Sure, a third of the country lives in that godforsaken place, but there is another two thirds who emphatically do not. And have to pay for their roads. And hear about their rates increases. And their inability to secure an international car race ("...will really put Auckland on the map!").
The question is, do they hear about our bypass? The fact that a motorway is being built over the most creative and community based area of our city? Te Aro (my Valley) has always been a working class area... unlike the efforts to stop the demolition of Thorndon in the 1970s, there was no doctors and dentists and lawyers to stop the bulldozer of Kerry Prendergast's bureacracy. The only time this devastation was reported nationally was when some "crazy hippie types done chain themselves to a fence"
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Sarah, why is Auckland a 'godforsaken' place?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amusing how, in every place that folks want some expensive construction, they always say 'it will put us on the map?'
[The poor map].
What does Te Aro mean? [I still have to read the rest of your posts]...it's mostly Saturdays I get to do this...
How do you find the time to post everyday? I wish I had more hours in my day. Or that I can write faster.
I loooove that pic. of Wellington! Haha...reminds me of my country.
I think I feel the same way about New York City that you feel about Auckland. A high percentage of people in the state of New York live in New York City, but the entire state is so much bigger than NYC...
ReplyDeleteagain, nice post.
Okay you guys...this is a cry for help...a sheepish bleat, but a cry nevertheless...I've been trying to figure out for weeeeks how to put other people's links on to my blog...y'know how you guys do it nice and neat along with the list of posts...? help help
ReplyDeleteTe Aro is the name of the suburb I live in... Wellington's pretty small, so I manage to live outside the city and still walk to town in ten minutes. Best of all, we have wildlife... native birds. A morepork lives in our backgarden and we get tui in the spring on this big blossom tree outside our house (the bird in the picture is a tui).
ReplyDeleteAuckland... godforsaken because its a great word... and because it is a souless place. It considers itself the most "international" city in Wellington, which basically means that it will do anything to appear more sophisticated and metropolitan. Including building a tall and phallic tower for the sake of it (and the sake of having casino. And making people pay $15 to go to the top of it). In saying that, there are some lovely people there.... but they used to be from outside Auckland. Very few people in Auckland claim to be Aucklanders.
New Zealand sounds wonderful! Quiet...despite Auckland...all cities are bad.
ReplyDelete