President Johnson reportedly said that one of his political opponents couldn’t fart and chew gum at the same time. Looking at the lay of the land after Cyclone Gabrielle raises the question of how LBJ might describe this country’s challenge around climate change. It seems we need to walk, chew gum, ride a bicycle and… Continue reading Preparing for Climate Change
Category: Tauranga City Council
Democracy and Sustainability
Tauranga has moved from a state of democracy + no sustainability, to a state of no democracy + no sustainability. We are looking for something better than either of those options: democracy + sustainability. While many Tauranga residents are looking forward to the opportunity to elect councillors in 2024, the risk is that the return… Continue reading Democracy and Sustainability
Tauranga’s Climate Inaction Plan
We have long since reached the time for action of climate change. Call it a climate crisis, declare a climate emergency if you like, announce a net zero 2050 target, even set a 2035 target for each sector – the government has done all those things, but none of that really matters in the long… Continue reading Tauranga’s Climate Inaction Plan
Time to Talk about Tauranga’s Climate Plan
We don’t want to scare the horses, but did you know we have about 4 years left of our carbon budget if we are to play our part to meet NZ’s goal to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees? Let’s approach this through a decision tree: Do you observe the global climate is… Continue reading Time to Talk about Tauranga’s Climate Plan
Losing Our Democracy
“SmartGrowth” is a collaboration between Tauranga City Council, Western BOP District Council, BOP Regional Council, Tangata Whenua and central government that was established in 2004 to “manage” growth in this part of the country. On 17 August 2022, in a SmartGrowth Leadership Group meeting that wasn’t even livestreamed or uploaded onto YouTube, representatives of the… Continue reading Losing Our Democracy
Tauranga’s City Centre
Photo: BOP Times We’re a bit worried about who’s left at Disneyland, because Mickey Mouse and Goofy seem to have moved to Tauranga and taken over urban planning! If this paywalled article in the BOP Times is correct, then “Greerton Village could be Tauranga’s future city centre”. Which will be news to the people of… Continue reading Tauranga’s City Centre
Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
We’ll start this post by stating we support an appropriate-sized central library and museum or heritage centre in Tauranga… just so we’re all clear. But as we said in our submission to Tauranga City Council, we do not support their favoured option, and based on what we hear around the city, there’s a lot of… Continue reading Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/election-debate.html The Sunlive byelection debate last night was an interesting discussion about some important topics, so as an independent, non-aligned organisation, we’d encourage Tauranga residents to watch it before you vote. The most striking difference was Labour’s candidate being (unsurprisingly) strongly in favour of the removal of democratic elections for Tauranga City Council, while the… Continue reading Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy
Tauranga’s Civic Precinct saga continues
Interesting that as soon as submissions to council were finished, there are now much more detailed plans and costings from TCC and Willis Bond for the proposed Tauranga Civic Precinct project in tomorrow’s council meeting report (also see agenda). Despite a majority of submitters not wanting Option 1, TCC recommends the commissioners approve Option 1,… Continue reading Tauranga’s Civic Precinct saga continues
More details emerge around proposed Tauranga Civic Redevelopment plan
Submissions to TCC’s Long Term Plan Amendment (LTPA) are due by 5pm this coming Tuesday 26 April. It’s taken us a bit of digging to get clear about the exact details of the two options for the Civic Redevelopment. We now have a better understanding of the implications of each option for debt and operating… Continue reading More details emerge around proposed Tauranga Civic Redevelopment plan