Brian Rudman: Founder's great gift may need rethink
"Each time there are flurries of outrage from groups of tenants facing a 21- year land rent review, my first thought is, what did they expect?" writes Brian Rudman.
"Each time there are flurries of outrage from groups of tenants facing a 21- year land rent review, my first thought is, what did they expect?" writes Brian Rudman.
With a public project like the rail tunnel, it shouldn't need a big stick to force the preservation of heritage buildings en route, writes Brian Rudman.
It's not as though a bit of barracking from the sidelines is going to destroy such a prominent international brand, writes Brian Rudman.
The proposal to block the glorious views from Queens Wharf to the North Shore cones and the inner gulf islands is not a positive vision, writes Brian Rudman.
Does anyone but Police Minister turned Justice Minister Judith Collins remain convinced Teina Pora raped and killed Susan Burdett?
The crisis rapidly enveloping John Key's Government is deliciously highlighting that our present masters are carrying on an old tradition - bumbling, writes Brian Rudman.
It's hard to see how freeing up some land and leaving it to the market will realistically address either housing affordability or lack of supply, writes Brian Rudman.
It won't create a single new home, which is the crux of the crisis facing the country's two biggest cities, writes Brian Rudman.
He will be heir to riches of which the other 361,480 babies who share his birthday can only dream, writes Brian Rudman.
Reports have warned against ministers involved getting carried away and that convention centres were white elephants that tended not to bring in rewards, writes Brian Rudman.
While Auckland councillors struggle to come up with a polite way of moving beggars off downtown pavements, the much larger problem of drunken youths staggering about the bottom of town remains firmly parked in the too-hard basket.
The cash would have been better spent on a giant fireworks display. At least we'd have got a bang or two for our bucks, writes Brian Rudman.
A lopsided mayoralty race is bad enough, but at councillor level, confusion abounds, writes Brian Rudman. "With what promises to be a one-horse mayoral race, this October's contest is likely to attract a turnout more akin to the 38 per cent of 2007."
As election bribes go, Auckland mayoral hopeful John Minto's promise of free public transport in "less than a year" has certainly set the bar high, writes Brian Rudman.
On the subject of new bylaws, why is it that despite more than a century of trying, our masters have failed to come up with a way of persuading pedestrians to keep to the left on Queen St pavements.
Instead of recriminalising begging, a better guide is the Homeless Action Plan the old Auckland City Council initiated in 2005, writes Brian Rudman.
Ever since 1923 promises of CBD trains have been dangled in front of Aucklanders by various politicians, writes Brian Rudman.
The problem is "land banking". Developers are sitting on the land, gambling on its value, and their profits, eventually going up, writes Brian Rudman.
Is it any wonder Auckland Council is having a hard time selling the Unitary Plan to the rest of us?
"What next?" asks Brian Rudman. "Perhaps a sign advertising The Mad Butcher, emblazoned across Middlemore Hospital. Seems I could be right at last."
Maurice Williamson's brief flirtation with fame is officially over, writes Brian Rudman. Dithering cost him his chance to become an international gay icon.
Yesterday's package was not a demonstration of political vision, courage and determination, writes Brian Rudman. It's an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
Better signage at bus stops is urgently needed, plus retro-fitting the Adshel bus shelters across the city to make them rain-proof, writes Brian Rudman.
It would seem suicidal for a government to declare war on a third of the population. But that seems to be exactly what the Key Government is doing, writes Brian Rudman.
Brian Rudman asks, "What would the great Liberal and Labour social pioneers think of the cripple-bashing that occurred last week?"
It's bad enough being sat inside a stuffy, often crowded, opaque-windowed tube, when you know the way home, as it were, blind-folded, writes Brian Rudman.
It's going to take more than a myth-breaking press release to persuade "our communities" Mayor Brown's vision is the way to go, writes Brian Rudman.
How many more young New Zealanders have to die before the police concede that patrol cars are a much more deadly weapon than the Glock pistol, asks Brian Rudman.