If you have had a finger on the Agenda 21 pulse you will know that being carless is their plan for you in the future. (You’ll own nothing and be happy). So we’ve seen the signs of late .. the pack and stack housing, the SNAs and more recently this one. You may have noticed in council forward planning where your input is invited, that there are street do ups everywhere. A good thing visually but when you look a little deeper the car parks are ‘disappeared’ and replaced with gardens. In Foxton when the plans were rolled out the locals protested very vigorously … however turns out the do up was already bought & paid for so they did it anyway, as councils are inclined to do these days. A flurry of ‘seeking public opinion’ first then it’s done. They use the tried & true Delphi Technique which I saw used very skilfully in Foxton. They lost 22 car parks.
In prior discussion meetings the locals shared how in places they’d lived previously businesses went bust while the do ups were in progress because nobody could get into their shops with all the construction going on. The eventual visual impact is supposed to be ‘good for business’ however once done, there’s too few car parks for customers. A no brainer really isn’t it? Try and tell them that. They do not listen as they have an agenda to implement. It’s part of the agreement signed onto in 1992. Not binding they say but the councils implement it anyway.
On a final with the carless scenario, I saved a Herald interview a few years back with a property developer on Auckland’s waterfront apartments being built. He had included basement garages which drew a comment about coming carlessness. The response was that Aucklanders were not ready yet to be carless. They will be soon I’m sure if Welly is anything to go by.
EWR
LINKS TO THE ARTICLES ON WELLINGTON’S CARLESS PLANS BELOW:
Nine councillors back removing private vehicles from Wellington’s central city by 2025
Wellington councillors vote to investigate car-free central city by 2025
Is banning cars from Central Wellington a Good Thing?
Wellington councillors vote to investigate car-free central city by 2025
Plans for 34,500 new homes at Pukekohe… looking like Agenda 21/30 pack & stack housing
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