There's no way I'm going to wade into the row about the two controversial cartoons with overweight adults who are either Polynesian or Maori dressed in children's school uniforms joining a line for free school meals. In one, the man says to the woman, who has a cigarette hanging from her mouth: "Psst. If we can get away with this, the more cash left for booze, smokes and pokies." The moment I saw the cartoons I immediately thought "Hoowee - this is going to cause a stir" and I was right. Indeed while the hat of bad parenting may fit squarely on the heads of certain ethnic groups more than others, such stereotyping in cartoons is treading on dangerous ground - as the cartoonist has since found out. But despite how the story is told, you'd have to be in a coma to deny that booze, smokes and pokies are one hell of a problem, no matter who is involved.
Please tell me it's a printing error. I came across a copy of the Rotorua Daily Post that has been lying around for a couple of weeks with an article headed "$56k spent daily on pokies". Daily? Further reading showed this was in Rotorua alone. Surely this figure can't be right. Please say this was a misprint?
With the sinking home saga affecting three homeowners in a Ngongotaha suburb having dragged on for about 18 months, settlement between them and the Rotorua District Council has dragged on for way too long. With the RDC initially issuing building consents and codes of compliance only to be revoked later by the Department of Building and Housing, it has left the homeowners well and truly up the creek. And Another Thing does not intend to get involved in this argument and can only hope that the homeowners receive a fair settlement and soon. Being short on all the facts, I have to be careful here but I can't help thinking that the RDC's recent purchase of the Rotorua Museum cafe for top dollar is incredibly bad timing.
The recent Business Extra features Pukeroa Oruawhata trustees celebrating Rotorua's city mall success, trumpeting how they turned a "bare parcel of land" into a $106 million retail development. Just a shame that they sucked all the life out of the CBD to do it. And anyway the new mall isn't that marvellous - in fact it's a mishmash. With three major banks now shoe-horned into the mall, the bottleneck of traffic squeezing in and out of the complex is a treat to watch - provided that you're not it. The experience can be best described as being fed through a pinball machine. Pedestrians too can be seen risking their lives dodging between the cars as they go from one part of the complex to another. The haphazard growth of "Rotorua Central" - which would be better called "Rotorua on the Edge", shows little sign of forward planning. To the Pukeroa Trust and the planners, I say that this not an opportunity for celebration, but for shame in allowing such a mess to grow to the extent where shoppers and business have no choice now but to live with it. Saturday's paper cites the next big project, Trade Central on the edge of the CBD where Mega Mitre 10 now stands. Like the new shopping centre on Tarawera Rd (if you can get to it), it will enjoy some success. Meanwhile the inner CBD which was once the heart of our city will continue to die.
