tis the season

So it's been a while since I posted. Don Brash called it quits (good), John Key got the top at National (good for national) and Eden Park got the go-ahead, maybe... if something better comes along, maybe not... (so long at it's not bloody Albany).

And I left the sunny slopes of Mt Eden, for the sea views (glimpses... if you stand on a chair) and trendy takeaways of Parnell (not that anywhere can really compare to Boonchu).

And now it's Christmas time once again, which means a likely sign off for the year. Have a good time all, and merry Christmas.

under the mountain, over the water

It's game on - so to speak - in the race to decide where to play the final match of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. In the pursuit of a single game of rugby - albeit a very important game - the government charmed the pants off the IRB, promising to rebuild Eden Park to bring it up to scratch for the final. Out of the woodwork though, new proposals for stadia have springed up, variously hailing their location as superior to leafy Mt Eden.

Left now in the hands of whatever politician wants to pay for it, the cards are on the table. But with no formal public consultation process on what we think it the best option for the stadium, no place to vent our praise or frustration at whats on offer, who knows what we'll end up with. Maybe the majority of Aucklanders want a mutli-billion dollar stadium floating off the shores of Remuera, and are prepared to pay for it, but nobody would know because they haven't properly asked anyone.

For now, you'll have to do with my efforts to bring together the various options.

Eden Park Upgrade

Envisioned for the current site of Eden Park is a $320 million upgrade of the park, including new stands to take a total of 60,000 people, 38000 of whom can enjoy their favourite sport undercover. The plan will enhance the facility for patrons and neighbours alike - with areas for people to stuff around before and after the game, linking the park with Kingsland railway station before and after the game. Plus the new stands will do a better job of containing light and noise spill (if only they could keep the helicopter quiet as it circles the park). Not to mention a pretty entrance from Sandringham Road









Cost: $320 million
Pros: Cheap(!), does the job, improves existing site, railway station adjacent.
Cons: Not 'visionary', very little parking, poor motorway access, seats not very close to stadium, no roof, limited amount of fixtures per year, suburban area.
Pictures: Eden Park Website.

Bledisloe Wharf / Tank Farm
No pretty designs yet, but the stadium by the water idea has captivated the government as worth of consideration. Potentially the crowning jewel on Auckland's waterfront, the design will be a very hot issue, lest it turn out to look like Wellington's Cake Tin. Sydney hit a winner with their Opera House, so there is no reason for us not to be able to do it. So long as it's not designed by committee. Te Papa was panned as a monstrosity when it opened, but today looking at it (and surrounds), it really is a striking building that seems to feel at home in Wellington.

Either site potentially will provide a bookend to a rejuvenated waterfront area, placing much needed fireworks up the ARC and City Council to get on and turn the area into a place of civic pride. I'm not holding my breath, however.

Being a greenfields development, the stadium can also be whatever we want it to be. We can forget dithering around with boring design constrained by existing facilities and build a stadium with all the bells and whistles that a millionaire city deserves.

Cost: Hopefully less than $1billion.
Pros: Exciting opportunity to do something bloody fantastic for the City, away from suburbia, it can have a roof, host wider variety of events more frequently, close to Brittomart.
Cons: $$$$, getting it done in time.


Carlaw Park
City Councillor Richard Simpson recently corresponded with RB around using the dilapidated Carlaw Park, at the city edge of the Domain, for the stadium. His surprisingly passionate PowerPoint, outlines his vision for the park.

This is my favourite for the stadium, practically being a greenfields site, having the best potential for public transport and greater use as a multi site venue.

As Cr. Simpson points out, if it's covered the Carlaw Park option can serve as a wet weather alternative for activities in the Domain.

I'd go further and insist that if we were to build a stadium here, it'd have to be covered - partly because if we don't cover the next stadium we build, Auckland will never have a covered stadium of it's size, partly because it rains all the time here and partly because Parnell residents are close by, and having this as a concert venue would rock.

And carparks... lots of lovely carparks to use when vising the Domain, Parnell and the University. Carlaw park has this over most of the other locations around - it and it's facilities will be used 7 days a week by Aucklanders of all persuasions. Eden Park wont.




