Thanks to Karl Webber.  The sea colour looks like it suited St Patrick’s Day. 🙂

Highly relevant in view of the NZTA/Council announced intention to remove a lane from Waikanae’s Main Road.

When Los Angeles officials removed traffic lanes on four streets in Playa del Rey earlier this summer [2017], a wave of outrage swept through the Westside and the South Bay.

Drivers frustrated by long delays on their usual routes flooded City Hall with calls. A condo association sued. And some irate commuters launched a fundraiser to recall Westside Councilman Mike Bonin.

Now, the newly narrow streets are facing their second legal challenge.

A group of Playa del Rey and Manhattan Beach residents sued the city of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging that transportation officials broke state law by removing traffic lanes on Vista del Mar, Pershing Drive and Culver and Jefferson boulevards without conducting a thorough environmental review.

Reducing the number of driving lanes without conducting public outreach and examining potential adverse effects on congestion and public safety is a “gross abuse of discretion,” according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The lawsuit seeks to restore all travel lanes that were removed over the summer and to require an environmental review for each project.

Elected officials “need to discuss these plans with their constituents, and certainly follow the law, which I don’t think is too much to ask,” said Ed McPherson, an attorney representing Keep L.A. Moving, the advocacy organization that filed the lawsuit.

He added: “They should also make sure that this is what their constituents want, instead of just patting people on the head and saying, ‘We know what’s best for you.'”

Full story

And on the subject, here is a little satire from wundergroundmusic.com

Doctors have today admitted that they have been wrong about crystal meth this whole time and that the powerful narcotic is actually amazingly beneficial for health and well being.

“It increases concentration and drive, providing a much needed energy boost for the carrying out of petty crimes and handbag robberies,” confirmed Department of Health spokesperson Dr. William Gould. “A strict diet of crystal meth is shown to improve brain function making it easier to count coins collected on the street by begging with a coffee cup.”

Dr. Gould claimed that crystal meth contains “zero saturated fats and is perfect for people who are on a low carb diet” while also providing “100% of your daily methamphetamine needs”.

“A strict crystal meth diet also helps people shed unwanted pounds, hair and teeth and promotes the growth of healthy scabs and unclean fingernails,” continued the report which assessed the health of 1000 meth addicts and concluded that they had the rugged lean health of a 19th century street urchin with taut, tense muscles from constant alertness coupled with an immunity to most infections from living in their own filth for long periods at a time.

“It’s absolutely fantastic as an appetite suppressant, often meth users will simply forget about having to eat which will eliminate a flabby stomach and give the face a beautiful sunken emaciated look,” continued Dr. Gould who recommended that crystal meth should be enjoyed as part of a healthy diet that involves plenty of alcohol, cigarettes and unprotected sex.

“If people follow the crystal meth diet then they can expect to see results ranging from a reduction in unwanted bone density, a decrease in harmful bowel movements and removal of unwanted restorative sleep, within mere days of trying the super drug.”

Crystal is available from all good health food outlets, dodgy blokes on motorcycles and Silk Road.

This Reserve is in Paraparaumu, not Waikanae, but those who have been motivated to check out other reserves in Kapiti from this past week’s publicity will likely have noticed this one on the map.

Media release from the KCDC.

Kaitawa Reserve bridges are getting upgrades this month and through April and will be closed to reserve users while Kapiti Coast District Council gets underway with refurbishments to improve safety and usability. Alternative access to the park will be via the local road.

The wooden bridge upgrade will use a 99% recycled product called Enduroplank, which has already been used successfully on another bridge in the park late last year.

Parks and Recreation Manager Alison Law says the cost is similar to wood products, however, the major benefit is the longer life span of 40 years and built-in tread.

“The first bridge has proven the increased slip resistance of this product in this shaded, damp environment,” she says.

Physical works will consist of fencing the site off, putting up scaffolding, removal of the treads, addition of an additional wooden beam, laying of tread and construction of a wooden handrail that meets higher safety standards.

Residents and reserve users will need to access the park from the road during the works which should take four to six weeks.

A smaller metal bridge located in the southern part of the reserve will also be closed for a couple of weeks during the same period while under panels are removed and refurbished.

This bisects the two lagoons. The large tree in the mid-background has suffered from droppings by resident shags and cormorants.

That was decided at today’s council meeting, which selected “approach 1” on page 6 of this pdf, instead of “approach 2” which featured angle parking.

Local businesses, unsurprisingly, wanted angle parking, so making more parking places, probably in the belief that a lot of people are lazy sods and if they can’t park very close to the shop concerned, they’ll go to another similar shop where they can.

General residents, however, were concerned about the safety risk of angle parkers reversing out into the path of cyclists they can’t see.

Cyclists, naturally, were opposed to angle parking.

The above argument seems to have won the day.  The local businesses should be reasonably happy, nevertheless, as they are still getting 32 parks in front of them on the Main Road, an increase of 10.  The angle parking option would have provided 41.

The councilors were presented with “approach 1” and “approach 2” as the only alternatives; but a third option should have been to leave the road layout as it is.

