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    • Characterful medium density housing!
      • Who else is having conversations where someone goes “ooh but it’s all leaky soulless apartments, we don’t want that”? Here’s a feast for your eyes and balm for your worried soul Welcome to Talk Wellington’s random collection of neat medium-density examples to cheer you up, to show your friends, to tell the council you want … and to inspire density skeptics (presuming they’re in good faith, not just being awful). (Images’ links are in the image, caption or the text – click for more.) Enjoy! Characterful, “old”… medium density Montréal has a LOT of medium density residential neighbourhoods. They’re super liveable and beloved, and they are home to numbers of people that would sort out many of Wellington’s classic woes. Here’s some pretty historic-y medium density which has actual awesome neighbourhood vitality and character by the bucketload, for everyone. Medium density can be… no more than two storeys, with lots of mixed use and features like shop-top housing! No offence, Mt Vic / Khandallah / Thorndon / Woburn, but your neighbourhoods can’t hold a candle to the Castro for real liveable character, not just visual character. So leafy! Apartments you rent short-term: this is the Garden Wing of Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel. It was built in the 1970s! Lush az. This is all open air How ’bout indigenous character! The stunning medium-density Utukoia replaces two detached homes on traditional quarter-acre sections with 14 new terrace homes (53 bedrooms total), communal facilities and a range of private, shared and public spaces. Phwoar. Check out the Auckland Māori Design Hub for more delicious stuff There are some smart folks stimulating Māori design and innovation at the Āpōpō accelerator right here in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, run by the Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa / IDIA team. How about some modern character? Check out the beautiful high density of the Urban Habitat Collective, coming soon right in Newtown: Or the beautiful CoHaus (read their amazing story here) Even ol’ Kiwibuild is finally doing lovely stuff in Onehunga: How about the spaces in between the housing? Density done well brings your laneways to life as a part of people’s backyards, as in Queensland… Go large We really need comprehensive, multi-block developments to sort out whole areas of our cities. You can do ’em on something that’s underused space like… a golf course? Or even as a regeneration of… ooh, maybe a large area of detached housing, hello Kāinga Ora. So check out this thread on Vancouver’s Regent Park development. Hello #densitydonewell: a big uplift in density is helping fund all sorts of fantastic public amenities for the residents of the varied and accessible apartments: green space, schools, lovely public realm, community gardens, people-friendly street grid… That fourfold increase in density has helped to pay for generous public realm and community facilities including parks, athletic grounds, and an amazing aquatic centre #torontotweets #densitydonewell #citiesforall pic.twitter.com/cCy2dYq6V5 — Stuart (@HoughtonSd) September 11, 2018 Be still, our beating hearts…. And finally… DensityNOTdonewell While we tend to agree with Bernard Hickey that the battle over densifying suburbs is the battle of our generation, there’s plenty of reasonable property-owning folks who are genuinely, good-faith worried. They’re worried that crappy, ugly things will be built – and are vulnerable to being scaremongered by wild claims about housing values (hat tip Property Investors Federation). And let’s be honest: NZ has strong historical form in doing medium density badly – especially badly in construction, which means bad financially for those who bought in them. The cars seem to have the best of this bargain… And bad design is far from history: there’s still plenty of crap designs out there, thanks to our unfamiliarity with good-quality medium density. Here’s one example of rubbish medium density that appears to deny its residents most of the benefits of density done well like access to green space and social connection. So let’s also be clear: nobody wants crap design or construction, and we absolutely don’t have to accept it “because housing crisis”. So let’s get more and more people on the bandwagon for good medium density, #densitydonewell! What other examples of great (or grotty) medium density do you know? How do they make you feel and why?
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        • Thorndon, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • A response to the Destiny Church: applying Christian ethics in a time of pandemic - Rev Allister Lane
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Last week Brian Tamaki vowed to hold a Destiny service this Sunday in defiance of the decision by the Government to continue the ban on large gatherings under Alert Level 2. Tamaki urged other churches to join him (see Stuff Article). Many of us will have our own instincts in responding to the pandemic, with varying appetites for social controls and government guidelines. So, as well as assessing the risks of the virus, how do we assess how we do ‘the right thing’? What should guide us in whether we side with the opinion of Destiny Church, or not? Christian ethics offer resources for us at this time, to know how best to respond as individuals, as churches, as communities, being attentive to what really matters. Here are five points of Christian ethics for us to consider in how we respond to the pandemic. The sanctity of human life Truth telling Social justice Church Witness in the world Government. Each of these is consider in more detail below as an offering toward a moral framework to help respond well in a time of pandemic. 1. The sanctity of human life. God has shown through scripture and the incarnation of Jesus that human beings have sacred worth. Given this understanding of the inviolable sacredness of human life, there is an imperative for us to protect human life. This value of human life is linked to love of neighbour. In Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, we are invited to consider what this means with regard to responding to the physical health, safety and well-being of the stranger (Luke 10:25-37). In his book Kingdom Ethics, David Gushee states “Love sees with compassion and enters into the situation of persons in bondage.” (David P. Gushee, Kingdom Ethics (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016), 204. ) The life and teaching of Jesus has shaped our understanding of prioritizing human health, and influenced the medicine and nursing vocations in caring for the sick, disabled and dying. Because Christians value the sanctity of human life, we strive to minimize any threat that destroys human life. We have all been presented with the evidence of the risks of large gatherings and how they unduly danger the lives and health of our neighbours. 2. Truth telling. A commitment to truthfulness is recognised as a hallmark of humility and forgiveness exercised in Christian discipleship. An openness to recognising the evidence and facing reality, in a way that allows our perceptions to be changed, is necessary in the pursuit of truth and the sharing of truth. We can therefore support the provision of clear and transparent information that offers guidance for making informed decisions. Insofar as the New Zealand Government and Health officials have offered clear and direct guidelines for mitigating the risks of the pandemic by limiting large gatherings, Christians should take this into account. 3. Social justice Scripture shows that human freedom is important to maintain. But human freedom is not ‘individualistic moral authority’ ( Gushee, Kingdom Ethics, 209) , rather it thrives when we live with love toward others by fostering compassionate justice. We must always recognise and advance the freedom of the other. In scripture justice is always ‘from below’, showing consideration and caring for the most vulnerable among us. Justice is only full when it includes justice for those who are the least in society. A pandemic affects everybody, but does not affect everybody equally. Our response must pay special attention therefore to those who are most vulnerable. Covid-19 is particularly dangerous and deadly to those among us who are elderly and have underlying health issues. Christians must therefore have particular regard for these vulnerable people among us. 4. Church Witness in the world Jesus says to his followers “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The witness of the Church is to point to the person of Jesus as God’s revelation of truth, justice and compassion. What does the Church look and sound like when getting all grouchy and demanding our rights? Civil disobedience can be noble, and has been part of campaigns by Christians for standing up for what is right, but whose interests are we protecting? If we are witnesses to Christ, our actions will align with the interests of the least powerful and influential; we will demonstrate Christ’s love for those who may be otherwise overlooked by society. The Church exists for the sake of the world, and therefore its primary concern is not the preservation of its own internal activity. 5. Government. As part of Christian ethics, the Church must consider what is the ‘right’ relationship to hold with the Government. This needs to be assessed according to the system of government and the particular governing authorities of the time. In scripture we hear the deliberately subversive teaching of Jesus, who stated “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:13-17; Matthew 22:15-22; Luke 20:20-26). Jesus distanced himself from the Roman power structure and tax system that oppressed the poor, and cultivated idolatry. Christians live in a tension that recognises the appropriate role of the governing authorities, while giving ultimate loyalty to God as citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). Importantly, the prohibition on large gatherings is not a prohibition of worship. Indeed, most churches are creatively using multiple forms of technology to continue worshipping. Therefore the ban on large gatherings for the sake of the common good is part of the appropriate role of the governing authorities – it is part of ‘the things that are Caesar’s’! Conclusion These five points of Christian ethics are offered to assist us in adequately considering how we best respond to the pandemic. They are guidance for us, as we try to do the right thing. These points are offered as a contribution toward a robust moral framework that helps us assess particular actions, decisions, proposals and priorities. But, we also need to maintain a gracious disposition toward others – especially those immediately around us. Let us not be too quick to condemn. With grace as our guide, we can assume the best in others, discover the way forward together and default to human solidarity – just as Jesus shows us. With thanks for the input of Dr Derek Woodard-Lehman and the group members of the St John’s Daily Devotion Together.
      • Accepted from News - St John's in the City Presbyterian Church by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
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        • St John's, Willis Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Circa's Programming Process
      • Ever wanted to know how Circa chooses the plays it produces? The Circa Council is hard at work on the programme for 2014, so it seemed a good opportunity to explain to drama on the waterfront how the programming process works at Circa. Circa’s programme is the life-blood of our theatre. The Circa Council is responsible for all programming decisions and reads a large number of plays each year in order to settle on a programme which strives to match our vision: “We believe a great theatre experience inspires, entertains, transforms and nourishes the human spirit”. Circa Theatre welcomes approaches from established professional theatre directors. We have developed a two step process: 1. In the first instance, we ask directors to submit a short CV or bio along with the script of the play. We send an acknowledgement that we have received the submission, however it could then be up to six months  (depending on when it is submitted) before we respond regarding the way forward while the submission is circulated amongst the Circa Council members. All submissions are read by the Council, from which a shortlist is determined. At that stage the Circa Council will invite shortlisted directors to make a pitch for a season at the theatre. 2. Up to two 'Pitch Presentation Days’ are scheduled each year for Directors to present their pitch to the Circa Council. The programme will then be confirmed based on these pitches. If there are some slots in the programme that are still vacant after the first Pitch Presentation Day, there will be a second Pitch Presentation Day. All directors who work at Circa are required to go through the pitch process. The programme is in development for much of the year - the Council accepts submissions up to the end of June, with the Pitch Days taking place in July and September. The final programme isn't decided until the end of September, and it is kept under wraps while we create the annual brochure that is released each year at the Thorndon Fair. So stay tuned for Sunday, 1 December, to find out what 2014 will have in store for you at Circa Theatre!