Cost: ???, possibly up to $1b
Pros: Great use of crappy area, close to SH16 and railway network, close to CBD
Cons: $$$$, getting it done in time.

Images: Cr. Richard Simpson & wises (via Public Address)

Stadium Over Water
This has to be the most visionary of proposals yet. It has style, it has viable public transport options, it has longevity, and it has oodles of space. The elegant design of the stadium really is something we can admire, and can admire in 50 or 100 years. Even if this isn't the site, the architects who came up with the plan must be the architects to design the new stadium.

Peter Bossley and Bary Copeland - the pair behind the plan - are touting their proposal as a National Stadium, and setting their sights high to match.

If I didn't have a fondness for Central Auckland, this would definitely be my favourite.












They key advantages, according to the pair are:

- The site over water is a “blank canvas.” ... does not have to be purchased, existing facilities demolished, or the impact considered on surrounding buildings;

- It is close to a major transport corridor, with easy access to rail, motorways and Auckland International Airport;

- It is close to one of the fastest growing regions in Auckland: Counties and Manakau

- The close proximity to major transport connections and the relative lack of site restrictions will assist with the intended completion of the purpose-designed world class stadium in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

They also put their case forward in the Herald, outlting the practical features of the stadium, as well as the asthtetic

Sunlight reflecting off the sea would animate the sloping sides of the bowl, making it an object of great beauty and lightness. Artificial lighting would make it a dramatic object appearing to float over the water.

Cost: ???
Pros: Visionary, close to SH1 and railway network, potential to grow despt onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">ressed area, leaves waterfront free for other things
Cons: $$$$, away from city, tsunami prone.
Images: Bossley Copeland Architects (via Scoop)

North Harbour Stadium
Mostly called for by reistdents north of the bridge, no serious proposal has been put forward so far. Some reports however, mark this as very cheap.

Cost: $200-250m.
Pros: Lots of space for development, less residents, motorway adjacent.
Cons: Too far from Manakau city, no rail access, traffic nightmarish already, plans to expand commerical and residential development in area, sports teams with North Harbour as home ground tend to loose a lot.

Mt Smart
Again, has no serious push behind it. Shares most of the cons of Mt Eden and North Harbour, without taking too many of the pros. Current stadium is mega ugly, so could do with a facelift though

Avondale Racetrack
Ditto, plus they have those horrible spiders.

Victoria Park
Or, we could sober up and not.

As we wait for the Government to make up it's mind, we'll just have to twiddle our thumbs and hope they come up with something good.

company blames underpaid workforce for large profit

The sight today at the local Foodtown was one of hundreds of white tickets peppering the aisles reading,

We're sorry your favourite product is out of stock.

Why? According to the full page ad taken by Progressive Enterprises Ltd in today's Herald,

PEL is suspending grocery distribution centre operations indefinitely to ensure the continued supply of grocery products to customers of Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown supermarkets ... Industrial action at our distribution center's prevents us from supplying our stores with grocery goods via these center's.

Progressive claims that the Union demand for a single agreement for the distribution centre (DC) workers across the Christchurch, Palmerston North and Auckland DC's and an 8% pay rise will bring the multi-billion company to its knees. 500 employees want to be paid the same rate for the same job. 500 out of 18000 NZ employees will make or break this country's food supply.

Progressive's PR offensive continues to say

PEL is seeking urgent mediation to find a fast resolution and to ensure the union demands for less than three per cent of our staff don't threaten the job security of our entire18,000-plus workforce. We are always prepared to negotiate but not until striking staff return to work.

Which is a bit disingenuous. Urgent mediation and negotiation are usually things that happen immediately before strike action is called, not after. Certainly not after suspending staff for taking industrial action, locking out staff, demanding they return to work without changes to their employment conditions.

The union, the National Distribution Workers Union, responded to the newspaper ad with the following:

Progressive rehired the redundant workers on the lower pay (up to $3 less) and conditions (i.e. ending almost all allowances) of the Progressive Shands Rd Supply Chain and ended the Woolworths National Collective Agreement. Workers at Palmerston North retained the pay and allowances of the original national agreement as the company could not find another location for a new distribution centre and therefore could not legally rehire workers on lower
rates.

