At present, Wellington has a Mayor and 9 politically aligned allies that control much of the city’s decision-making.
Thomas Nash at the GWRC spends a lot of time in Mayor Tory Whanau’s office, and there is astonishing feedback, Nash may be considering running for Mayor, with Whanau slipping onto the Green list.
In the council there is very weak opposition to the green-led team, that is falling to pieces in pursuit of some wins.
The Reading decision takes the battlefield to 9 to Tory from marketing and 1 to sensible decisions corps.
For this article let’s call them Green/ Red allies, as ANZAC day has just been and Wellington feels like a war zone.
One major example of many issues Wellington, the once prosperous city faces, is the 11-year-old “cycle wars” it’s now a bit dangerous to be a cyclist, due to “the battle” for cycleways.
Ask Myles Gazley owner of the car business Gazleys, about the cycle lobby. After he supported a successful legal bid to stop Newtown cycleways. The Patrick Morgan led cycle lobby, systematically destroyed Gazleys Google reviews, threw paint at his shop, and continued to attack his social media for months, For coming up with an alternative cycle lane concept!
There has never been a more impacted city due to earthquake insurance risk leading to under-investment and stalled projects.
And now Nicola Cranfield owner of Cranfield’s store, which recently announced it was closing, has been subjected to online hate and abuse from the backers of the Golden Mile development, who are backers of Nash, Genter, Whanau and co. So one can only deduct a connection here.
Although Te Aro is NZ’s fastest growing suburb, Welly has 460 buildings that are in a state of govt, WCC rollover of the unworkable NBS rules.
Building owners can’t do anything as the rules stop investment, and the recent rolling over for 4 years also does little for long-term prosperity. Although the bars in Courtenay place will all breathe a sigh of relief.
With so much negativity, retailers pulling the pin, bars struggling and rate increases coming, Wellington needs a new plan that does away with political alignment, causing fighting, stalemates and now major central govt control of funding. The ultimate card was just played by the incoming National Government, all impact Wellington!
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