Karori megastore

Eyal Aharoni (“Megastore Appeal” May 9) claims that the people opposing his development proposal don’t live near the Curtis Street site. I live in Curtis Street and it takes me less than two minutes to walk from my house to his site. That seems pretty ‘near’ to me.

Houses in Paisley Terrace are surely neighbours. It is disingenuous of Aharoni to imply that only those living right next to the site will be affected by his proposed development. One of the effects will be increased traffic in Curtis Street, which is narrow, windy and undulating between his site and Chaytor Street.

Richard MacLean is selective with his facts. No-one is suggesting that the site is a pristine green environment. However, the site and the neighbouring properties south of the site are some of the only privately owned land on a ‘green line’ between Zealandia and Otari/Wilton’s Bush. Yes, the site was once an entrance to a former rubbish dump but the site and its surrounds are now full of native flora and fauna. Maclean ignores the significant glowworm population along the Old Karori Rd walkway on the western side of the site, which could be affected by any Business B development and will certainly be affected by Aharoni’s proposal. The site is also directly under the flight path of kaka moving between Zealandia and Otari/Wilton’s Bush. 

Susan Skudder, Northland (abridged).

Megastore 

Eyal Aharoni says about the re-zoning of part of Curtis Street: “Those that are opposing the application don’t even live near the site.” I consider that I do not live close to the site so I am interested in seeing his plans and then deciding whether to oppose them or not. 

It is terrific that the High Court found that keeping the plans relating to a megastore under wraps was illegal. This means that opponents who “don’t even live near the site” will now have a chance to express their views if a plan change is properly and openly proposed.

If such a proposal is put forward there will also be a chance for megastore backers to sign their names to submissions if they want. Roll on democracy!

Michael Gibson, Northland.

Rail subsidies

I refer to “Rail subsidies”, (May 9), written in response to your report: “The huge cost of your train ride”, (May 2). Yes indeed, train, bus, harbour ferry, and cable car, fares are subsidised from our rates and taxes, and rightly so. The public benefits of public transport usage include reduction in traffic congestion, finite fossil use, emissions of air, soil and water pollutants, and deaths, injuries and vehicle damage from road smashes.

Motor vehicle usage is also highly subsidised. Remember the Ministry of Transport’s Land Transport Pricing Study, published in the 1990s? That document reported that road usage cost an estimated $1.2 billion per year in adverse environmental impacts, imposed costs of several billion dollars per year on our health system as a result of injuries, and costs of many million dollars for the resulting damage to vehicles. Politicians and bureaucrats soon swept the study’s unpalatable findings under the carpet. 

Obviously the benefits from subsidising public transport fares outweigh benefits from subsidising the use of cars and motorbikes. Try to imagine the cost of the gridlock that would result, almost round-the-clock, if the people who account for the 35 million public transport rides in our region per year were deprived of bus, train, harbour ferry and cable car services! 

J. Chris Horne, Northland (abriged).

Try working out the numbers on the proposed Transmission Gully road.

Even if every vehicle that goes past McKays Crossing used TGM and none of them use the existing highway then the cost per vehicle is about $9. 

Seems some people have a love affair with expensive roads and rail.

Andy Foster, Wellington City Council.

It’s very encouraging to see that sense prevailed and your readers see the need to subsidise rail transport, as witnessed by a resounding 53%/37% majority in your recent poll. The alternative of building 10-lane highways, doesn’t bear thinking about, but that is the choice we are facing in a future of ever-increasing fossil fuel prices.

Although a body blow to him, its unlikely to silence train-hater Philip Hayward. His baseless assertion that rail emits more CO2 per passenger-kilometre than road transport is frankly laughable. Equally laughable are his constant assertions that car owners pay the real cost of the roads their cars run on. 

Of course the cost per user of any infrastructure, whether roads or rail, is dependent on the number of users. The existing suburban rail system would encourage many more users if it didn’t dump its passengers on the edge of the CBD, but instead carried them through to the airport and intervening destinations. This could be achieved economically if tram-trains were used.

Masses of cars and buses clogging up the streets also make cities unliveable. And where are all those cars going to park? Of course this is of little import to Hayward who lives in the suburbs, away from the sort of disaster he is pushing for.

Demetrius Christoforou, Mount Victoria (abridged).

Lies, damned lies and statistics

I refer to Mike Leon’s letter (May 9) concerning the opening to Melody Thomas’s article (May 2) and about 70% of New Zealand marriages not lasting 25 years. Mr Leon said that she was wrong. 

Whilst Mr Leon’s quoted divorce statistic is quite correct, Melody’s sentence read :marriages don’t make it that far.” Do we know for certain that she was referring solely to divorce? Marriages can end in several ways.

I wonder if the two statistics are formed on different bases and so they are both correct? 

Hilary Combes, Director, SaRC Singles Network

On the waterfront

What surprises me about recent developments on Wellington’s waterfront is the ephemeral ature of town planning. The campervan park referred to (“What now for the waterfront”, May 2) is relatively new. I discovered it not that long ago quite by chance.

I was impressed by the handy location and the very flash looking ablution block on the site. How much did that cost? Suddenly, change of plan. Let’s demolish the campervan site and build a high rise.

I don’t have much feeling toward high rises one way or another, but it was startling to me that we have a council that can one minute drive a campervan park and next minute rip it down and replace it.

Top marks though to Mrs Swann for her dogged perseverance in maintaining an impressive citizens’ watch on what is going on at the other end of town. Well done for a Rongotai lass. (She must have married well!).

Christine Swift, Island Bay (abridged).

Under the influence

I’m not sure of whether Mr Kennedy was under the influence of some mind-altering substance when he was reading my May 2 letter and writing his May 9 response; but that would be the kindest assumption to make when reading his irrelevant, not to say paranoid, statements.

I advise him to reread my letter, and take in what it actually said. I suspect the PC mob, of which he is a leading light, just attack on principle any letter with my signature, and don’t even read it fully. It is they who “play the man and not the ball”, methinks, not I.

Yes, it’s good to learn foreign languages; so if a Kiwi settled in Hong Kong, for example, employers would reasonably require him/her to have adequate Cantonese, the common language of South China. By the same token, New Zealand employers ought to insist that immigrant employees have adequate English, the common language of our country, and also be able to identify European/NZ produce on sight.

H. Westfold, Miramar (abridged).

Justice a joke

A 16 year old racing a stolen car on January 7th has finally been called to account for his actions. After colliding with a vehicle driven by a 22 year old the driver of the stolen car ran off and left him to die where he lay.

The (name suppressed) 16 year old has been sentenced by the Auckland youth court to six months detention at a youth justice facility and also lost his drivers license for two and-a-half years. Wow, that’s severe!

Good to see the judiciary are toughening up on these killers, otherwise they will treat their punishments as a joke.

Mihi Huriwai, Wadestown.