Maybe the old greens could be made into a community garden?
People needing help may feel better about asking if they were able to be part of the good old-fashioned working bee.
Don't just throw our money at it, use a little bit of common sense. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be common anymore.
C Bardebes
Gate Pa
Nursing legends
Having been a patient in Tauranga Hospital three times (with two operations) in the last year, I am able to give my opinion on the nurses who treated me.
I have nothing but admiration for them all and the way I was nursed, day and night.
We are so lucky to have these nurses in our hospital. They are clever, qualified people and should be paid accordingly.
Elvie Battershill
Matua
Flying pigs
Museum on Cliff Rd: Las Vegas comes to Robbins Park will bring the best of the rest of the world to the Bay of Plenty.
I live on Cliff Rd but six trillion visitors seems a lot.
The museum needs to operate day and evenings to be viable and visitors per year cautiously estimated at 240,000 in 2023 and 550,000 in 2053.
At 1000 and 2000 a day that seems overcrowded and to believe them you must be a Tauranga councillor or very gullible.
Forty-five buses and 540 cars per day maximum is unbelievable.
Council's museum proposal, I suggest the upper floor of the art gallery, another white elephant costing millions in capital, maintenance and staffing with visitors only in hundreds weekly.
Larry and the lads could cross the road for hongi, hangi and haka in the outdoor evening events with buddies on The Strand. Only $20 million? Pigs might fly.
Ted Petrie
Tauranga
Rights not divisive
In his recent letter (Letters, May 4), Don Brash complains about "half-truths" expressed by Tommy Wilson (Opinion, April 30), whilst engaging in similar behaviour.
In failing to recognise the obvious difference between Maori who have chosen to politically assimilate and those who choose political independence, a right guaranteed by the Treaty and later Constitutional Acts, he shows what is, in my opinion, a degree of ignorance common in society.
It is not patronising to recognise these rights, nor does it create division.
History has shown that without representation, those who choose and have no option to be Maori can be marginalised at the whim of the majority.
New Zealand is progressing well in its unique form of democracy that includes recognition of those rights at national level, but sadly not in Tauranga, yet.
Robin Bell
Omanawa
Glass cleanup
Maleme St transfer station had four composting consultants there today.
They were looking at the rubbish we dump there.
Ratepayers' money would be better spent cleaning up the shattered glass spilled across the roads.
Zeepra Lemoto
Parkvale
Mistaken issues
It is concerning that in the promotion of Maori ward petitions, many believed that the issue was over hospital wards for Maori or the appointing of Maori wardens, and voted accordingly.
Bryan Johnson
Omokoroa
