Your VOX POP

One thing that people have said they don’t want:

BUILDING THE WELLINGTON WE WANT

Three questions

1. What question do you most want the next Mayor of Wellington to answer?
2. From your point of view, what’s the part of living or working in Wellington that could be celebrated more or improved most?
3. If you could be Mayor of Wellington for a year what would you change?

See the answers below from:

• Suzy – Learning and development in conservation
  
• George – Designer of Wellington
• Megan – Designer/ Social Entrepreneur of Wellington
• Nick – Software Developer of Wellington
• Colin – IT Consultant of Wellington

What question do you most want the next Mayor of Wellington to answer?

• Anthony - Student of Wellington: How will you look to improve the reliability and service of public transport in Wellington such that it is as efficient as many public transport systems overseas? I am constantly frustrated with Wellington’s inferior public transport and ticketing infrastructure and I believe more interaction is needed with GW regional council to improve this.
• George - Designer of Wellington: What’s it going to take to knock Kerry off? Happy to help!
• Megan – Designer/ Social Entrepreneur of Wellington: I am worried about the trend of politicians to have their heads in the sand about the big issues of our time. There are not one questions but many that need answering. And we need to have a leader who can demonstrate that they are brave and courageous in the face of climate change/peak oil/ecomonic instability/water supply/rising cost of living etc etc. But if you can answer this courageously, with integrity and offer a tangible solution, then I may well vote for you. For example, How is Wellington going to thrive when oil reaches $5 a barrel? Consider this in the Guardian
• Nick – Software Developer of Wellington: How will you address road, rail, cycling and public transport issues in the city over the next two decades?
• Colin – IT consultant of Wellington: What’s your vision for Wellington ?
• Suzy – Conservation educator of Wellington: What are your thoughts on the future of public and private transport in Wellington?

From your point of view, what’s the part of living or working in Wellington that could be celebrated more or improved most?

• George – Designer of Wellington: I love the accessibility to the outdoors and that balance of city and space is wonderful and should be enhanced so more ideas upon improvement of the open spaces, south coast and western hills and walkways.
• Megan – Designer/ Social Entrepreneur of Wellington: Creating centres of excellence around the products and business models of the future. Wellington has the potential to be a collaborative hot house for the new world of business – environmentally sustainable, socially responsible, and economically fair and thriving.
• Nick - Software Developer of Wellington: Encourage much more residential building in the CBD. It needs more people living in it – the Terrace and Lambton Quay are eerie dead zones after about 5.30pm, and there are almost no businesses open late because there is no-one there outside working hours. Compare the changes in Manchester city center in the UK over the late 1990’s / early 2000s. A large increase in residential construction / conversion drastically changed and improved the character and vibrancy of the city centre.
• Colin – IT consultant of Wellington: A “Wind” festival !  Let’s make it nuts !
• Suzy – Conservation educator of Wellington: 1) Public transport that runs across suburbs, not just to and from the city. 2) Continue to support green/sustainable buildings being built. 3)  Celebrate the green spaces so close to the city, they are wonderful.

If you could be Mayor of Wellington for a year what would you change?

• George - Designer of Wellington: I’d make all public transport free so that more people would use it, by this initiative we could make more road areas for pedestrians. Encourage more public art, sculpture and develop and enhance more of the waterfront, allow the Hilton. Ensure that some of the great events that Wellington currently hosts remain for the future and generate more events we currently don’t host. Install a monorail that links the railway station, stadium, cruise terminal with the central link (Courtney, Cuba, Lambton).
• Megan – – Designer/ Social Entrepreneur of Wellington: Transport – plain and simple. It is key to having a thriving city. In recessive times, we need to favour the cheapest, healthiest transport options that work for the majority of people. The answer is creating a pedestrian and cycle friendly city. A transport policy that prioritises ‘People Powered Transport’ (walking/cycling) will save our community a lot of money. We will spend less dealing with respiratory illness from pollution, avoidable ETS costs, millions in roading upgrade and maintenance costs. There may even be mental-health and productivity gains that we are yet to measure. We have to think about how we are going to get around our city in the future as the oil prices rise, signaling the end of cheap supply of oil. Every time our council invests in safer roads for cyclists it is both an ethical and economically responsible decision. But Mayor that fully backs and resources a progressive cycling strategy for Wellington will leave a legacy that will be celebrated for generations to come. And of course, the more money cyclists save on transport and health costs, the more money they have to invest in the local economy. The City will be safer for pedestrians and cyclists,and it will have the added co-benefits of lowering the cities carbon emissions (less are emitted, the slower the speeds) which will bode well for achieving carbon neutrality as well as making it a quieter, more pleasant place to work, shop and visit.  As Mayor of Wellington for a year, I would invest all my love and energy into creating this win-win-win, win-win for Wellington. I would want to be the mayor that would be celebrated for years to come.
• Nick - Software Developer of Wellington: Address the difficulty and danger of cycling in the city. Cycle lanes, designated cycle routes To get from Newtown to the CBD, it’s currently easier and safer to ride off-road over Mount Victoria than it is to ride on the roads.
• Suzy – Conservation educator of Wellington: I would make Wellington a cycling friendly city.
• Colin – IT consultant of Wellington: You can’t do these things in a year but here’s what should be done. (10 easy things there to do Jack… Just one every 5 weeks -
  • First thing Welly has to get wealthier and not rely on its nest egg of govt. which will get smaller over time – and especially in this economic environment.
  • Get the finance together to extend the runway at Wgtn airport another half a mile of more out to sea so international planes can land here and Welly finally gets on the main tourist route.  It’s a neat city for a few days at least and currently is being by-passed on the whole.
  • Become a greener city whilst saving $ and improving the environment…
  • Connect up the airport to the city / train station / ferry terminal by some public transport service which is efficient and clean… could be a light railway.. what about a mono-rail going passed OriBay ??
  • Allow a casino to be built by the waterfront and have a good-sized premier hotel there too. Venue should be available for musicians / performers / different hall sizes available too… so multi-function. I don’t intrinsically believe casinos are wrong or evil.. and done the right way, they are miles better than booze barns and pokies.
  • Get Welly central to compete as a shopping experience with the likes of Westfield, Porirua etc.  People like the street-shopping of central Wellington but parking is still an issue and you can get either rain-lashed or wind-whipped in the process… How about covering over half the streets of the central city somehow to produce a more pleasant experience ?
  • Consider one of Welly’s greatest resources is its wind for generating power and we are barely scratching the surface.  We should be a world leader in wind-based power generation.
  • A full-size sports venue for people to do sports in the central city.. could include an ice rink.
  • Make Welly more cycle-friendly and try and electrify most of the inner city buses.
  • Make local govt. more democratic than it now is and try and drag it into the 21st century.  Bill Gates’ “Business at the speed of thought” could be a starting point for this revolution.

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