Dawn Picken: 2020 Wish List for the Bay

The speedy completion of the Mauao base track is one item on the wishlist. Photo / File

Farewell, 2019. Goodbye to the particular heartbreaks and traumas of the past 12 months that have forced us to confront our shortcomings and our mortality. So long to disasters that have shaped our recent past.

In March, the Christchurch terrorist attacks shook our sense of safety and ignited outrage that someone filled with hate walked among us. No doubt he still has followers. But what also emerged after the violence was unity, strength and aroha - a connection with our Muslim neighbours when we offered flowers, prayers, an ear, and a shoulder.

In December, another kind of violence struck directly in the Bay - White Island/Whakaari erupted without warning, taking lives and mangling bodies. Survivors being treated for burns in hospital have months and years of recovery ahead, thanks to an activity many of us have survived without incident - visiting one of the region's popular tourist attractions.

Between these tragic bookends, we've seen road fatalities, murders, fires, assaults ... the kind of news items we've come to expect. They make us sad and often angry, even if we're not part of the story.

If we're lucky, we get to live with relatively minor annoyances - the kind that won't change your future or divide your world into "before" and "after". These events are pebbles in our shoes we discuss over coffee.

Is it magical thinking to hope for a better 2020? Maybe you have a wish list for the New Year. My aspirational 2020 for the Bay of Plenty includes:

1) Better traffic flow. No more jams on the Bayfair roundabout, Golf Rd, Hewlett's Rd, Cameron Rd, Turret, SH2 … not likely, as too many roading projects are yet to finish, and it appears one plan - four laning of SH2 - will never start (though National promises this will change if they win the next election). Time to invest in a better bicycle or giant passenger drone.

2) More affordable housing. Private housing, state housing, single-family homes, apartments, townhouses, tiny homes - we need a greater diversity of housing stock and a lot more volume if we want anyone but uber-millionaires to be able to buy a home by the end of the 2020s. Or even now.

An average house value above $700,000 for Tauranga makes me want to weep, especially for people just starting out who don't have an extra $140,000 for a deposit, plus six-figure income to service the mortgage. Rents are ridiculous, too, so even if you don't require a massive investment, you still need the $100,000-per-year income to stay beneath what financial experts say is the limit for the percentage of income spent on housing. We're meant to spend no more than 30 per cent of our monthly gross income on housing, though many of us spend 40 and 50 per cent on a mortgage plus rates or rent plus utilities. Motorhomes are looking more attractive each day.

3) Speedy completion of the Mount Maunganui/Mauao base track. The temporary track, opened December 20 is fantastic, but the lovely blue 'open' sign says the track will close again in late January so a more permanent fix can happen.

4) Better use of sunscreen. Any use of sunscreen. I was at the Tauranga Racecourse for a friend's 40th earlier this month when I saw a woman with an angry red 'U' on her back. I nearly tapped her on the shoulder (which likely would've caused her to howl in pain), but realised the damage had been done. Apply sunscreen before stepping into those broiling UV rays.

Visualise not only world peace but less of your skin in pieces after the dermatologist prescribes chemotherapy cream to burn away your non-melanoma skin cancers. The cream is designed to make your skin red and inflamed (kind of like sunburn) and may make it sore and weepy, too.

More serious cases require surgery. And melanoma can kill. I wish I could get my teenagers to faithfully apply and reapply sunscreen every day, but I can't. You're an adult. You can do this without prodding, bargaining or whinging.

5) Preservation of green spaces. Please, council, no more selling off reserves so buildings and asphalt can replace trees and grass. Nature is what makes the Bay special. Any muttonhead can pave paradise - the best places to live safeguard the natural environment instead of caving to financial and social pressures to infill as many patches of grass as possible.

If ratepayers received as much notice about proposed developments as we did reminders about paying rates, our city might be more verdant and less built-up.

6) Civil Discourse. We don't need to follow examples of my fellow Americans in political dialogue, because diplomacy across the pond is dying like a weed sprayed with glyphosate. Stand up for civility in conversations on the national, regional and local levels.

If a politico slags someone, call her out. If a local leader spews racist views, tell him you disagree. It's easy to conflate silence with approval. It's the same for hyper-local social media pages. I shake my head each time I read responses to someone's post for a holiday home rental. Jane Bloggs will offer a reasonable nightly rate for bed and breakfast in a sought-after location at high season and inevitably, trolls bring vitriol, calling Jane greedy.

Try telling your mechanic, plumber or hairdresser he or she is money-grubbing for charging market rates. If you want discount prices, ask your friends. If you're civil, they might help. Your mum was right when she told you you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

7) Capture and punishment of glass-breaking morons. Especially this time of year, carparks and footpaths are littered with broken glass. I fantasise about finding the culprits and forcing them to walk over their handiwork with bare feet.

8) Pausing. Life would be better if we (and I mean me) paused before reacting, taking deep breaths, slowing our quickening pulses. What if 2020 was the Year of the Intentional Pause? Peace within. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself." Let's aspire to that.