      • Accepted from drama* on the waterfront posts
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        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • 2020!!!
      • Just wanted to offer a huge Slow Boat CHEERS to everyone who has supported us this year; it has certainly been one of the strangest I can recall – far and away the longest the ‘Boat has ever been docked in 35-odd years of trading!Hugely grateful to everyone who has bought music and more from us, who has been patient waiting on the arrival of stock that sometimes took an absolute age, and to those who came along and lent their support on the three Record Store Day ‘drops’, and for those unforgettable instore performances from The Muttonbirds (way back in February!), and The Beths in October – just quite phenomenal to have a shop full of people after all this year’s trials and tribulations and uncertainty.Our hearts go out to those overseas who may still be in some sort of lockdown – we are thinking of you, and we appreciate that we are in a very privileged position out here in our far flung corner of the world (and how quickly that can change).This years lessons often seemed to come down to one of our Prime Minister’s oft-stated maxims – kindness. It has been amazing to give and receive support to and from our customers and community at this strange time – especially our neighbours at San Fran and Rough Peel Records, as well as our suppliers, especially Southbound, Rhythmethod, Border Music and Universal Music NZ.We are thankful to be able to do this thing we love, and to share the gift that is music in our lives – it has certainly been a great comfort to us all here in these trying times…So, take care everybody – hope you all enjoy a safe and happy festive season – we will be here every day bar Xmas Day and New Years Day, so looking forward to seeing how you all redeem the many vouchers we have sold (it’s not too late, btw…)Keep scanning those QR codes, wash your hands, get tested if you are unwell – love, peace, kindness, and music!THE SLOW BOAT CREW XX
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        • Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Fair Trade Fortnight 2012: A Fairtrade Breakfast in the City
      • Fair Trade City Wellington would proudly like to announce the launch of a major event for Fair Trade Fortnight: A Fairtrade Breakfast in the City Kick-start your day with a delicious Fairtrade breakfast and join Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, MP Grant Roberston and Steve Knapp (CEO of Fairtrade NZ) for some early morning Fairtrade fun and insight, upstairs at St James Theatre! Enjoy a light Fairtrade breakfast, including unlimited Fairtrade filter Celcius Coffee, unlimited Fairtrade tea thanks to KTea and All Good Banana smoothies. Watch out for amazing spot prizes from Kowtow Clothing, chances to grab an IdealCup (thanks to Celcius Coffee) and Fairtrade goodies from Cadbury Dairy Milk and Trade Aid. Presented by local coffee guru Stephanie Fry (Celcius Coffee), this event will be your opportunity to mingle with like-minded people, learn more about fair trade, and see how YOU can make difference by choosing fair. Door open 7.00am, breakfast available from 7.15am, entertainment begins at 7.30am. Tickets are only $17, places are limited so book early at Eventbrite.  
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    • Common Ground?
      • This event is part of the Aotearoa Festival of Architecture, by Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects. When Kaikoura shook, photographer Andy Spain got Wellington's list of earthquake prone buildings and started photographing them. The idea of fixing time became appealing, as many of the buildings were demolished. When asked to exhibit them together however, Andy began to ask what these remnants meant. He visited the petals saved from Athfield's church of First Church of Christ Scientist and saw their fragility. He talked to architects about remedial work which never saw the light of day. What were the consequences of all these traces existing in a time when the fates of many Wellington buildings are so contested? Where heritage competes with social housing, which competes with sustainable reuse, and so on. So, this exhibition is not about the photographs that have been taken, or the drawings drawn, or the artworks saved. It is about how we decide to use these remnants, and what stories we want them to tell.
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        • Thistle Hall, Cuba Street, Mount Cook, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Parking for sensible cities: webinar 2
      • Equity, residents’ parking, behaviour change, and some myths busted – by popular demand, expert insights on parking plus some Wellington changemaking Following our much-viewed first webinar (check it out here), TUI Climate Community and Millions of Mothers with the Wellington Urbanerds are proud to have brought you transport and economics expert Stuart Donovan on everyone’s favourite topic! This one was a bit different: in addition to Stuart speaking on some particularly hot topics of parking, we heard about one area ripe for change. Check out the webinar video courtesy of Millions of Mothers:Parking: how we behave, fairness, and price Stuart’s presentation focussed on a few key aspects including the longer-run interesting questions like how people change our behaviour in response to parking prices, and the equity effects of pricing parking (inspired by questions from councillors concerned about the effects of the proposed new Parking Policy on poorer people). Stu’s slides are here [PDF 2.7 MB]Residents’ parking: what’s with that? Following Stu, we heard from Wellingtonian Oliver Bruce (of Urbanerds fame). He highlighted a particularly amazing feature of the current system: massive subsidies (underpricing) for residents’ parking. They’re skewing people’s choices in our transport system, in a generally bad way, but since the last webinar Oliver and Connect Wellington have a path forward… Oliver’s slides are here [611KB PDF]. So many questionsWhen it was time for questions, we summarised the areas of interest in the chat and Isabella fired the questions to Stuart and Oliver. There was lots of interest in equity, and the ethics of charging for access to publicly owned space. There was a hunger for case-studies of cities that had successfully communicated to their citizenry the good news that managing parking well is overall progressive (i.e. reduces inequality). The catch-22 of on-street vs off-street parking was a big topic, as people like residents’ associations and councillors react to the current (poorly managed) on-street parking, and feel resistant to good developments that don’t provide many carparks. There was also discussion of the opportunity cost of space, and the extent to which home buyers factor in transport options to their purchase price decisions (or assume they’ll get free street parking and grizzle once they’ve moved in with their car/s). (There’s also a good little discussion on Stuart’s Twitter feed, worth a look)Help Wellington do parking better There was a lot of interest from our audience in helping improve parking management in Wellington, reflecting its huge importance to our city’s transport system and its influence on affordable housing. It’s a complicated space and good comprehensive change will take years – see here for more. But the good news is that all kinds of contributions can make a difference.  There’s something for everyone! And the process of change will take years, as observed We’re also keen to have more learning and discussion type initiatives, with more local voices and insight. If you’ve got suggestions for events, speakers, stunts or nifty schemes, or are just interested in finding out more about how you could help, drop us a line. Meantime, make sure you’re on the Urbanerds signup list so we can alert you to the next in-person gatherings and the next webinars! Image credits: Banner – Wellington City CouncilParking lot – Steven Davis
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    • Drivetribe will be a mecca for motorheads—Autocade readers welcome
      • Now that the first episode of The Grand Tour has aired, and we’re nearing the official launch of Drivetribe (November 28), we’re beginning to see just how good an investment £160 million was for Amazon when it picked up the cast of The Goodies, I mean, Top Gear (sorry, I get those BBC shows mixed up, and they do have the same initials), along with producer Andy Wilman (who himself presented Top Gear segments many years ago, but we are now spared his nude scenes).    Essentially, you can’t do a show these days without an internet community, so what did the four men do? Create their own. They’ve put their money into Drivetribe, which has attracted an eight-figure investment from additional parties, chief among which is 21st Century Fox—that’s right, Rupert Murdoch. Amazon’s reportedly quite happy with the arrangement—and it certainly helps boost their show.    There are already signs that Drivetribe is going to succeed as a motoring portal–social network, for those of us who have been playing with it. Maybe the Murdoch Press has learned from Myspace? Or, it’s put their money in, but it’s letting experts do their job–among whom is none other than Cate Sevilla, formerly of Buzzfeed UK, and whose blog I followed even before she arrived in the UK the good part of a decade ago. It isn’t a surprise that Cate would do well in social media—she had a knack for it, even back then.    Car enthusiasts were invited to pitch their ideas for tribes some months back, recognizing that we’re not all the same. Additionally, there’s a bunch of us who work in some aspect of the industry, and looking through the tribes, we’re the ones whose ideas have been adopted. For those of you who use Autocade, there’s one linked to that very venture.    As many of you who follow this blog know, I founded Autocade in 2008, a car encyclopædia that wouldn’t have the fictions of Wikipedia (or ‘Wikiality’, as Stephen Colbert calls it). Eventually, I succumbed to modern marketing trends and very lately started a Facebook page on it, at least to post some behind-the-scenes thinking and publicity photos. While it proved all right, my blog posts were here and things were all over the place.    When I first proposed doing a Drivetribe tribe many months ago, I centred it around the marketing of cars, and the result, the Global Motorshow, can be found here. And now that it’s started, it’s become clear that I can put all the content in one place and have it appreciated by other motorheads. In a week and a half it’s grown to about a third of the following of the Facebook page, and Drivetribe hasn’t even officially launched yet. Those members are either other tribe leaders or those who signed up early on. The question must be asked: why on earth would I bother continuing with Facebook?    In addition to Cate, Drivetribe is not faceless. The support crew respond, and there are humans working here. I’m impressed with how quickly they get back to us, and how the site is reasonably robust. On all these points, Drivetribe is the opposite of Facebook.    Granted, I don’t know the other members there, and some I only know through reputation. But then I didn’t know a lot of the people I now find familiar on Facebook car groups. Nor did I know the people on Vox back in 2006, or some of the folks at Blogcozy in 2016. Communities build up, often thanks to common interests, and here’s one that already has a massive online community ready to flock to it. Having three celebrities helps, too, and all three Grand Tour presenters post to the site.    If you’re interested, the scope of the Global Motorshow (originally without the definite article, but when I saw the GM initials in the icon, I rethought it) is a bit wider than Autocade. I thought it might be fun to post some of the marketing materials we come across, the odd industry analyses that have appeared at this blog (updated in some cases), and even commercial vehicles, which aren’t part of Autocade. I’ve chosen to keep the tribe public, so anyone can post if they find something interesting. Let’s hope Drivetribe can keep the spammers at bay: something that the old Vox.com failed to do, and Facebook is desperately failing to do now as well.    Come November 28, we’ll know just how good things are looking, but I’m erring on the side of the positive—something I was not prepared to do for sites such as Ello or Google Plus.
      • Accepted from Jack Yan posts
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    • Junior Hockey Have-A-Go Day – Come Try It Out!