All this amongst a fantastic corporate (PDF) result for both PEL and its Australian owner Woolworths Australia Limited. The New Zealand operations reported $2.93 billion sales, reported EBIT of $122 million, sales increase of 3.5% in Q3 and 3.8% in Q4. Food inflation was significantly less at 1.5-2%.

The striking workers aren't getting paid at the moment. Donations can be made to the National Distribution Union at the BNZ account 02-0200-0217968-00 with the reference "Lock Out" to give them a hand.

Kiwi Herald also reports on the issue.

out of food

Foodtown Mt Eden had quite bare shelves when I popped in yesterday evening. My immediate thoughts were of slack management, or a high number of sickies. Unfortunately I was wrong.

Progressive Enterprises, the people who bring grocery items to half the country through the Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworth's brands, have locked out their striking distribution workers . Mt Eden store is particularly noticeable, because of it's small storeroom, it requires multiple deliveries of dry goods every day. Other supermarket's will be feeling the pinch soon, as groceries continue to sell and DC's fail to keep up with demand with their union workforce unable to return to work.

The dispute itself is over national pay rates - the union contesting that workers throughout the country should be paid the same for the same job. Prog's, presumably, pays their non-Auckland workers less, because the market pay is less. Working in Auckland is more expensive for two reasons:
- Cost of travel, further to go in most cases.
- Progressive Enterprises prices by region, essentially making Central Auckland the most expensive place to buy groceries in the country.

But that doesn't mean that Palmerston North worker's don't have to travel or buy food.

[Update: I presumed wrong, see next post]

Whatever the result, in the meantime, expect empty supermarket shelves and a PR disaster for Progs.

bad with the good

It's only fair, if I'm slagging someone off, to point out when things get better. It wasn't long ago in the fair suburb of Mt Eden, when Telecom's DSL service was extremely oversubscribed - leaving us serfs with seriously lacking broadband. But now, I feel like I'm actually getting bang for my buck - large downloads clocking in at over 180kbs. Sure, I'm not getting the 3mbs Telecom insists is theoretically possible and, fine, it slows down my browsing, but I'm much happier now with my download speed than I was before. If only they'd get rid of those nasty download caps.

Meanwhile, I've had a chance to have a play with Google Spreadsheets properly. They haven't, as hyped, got it all down - no charts, macros or anything Excel has in the Data menu. But it works fine enough - and considering it's still a 'labs' project, it's sure to add all the whistles and bells soon enough. They've got rid of the limited trial too, it seems - only needing a google account to sign up.

buses

For the first time in a very long while, I'm without a car. So, since arriving at work around 6.30 this morning I'd been fretting about how on earth I would get from the North Shore to sunny Mt Eden. The last time I had to do this, I didn't have to worry about motorways and bridges. I didn't have to worry about which bus to take, when and at what stop. Tell you something for nothing: it aint easy. The maxx website, which was called Rideline last time I had a reason to use it, was impossible. Firstly, the ASP server was down for the first hour of trying to sort the damn trip out and when it finally came back up, it became a nightmare. Gone are the many listings to give you an option of times. Gone are the lovely snake diagrams which detail all the stops en route. All there is now are maps with multicoloured lines right over the street names, just in case I dared to pick a different stop than the one suggested. (I'd provide a link, but the ASP is on the brink again.) And then, the bloody cheek - Maxx wanted me to take four busses. I don't think so.

So I gave up on the website (the low-res pdf's of timetables didn't help either, can't see the street names) and rang the telephone line. Who said the internet was useful. For her, I made it easy. "Get me from work to town". Of course, her first suggestion was to take two busses to get across the bridge. I was livid.

In the end, I ignored all the instructions Maxx had given me and, resolute, walked to the nearby shops and - via the supermarket - found a way home.

My hat goes off to all the people who manage to navigate Auckland's busses. If I could, I would walk over the bridge - it's stupid that we can't. It'd be faster than the bus, and much less of a headache. Let's hope it doesn't get worse before it gets better. That is, if they ever finish the dig-a-thon up and down the northern. (speaking of which, would they just hurry up already with Fanshaw St, how hard can it be.)