Letters to Editor:McD's can't get here fast enough

McD's can't get here fast enough

McDonald's have my support! As a resident of Havelock North for 25 years it disturbs me that the president of The Havelock North Business Association believes that the proposed McDonald's restaurant is not in keeping with the owner-operated businesses where people are cared for by individual shop owners. So the 14 businesses who sell alcohol in the village centre alone are? So much for social responsibility from The Havelock North Business Community? Why did the association not object to these alcohol facilities which were established one after the other? So the clean-up from excessive alcohol consumption on Thursday and Saturday nights in the Havelock North Village continues!

Objection to McDonald's smacks of a self-fulfilling middle, upper class sector who believe they are beyond the provision of affordable purchases in Havelock North. How can McDonald's be less successful than the fish 'n' chip, chinese, subway and pizza fastfood outlets that are regularly and happily used by the thousands who reside in Havelock North.

The Havelock North Business Association needs a reality check. The assumption that Havelock North needs businesses that are in the higher economic wealth spectrum is so pompous and stuck up I am embarrassed to be associated with this kind of mentality. I for one welcome a drive-through facility instead of the hour plus standing and waiting for the Friday fish 'n' chip order or paying for an expensive three course meal from a local restaurant. Finally congratulations to McDonald's for getting rid of that derelict, unused, eyesore of a house that once stood for years at the entry way of Havelock North. I am sure the designers of McDonald's will ensure its building brings quality to the village which is presently saturated with a smorgasbord of buildings that are supposed to be the village! Bring on McDonald's I say!Pip West Havelock NorthCity un-ship shapeI found myself wandering in Emerson Street on Tuesday morning surrounded by overseas tourists, funnily enough all the shops were shut! The time was 8.30, time enough for the tyre repair place to be open to fix my car, but obviously not for Napier's retailers to want to relieve some tourists of their money. Bus loads of travellers were carted around and the taxis did a brisk trade but the shops stayed resolutely shut.

I saw tourists tapping on glass shop doors and one lady trying to lever open a clothing shop sliding door with her walking cane.

Inside most shops the staff huddled away from the front of their shops, fearful that trade might actually occur. If Napier is not going to open until nine o'clock on normal non-cruise ship days, how about starting early on those days when the ships are in port?

Start say an hour earlier and close an hour earlier, that way staff wages are not an issue but retailers would satisfy the cruise ship tourists want of retail therapy. I had to feel sorry for the nattily dressed tour guides as they walked large groups along Emerson Street pointing out highlights but obviously embarrassed by the lack of open stores.W HicksOnekawaPoverty increasingAccording to the OECD, we have the widest income gap between the rich and poor in developed countries over the past 20 years.

A Social Development Ministries' report on household income, not surprisingly, also reveals our child poverty rate in 2010 had doubled since the early 1980s.

Both these results reflect the consequences of the sheep production decline over the same period.

Unfortunately, Muldoon's efforts to preserve the status quo with SMPs was seen by his political opponents as capitalistic and consigned it to a used-by-date in ignorance of the energetic wage demands which lacked respect for the production that paid the wages.

A case of cooking the goose that laid the golden egg.

To put capitalism in perspective Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew began his helmsmanship with the words "before wealth can be distributed it has to be earned".

When a yacht sailed into their harbour officials rowed out to simply request "would you like to invest money in Singapore?"

Those that did were well rewarded, not so those who inadvertently sailed into communist-controlled waters.

Interestingly, millions have been lifted from poverty by China and Vietnam finally embracing capitalism after years of often violent cold war activity against it.

Cold comfort for the estimated 100 million who perished owing to forced communist rule last century.

Muldoon and Lee Kwan Yew both responded honestly to circumstances without the use of politics.

The present anti-capitalist protesters have a point but self-advantaged intrusion into honest endeavour is where you find it, and selected focus doesn't see much where it won't look.

A comparison in life style between mainland China and its "off-shore" island at the time of Mao's death would prove, where to find the limitations.Lindsay SchroderHastings

Price of progress The powers that be in this Government are sounding the death knell of the Napier Police Station. The same Government (new faces) that led to the loss of one of NZ's most successful hospitals, the Napier Hospital, and what a criminal decision that has proven to be.

Now the people of Napier will again see the council as it really is; backsides on seats agreeing to all that is Art Deco so they can be annually seen in their costumes and now, even in soon-to-be art deco buses.

Not for them the fight needed to retain what in my eyes is one of the top police stations in NZ.

Napier and Hastings already struggle with law breakers.

The council should be loudly objecting to the proposed demise of this much-needed police station.

I applaud Mr Nash taking up the fight. Not for him the empty comments of the sitting MP and I quote "No way the station will close while he was MP."

Our hard-working dedicated and visible staff are being moved to Hastings. Well that is this Government's ludicrous proposal.

At least a fast 20 minute drive to Napier and more if required to help at Wairoa or on the Napier Taupo road. What price progress?

Perhaps the mayor and councillors, providing it is sanctioned by the CEO, could send out with its rates accounts a message to all citizens, reminding them that now we only have a branch of Hastings in Napier. So please don't break the law. This proposal is a national disgrace on a local level.

Not selling our assets, destroying success. (abridged)Denyse WatkinsHavelock North.