And as a wee extra, they could save those Art Deco buildings, and stop building brothels.  But, moving on, I was so impressed by an Auckland woman commenting (on radio) about the new international passenger terminal at Wellington Airport.  She said it looked unusual, then as an almost admiring afterthought, she added, “But they do things differently down there.”  Darned right we do.
Wellington has had a long line of good mayors.  And although she’s still new, Celia Wade-Brown looks set to maintain a fine tradition.  She is a worthy successor to Kerry Prendergast.  Celia is like an ambitious young jockey given charge of the world’s fastest racehorse: you can put your house on it that she’s going to run a helluva race.  But ultimate success, with all the financial benefits that will eventually trickle down to even the lowly stable hands, also depends on the skills and support given by those around her.  
Celia’s fresh ideas on the social and natural environments occur at a time of extraordinary developments in Wellington sport and culture.  Four of the world’s biggest movies ever made (The Hobbit pair/ the Avatar pair) are set to be made out of Wellington in the coming years.  All four will radiate vision and ‘difference’.  Also, we’ve got the mass-transvestite rugby sevens wrapped up for years to come.  And where will the spectacular World of Wearable Arts end?  It won’t.  This city is going to rock for a long time yet.
The only fly in the ointment would be if the usual hidebound Luddites refuse to embrace the times.  That’s why Celia’s private email to her councillors encouraging them to expand their “neural pathways” by having a go at things like other languages or dancing, is, in fact, fantastic.  After all, what’s wrong with personal development?  It’s the old: We’re never going to change the world until we’ve changed ourselves.  (No?)
Mary Bonner, the incoming Chief Executive of the Capital & Coast District Health Board, commenting on Wellingtonians’ medical well-being, displays a similar outlook to the Mayor’s.  She will push for “healthy eating, keeping fit, reducing alcohol and not smoking so people can avoid the need for health services.”  
It’s quite clear that change and lots of it is on its way.  Nowhere is safe anymore.  It’s no good creeping up your own neural pathway, Gollum-like, infarctically, hoping to avoid the light.  You’ll just get collected by a big yellow bus coming the other way.