I think we are in Stagflation territory in New Zealand, thanks to a moronic insistence on austerity to resolve a mostly external inflation problem.
Going all in on solar & battery discounts would be so much better than this stupid gas/oil thing, with the added benefit of disaster resiliency.
Are you trying to suggest that a few thousand landlords getting a tax break doesn’t equal the same spending power as 10000 public servants?!
Hopefully us kiwis learn that austerity is BS and doesn’t work faster than the UK did before turfing their tories out.
Yeah true; I wonder if that means they can’t even ask about it.
Landlords push the boundaries heavily though - especially property managed ones. Oh you left the place a little dirty - that counts as damage & im taking it out of your bond. They just rely on most tenants not having the stomach for the fight.
And to add that if you’re renting pets are often basically a complete no-go unfortunately.
Thing is though the anti-pedestrians care not a dot. My favourite local example is the one tiny bit of the Hastings CBD that has been cut off from cars between Market St & Russell St:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/39°38’29.2"S+176°50’33.9"E/@-39.641439,176.8420221,439m/
Its been closed to cars for ages; but even though there’s apparently not been any accidents from the way the rail travels through that park because the track is not blocked off it needs redevelopment to add a fence protecting people from trains.
And as soon as that was mooted some of the retailers in that one little block, despite being surrounded by parking every other side but that 75m stretch of Heretaunga St, started campaigning to allow cars back down it again. Because apparently having full blown parking lots 50m away from them its the lack of cars outside their door that’s impacted their trading (not global trading down turns, cost of living crises and covid pandemics).
If anything the parking behind the retail sections of Hastings is way better than the street parking anyway, there’s more spaces for differently abled people, and its way easier to get in & out of the masses of actual parking lots. If you travel further east along Heretaunga St there’s a section from Russell St to Hastings St that could also easily be pedestrianised too.
Its got loads of hospitality outlets, a fair bit of retail and crucially - is surrounded with car parking. Particularly in summer in the height of the fun seasons it would be a wonderful place to allow more al fresco dining and entertaining and events* but the naysayers will never let it happen.
*They run a few night festivals through summer with temporary road closures and they are very well attended.
They’re good* for certain parts of the economy that have a huge amount of money to throw at political campaigns I guess. Real Estate, Fisheries, Oil & Gas all got what they paid for.
*in the short term.