The paper had also stated it believed the HAC would be good for Whangarei's economy.
It was a shock to some readers who like their newspaper editors to be bland, grey and quiet. I'm grey (I argue prematurely) but at the time, I'd simply had enough of the BS around what was a bloody good idea being handled badly. So we put some facts out there.
Why do I support the HAC? Because I was born in Whangarei, have spent most of my life here and I'm sick of it progressing at a frustratingly slow pace compared to other regional towns. We are behind most of the rest of regional New Zealand - the HAC will help us get ahead.
Do I like art? I know what I like but I'm not fussed, to be honest. But the HAC has never been about art for me.
At one point, we made a front page plea for politicians to not reject the concept permanently, after reliable sources told us that one of the first large grants toward the project was a possibility, if we stopped behaving like chimpanzees scrapping over a banana tossed into a cage.
A lot of Hatea River water has flowed under the Canopy Bridge and past the HAC site since then.
Yesterday it was announced that the necessary money has been raised, and construction (site works) might start before Christmas.
In 2007 artist and Advocate columnist Jo Hardy wrote to the Whangarei Report chastising the council's lack of vision in rejecting Hundertwasser's offer of revitalising a building at the Town Basin.
In the letter she also mentioned that, rather than house the city's artworks in a Hundertwasser building, the council had opted to set up the Whangarei Art Museum (WAM).
It was good to see WAM take its place at the announcement yesterday, as politicians Shane Reti and Maggie Barry put a full stop on the fundraising process, with the news of a grant of up to $3 million toward the project.
In recent weeks, as news emerged that big dollars had been approved from the likes of the NZ Lotteries Board, the anti-HAC views have emerged again.
It is short-sighted to lament its ugliness, or the car parking problems we are going to have at the Town Basin.
The project will accelerate economic growth in Whangarei. If the pace of a town growing faster than people are used to is too much to handle, perhaps some of our population might be better off living elsewhere.
Whangarei - and Northland - needs long term, solid stakes in the ground. Not boom and bust industry. The test that this was the right horse to back though, for me, has been Andrew Garratt who has led the fundraising volunteer team.
He has vision, passion and integrity. He has skin in the game, as they say. A game that is all about Whangarei, and just happens to be about art too.
And that's all that matters - what's in it for the town.
Because if the town benefits, everyone who lives here does. And who doesn't want that?
