Mayor Len's Community Choice

Well old Granny Herald wasn't a happy read this morning. Mayor Len reported as doing a personal about turn on cruise ships on Queens Wharf. Just as Shed 10 was starting to shine in the sun. Reports suggest he hasn't even consulted his Council. Let alone the wider community (which is what the Waterfront Master Plan is for). I understand some of that work points to Wynyard Wharf being a good deep water option for cruise ships - if Captain Cook is too expensive.

So who has been in his ear? So successfully. Because that is clearly the community of choice for Mayor Len. And it certainly isn't the Auckland community that was promised Queens Wharf as the next people's park. A waterfront space for markets and parties and fun and games. This sudden change of heart has the whiff of a backroom deal about it. So sudden and out of the blue. Community choice.

Mayor Len has made a lot of wanting to double traffic through the Port (what would that do to the surrounding roads?), and of sharply increasing (by what factor?) the number of cruise ship visits. That's one voice of the business community speaking. The one that must have Len's ear. For a Mayor who made so much of being a community champion, of the people, he's a worry. All the potential of Shed 10 being sold down the river, compromised by cruise ship needs. You only have to look at Princes Wharf to see how that opportunity has been devastated by business needs, side-lining the broader Auckland community. Surely, Mayor Len, you don't wish that on Queens Wharf and Shed 10.

As if having to occupy space beside the McCully Cloud wasn't ignominious enough.