- 1er Juin -
- 2 Juin -
Benoit, le 2 Juin 2021
Après le vote pour le plan à 10 ans du budget de la mairie de Wellington, réflection sur sa pertinence, dans le contexte de l'urgence climatique
- 18 Juin -
The Final Spatial Plan has been released
Benoit, le 18 Juin 2021
Throughout all of 2020, a consultation was at the heart of passionate arguments. The Draft Spatial Plan was the second stage of a year-long program of work called “Planning for Growth”, a program designed to prepare Wellington to cater for a significant influx of new residents. Some said 30,000 were expected over the next decades, some said 80,000. The tensions were exacerbated by a soaring housing market with prices reaching absurd levels. Even people who would normally agree that “something has to be done about the housing crisis” would passionately argue over how to best address it, accusing each other of ulterior motives.
- 21 Juin -
The housing crisis debates: here we are again
Benoit, le 21 Juin 2021
The final spatial plan is not yet officially back in front of the City Council, but already, Wellington social media are back to firing war zones. The “debates” have again fallen into a battle of cliches, where everyone is accusing everyone else of being a selfish privileged boomer or a developer pawn.
- 24 Juin -
Shelly Bay, the unpublished article
Benoit, le 24 Juin 2021
This morning, the City Council will vote on the Spatial Plan, and it will be very interesting to listen to the debates and find out about the outcome. Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, this vote reminds me of this article I wrote about Shelly Bay last year, one week after the vote. This article didn’t make it online because it was too close to so many comments and articles that had already been published. I can’t help to publish it today, in the light of the vote on the Spatial Plan.
- 26 Juin -
Benoit, le 26 Juin 2021
In New Zealand, there is one electric plane. Just one, and it is based in Christchurch. So one can imagine how excited I was to see “in the flesh” when I found out Gary, his owner, was bringing it (or her? no one could tell me) to Kapiti Airport, for 10 days. Not because being up in the air gives you the best views a human eye can see, but because of the immense opportunity such an aircraft represents to address the significant adverse effects born out of aviation: noise and air pollution. Also, I was extremely eager to meet the man who made that step into the unknown when no one around him had.