EDITOR'S COMMENT: Anonymous abuse highlights a rather seedy underbelly

It never ceases to amaze me how much venom and vitriol there is out in our community.
It seems that it is far easier and far more pleasurable to have a go at someone or something rather than hand out any bouquets.
I must admit I was rather dumb-founded but not totally surprised when outgoing mayor Jan Beange told us about a particularly nasty note that was placed in her letterbox after her defeat in last weekend's local body elections.
Crudely scrawled on the back of a Tauranga City Council envelope was the message: "Good riddance, you useless, out-of-touch, cow."
Now I don't care if (and that's a big if) every decision Ms Beange made during her three-year tenure was a bad one, she does not deserve that.
Like her or not, our former Mayor presided over a council that had to make many tough decisions during its term as the city struggled to cope with enormous growth.
From my seat, I believe this last term of council was a real crossroads in the development of our city.
We are currently caught in a void between those who want this city to develop facilities, infrastructure and roading to take us proudly into the next 50 years and the other side guided almost entirely by the desire to keep rates as low as possible. That means no outlandish expenditure on aquatic centres, convention centres, art galleries or museums.
Somewhere in the middle was Ms Beange and her council. When I came to Tauranga 11 years ago I was astounded at the lack of facilities in this fine city.
Natural beauty aside, this city was seriously lacking in the community facilities we should expect.
But when I looked at the council back then, what they had achieved and what was on their books, I couldn't see too much.
A large city and where were the facilities that cities like Wanganui, New Plymouth, Napier and Hamilton took for granted?
I simply couldn't see any vision from that council.
I believe the departing council was casting their gaze further ahead than at their navel.
They, and Ms Beange, were looking at the Tauranga of 20 years' time and asking the hard questions on what we want and what we need to have when we get there.
That was not popular with some elderly ratepayers, struggling on fixed incomes, who didn't want their rates to rise for facilities they would never need.
Caught between the wants and don't wants was Ms Beange, who has now paid the price and passed the gauntlet on to Stuart Crosby.
We all know Mr Crosby is no stranger to any of this having served on the council for many years but now he is in the mayoral chair - it is his head on the block.
He has wanted the opportunity to lead the city and now he has it.
The challenges that Ms Beange faced will be the very same ones Mr Crosby has ahead and if he does not get it right (in the electorate's eyes), he may face the same fate in three years' time.
But Ms Beange is not the only one to be at the sharp end of society's need to attack and abuse.
Just this week I received a gutless, unsigned, typewritten letter from someone below contempt in response to the outcome of the elections and referring back to our council report card.
It read (in part): "This (report card) is a bias-weighted exercise but then that is nothing new for you or your paper is it, having had plenty of practice at it ... This "baby" has your hair-brained scheme written all over it, and you should have the balls to stand up and be counted instead of skulking around in the background."
I am always quite happy to sensibly discuss any decisions we have made at the Bay of Plenty Times but I draw the line at anonymous idiots and their rantings.
If you haven't got the guts to put your name to a letter to Ms Beange or me, then we'd all appreciate it if you kept yourself under that rock you call home.