Brilliant "thinkers" - Letters, 3 December

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.

Don't cheapen waterfront

Re $4.9 million waterfront plan (News, Nov 30). I read this three times before I believed what I read.

I am in favour of development of Tauranga downtown waterfront. As a green area for relaxation, recreation by residents, children, visitors.

The brilliant "thinkers" at Priority One want to make Tauranga like a Third World or earthquake-ravaged city, using converted containers to house 10 commercial outlets at the southern end. If you make suggestions, come up with something classy. If not, shut up.

With the city centre dying, this will do nothing to bring it back to life. Priority One, with their estimated revenue are, I believe, away in cloud cuckoo land. Councillors supporting this cheap, junky commercial enterprise are also away with the birds. Keep commercial enterprises away from this area, otherwise it will be ruined.

I see it is going to public "consultation" next year. Wonderful. I expect the usual TCC farce where residents present constructive submissions and then TCC ignore them and say "We know best, we will therefore do what we want". They then wonder why ratepayers get up in arms, e.g. the Mount Hot pools.

Roger Bailey, Papamoa

Lights won't help

I agree wholeheartedly with Robin Bishop (Letters, Dec 1).

I, too, am surprised at the council's aim to put traffic lights at Cameron/Chadwick roads. Similarly at Chadwick Rd/Fraser St. I frequent this intersection several times daily.

Lights will not produce more rapid traffic flow, nor less traffic. What it will produce is more frustration and greater recklessness.

Traffic flows well enough as it is now and will continue to do so in the future. People acknowledge the courtesy of others and so raise human regard for others.

What the council could do to improve traffic flow is to do more to encourage drivers to signal their intent earlier and not just when they are halfway round the turn they anticipate taking.

Councils do not gain favour with the public by manipulating others. They do gain the respect of their citizens by being careful with the spending of ratepayers' money and treating them as civilised and courteous human beings capable of showing respect to their fellow citizens.

We gain more in helping people be responsible by enabling them to practice being responsible.

M E Young, Greerton

Detention a joke

Why in the name of justice do acts of horrible, callous and murderous intent get a perpetrator home detention instead of true punishment? Ask the judge presiding over the Jason Godsiff case.

Jason Godsiff mercilessly beat to death 23 defenceless seals and had his sentence reduced to eight months' home detention.

The judge allowed this reduction as Jason was of good character. Please explain how anyone with good character can carry out such a heinous crime? And what other occurrences may have gone unnoticed?

Home detention is a joke and certainly not a punishment for such disgusting behaviour. A starving man may have killed one for food but 23 for blood lust? Unbelievable.

James Newman, Mount Maunganui

Smokefree kids

What better gift could the Tauranga City Council give to future generations than to declare the city's public places smokefree? (News, Nov 26)

The one point around smoking that most people will not argue about is: We do not want our children to smoke.

Children learn by mimicking adults. If smoking is seen as "normal" in everyday life, they are more likely to take it up. If they don't see smoking, they are far less likely to take it up.

Evidence shows that "by de-normalising smoking through reducing the visibility of tobacco within society, fewer young people take up smoking".

The Heart Foundation applauds moves towards the goal of a smokefree New Zealand by 2025. Already, initiatives like smokefree indoor spaces and banning tobacco displays are making an impact. Children rarely see cigarette displays in supermarkets, and smokefree cafes are "normal".

Locally, Baypark Speedway and Bayfair Shopping Centre lead the way with their outdoor smokefree policies.

The good news is the number of "never smokers" amongst 14 to 15-year-olds is increasing.

Tauranga City Council has an opportunity to help create an environment where smokefree is "normal".

What a wonderful legacy to leave future generations.

Sandy Ritchie, Heart Health Advocate, Heart Foundation - Tauranga Branch

Aid for boy hailed

I would like to say a huge thank you to the lovely lady who stopped and picked up my son on Ngatai Rd recently after he fell off his bike. This kind woman stopped, packed his bike into her boot and drove him to school.

It's great to know we have such wonderful, caring people in our community. Not so much the jogger who glanced at him and ran on past.

My son, thankfully, is okay. Some big bruises and deep abrasions are the extent of his injuries.

So, again, I say thank you and you can be sure if I come across a child off their bike I will offer the same help.

Jo Dey, Otumoetai

Sex gets bad rap

Recently I have noticed that I am never asked my gender. It's all about sex.

When I get a form that says "sex?", I have an overpowering urge to say "occasionally", whereas if I was asked "gender?" I would happily answer "male".

It seems to me that other than in the mind of some dillbrain form designer, sex has got a bad rap. I was intrigued to read in the Bay of Plenty Times some are getting het up because someone wants to set up a strip club on The Strand and that somehow it will detract from our beautiful city.

Let me advise your readers that we have had strip clubs before. Before they closed due to lack of patronage, Tauranga did not go to hell in a handbasket.

Reminds me of the fire and brimstone mob who predicted the end of life as we know it when prostitution was legalised in 2003.

Mass hysteria about all the "girls going on the game" was proven to be just that; hysteria, with subsequent research saying there were roughly the same number of prostitutes who actually are healthier and safer than before the law change, and our families are still safe.

So let's not get too excited about a strip club on The Strand trashing family values.

The bars on The Strand are capable of doing that already.

Roy Edwards, Gate Pa