      • Saturday 26 April | 9:00 – 10:00am National Hockey Stadium – Turf 1 Open to Years 3–8 Is your child curious about hockey? Or maybe they've had a go before and want to give it another shot? Our Junior Hockey Have-A-Go Day is the perfect chance for tamariki to try out the sport in a fun, supportive environment – no experience needed! We’re inviting all keen kids in Years 3–8 to join us on Saturday 26 April from 9–10am at the National Hockey Stadium (Turf 1). Whether your child has played before or is completely new to the game, this event is a great way to get active, make new friends, and build confidence on the turf. What to Expect: A relaxed and fun session run by friendly coaches Games and drills to learn basic hockey skills A mix of new players and returning ones Spare sticks available for those who don’t have their own Just bring a water bottle and sports gear 🎟 Tickets are $5 (+ booking fee) on Eventbrite – gate sales available on the day 👉 Book your ticket here 📝 Ready to Join the Club? If your child enjoys the session and wants to play this season, head over to our Junior’s Page to sign up for the 2025 season! We’d love to welcome some new faces to the Northern United whānau – come along, give it a go, and experience the fun of hockey!
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    • Ngā Kōrero – Latest Stories from DCM
      • Ngā Kōrero – Latest Stories from DCM Ngā Kōrero – Latest Stories from DCM communities where whānau are housed, connected, valued and thriving About Us Contact A Message From Our Manahautū He Rā Ka Huri: Seasons Change, Our Purpose Remains Stephen Turnock, Manahautū (Director) at DCM Tēnā koutou katoa, As the seasons shift once again, I find myself reflecting on just how much change we’ve witnessed lately, not only in the weather, but across our communities, sector, and Aotearoa. Like the turn from summer to autumn, some changes are expected, while others arrive quickly, bringing with them a sense of uncertainty. This changing environment is being felt deeply across the community sector. Policy directions are shifting, funding decisions are pending. Many of us are operating in a space where the future feels less certain than before. At DCM, this has real impacts. The security of our contracts, the continuity of our mahi, and the wellbeing of our kaimahi (staff) are all front of mind. And it's not just our sector, every day we see how these pressures are being experienced by whānau across Te-Whanganui-a-Tara: the cost of living, the struggle to find and keep a safe place to live, and the weight of navigating systems that often don’t work for them. Change is constant, but for many, it doesn’t always feel like it’s moving in the right direction. In the face of this, we ground ourselves in what remains constant. Our commitment to whānau-led support, our belief in housing as a human right, and our dedication to walking alongside those doing it tough. No matter the season, our purpose stays the same. And we want you to know, we have a plan. Even in a time of shifting sands, we’re clear on our direction. We’re committed to building on what works, data-informed insights, whanau-centred practice and courageous leadership. And we know we can’t do this alone. It’s through community collaboration, with whānau, with partners, and with people like you, that real solutions are found and created. So as the leaves begin to fall and we prepare for the colder months ahead, we do so with determination, with hope, and with deep gratitude for your continued support. You are part of this journey, and together, we will keep working towards a city where everyone has a place to stand. Ngā manaakitanga, Stephen Turnock Finding An Oasis At DCM I was homeless and running around the country before I came to Wellington. I was drinking heavily. I was an alcoholic. My mental health issues hadn’t been diagnosed, so I was unmedicated and pretty messy. Before that I was in Christchurch. I got made redundant, and then I had nothing to do. I started drinking, getting into hard drugs, getting in trouble. I made a lot of people mad and I had to leave. I just wanted to hide somewhere and drink. That was my plan. It’s crazy I kept drinking even when I was that sick. I knew I was sick, but the need for alcohol was stronger than any concern I had for my own safety. I was housed out in the Hutt maybe six or seven years ago, not by DCM but someone else. They put me there to get me out of Wellington, away from the drinking. But I still drank sometimes. Then I got told my liver couldn’t take it anymore. They said it was no good. That changed everything. I had to stop drinking, and that changed my life completely. I couldn’t fill the voids with alcohol anymore. I had to deal with stuff. Face my demons. And it was too much, really. I ended up needing medication. There was nothing like DCM out in the Hutt then. I came back into town because there’s more here, and DCM is a hub that has everything I need. I’ve been coming here every day, every week, for as long as I’ve been back in Wellington. DCM has supported me in all sorts of ways. I come here for coffee, for health, for dental, and they make sure I get to my appointments. Te Aro Health and the nurse let me know if the doctors want to see me. It’s amazing that everything is just here. And yeah, I get food from DCM. It’s good to know it comes from people I know, not some stranger. It keeps it in the whānau, you know? I don’t eat much. Once a day is usually enough to keep me going. I used to be a good cook, but I’ve lost all interest in it. Cooking for one is boring. Food is just something I put in myself now. The DCM staff are even trying to get more fruits and vegetables into me. I’ll eat it if it’s put in front of me, but I won’t cook it. I’m eating like an old man now. DCM hasn’t given up on people, not like other places have. That’s what surprised me. DCM is an oasis and people rely on this place. If they weren’t here, there’d be nothing for us. We’d be eating out of rubbish bins. "DCM is absolutely brilliant because it’s saving people in Wellington. It’s keeping people alive. Without this service, people would be lost. They’d just be lost." These days, I guess, I’m mostly just working out what life looks like until I die. That’s what concerns me now. My health isn’t great. I don’t know how long I’ve got, but I’m trying to be all right until then. If you’re struggling, don’t stop yourself. Get to DCM. If they see the need, they’ll help. I fully recommend it to anyone in Wellington who needs support. Spotlight on Lynda: Fundraising For Hope Lynda McGregor, owner of Little Bread Loaf, wears many hats. She runs a small artisan bakery in Lower Hutt where everything is made from scratch, a busy café in Miramar, works in fresh produce markets, and does catering too. Yet despite her full plate (pun intended), Lynda makes time to support DCM. Her connection with DCM began when she saw one of our Instagram posts calling for donations. “It really moved me,” she says. “I just thought, we can all do something to help our community. It’s not about pity, it’s about showing up and helping.” Lynda shared the post, a conversation followed, then a tour, and she soon found herself organising her first foodbank collection for DCM at Little Bread Loaf where she and her community raised over 200 cans of food. “I’ve always known about DCM and the work you do. I know you don’t get as much funding as the bigger charities, and I felt I could add value here in a way that would make a real impact.” Supporting DCM wasn’t a random choice. It aligned with Lynda’s values. “My mum always tithed. She gave a portion of what she had or her time to help others. I’ve always tried to do that too. I’m not religious, but giving back is a part of who I am.” She’s also realistic. “In the charity sector, it’s often the causes that are more ‘attractive’ that get attention". But DCM, she says, offers something deeper. “I truly believe that nobody wakes up wanting to be on the street. DCM works with some of the most vulnerable people in Wellington and you stay constant, even when others would walk away. The whānau you support can keep coming back for coffee, a chat, or whatever they need and you are always there for them.” For Lynda, donating food is not about charity. It’s about manaakitanga. “If the food isn’t good enough for me to eat, I won’t bring it in. What I give has to be mana enhancing; for DCM, for me as the maker, and for anyone who receives it. I want people to feel dignity when they receive something from me.” She adds that contributing makes her feel good too. “It feeds my soul. I do this for selfish reasons because it makes me happy and brings me joy.” Lynda has seen the challenges facing our communities and the pressure DCM is under. “It makes me sad to see the foodbank shelves so bare. You’re doing incredible work, and so much of it comes from heart. You can tell that your team is here because they genuinely want to be of service.” She believes anyone can make a difference and her hope is that more people and businesses will step up.. “You don’t have to give a lot. A couple of cans, a few dollars, whatever you can manage. That small act might have a huge impact on someone’s day." She adds, "It’s not about changing someone’s whole life. It’s about easing their path just a little. It’s about giving someone a little hope.” We are so thankful to Lynda, and our other wonderful supporters, for standing with us. DCM is proud to work alongside people who care so deeply about making Wellington a city where everybody has a place. This year, we are running a Foodbank Appeal Week from 17 to 24 May, and we are inviting the community to help us to continue to provide essential food support to Wellington’s most marginalised residents. There are many ways you can get involved. You could host a food donation box at your workplace, school, or church, run a fundraiser for DCM, or, if you would like to support us financially, you can do so by clicking the button below. Support DCM Copyright © 2025 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCM Wellington, 2 Lukes Lane, Te Aro, Wellington Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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        • Lower Hutt, Lower Hutt City, Wellington, 5010, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • When Road Cycling is Illegal
      • Following my recent post on fixing cyclist infrastructure, I received a reply that questioned the rationale of pushing cyclists into pedestrian space: @sustwelltrans Lets make roads that work for all vehicles - Arras underpass should have bikes ok - leave #footpaths for #pedetrians — Ellen Blake (@Windynell) April 05, 2015 Since I didn’t know how or why cyclist restrictions happen, I emailed WCC to ask. Cyclists can use all roads except for motorways, lanes reserved for Buses Only, pedestrian malls, and some tunnels.  Cyclists are banned from these places due to safety concerns which derive from conflicts very high volumes of other users who have been formally given exclusive priority.  Cyclists may use all normal Bus Lanes, but not Bus Only lanes. Motorways in Wellington City area are: State Highway 1 from the Karo/Willis intersection to Ngauranga State Highway 1 from Johnsonville to Porirua Bus Only lanes are: Throndon Quay southbound centre lane into Lambton Interchange Lambton Quay from Bunny St to Whitmore St (Lambton Interchange site) Lambton Quay southbound from Brandon St to Featherston St Hunter St-Customhouse Quay-Willis St southbound from Featherston St to Manners St Manners St from Willis St to Cuba St both directions Pedestrian Malls are: Cuba St from Ghuznee St to Manners St Tunnels where cyclists are banned are: Arras Tunnel (State Highway 1) Mt Victoria Tunnel road lanes (State Highway 1) Hataitai Bus Tunnel. I’m sure that there are plenty of points that could be contested within that list, but I’ll only touch on a couple. For the road tunnels, the conditions of the road are identical to normal urban roads, with the exception of ventilation and lighting. It’s not clear how or why the Arras and Mt Victoria tunnels would create an actual safety risk beyond that of normal urban cycling. If there is some exceptional risk, wouldn’t it be better to educate the motorists that cause the risk? The decisions are the responsibility of the appropriate Road Controlling Authority.  For all urban roads Wellington City Council is the RCA, for the entire state highway network it is the New Zealand Transport Agency.  The timing of decisions result from safety and management reviews on an as required basis. Both tunnels are part of SH1 and fall under NZTA’s authority. I’ve just sent an OIA request for justification of the exclusion. They have until May 15 to respond.
      • Accepted from Sustainable Wellington Transport posts
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        • Porirua, Wellington Region, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • “Helpful” Government Gives Our Public Meeting On Saturday 3 August A Publicity Boost
      • Want a good reason to attend the Save the Basin Public Meeting at St Joseph’s Church, cnr Brougham and Paterson Sts, Mt Victoria, from 4-5pm tomorrow, Saturday 3 August? Well, if our original invitation wasn’t enough, now you have a new reason: The Government has just announced that the resource consent hearing will be before an EPA Board of Inquiry hearing rather than before the Environment Court, as Wellington City Council had recommended. You can read the Minister’s announcement, and find out the names of those she has appointed to the Board of Inquiry, on Wellington Scoop. We’d rather the Minister had taken a few more months – or years – to make her decision, but now we know exactly what we’re up against. We were already going to tell you about NZTA’s flawed and sloppy flyover proposal, and what it means for you. Now we can also tell you with more confidence what the submission process will be, and how you can tell the Board, the Government, opposition political parties and the world at large that we do not want this ugly, outdated and unnecessary concrete monstrosity within a bull’s roar of the historic Basin Reserve.
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    • Social Justice Week 2013: Resources for schools (2)
      • Social Justice Week, 8-14 September, 2013 September 2013 Catholic schools’ resources focus on the nature of work as an important part of life. The teacher’s booklet Justice at Work draws on key ideas from the core Social Justice Week booklet Walk Alongside, adapting them for a younger readership. Learning is underpinned by the enduring understanding of how God works in our lives to make us more Christ-like. We are in God’s creative and loving hands. Primary school materials explore the meaning of work, why people work, and different kinds of work. Older students (Years 7-13) are encouraged to research and engage in topics such as workers’ rights and responsibilities, and using our gifts in working towards the Reign of God. The schools poster sent out this year doubles as a board game, using commonly heard phrases by those seeking work. It aims to encourage conversations about the uncertain future of work for many young people. These conversations are important as preparation for the challenges ahead. Prayers, liturgy and worksheets are available for downloading from the Caritas website. School visits are planned for September.  
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    • Social Justice Week 2013: Resources for schools
      • Social Justice Week, 8-14 September, 2013 September 2013 Catholic schools’ resources focus on the nature of work as an important part of life. The teacher’s booklet Justice at Work draws on key ideas from the core Social Justice Week booklet Walk Alongside, adapting them for a younger readership. Learning is underpinned by the enduring understanding of how God works in our lives to make us more Christ-like. We are in God’s creative and loving hands. Primary school materials explore the meaning of work, why people work, and different kinds of work. Older students (Years 7-13) are encouraged to research and engage in topics such as workers’ rights and responsibilities, and using our gifts in working towards the Reign of God. The schools poster sent out this year doubles as a board game, using commonly heard phrases by those seeking work. It aims to encourage conversations about the uncertain future of work for many young people. These conversations are important as preparation for the challenges ahead. Prayers, liturgy and worksheets are available for downloading from the Caritas website. School visits are planned for September.  
      • Accepted from Archdiocese of Wellington - Wel-com articles
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      • catholic
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    • Social Justice Week 2013: Resources for schools
      • Social Justice Week, 8-14 September, 2013 September 2013 Catholic schools’ resources focus on the nature of work as an important part of life. The teacher’s booklet Justice at Work draws on key ideas from the core Social Justice Week booklet Walk Alongside, adapting them for a younger readership. Learning is underpinned by the enduring understanding of how God works in our lives to make us more Christ-like. We are in God’s creative and loving hands. Primary school materials explore the meaning of work, why people work, and different kinds of work. Older students (Years 7-13) are encouraged to research and engage in topics such as workers’ rights and responsibilities, and using our gifts in working towards the Reign of God. The schools poster sent out this year doubles as a board game, using commonly heard phrases by those seeking work. It aims to encourage conversations about the uncertain future of work for many young people. These conversations are important as preparation for the challenges ahead. Prayers, liturgy and worksheets are available for downloading from the Caritas website. School visits are planned for September.  
      • Accepted from Archdiocese of Wellington - Wel-com articles
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    • Taking The Wheel: The Government Makes More Moves To Rebalance Transport
      • As Wellington waits for an announcement in its transport future, the Government is continuing to make moves to reshape transport in New Zealand away from over-reliance on the private car and towards a balanced system that gives as many people as possible options for getting off the roads: The new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport represents a significant change away from the previous Government’s motorway-dominated transport priorities, as Isabella Cawthorn explains on Talk Wellington. On Newshub, Thomas Coughlan says that public transport is the big winner in the new strategy. The previous National-led Government was completely impervious to the well-accepted research finding that adding new capacity encourages more people into cars. The news that the Government is considering tolling Transmission Gully to help prevent this is an encouraging sign that the feared flood of additional cars into Wellington from the North may not materialise. While we wait to see whether the Government’s new, balanced approach will succeed in cutting Wellington’s motorway-building cabal off at the pass, why not find out how another seaside city, Vancouver, has succeeded in making its transport system work for people, not the other way around?
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        • Transmission Gully Motorway, Kenepuru, Porirua, Porirua City, Wellington, 5022, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Anthropology
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Anthropology – The science dealing with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind. Artists Bio V is a multi disciplinary creative, specialising in digital and large scale surrealist imagery.     Published in VICE in 2018, her work largely discusses the construction of identity and how society impacts that.  Often touching on subjects around mental health and the connectedness of human beings.    Her works seeks to act as an anthropological study of humankind through imagery.   "Art has an amazing ability to convey a message across cultures, race, social economic groups... it speaks without words and unites like nothing else can"    V has worked with the New Zealand Police and other organisations such as Woman's Refuge, presenting on education around Mental Health Awareness and Family Harm Reduction.    The last year has seen her speak at Pecha Kucha, whilst also working with multiple councils painting murals and teaching a course at Hastings Girls High School.  She was a featured artist in the Auckland Festival of Photography, painted the festival circuit, and has showcased her work nationally at places such as Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne. 
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        • Black coffee, Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Island Bay Seeds to Feeds Pot Luck- Mediterranean Feast
      • Join us for a delicious Mediterranean Feast Potluck as we come together to celebrate amazing food grown in Island Bay! This is a warm and welcoming community gathering where we’ll share Kai, meet neighbours and honour the growers, gardeners and food lovers who make this suburb so special 🌿bring a plate- and if it includes something from your own garden, even better! 🍅 celebrate our local homegrown produce 💚 connect with other locals who care about food, sustainability and community 🌱share ideas for how we can grow and strengthen our food community in Island Bay ✨ celebrate food sovereignty and the empowering act of growing and sharing Kai We have so many wonderful people growing local food, let’s celebrate abundance together. Seeds to feeds will be providing some Kai including some of the delicious creations from our IB pickle party but additional contributions will be welcome. Bring your whānau, share a dish, exchange knowledge and help shape the future of food resilience in Island Bay Well shortly make tickets available so we know who’s coming but as always, this will be a koha event and everyone is welcome
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        • Island Bay, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)


    • Sporting students staying motivated during Lockdown (Part 3)
      • What does the lockdown mean for sporting students? How has it affected them and what are they doing to stay fit and motivated? Two more local sports students are Toby Cook (Wellington College), who spent the summer preparing to travel with his school’s rugby party to Argentina and Jacob Madigan (St Patrick’s College, Kilbirnie) who was winding up his summer sport and about to start his winter code. We asked them what they are doing during lockdown: Jacob Madigan in action for St Patricks Kilbirnie (Photo by Hamish Wareham) College Sport Wellington: Please tell us what you were preparing for before the Lockdown? Toby: As I was a part of the Wellington College touring rugby squad to Argentina, 30 of us boys had been training pretty hard from the end of last year. Although three weeks before the lockdown started we were informed the trip had been cancelled, we then shifted our focus to training for the regular season which is also currently at a standstill. Jacob: I was involved with the St Pats First XI cricket team and we were nearing the end of the season with only one game left plus a T20 tournament during summer tournament week. On that same weekend we had our first preseason First XI football games up in Palmerston North, which got cancelled CSW: what you are doing to keep fit and train? Toby: Our coaches and trainers from school have been great in sending out information so you can train no matter what equipment you have. My sister was also able to bring home an erg which is a welcome change from running. As well as trying to get a session in each day I’m also trying to keep up my basic skills. Jacob: Our football coach gave us a programme to do over the lockdown period which means hopefully we can be fit going into the season. I have also been doing some technical work for football and cricket in my back garden and at the park. CSW: Please share a lockdown sports practice or training tip for your school mates and others out there in the same situation? Toby: I normally try to complete my training in the morning as I find it gets it out of the way and sets you up for the rest of the day. Another thing I’ve found helpful is our trainer turned our sessions into a competition and we have to record and send in our training and time which keeps us accountable. Jacob: Keep doing something relating to your sport. It is hard in these times to keep motivated when you can’t actually go and train and play but if you keep doing fitness or technical work, then you will be good to go when the season comes. Also track your times of what you are doing and compare them to a friend and see who can do better as a bit of motivation. CSW: Are you in contact with your sporting friends about the above and are you motivating each other remotely? Toby: As above, the majority of the squad have been videoing and sending through their workouts to our chat. This has been great as it allows us to see what everyone else is doing to motivate each other, the videos also keep us accountable for the work we are doing. Jacob: Yes, I’ve been talking to the boys about how they are going and a few of them send me daily photos of them doing the exercises. I have also been talking to friends outside of school who are doing their own fitness work just to see what they are doing and how they are going. -Story courtesy of College Sport Media The post Sporting students staying motivated during Lockdown (Part 3) appeared first on College Sport Wellington.