What bothers us is that “approach 1” involves the removal of one of the road traffic lanes between the Elizabeth Street and Ngaio Road intersections, in the northbound direction.

Inexplicably, the southbound direction will still have two, however.

Why on earth are two needed in the southbound direction, but only one in the northbound direction?  Surely, the number of motorists turning north from Elizabeth Street into the Main Road are the same as the number who turn from Main Road into Elizabeth Street from the north?

Our view, as has been repeatedly stated on here, is that the existing two lanes in each direction are needed.

Well, the bureaucrats want to make the median wider in this area for no particular reason and, most importantly to them, insert their cycle lanes — today these are the “Politically Correct” stance, so you’re going to get them, whether they are needed or not (and several submitters said they are not).

Groan.

These rocks are really too small to even be called mini-rapids.

Open letter by Kerry Bolton

14 March 2018

Andrew Kirton

General Secretary, NZ Labour Party

reception@labour.org.nz

Review of Procedures and Harassment

Not private, not confidential

Dear Mr Kirton

From what I understand, you are reviewing procedures and allegations on sexual harassment in the Labour Party. There have been media references to a complaint by a woman concerning an alleged incident of two years ago.

I am not associated with the Labour Party in any way; I am not a member of any party or political organisation. I am concerned, however, that, from what I have heard, an allegation has been made about Rob McCann, concerning a supposed incident of two years ago, the allegation having been made by Penny Gaylor, formerly a Kapiti Coast District Councillor, now the holder of the Kapiti seat on the Greater Wellington Regional Council. I do not know Mr McCann, and have no favourable or unfavourable bias concerning him.

If there is such an allegation, what I can say based on personal experience, is that any allegation made by Penny Gaylor should be treated as dubious.

I was involved with a group concerning an animal welfare issue and we spoke at a meeting of the Kapiti Council. In order to silence us, Cr Janet Holborow, now the deputy mayor, alleged that I chased her through the council chamber with my walking stick.  I have enough trouble walking, let alone running. Witnesses, including Cr Jackie Elliott, who were in the immediate vicinity of the alleged incident, wrote statements that no such occurrence took place. The alleged incident supposedly occurred right before the media tables, yet the Kapiti Observer reporter who was present did not see or hear anything.  However, the majority of the other councillors closed ranks and supported Cr Holborow, whose aim was to have me trespassed from Council premises.

I filed misconduct complaints against all Councillors involved with this allegation. The complaints were heard at one hearing. Despite the contrary testimony from multiple witnesses, and the council’s CCTV footage, these councillors –- who formed a majority — voted en masse to reject each of my complaints.

Ms Gaylor’s involvement was particularly notable. She claimed that she saw me pursue Ms Holborow after a council meeting, from outside the chamber, Ms Holborow supposedly bashing through the doors in high drama and running back into the chamber pursued by me, walking stick raised, with Ms Holborow running around the councillors’ bench to the safety of Ms Gaylor.

Furthermore, Ms Gaylor found it opportune to further embellish her story by claiming that she returned later to the chamber to ensure the safety of any remaining staff, should I return and threaten them. Ms Gaylor gave the most fanciful of the statements of any councillor, not only proclaiming her own heroism, but congratulating Cr Holborow on her ‘courage’ in coming forward, and pontificating about KCDC’s self-proclaimed status as a ‘White Ribbon council’.

When my wife, who has ‘essential tremour’, spoke as one of my proxies during the complaints hearing, it was Cr Gaylor who badgered her so intensely that even then Mayor Ross Church told her to stop.

Without going into the many details, I only mention here that the Council’s CCTV footage indisputably disproves the allegations made by Cr Holborow and Gaylor that I chased Cr Holborow from outside the chamber back inside. The CCTV footage shows me leaving the chamber, waiting for my wife and several others to come out of the chamber, and walking out of the council premises.

My situation is long and convoluted. I refer to it insofar as it relates to Penny Gaylor. Partly due to these antics of the then Kapiti Council, as well as further representations by Cr Jackie Elliott, Rob McCann, as local representative for the White Ribbon Campaign, told Kapiti Council to stop referring to itself as ‘New Zealand’s and possibly the world’s first White Ribbon council’.

Last year, KCDC did not even mark the event.

Perhaps what I have heard from several sources in regard to Ms Gaylor complaining about Mr McCann is incorrect, or ‘false news’ as it is now called? However, should it be correct, I am solely stating what my experiences are in regard to Ms Gaylor. I attempted to address this matter at the time to Andrew Little and several others in the Labour Party, but I was met with a silence indicative of a cavalier attitude. Should you have any questions, I will readily answer them.

Yours sincerely

K R Bolton

Jeremy Seamark says this was built in the early 1980s and is owned by the Waikanae Rugby Club.  The squash court and the kitchen were later additions.

Originally posted on Iowa Climate Science Education: Bjørn Lomborg writes on his Facebook page of a reverse hockey stick graph, one that is certainly inconvenient to the gloom and doom message of climate alarmists who try to link regular weather events to climate. So, Lomborg plays their game, and the results are surprising. Fewer and fewer…

via Inconvenient data: Fewer and fewer people die from climate-related natural disasters — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch