'Oh God, sorry': Dunedin mayor gets emotional on climate change and floods
A debate over transport included an emotional speech from Dunedin’s non-driving mayor Aaron Hawkins as he spoke about the impact of the Canterbury floods on people's lives.
On Tuesday, the second day of deliberations into the Dunedin City Council's 10-year-plan, the often heated issues of car parking and cycle lanes were on the agenda.
The debate included a passionate speech from Hawkins, who noted humans “aren’t particularly hard-wired towards dealing with abstractions”.
But one of the few tangible things a council, such as Dunedin, could do for the climate movement was through its transport network.
In a nod to his own non-driving, Hawkins admitted it was inconvenient not to drive.
But that was less inconvenient than being separated from family, friends, business and social connections by the sort of weather events witnessed in Canterbury over recent days.
“Oh God, sorry,” the mayor said, visibly emotional.
However, he noted people became obsessed when they talked about car parking.
It came after an earlier speech by outspoken councillor Lee Vandervis, who rejected the council’s ideology of “two wheels good, four wheels bad”.
The council’s “obscenely expensive $53 million ideological splurge”, which included more bus lanes, park and ride facilities, and improved cycle lanes and footpaths, did not contain one extra car park.
That was despite an extra 10,000 people expected to live in the city over the next seven years.
Nor did it deal with the growing congestion on city streets caused by speed bumps and cycle lanes, Vandervis said.
The council received hundreds of submissions on those transport projects, with even more responses received via Facebook and Twitter polls.
The projects in the 10-year-plan include park and ride facilities at Mosgiel and Burnside ($10.3m), a parking management and guidance system ($9.5m), a harbour arterial route ($16.6m), a bus lane for Princes St ($6.6m), and bike hubs ($2.5m)
The council voted to approve the transport plan 12-2.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62.1% Summer
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36.2% Winter
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1.7% Other - I'll share below
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Would you like a free copy of our February 2025 issue?
Kia ora neighbours. We give away free copies to readers whose recipes are used in our magazine. We're still on the hunt for tomato recipes, so send your family's favourite way to use up your homegrown harvest, to: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz. If we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of the mag
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