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      • media
      • rugby
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        • Kilbirnie, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)


    • Social Justice Week 2013: Don't give up – bishops
      • Social Justice Week, 8-14 September, 2013 September 2013 New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops warn that young unemployed people may face decades of disadvantage. Introducing the Social Justice Week booklet, they write, ‘To young people experiencing difficulties in finding permanent, secure work, we say, "Do not give up hope.... Each of you is a precious and valued member of our society. We are not giving up on you – please don’t give up on yourself". ‘To employers, we say, "Do not give in to stereotypes that young people may be unreliable or unmotivated. Employers tell us that often their youngest employees exceed their expectations. Make a commitment to give reliable and secure work to your young workers and expect loyalty and commitment in return. ... ‘To our parishes and the wider community, we say, "Get to know the young people in your community who are looking for work. Talk to them about your experiences of work and support them in their job search." ... ‘In Social Justice Week this year, it would be great if we all make an effort to talk to those around us about our experiences of work and of looking for work. We may all be surprised at what we learn from one other and how we can help one another.’  
      • Accepted from Archdiocese of Wellington - Wel-com articles
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    • What you love most about living in Ngaio or Crofton Downs
      • Even in these uncertain times, there’s one thing we know for sure – staying home for 4 weeks has given us chance to spend more time than we ever thought possible in Wellington’s best little suburb – Ngaio Crofton Downs! So it’s just the time – we thought – to ask you what things you most LOVE about living here? Is it the people? the bush? the wildlife? the hills? the clean air? or something else…? And while we’ve been staying home, what have you enjoyed most? Walking down the middle of your street without fear of being bowled over by the traffic? the peace and quiet? The call of the Tui and the Kereru? talking with your neighbours over the fence? or something else…? Upload a video, a photo, a message or an audio and tell us what you love most about living in Ngaio or Crofton Downs. And what’s been best about staying-home here – things you want to keep hold of, even when Covid-19 is beaten! Keeping down our carbon footprint and keeping up our healthier lifestyles and communities maybe…? How to get your entry to us? – send them from online at this link– or email info@ngaio.org.nz, or post to a cloud sharing facility and send us a link. DEADLINE – 5.00pm 22 May
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        • Ngaio, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Article | About Tania & Our Whare
      •   <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " >  Sitting on the floor of her room, Tania Thompson says she has been working on an art piece for her bedroom wall. The 58-year-old is fond of recycling and often sees the worth in what others have thrown away. The piece she is weaving comes from discarded thin, wooden planks she found around central Wellington. It’s been a while since Thompson had a place to call home, which she could decorate how she liked. For the past two years, Thompson has been couch-surfing, living in her cousin’s shed and on the streets of central Wellington. She’s one of 41,000 people who are homeless in New Zealand. This figure included people who were living out of cars and in garages. But for the past five months, Thompson has been living in transitional housing on Manners St, provided by Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust (WHWT). “I feel really safe and wish I had come here ages ago. I look forward to coming home," she said.   <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125008567/wellington-homeless-womens-trust-tenant-looks-forward-to-coming-home" class="sqs-block-button-element--small sqs-button-element--tertiary sqs-block-button-element" target="_blank" > Full Article   Permalink
      • Accepted from Wellington Homeless Women's Trust JOURNAL by tonytw1
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    • September Update from DCM - Together we can end homelessness
      • 96 September Update from DCM - Together we can end homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; 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line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } After a number of years of homelessness and, more recently, sleeping rough for a year, the future looks bright for Steven Cooking up a smile After a number of years of homelessness and, more recently, sleeping rough for a year, the future looks bright for Steven. The team at DCM have him back in a home of his own, and looking forward to getting back to work and smiling again. Steven in his whare Last year, Steven was sleeping rough, mostly in “the coves” along Wellington’s waterfront, where he felt safest. Steven qualified as a chef at 18 and worked in Australia for 20 years or so before coming back to New Zealand in 2005, often heading up busy kitchens. But back in New Zealand, things were not so good, and Steven found himself on the street, staying in different boarding houses and hostels until eventually he ended up sleeping rough on the waterfront. Instead of working in restaurants, he was now sleeping outside them, taking advantage of their heaters when they were on. “That’s where I’d go every night. It’s the safest place – much better than a tent in the bush. I’d drink to keep me warm and put me out at night so I could sleep in the cold. That was the only reason I drank – I don’t drink much now because I don’t need to.” He doesn’t need to because he’s now permanently housed in his own one-bedroom whare up in Karori, thanks to DCM and Te Aro Health. The Te Aro Health nurses, the DCM Dental Service and DCM’s volunteer physiotherapist Jeff have all been part of the team working with Steven to get him housed and well. Nurse Bronwyn and DCM kaimahi Kat continue to work together to support Steven When he was sleeping rough, Steven began coming into DCM “a lot – I was constantly on the move and this was the only place I could come and chill out and keep warm.” He’d also come in to talk with the team at DCM about how he could get off the street. They helped him onto the social housing waiting list. And then, at the end of last year, Steven was handed the keys to his new flat, and the team from DCM helped him to get together the furniture and items he needed for his home. “It was just like heaven. It was a load off my mind because you’re hyper-sensitive and aware when you’re outside doing it rough. You’re always aware, even when you’re sleeping. Moving in was a load off my mind. I could start planning ahead again and I could start thinking about getting back to work. If I hadn’t had DCM working with me, I reckon I would have been waiting three or four years." The next thing Steven plans to get sorted is his teeth, with DCM’s Dental Service having referred him to the hospital to get false teeth. “My teeth had been great till about 10 years ago but then they went real quick. I have a great smile, but I just didn’t smile with my teeth the way they were. I can’t wait to get false teeth and become a grinning idiot. It will give me so much more confidence to get back into looking for work. I want to be able to walk into an interview and give them a proper smile.” That work will likely be back in the kitchen, because cooking is what he does and unsurprisingly, having a kitchen again is Steven’s favourite thing about having his own flat. The first thing he cooked in his new whare? “A big roast pork with orange Beauregard kumara. I candied up the kumara with brown sugar and garlic, then added a little butter at the end. Delicious.” To read more of Steven’s story, click here. <!-- --> As you know, DCM is committed to ensuring that our taumai* have a voice – at DCM, in our community, and in Aotearoa New Zealand. Next month, our taumai will be able to vote in the General Election, right here at DCM. Despite the complexity of operating at Level 2 for much of September, we have continued to enrol as many taumai as possible, and to provide training and practice voting sessions – all with the support of the lovely team of Janet, Erin and Bridget from the Electoral Commission. Supporting taumai to enrol K is a 48 year old man who has been in and out of housing and often rough sleeping over the past 15 years. He has not been able to vote without an address, and voting in elections was not a major concern for him when he had so much going on in his life. Just before lock-down, DCM got K in to emergency accommodation and he is now on a waiting list for his own whare. K popped into DCM for a cup of coffee at Te Hāpai this month, asked about the enrolment forms there, and decided to get himself on the roll for this year’s General Election. K is looking forward to voting at the mobile voting booth at DCM for the first time in 15 years, especially as this year’s election will be held the day before K’s 49th birthday. A is a 40 year old Māori man who has not voted since 2005. He has been in and out of different homelessness scenarios, from rough sleeping, to the Night Shelter, to boarding houses and backpackers. In February 2019 he finally got his own Wellington City Housing whare and he has been doing well since. A came into DCM where he found out just how easy it is to enrol; he is now enrolled for the Te Tai Tonga electorate. He can’t wait to vote right here at DCM for the first time in many years. Explaining the referendum process C is a 37 year old Māori woman who has a lot going on in her life, having to deal with multiple addictions and mental health issues, which have seen her in and out of homelessness scenarios over many years. She is now in her own whare and working with DCM’s Sustaining Tenancies team. When the DCM and Electoral Commission kaimahi were able to show her how voting works this month, C decided to enrol to vote. She wanted to cast her vote immediately; we had to explain that voting wasn’t open quite yet! L is a 42 year old Māori man who is currently staying in emergency accommodation and working with DCM’s Aro Mai Housing First team. He didn’t think he’d be able to vote this year, as he doesn’t have a permanent address – until DCM staff explained that he could use DCM’s address. L was very excited and wanted to know who all the candidates are for the Te Tai Tonga Māori electorate. He too is looking forward to voting for the first time in years – right here at DCM. *We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we embark on together to become settled, stable and well. <!-- --> Please help us get the message out there! Forward this email on to everyone you can think of who may be interested in how to respond to homelessness, and just generally people who are passionate about Wellington. <!-- --> Support DCM! Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2020 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
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      • waterfront

        • Karori, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Updated Programme for April 11th!
      • The updated Newtown Fest Programme for April 11th is here! Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to a few artists who couldn’t make the new date but don’t worry, we have filled the gaps with more wonderful performers for the big day! Check out the updated performance programme below: ABRZY, Alpha Beta Gamma, Amba Holly, Amy Jean, Annette Esquenet, Arjuna Oakes, Aw B, Babybel, Babyteeth, Bailee Lobb, Banana Mundo, Belladonna, Ben Woods, Big Girls, Billy Lyrical, Birdfeeder, Booth the Clown, Bret McKenzie & Band, BTD B*tches, Buck Rogers & Co, By A Damn Sight, Caleb Stowers, Cameron Morris, Capoeira Angola Street Roda, CARLÖ, Cath Rogers, Charlotte Kerrigan with Bluesette, Christopher Tubbs, Clear Path Ensemble, Code Brown, COFFIN CLUB, Colette Rivers, Coolkidsplayhard, Corrosive Moses, Cosmonauts, Crash Bandihoot, Current Bias, Dance Ensemble Horo, DARTZ, Dateless, Dave Murphy and Janet Muggeridge, Deb5000, Delic, Diggy Dupé, Disconnect, DJ Ethixx, Dj Gooda, DJ Kerb, Dj Oboe, DJ Thanks, Earl Le Duke, Earth Tongue, Eddie D’amore, Estère, FABU, Feng, Fire & Emergency Burning Kitchen, First Move, Fool Steam Ahead, Footnote New Zealand Dance, Fun and Funner, Guardian Singles, Hagseed, Hans Blix and the Inspectors, Hawaiian Dance Wellington, Heleyni, Helix, Housewitches, Huia, Hummucide, Iain C,  Idhayam, Ingrid Saker, JDK Crew, Jedi, Jesper Tjarnfors, Jesse Jahmal, Joe Blossom, Judy Virago, Kaneskies, KÉDU CARLÖ, Kubatana & the Moringa Dancers, Latinaotearoa, Laughton Kora, Laura: Mighty Circus Girl, Lilith, LILSTIFFY, Mamazita, Marcos Alonso, Marrowspawn, MC Wiya, Miosis, Mongo Skato, Move It Danceworks, Mr Fungus, Mr Wizowski, MulletMan & MiM, NahBo, Nam Chucks, Newtown Rocksteady, Newtown Tuesday, Night Lunch, No L (Grove Roots), OdESSA, Oriental Voice Choir, Orlęta, Orzeł, Polish Association Storytellers, Pork Crackle, Puoro Jerome, Qualms, RadioActive.FM DJs, Raucous Productions, Rei, Revulva, Rudie Bam Bam, Sam Manzanza & Afrobeat band, Samara Alofa & Friends, Scattered Wreckage, Seamus Johnson, Sean Barker, Seaside Sloths, Ska Man, Seraph, shannengeorgiapetersen, Siblings, Ski Resort, Sky Canvas, Snowqueen, Só Samba, soda, SODA BOYZ, Soft Plastics, Sounds Almighty Sound System, Ssendam Rawkustra, Stress Ghetto, Synthetic Children, Taikoza Wellington, Tarrant Dancers Traffic Angels, Te Kahureremoa, Te Kapa Haka o Te Kura o Ngā Puna Waiora – Newtown School, Te Kupu, The Bandits, The Bulgarian Roses, The Circus Hub, The Godwits, The Good Taste Selector, The Megalodons, The Mixclub DJs, The Phoenix Foundation, The She Jays, The Steampunk Minstrels, Tight Weave, Tiny Kookie, Tū Crucial Sound System, Ügly Disco, Under Construction, Valley Kids, Vanessa Worm, Vernon x Bastian, Vince Cabrera, Vox Ethno, VU/ZU FREE-SHOP-FOTO-SHOOT, WAI, Wellington Batucada, Wellington Chinese Sports and Cultural Centre, Wellington Fire and Flow Club, Wellington Youth Circus, Will McLean + The Zooks, Wiri Donna, Zane & Degge, Zoe Moon
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      • snow

        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Newtown Community Centre Art Workshops
      • Community Art Workshops are back! The Newtown Community Centre will be hosting their 5th annual Community Art Workshops from Monday September 29th till Thursday October 9th For the past four years, the Centre has organised a series of art workshops with the aim to make art more accessible to the wider community, offering a chance for participants to get creative and learn a new skill in a visual arts practice, at a very affordable rate and in a community friendly environment. The classes are headed by local art and crafters keen to share their time and skills with others in an informal and relaxed setting. The classes are designed to reduce the normal financial barriers, with most if not all materials being provided and entry fee being a koha of the participants’ choosing. The workshops cover a wide range of arts and crafts, from making your own Native American dreamcatchers and traditional Pervian necklaces to purse making and how to make your own paint from natural clays and oil. See the Newtown Community Centre facebook page and website  for the schedule and details for the workshops. The Centre has always received great feedback from participants who have really enjoyed the opportunity to get creative without having to invest in a costly course or feel out of place at a formal art institution – we hope you can join us this year!
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        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Aitken Angst
      • We got a rare insight into Greater Wellington Regional Council-Wellington City Council dynamics when regional councillor Judith Aitken posted this odd statement on Celia Wade-Brown’s Facebook about her (last time I checked, fellow Labour Party) colleague Daran Ponter: This prompted the following stinging rebuke from Daran Ponter and Wellington City councillor Paul Eagle: Good on Ponter for calling her out. Oh, Baby Boomer with a 100% subsided Gold Card, please tell me more about how we can’t increase public transport subsidies. This is staggering. If you’re a Regional Councillor, you would need to have been hiding under a rock for the past few years not to be aware of the issues around public transport. And you’d expect someone who has been on the GWRC since 2001 to already be discussing issues with their WCC colleagues and community stakeholders. Aitken doesn’t even live in the constituency area she is elected to represent (Wellington City), enjoys fully subsidised public transport with her tax-payer funded Gold Card, and is one of those local government shapeshifters, like Helene Ritchie, who get elected to both a council and a health board purely on name recognition, then aren’t in a hurry to leave anytime soon. She should retire and let a new, fresh, and forward thinking person take her seat and actually represent Wellington City. They deserve better.
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      • Tagged as:
      • regional-council
      • fares
      • wellington-city-council

    • A city with a vision? AKL x WLG
      • Wellington’s got a lot of bustle and noise (Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Spatial Plan – new subdivisions – convention centre – library) but where’s the coherent vision? Hey Auckland – can we learn some things? The Wellington Urbanerds invited some insightful Aucklanders to talk about the Auckland City Centre Masterplan (CCMP) because it’s getting a lot of positive interest in nerdy circles nationwide, and we thought “Wellington needs one of those to galvanise our progress!” But it turns out that the CCMP is not the cause of Auckland’s progress – it’s a milestone marker of a bigger evolution in Tāmaki.  Auckland City Centre’s chief urban designer George Weeks was insightful, visually engaging and occasionally very funny. Auckland city centre’s chief transport designer Daniel Newcombe injected insights that were pithy and thought-provoking. All up it’s worth watching the video – details at the bottom. But this post has some of the big insights for Wellington that we took away.  Hat tip to Charles Dawson for invaluable note taking. A galvanising vision, with a strong whakapapa  What makes the CCMP unusual as an official planning document, Weeks told us, is that it’s not “a planner’s plan” – 2,000 pages of vision down to prescriptive requirements. Instead it’s “the brochure for the city centre”. He told us that “with the 2012 CCMP, we thought it was better to have a 200 page document that 10,000 people see, or at least have skimmed, than a 2,000 page document that 100 people read in detail. We have used this approach to shape the 2020 CCMP.” It has had a major refresh in the last 8 years and the 2020 version is quite something. Galvanising vision  Weeks took us through how the updated CCMP works: how it delivers on the Auckland Plan’s promise of life in Auckland, through the city centre’s form and function. It’s worth laying these out because while we definitely have bits of the formula, there’s some powerful elements we’re missing.   Experience of being there The Auckland Plan (essentially the Tāmaki-Makaurau 30-year plan) sets out ten Outcomes for the city – effectively the promise of life experience that you should get, being in Auckland. The whole super-city is supposed to fulfil these promises, and the city centre’s no exception. In the CCMP, the ten citywide Outcomes or life promises are intertwined with eight place-specific Transformational Moves. The latter are the major initiatives to change the physical environment of the city centre so it can deliver those outcomes – the good Auckland experiences – for anyone who’s there.  A lot of this has come into the 2020 CCMP thanks to Access for Everyone (A4E), the city centre’s transport programme done to support the CCMP refresh process (more on A4E later). Street forms and place shapes… So the 2020 CCMP has street explainers that show – conceptually but with a lot of verisimilitude – the components of the streets and buildings, the overall shape of the whole public realm that’s needed for the city centre to give people that great experience.  a generic “transit street” explainer – from the CCMP These explainers are conceptual, but are tied enough to specific places, that everyone can see the trajectory of how their specific bit of the city will be changing, but crucially they can see a really solid why. …because This means “X street, and its environment, should have Y shape and form because…”. We saw, for example, that one of the biggest streets in the Learning Quarter, Symonds Street, will be a transit street for all these reasons: Symonds St, for example, needs to become a transit street not because of some abstracted notion of “sorting out the transport” but because it is at the heart of Auckland’s city centre universities, and “transit street” is the form for Symonds Street that will let it best serve people in the Learning Quarter with the good experience the Auckland Plan promises. Weeks flicked through a few examples of how the CCMP is signalling change to the built environment of Tāmaki’s city centre (which is pretty interesting – have a play here, the 2020 version is fully digital!) Our impression of all this was that the CCMP, thanks to the Auckland Plan and Access For Everyone (the transport dimension), has pretty well integrated two things that any self-respecting city needs to integrate. This is the roles of movement (transport) and place or exchange (destination activity) in any given area of the city centre. And Auckland manages to integrate these with a nice clear Why and Because for each set of changes. [Hold on, is that anything special? We know about this stuff… This tight integration – of form to function, place with movement, built form to people’s lived experience – seems pretty elementary for self-respecting cities. And you’d be forgiven for assuming Wellington has that integration in place. Indeed, things like the street concepts in Auckland’s 2020 (refreshed) CCMP don’t look too dissimilar to what LGWM put out for the Golden Mile. And the material coming out from LGWM and the Central City elements of the Spatial Plan and Wellington 2040 use a lot of the right words. Golden Mile concept from LGWM But in listening to Weeks’ presentation, we realised just how explicit and unequivocal the CCMP and A4E are about the why, the because for the physical city changes they describe, anchored home to that lived experience promised in the Auckland Plan. And the locked-in coupling between the place / destination train and the movement / transport train so they’re pulling each part of the city in the same direction towards that better experience for all Aucklanders. This coupling is something we’re muddling around in Wellington. We’re hedging our bets on saying explicitly what lived experiences we want to prioritise and privilege in our city centre. This means the transport planning and place planning are making (at best) vague bows in each other’s direction, with lots of hedging our bets about whether and how we’re prioritising “drive-through” vs “go-to” in our city centre. OK back to the presentation…] Galvanising and enabling Weeks told us that in the CCMP, when you combine the Auckland Plan’s Outcomes and the CCMP’s Transformational Moves, the product is the city centre “Opportunities”. Opportunities are projects, quite specific things, and there are quite a few listed. click on the image to have a play in the CCMP Opportunities But they’re not a set of business-case investments that clamp tunnel-vision onto ambition. They seemed to be as much illustrating the kinds of projects that would make the city centre better at giving people that great experience of Auckland living. As Weeks emphasised: “anyone can come up with an Opportunity”. (We imagine the galvanising could run like this… Hello, I’m a developer looking at buying or developing neighbouring Building X and Building Y, I can see the direction of profitable change and unprofitable change that I could make to that property, given the trajectory of change in its environment.  