Otahuhu is good enough thank you!

These are my reflections and responses to the article entitiled "Get us out of here" (Jan 30, 2008).
Wheelie bins actually fall over all over Auckland on their rubbish day, and rich kids (children from affluent socio economic areas) can be just as mischievious, or even malicious.
When contractors shred and spread litter, they have been remiss in spiking it up as I presume they are being paid to do but at least shredded paper is practically compost. Unlike the pigsty of, for example, the Takawai units.
Yes, there are smashed beer bottles everywhere, and I'm actually the person who pays for my pushchair puncture repairs and the savlon and plasters for my children, NOT the holy council. So why isn't there a blanket ban of public drinking instead of permitting it during certain times?
I take responsibility for the grass verge outside my property, mowing it, trimming edges, planting, picking up dog faeces, picking up litter, picking up remnants from the rubbish truck fall out, the recycling fallout. Yet shop keepers sweep out their shop floors onto the pavement where they expect me to come perusing and spending my money.
Old Otahuhu primary don't seem to spray the weeds from their yard in time to be cleared before school resumes. Can't they afford it, or are they lax in their standards, as the tagging is evident also, the paint wouldn't have time to dry before the children arrive they've left it so late? When I worked in retail in the badlands elsewhere, my first morning chore was to repaint the shop front, the council (different town) didn't do that for us. So don't stereotypically assume that individuals reneg on their responsibilities and expectations of themselves and their communities.
who will look after us? It is my understanding that the unresolved train station status is due to a clash between Manukau and Auckland councils shirking responsibility for it. Meanwhile I try to use it at my own, and my children's peril. Access is appalling.
The most recent event in our local area is a week's worth of convoluted road works which are incomplete, and at the Church Street and Fairburn Road intersection, hazardous.
When the swimming pool proposal became known to me, my only thought was "Why go there and pay Auckland City Council when I can go to Papatoetoe for free?" So local youths and families will not necessarily use the facility either.
John Banks (Auckland City mayor) may not get complaints, because the contractors get them. We have the numbers on speed dial for noise control, animal control, the police, Transit NZ. I walk into the Otahuhu Town Hall and ask questions, I walk into the Otahuhu Business Centre and ask questions, I walk into the police station to report incidents, I have handed in a handbag I found on the street, I have dobbed in shoplifters. So plenty of people hear from this resident.
Fancy making a meal out of his one observation of a property with cars on the lawn. I celebrate the local handy man, DIY dads, I ask them for help, for information. If they get unsightly, or dangerous, that is when individuals should be receiving infringements that are followed through on. How dare he say "I will undertake my obligation if they undertake theirs"? That is so shocking he has been elected and employed to do his job. It is not conditional on the actions of others in my opinion. That is so childish.
As to the question of "But who would want to come here?" We did. We thought, 'Great! It's in between the motorway and the train station, it's got all the school levels, and parks, a village shopping centre we can walk to, the houses have character, and many of them, full sections, it's part of Auckland City Council, it's culturally diverse, so our children will have tolerance and understanding, a must in this day and age. What happened to looking for and expecting the best in things rather than highlighting problems?
Any parent must've learned that that's the fastest way to a downward spiral in their relationships with their children, and in their children's own perceptions of themselves and their communities. We talk it up, we say "Yeah it's having a boom, it's gradually getting spruced up" I know by name, and regularly chat with 14 different households in our intersecting streets, and know about many of the other neighbours who I don't personally know. It's great. I believe the standards are changing little by little. I never used to see people out and about when we moved here 3 1/2 years ago, but that is changing.
So don't say Otahuhu is not good enough for ACC to have now. As I said to a school principal recently< most parents are good enough and have the skills and abilities to give children what they need they just don't know it, or more to the point they are encouraged (told) to meet their children's needs externally.
Well, Otahuhu residents are good enough, just tell them that. Let them/us rise to the standard.
L Nicholls