Nz Herald

It seems that the New Zealand Herald has outdone itself with poor, sychophantic, one sided reporting again in todays issue (Sunday February 9).

The Joanna Mather’s Sunday Insight piece is nothing more than a regurgitation of previous articles poorly put together; bad, misguided reporting. Once again pissing in the pocket of Auckland Council and Heart of the City, which seems to me to be nothing more than a PR puppet, toothless and ineffective.

First: Lets start with the positive parts of the story; all have been previously well documented. The regeneration of the CBD, Britomart, Silo Park, Imperial and Wynyard with their fantastic entertainment quarters for instance and even after you dig through the Heart of the City (Auckland Council) spin these are good things to celebrate. The pending openings of a number of luxury brand Flagship stores on lower Queen Street will be a great asset to the City.

However I am sure that Peter Cooper and Sky City would have preferred to not invest so heavily just to fix Councils earlier mistakes.

The drift from High Street is noted (again badly) but there is nothing about the recent regeneration of this area either with a number of new Cafes and Retail stores opening.

Why is there no one objectively reporting on the constant challenges and problems that face the Central City and the lack of clear focus (it seems) around Town Planning or vision for the City. Not just the Unitary Plan or Public Transport initiatives.

When will someone discuss the lack of cohesion, the continued failure of areas like Elliot Street and Queen Street (rejuvenated at great cost) that are now full of homeless people and yoghurt stores? Who is accountable here?

These are challenges that face every Auckland business owner, tenant, resident, shopper and ratepayer. The amount of security required for the League Nines next week is another blight on the safety of our city at night, a lack of police presence, faulty licensing laws, poor public transport all contribute to this.

What about the constant road closures, lack of safe cycle ways or poor rubbish removal, signage and street lighting.

All these things dramatically affect our ability to create a CBD that is a cohesive community and not divided.

 I don’t really care who Len Brown is fucking. I just want him to stop fucking our City.