Tauranga Elections

Personally I like Stuart Crosby!

That does not mean that I agree with the way he does business, but he is a good man, and undoubtedly and passionately wants the best for the city that he has once again been voted in as mayor for the second term.

I like Stuart even more when he says things like this:

The way out of the problem is we strengthen our economy . . . that means strengthening ties with the private sector.
Mr Crosby said council needed to "open the gates" to the private sector, providing services and land (not sure about that last word!) for them to grow their businesses instead of putting up barriers."
It is generally supporting the private sector, which takes the risk.
We don't take the risk, THEY take the risk.
If they do well, they can employ more people and pay higher salaries and wages.

This ladies and gentlemen is the single best thing ANY local bureaucrat has EVER said in all the years I have been paying attention.

What has suddenly provoked this epiphany I wonder? Why has it taken so long for people in such powerful places to understand such a simple concept?

It remains to be seen if this will actually take place, but this is what I have been banging on about for years, and I am stunned that Stuart understands the importance of this also.

A couple of important points  that strike me from Stuart's statement above though are:

A): What does he mean by "INSTEAD OF PUTTING UP BARRIERS!"
Does this mean that up until NOW the council HAVE been putting up barriers? (I believe they have, but but does this mean that council knew they were doing this?)

and B):
Will council now STOP going into competition with the Private Sector" to provide these things?

Because it is IMPOSSIBLE for the private sector to compete with services provided by council and government.

The private sector MUST run at a profit to do anything otherwise it will go bankrupt - The council and government do NOT have to be profitable, and will DRIVE the private sector bankrupt if in direct competition.
Art galleries, swimming pools, venues, museums etc etc

The first thing council must do is to allow the CBD to prosper again, and do you know what they need to make this happen?

NOTHING!

That's right! Nothing . . . apart from hand the parking situation over to the CBD business community.

Then get the hell out of the way and let private business do what they do best. It is their livelihoods at stake - they have the most interest in their businesses succeeding - not the council.

They have already made fledgling noises to show they are prepared to take control back from the council, what with putting up a christmas tree, and meetings of concerned retailers concerning the parking situation etc.

At the last local election I was excited about the prospects of some of the councillors, and some of the things they said, but after 3 years it has all proved to be a load of hot air, meaning that they either changed their minds about what they said, OR the way they went about achieving their goals has FAILED, and proven ineffective.

If it is the latter of the two, then those same councillors need to admit they went about things in a poor and unprincipled fashion and change their strategy or else they will be doomed to failing once again.

PREDICTION:
Unfortunately my prediction is that they will NOT learn from those failings.
They will have the Best intentions, but FAIL once again. (bang! - Ouch! - Bang! - Ouch!)

I also predict that Larry Baldock and Tony Christiansen (although very nice people I am sure) will be an absolute disaster, and I dread to see the effect these two individuals will have.

A small mercy I suppose is that at least Anne Pankhurst,  Mary Dillon or Hori Leaming missed out on inflicting us with their versions of "for the public good."