DOUBLE BUS LANES thru PAPANUI? No Thanks!
NO BUS-LANES!! WHY I VOTED AGAINST Bus&Bike Lanes thru Papanui as your elected Papanui Representative on the Papanui-Innes Community Board! My personal opinion is...
1) The radical changes to Papanui Village are proposed by Staff to make bus commuting faster and speedier northward; a saving of between 40 sec - 2 minutes. But these benefits do not justify the RADICAL changes to our Village and the severe impacts on locals. I feel it is an imbalance between competing ideologies about "community."
2) Our Ward is unique with a large demographc of retirement homes and mobile elderly. They will no longer be able to cross a much busier Main North Rd safely (3-5 lanes of North-South traffic depending on where you are).
3) We lose ALL northside on-street Main North Rd carparking. On the southside we retain only 4 P30s and only useable between bus-lane hours.
4) Our small business owners object. Like Riccarton, it will affect retailers' viability and jobs.
5) Always designated a "village" we are effectively cut in two; there were no negatives recorded in consultation for Mana Whenua (Nga Tahu), but I would argue as 'mana whenua Papanui' there are severe cultural impacts on our cultural rights of settlement here since 1850, which are not factored above the higher "needs" of City bus commuters heading north (faster bus travel times).
6) Papanui Village is severed and becomes a rapid transit commuter corridor v pedestrians.
7) There are 5 banks and a NZPost/kiwibank and lots of small shops, Aged Care, bars, takeaways, that draw quick in/out visits. Removing on-street car parks severely impacts this P5 local need.
8) Your Community Board proposed a P5 carpark on Harewood Rd corner, but due to frequency of use Staff felt a P60 designatuon was better for safety (less in/out car use) or none at all. However, if it's unsafe to have a P5 or P60 carpark there, due to the added buses and bikes, why aren't those safety concerns carried over to the rest of Papanui Village as a whole, which is a pedsestain community shopping area?
9) The Plan is saying - "it's unsafe to be road side anywhere in Papanui due to added cycles and buses speeding down a dedicated bus/bike land."
10) Merivale Village and Mall on the same corridor with the same buses and cycles has not had its on-street carparking removed, so there is an issue of village equity here.
One other colleague and I voted against the Plan as a whole but it was carried 4/2. See post below (with maps).
Kalle
"Sports and travelling run in the family, and that's kind of what's led me to come to New Zealand."
"I grew up in a small town in Finland. My dad was involved with sports all his life, he was a shot putter, discus thrower, powerlifter, we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. He never mentioned much of the rugby days. He just said he broke both of his shin bones playing rugby, so he said, ‘never play the sport, It's crazy.’
I started playing when I was 18. I played my first cap for the Finnish national team in 2014, we won the Finnish championship with my club. Rugby is not a big thing in Finland.
I moved here to play rugby in 2017. The club that wanted me to come over was Methven Rugby Club. They got me here and they were like, ‘what do you do for work? I’d just finished chef school in Finland. ‘We'll get you a job at Mount Hutt as a chef, you can do that while you play rugby with us.’ I said, ‘Perfect. Yeah, I'm in’.
I've always loved food. My mum was an amazing cook, and still is. When I was studying tourism I worked in some hotels in Finland, and I saw how the chef's worked. I just loved the kitchen vibe and I was like, Yeah, that’d be something I'd love to do.
I've had more of a culinary journey In New Zealand than in Finland. I started at Mount Hutt, after that I worked at The Dubliner in Methven. I worked as a senior pizza chef at Sal’s for maybe six months then worked as chef de partie at Cellar Door. At Eliza's Manor, I worked myself up to a junior sous chef. Then the opportunity came to work my first head chef job at Moon Under Water.
We're privileged to have a busy atmosphere, we can try new things and get a bit creative. There are no TV’s, just come here with your family or with your mates, play board games, to socialise.
I really want to drive the local food and ingredients through the menu. We don't mind spending more for quality ingredients as long as it's supporting New Zealand businesses. We just love to use local. And it's pub food, but I feel like it's elevated.
I play club rugby here for the Christchurch Football Club, the oldest club in New Zealand and I still play regularly for the Finnish national team, whenever they can fly me over to play."
- Kalle
View more stories, or nominate someone: @humansofchch
www.humansofchch.org......
Poll: Is it okay to grocery shop in your PJs?
I'm sure you've seen it while doing your weekly shop... In fact, it may have even been you.
What do you think about people heading to the supermarket in their pyjamas?
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14.5% It's fine!
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75% It's questionable
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10.6% Other - I'll share below
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