And I can make up a project that creates a much better laneway space between them, plus better delivery access, better stormwater handling, and augmented residential-plus-commercial uses… This bundle of investments will make me money, and enhance really well that little corner of the city – so public investment and other private are likelier to come join me… ) CCMP’s generic laneways explainer (click to expand) Lesson for Wellington: let the vision be the vision, get other activity making it reality A big lesson for Wellington, Weeks said, was to “be clear about what different plans are to do. The City Centre Masterplan sets the vision, which allows many actors to work out how to deliver its different facets, or to develop their own ideas too.” The CCMP is only the green-circled bits in this picture. CCMP: a strong whakapapa The CCMP’s technical pedigree is strong – it makes good application of internationally-accepted principles of urban physics and urban dynamics. But – as Weeks put it – if the CCMP can “see further, it’s because [it is] standing on the shoulders of giants”. Complementing the CCMP’s technical pedigree is its collective human ancestry: the people, organisations, and relationships that have coalesced around it, the support that it’s known and seen to have, and the mana that this contributes to its strong legitimacy and mandate today.  From the presentation a few points stood out on each of these… The technical pedigree of the CCMP  Weeks and Newcombe gave us a whistle-stop tour of the set of transport and urban planning documents of which the 2020 CCMP is the progeny. Auckland Unitary Plan – The supercity’s first joined up District Plan, the “rulebook” for implementing the Auckland Plan. Forced much more collaboration in planning, for everything. City Centre Future Access Study – NZTA, Ministry of Transport, Auckland Council, Treasury, Auckland Transport found the City Rail Link would blitz all other 46 options for getting people to and from the city centre. The City Rail Link (CRL) –  an underground railway link turning the city centre heavy rail terminus into a through-station, building 4 new underground stations. Doubles the number of Aucklanders with 30min access to city centre. After years of arguing, finally underway once tax was to pay 50% (thanks ATAP). Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) (2016-17, updated 2018) Auckland-region-wide (not just one bit) merit-based priority list of all the big-ticket transport projects, costed and agreed by all funders and deliverers.  Crucially: first acknowledgement by central government that Auckland couldn’t road-build its way out of its traffic problems Business Case for Walking – first quantification of the value of city centre walking to Auckland’s economy, done in 2017. [Hey “walkable capital”, where’s ours?] The creation of documents always sounds more coherent in retrospect, but Weeks and Newcombe emphasised that it’s not been a nice clean sequential progress.  Key principles of urban physics (like the role of people walking) have only been given oxygen relatively late in the sequence. The need to get tax funding to co-fund megaprojects has meant a lot of back-and-forth raruraru with central government, and between the various bits of Auckland’s council family.  And some great documents – like the Business Case for Walking mentioned above – have no official legal weight: a decision-making body can completely ignore them if it wants.  But we heard that the various documents have meant that amongst the bureaucracy and other government power-holders, there’s been an accumulation of key principles of good urban physics, akin to accumulation of organic matter. Sometimes it’s just leaves falling, but sometimes there’s a large trunk. These accumulations in the establishment’s hivemind make it much harder to go back and relitigate, as there’s been some crystallisation in the thinking. (Though, of course, as Newcombe noted, that doesn’t stop people trying!)   Access for Everyone – the complementary transport element of the City Centre Masterplan which was developed as part of the CCMP refresh – is a great example. In traditionally car-mad Auckland, the entire Auckland Council voted unanimously to begin A4E trials “enabling a decisive mode shift away from private vehicles, to make better use of finite city centre space and improve the quality of the environment.” Wow. Access For Everyone’s car-free Queen Street / Horotiu Valley with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods around. And no more driving through the city centre! The human side of CCMP’s whakapapa We heard that a major benefit of the sequence of documents was the relationships and conversations that a document creates a pretext to have.   There’s been a lot of investment in behind-the-scenes engagement, with big stakeholders in the city. This has paid off in an unusual level of big players’ trust and buy-in to the vision and the big moves to get there. From large developers, through Heart of the City (the inner city Business Improvement District), through the AA, NZTA, to the City Centre Residents’ Group  (fun fact: 40,000 people live in Auckland’s city centre alone). This good stakeholder engagement bears fruit: it enabled councillors to support the 2020 CCMP relatively easily, despite it having relatively little engagement from the wider public (a few hundred submissions compared with the Unitary Plan’s ~10,000). It’s not a coincidence that Precinct Properties has seen fit to drop a billion (with a B) dollars of its shareholders’ money into the Commercial Bay development – Weeks observed that it’s on the strength of the new trust and joined-up thinking developed through the CCMP process.  Daniel Newcombe spoke from experience about the collaboration that had eventually started to come, once “you can get people to stop introducing competing plans” and come together. Sometimes this requires biding your time, working by osmosis, and finding the sensible individuals in an organisation on whom to work, and building coalitions that chip away at antipathetic organisations. Getting people to issue formal letters of support on behalf of their organisations can be extremely powerful, he said. Iwi influence  We heard that one major improvement of the 2020 refreshed CCMP over the 2012 original is the inclusion of Māori outcomes. For the refresh, the ADO worked closely in partnership with Auckland’s Mana Whenua Kaitiaki Forum to develop a Māori outcomes plan. This work shaped Transformational Move 1: Māori Outcomes, with proposals for a papa kōkiri at the waterfront and a whare tāpere at Aotea Square.  The 2020 CCMP manifests the Auckland Plan’s Māori Identity and Wellbeing outcome and Te Aranga Māori Design Principles via Outcome 1: Tāmaki Makaurau – Our place in the world. It sets out the big interventions and systemic changes to bring mana whenua presence, Māori identity and life into the city centre and waterfront.  There are some big-ticket, high-visibility things and pervasive, interwoven ones. To our (Pākehā) ears this sounded pretty great…  Attack of the roadcones! Plans are essential, but how do you get them going, especially when there’s so many large, cumbersome players with inertia?  Weeks had peppered the presentation with cool before-and-after shots of some iconic Auckland changes, including Te Ara i Whiti / the (pink) LightPath, and localised street improvements like our favourite, O’Connell Street (below). O’Connell Street. oh.yes.melbourne We know (though the webinar didn’t go in depth here) that much of Auckland city centre’s evolution that you and I can see today was driven by the Auckland Design Office, with Auckland Transport and Auckland Council partners. Their projects opened people’s eyes to how good street change could be done, and that actually the good “urban physics” did apply in Auckland too. And they gave Auckland council family a chance to practice delivering street change together, and figure out how it can be done without anyone losing an eye.  They did it with a combination of a figurehead / champion / lightning rod / air cover for the ground troops (AKA Ludo-Campbell-Reid) plus a ninja team of designers, engagers and doers, doing on-the-ground projects that brought to life the good practice of urban design.    Projects like Fort Street, O’Connell Street, Fort Lane, and Jean Batten Place showed that – contrary to received wisdom – replacement of on-street car parking with high-quality streetscape was good for business. Collaboration with Auckland Transport led to the creation of a pop-up cycleway along Quay Street (well before the Innovating Streets for People pilots) which is now being incorporated into a permanent street redesign that will finish this year.  It’s not been an easy road: by now, ten pilots of the street changes for Access for Everyone were supposed to be underway, following that unanimous Council vote, but just one (High Street) has been. And the ADO has now been disbanded, allegedly due to their irritating conservative parts of the establishment with cost-cutting as a pretext.  But there’s momentum now…  Auckland’s changing, and has lessons for us  Throughout the session the Zoom chat pane had been running hot with questions and comments from the “floor” (aka the online audience). Weeks and Newcombe took questions from the pane and from the Urbanerds presenters, and a few highlights stood out including lessons for Pōneke… Lesson for Wellington: get partners on the same transport page Weeks’ and Newcombe’s first lesson was to get a multi agency agreement on transport together. It can’t just be the city council or regional council. It has to have central government buy-in; they can’t be pulling in the other direction from the city or region with their ambitions for the city’s transport. Updated ATAP, with all the partners This consensus shifts the conversation from “Do we need that good stuff replacing the bad stuff?” to “When do we need it?”. You have to keep the focus at that “when” level, not allowing relitigation of the fundamental principle of urban physics that you’ve achieved consensus on. We wonder: is this LGWM? Is it shifting our conversation? Is NZTA pulling in the same direction as the city, as the regional council?   Lesson for Wellington: generate the brochure, together A second big lesson is that you have to have the vision, the brochure, the clear picture of the good life that your city wants to give everyone who’s in the city centre, whatever they’re doing there. This has to be the rationale for any the physical changes that you entertain or consider. The Auckland Plan’s 8 outcomes – promises of the experience of life in Auckland, that the CCMP too must deliver This “brochure” must be developed hand in glove with the actors we want to be supporting it, building on any public mandate you already have but not driven by the wider public. This conversation with the big players should not feel like it’s led by any one player (developers, or transport-planners, or inner-city-residents, or businesses – nor even, we wonder, council?). What it must be is very good quality engagement that builds a strong trust and instils a foundation layer of commitment to (or at least grudging acknowledgement of) solid urban physics, and the trajectory of change needed throughout the city.    Lesson for Wellington: CBDs are doomed Listener Sally asked whether a focus on a city centre had been overtaken by COVID and its boost to working from home, and localism, especially in Wellington where there’s such a large commuter population. Weeks’ answer put it in much more professional terms, but the message came through clearly: if your city centre is mostly a Central Business District, where “business” is the dominant activity, it’s doomed. Monocultures always make a system vulnerable to shocks, in agriculture, horticulture and in cities If it’s a central city, with a hundred or a thousand different reasons for people of all different walks of life to be there, then it’ll be fine – it’ll change and adapt, but the power of people wanting to be there is the lifeblood of a city. “The death of the city has been predicted since the invention of the city, in the Bronze Age” Weeks observed – “and if you’ve got an actual city, it won’t happen.” We wonder… how much of Wellington’s central city is a dead zone by 6.30pm? How much are we reinvigorating and diversifying the reasons to be there?   Lesson for Wellington: lock all good plans to something with teeth Weeks emphasised that the power of these plans comes from linking area plans and other non-statutory plans to ones with statutory power.  So despite being a non-statutory document, the City Centre Masterplan carries weight because they mapped its outcomes tightly against the Auckland Plan (the statutory 30-year plan for the whole city) and councillors have voted overwhelmingly in favour of it. diagram showing how the CCMP is making good on the Auckland Plan’s promises, in the city centre We definitely don’t yet have the vision and its trust, nor the solid hook between statutory and non-statutory … but we have some elements of the recipe.    We wonder… how much of the CCMP-style whakapapa do we have, if not the actual document?  Could we build these levels of trust and vision together?  Some Wellington City Council planning and design gurus attended the session and helpfully fielded some questions about where Wellington was at. Our one-liner summary was: it’s not going to hell in a handcart, but it’s definitely all up in the air. Smart engagement from Urbanerds listeners and Talk Wellington readers is really needed. We’ll pick up “so what for us?” in the next post. Here’s the video: link, passcode SUa&tOC5 Meantime… where have you seen signs of a clear vision of good Wellington city life, for everyone?
