Housing not all or nothing
It's sad to see the heritage versus housing conundrum presented as an all-or-nothing debate in Saturday's (June 25) Weekend Herald. Nothing is that simple. So-called "nimbys" have children and grandchildren who need housing. Do all younger people striving to own property have no interest
in our built heritage?
Sadly, Oscar Sims, from Coalition for More Homes, does not, dismissing inner-city Freeman's Bay and Ponsonby as being poorly built, so unworthy of Special Character protections. Surely, we need to preserve the whole range of built heritage that tells our story. Great cities protect their heritage housing: Paddington in Sydney, most of inner London and Paris. Sims also disparages substantial housing intensification in Mt Roskill and Avondale, saying people want to live closer to the city. But that's the best place for affordable family housing — close to schools and recreation opportunities.
Destroying inner-city heritage homes, allowing up to seven storeys in St Mary's Bay will not produce affordable housing due to high land values. At Wynyard Quarter, most apartments are bolt-holes for the well-healed.
The Auckland Unitary Plan makes provision for up to 900,000 new dwellings in the next 30 years. There is no need to irrevocably decimate our world-renown wooden heritage suburbs. It's perfectly possible to preserve a good deal of it, along with well-planned intensification for more affordable homes.
Helen Geary, St Mary's Bay.
High-rise distress
Margot McRae (Weekend Herald, June 25) drew attention to the pending fate of heritage housing in Auckland. Despite the effort and turmoil of the 2016 AUP and its apparent suitability for decades, council opposition to its overturning seems to have been muted.
Council did not early on adequately draw ratepayers' attention to government proposals. Action would likely have prompted and enabled citizens to more effectively challenge the Government. For many, the fate of special character housing, about the only aspect possibly open to compromise, will be the least of their worries. Few live in or regularly traverse the affected streets. The greatest distress will be experienced by citizens everywhere when three, six, or more storey blocks arise a metre away on one or all of their boundaries.
Bob Culver, Avondale
Health worker shortage
Samantha Cunningham (NZ Herald, June 24), writing about overload in the health system, fails to talk about the number of cancer and other health-related deaths as a result of the closure of hospital outpatient clinics, mammograms, colonoscopies, and other outpatient procedures, as this Government turned a blind eye to shortages of doctors and nurses. It's all very well to talk about the hospital chaos averted during lockdowns, but now, many nurses and doctors are experiencing burnout, leaving hospitals short-staffed, patients in corridors, and dying because they cannot be seen in time. GPs are also leaving in huge numbers, making it hard sometimes to find a doctor.
Robin Harrison, Takapuna.
Nato/EU diplomacy
John Roughan recommends that Nato must stick together. Nato/EU has no other choice. In mid-March, President Putin effectively told the collective West Russia had no further interest in them. Since then, there has been a large amount of diplomatic and technical work put into harmonising the East Asia Economic Union, the Shanghai Co-operation Agreement, and Brics. Russia and China have their own operating interbank messaging systems which are being harmonised to replace Swift. Work is being put into preparing a common trading currency outside the US dollar. Africa and the Middle East, although nominally neutral, largely lean towards Moscow judging by their actions. These groups combined have no need of anything from Nato/EU, but the latter cannot survive without the former because of their control of commodities. What has brought these disparate countries and cultures together against the collective West? Essentially, Nato/EU no longer does diplomacy.
Blinken, Truss, et al, just march into another country and make demands. That no longer works against Russia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE etc, and is resented by others on the receiving end who consider that they have been bullied and belittled. Countries "without the law" still have skilled diplomats who can negotiate without infuriating the other.
G.N.Kendall, Rothesay Bay.
Political funding
The reversal of Wade v Roe (effectively outlawing abortion in the US) is part of a reactionary tide sweeping the country. Sheldon Whitehouse, senator for Rhode Island, explained how the law changes that permitted "Dark Money" — or secret "charitable groups" through which rich donors could anonymously support Supreme Court candidates as well as nominations for the Senate and the House, would ensure what are politely called "conservatives'' would be elected.
It is by these meansthe will of the vast majority of the people in areas such as women's rights and gun control can be frustrated. The capturing of the Supreme Court by these groups could mean moves by the Republican Party to limit voting rights in many states will not be struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. It is vital we seek the utmost transparency in political funding in New Zealand.
Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.
