mt victoria, wellington

Crossways is holding another of its film fundraisers at the Paramount Theatre at 8:30pm on Thursday 20 August. The movie is The Age Of Stupid, in which Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

According to this morning's media reports, distribution of the voting papers for the so-called anti-smacking referendum has commenced, so we can all expect to find these in our letterboxes in the coming weeks. I would urge you to vote Yes. A yes vote will keep the current law as it is, and continue to criminalise the assault of children - effectively applying the same standards of behaviour and proof to both adults and children.

Retaining the law as it is currently written is supported by many of the groups that spend their days working on the front line of child poverty and abuse. My analysis may be overly simplistic, but if the professionals in Barnados, Plunket and UNICEF support the retention of the law, then I think I should endorse their view.

I will be voting yes, and I urge you to do the same.

Kent Duston
Editor
mtvictoria.org.nz

As posted a few days ago, the Wellington Civic Trust is holding a public meeting on the Basin Reserve precinct on Saturday 8 August, aimed at considering all the issues relating to the area - the proposed flyover, the uneconomic-but-we're-still-planning-for-it second Mt Victoria tunnel, the changes to the Adelaide Road precinct, and the planned supermarket in Tasman Street.

Commendably, the Civic Trust is demonstrating the joined-up thinking that seems to have eluded the responsible agencies. Information on the event - including a schedule and a brochure - can be found here, and we commend this event to anyone who cares about the future of the southern end of our neighbourhood.

Given that many of these issues affect Mt Victoria, a joint MVRA/Save The Basin meeting is planned for Tuesday 11 August at Crossways, starting at 7.30pm. The purpose of this meeting - hosted by MVRA President Jessica Closson and Save The Basin convener Kent Duston - is to report back to the community on what was discussed at the Civic Trust workshop, and the likely implications of the Council and NZTA plans for our neighbourhood. Everyone is welcome, and no RSVP is required.

For those of you who regularly combine lawn bowls with geek pursuits, the first New Zealand conference of the WordPress community is taking place at the Bowling Club in Pirie Street on the 8th and 9th of August. According to organisers:

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

The sign on the gate says it all, really.

The Wellington Civic Trust has a long history of convening public discussions about the future of our city, and on Saturday 8 August they'll be hosting a forum on the Basin Reserve precinct. The intention is to look at the entire Basin Reserve area as a whole, given the large number of initiatives in the area. Subjects will include:

• The Adelaide Road precinct and the effects of proposed Council development
• The impact of the proposed supermarket on the site of the old Boys Institute in Tasman Street
• The proposed Basin Reserve flyover
• The on again/off again park in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Buckle Street

Photo credit: LeeBrimelow via Flickr

Hi all Mt Victoria user groups.

This is to let you know that the Wild Wellington 12 hour Mt Bike Relay will be held again on Mt Victoria tracks on Saturday 7th November 2009.

There's been some public comment recently about the state of the old Thorndon Tavern, the 1960's era ex-watering hole that has spent the last 20 years falling into disrepair. The tavern site is owned by the Thai Government and has (finally) been slated for conversion to an embassy - not before time, according to some Thorndon residents.

But what about our very own Mt Victoria eyesore, on the corner of Pirie Street and Porritt Ave? Surely it's high time the Council got onto the owners and asked them to sort out the problem ....

Regular walkers have long lamented how difficult it is to cross the six lanes of traffic on Kent and Cambridge Terraces, but thanks to a recent upgrade arranged by Mayor Kerry Prendergast, the process just got easier at the Vivian Street corner.

One of the oft-cited reasons for demolishing pre-1930s homes is that the cost of renovation can vastly exceed the cost of simply demolishing the property and building something new. This tends to be a roundabout way of saying that the costs of bringing old structures up to modern building standards can be prohibitive, in part because the standards have changed dramatically since WWII.