      • Accepted from Talk Wellington posts by feedreader
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    • Orchestra Wellington presents PITA AND THE WOLF A family...
      • Orchestra Wellington presents PITA AND THE WOLF A family concert for all ages Sunday 27 July Wellington Opera House 3pm   Prokofiev – Peter and the Wolf Goss – Tane and the Kiwi Kubik – Gerald McBoing-Boing   Marc Taddei, conductor Dave Fane & Aroha White, presenters with special guest, Bret McKenzie Three classic stories take to the stage in a family concert filled with laughter and magic, presented by David Fane, Aroha White and Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie. Who remembers listening to Saturday morning radio stories? Composer Thomas Goss does! Inspired by Alwyn Owen’s tale, How the Kiwi Lost his Wings, Goss created a delightful musical story, Tane and the Kiwi. Its perky and indomitable little hero has delighted New Zealand audiences for over a decade. Aroha White lends her voice to the birds of New Zealand that star in this story. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is a popular favourite that needs no introduction – except this time, the orchestra gives Prokofiev’s classic a Pasifika twist. Adapted by David Armstrong, Peter turns into Pita, thanks to David Fane of Bro’town and Outrageous Fortune fame. Bret McKenzie leads the laughter in a musical adaptation of Dr Seuss’ humorous children’s tale, Gerald McBoing-Boing. Gerald can’t speak words; he just goes “boing boing” instead. Watch Flight of the Conchords’ Bret Mckenzie ham it up in front of the orchestra! Tickets from Ticketek 0800 842 538 Service fee will apply $16.50 – $26.50. Children under two – free!
      • Accepted from Orchestra Wellington posts
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      • music

    • Te Aro Eats - Uniting Kai Communities at CubaDupa
      • After overwhelmingly positive feedback and a heck of a good time, in 2023, Te Aro Eats: Uniting Kai Communities is back for its second year at CubaDupa! Te Aro Eats is a collaborative and interactive dining experience where you are invited to connect with fellow diners, volunteer in the meal mahi, and take time to enjoy the delicious kai that has been created to show what is possible when we mahi together. Brought to life by the volunteers and staff at Seeds to Feeds, Everybody Eats, The Free Store, Wellington Timebank, Kaibosh Food Rescue, and with the support of Kaicycle, BGI (Wellington Boys and Girls Institute), Neighbours Aotearoa, Commonsense Organics and Wellington City Council. Saturday: 12 pm - 2 pm | 4 pm - 6 pm Sunday: 12 pm - 2 pm Each session open to all This meal is designed to showcase how our community-focused organisations operate and welcome volunteers. This will be inclusive (easily catering to vegetarians, vegans, gluten intolerances, and allergies), and created to share the story of our kai and our people. Admission is by koha, either monetary or with time or resources towards the mahi. While dining you will be encouraged to meet the guests dining with you, to connect and share stories. We will have activities that create moments of fun, excitement and conversation. We can not wait to welcome you into this special space and share some delicious community kai with you.
      • Accepted from Events - Welcome to Seeds to Feeds by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • cubadupa
      • wellington-city-council

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Whitirea Students in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
      • Normal 0 false false false EN-NZ JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria",serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} This week on drama on the waterfront, Lyndee-Jane Rutherford and a selection of the students from Whitireia School of Performing Arts spill the beans on their experience rehearsing the joyfully boisterous murder mystery musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Q: What is it like working on a professional show for Circa?  Charli Gatrell (Ensemble): It’s intense! I’ve done a lot of theatre, but this is six days of rehearsal a week, it’s not like anything I’ve done before. It’s a full time job, and I love it!  Auburn Crombie (Ensemble): It’s incredible. I didn’t expect to work on a professional show as a first year. Coming in, I didn’t think it would start straight away, it’s honestly like nothing I’ve done before!  Vanessa Immink (Ensemble): Well, it’s full-time. All the other shows we’ve done apart from school shows, have been part-time. This is pretty much nine to five every single day. Sometimes we’re needed and sometimes we’re not, but it’s just so cool being in the Circa environment, working alongside professionals and having the Box Office just downstairs. It’s very… real! Q: What do you love about Musical Theatre? Ben Patterson (Neville Landless): For me, it sounds silly, but it’s what I love doing. It’s good, because I don’t think I could do anything else, but it’s lucky I got forced to audition for Musical Theatre in high school, which has lead me down this crazy path that I love.  Q: Is this something you expected you would get the chance to do during your time training at Whitireia? Flora Lloyd (Helena Landless): When they announced they were doing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and they were getting the students to be involved I was super excited! It’s my third year studying musical theatre, and it’s just a great opportunity. I am getting to put on my “Body of Work” and be in a professional Circa show. It’s a great experience!  Q: What’s the best part about rehearsals? Flora Lloyd (Helena Landless): I’m a huge observer of the professionals working. It’s thrilling to see them in their element and learn from them.  Bronte Fitzgibbon (Ensemble): It has to be getting to know everyone. Usually the third year students are a little segregated due to their work load and timetable, but now we are right there with everyone working and bonding together on The Mystery Of Edwin Drood.  Auburn Crombie (Ensemble): I couldn’t pick who was second year or third year. They were all so welcoming to us first years and it felt like a big family from day one. It has only been a few weeks and we’re all very close friends!  Q: What’s it like to work with Lyndee-Jane? Vanessa Immink (Ensemble): She is so expressive and enthusiastic! She is like an ever-ready battery that just keeps going, it’s amazing! She is incredibly invested and is making sure everyone is having a good time and is involved.  She is so detailed about her work but she makes it so fun, you forget you’ve been working for hours! Q: How did this project come about? Lyndee-Jane Rutherford (Director): I’ve worked at Whitireia before with our amazing Musical Director, Michael Nicholas Williams, and our stunning Choreographer, Leigh Evans. We decided to pitch The Mystery Of Edwin Drood to Circa, never for a second thinking they would take it. Michael threw the comment away that we could use the students for the ensemble. Next minute, Circa has said yes and we have the entire three years of performing arts students in the show!  Q: How do you feel to be directing this massive show at Circa? Lyndee-Jane Rutherford (Director): This is possibly one of the biggest productions Circa has ever done. I have moments of absolute terror, times of sheer joy and that grateful feeling - “how lucky am I” -  that I have all these people supporting me. Everyone has been hugely positive, energized and excited by this massive undertaking!
      • Accepted from drama* on the waterfront posts
      • Tagged as:
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        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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    • Black Coffee
      • Yes we offer amazing coffee, but we also boast many other features. One can enjoy a game of pinball, browse over local and international art, immense yourselves in quality classic and modern vinyl, treat your taste buds to one of our fresh and ever changing toasted sandwiches, gluten free and vegan delights and sample some of our secret recipe home-made chai.
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    • Downstage Theatre Blog
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    • The Residents
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    • Carlucciland Wellington
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    • MenzShed Kapiti
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    • The Thistle Inn
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    • Bike network plan  |  Projects - WCC Transport Projects
      • Creating a citywide network of connected bike and scooter routes in tandem with walking improvements and big public transport changes will make that possible. This is an ambitious plan. We must act swiftly to change how we move around to reduce the city’s carbon emissions and get the network completed in 10 years. To help us get there, we’ll be making interim improvements where we can, using lower-cost materials and involving local communities. The bike network plan includes finishing Tahitai, the walking and biking connection around Evans Bay between Miramar and the central city, and The Parade upgrade in Island Bay.
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      • Tagged as:
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Latest Newsitems

The latest newslog items.

    • Start of Year information for 2026
      • Kia ora koutou, The following information, regarding the start of year in 2026, was sent to parents and caregivers of all enrolled students on Friday 12 December 2025. New Year 9 students New Year 10-13 students Returning Year 10-13 students Please ensure you check your spam folder and add no-reply@whs.school.nz to your safe email address […]
      • Accepted from WHS 2019 by feedreader
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • secondary

        • Wellington High School, Taranaki Street, Mount Cook, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Awards 2025
      • Visit our photo galleries for memories from Whakanuia, end of year celebration assemblies, Senior Celebration Evening and Sports Awards Award winner lists: Whakanuia Junior award winners Senior award winners and Senior special awards Sports awards Gateway certificates
      • Accepted from WHS news by feedreader
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • secondary

        • Wellington High School, Taranaki Street, Mount Cook, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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