I'm sick of the Rugby World Cup screwing up central Auckland
Fred Flintstone's ride to work
I don't wish to be critical of the Rugby World Cup - but in the rush to tart up the city in time for the games there seem to be some really stupid decisions being made.
Decisions like putting a dirty great big handrail down the middle of Myer's Park 98 year old stair well. or decisions like wrongfully painting over legitimate street art on Poynton Terrace by anti-graffetti nazi Rob Shields who now chairs the committee as to how the $10 000 Council grant for more art should be spent.
Expect his decision to be as creative as cardboard.
But the worst looming fiasco are the new bus shelters on K Road which obscures pedestrians from the road along a narrow ill devised corridor in what I'm quaintly going to refer to as the Rugby World Cup Assault Alleyways. How this has managed to get to the building stage without any actual appreciation that they are building two long passageways obscured from the road that invite ambush is beyond me.
It's like the Council are purposely constructing a 'killzone' for locals.
There are positives. The re-cobbling of down town and the tree spruce up (which I see getting drenched in urine during the height of RWC alcohol poisoning season) has been matched by a rejuvinated Britomart that actually features some cool night life that out shines waterfront baby boomers sunning themselves.
The increase in prices will see a deluge of inner city types fleeing the local watering holes to suburban parties with some driven as far afield as Kingsland. I can't see the RWC in a recession this steep being the mega carnival economic hope it's being sold as and I'm still pretty confident in our lack lustre oversight to really believe the mass transit infrastructure will match the standards of any visiting tourists from any where more developed than Auckland's shit swamp of a public transport system.
I envisage endless social networking streams all trending #aucklandtransportisFUCKINGAWFUL.
The Flinstones public transport system is more capital intensive than Aucklands.
But good luck and all. I promised myself that this was the Rugby World Cup that I would enthusiastically embrace beyond the Haka and National anthems, it's just I can't stand sped up crap that needlessly makes the central city less pleasant. The way I look at it, when you view how badly damaged Christchurch is and how they are managing heroically with their construction issues, Auckland has no excuses not to get it right.
posted by Bomber @ 12:53 pm
4 comments
4 Comments:
I totally agree, though I have serious issues with Rugby and it's bully-boy hypermasculine culture of violence (and rape/domestic violence apologism), but then there's this:
"when you view how badly damaged Christchurch is and how they are managing heroically with their construction issues"
really? Though I haven't been back since the Feb quake, I was under the impression that things were being managed pretty awefully... I'd love to be proved wrong.
"a rejuvinated Britomart that actually features some cool night life that out shines waterfront baby boomers sunning themselves."
yeah... except they're mostly owned by the same few people and Lion Nathan funded the whole exercise provided just their beers are sold. Not trying to do a restaurant review here, but I'm looking forward to Brittomart post RWC, when a few of those new places shut up shop and there's some space available for some non corporate controlled enterprise to create a genuine focal point for the inner city.
But yes, still beats baby boomers sunning themselves.
All I can say is; "Thank the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster that I don't live in Auckland, or anywhere near a RWC venue...
Personally I can see no more profitable exrecise than to set up an umbrella and raincoat stand along the route.
Seriously who plans to put 1000's of people into the open air at 10-12 o'clock at night in October in NZ??
Did they check the climate for that time of year when they planned this World Cup?
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