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Traffic in Auckland. Photo: Getty Images
Traffic in Auckland. Photo: Getty Images

AucklandMarch 17, 2018

Dear young people, Auckland needs you

Guest writer
Traffic in Auckland. Photo: Getty Images
Traffic in Auckland. Photo: Getty Images

Think your voice doesn’t count? The chair of Henderson-Massey’s local board begs to differ, calling on all young people to have their say on Auckland Council’s 10-year plan. 

Calling all young people in Auckland, your city needs you. The long-term future of Auckland depends on what is adopted in the Auckland Council’s 10-year long-term plan.

As an insider to the council process, I can tell you how much your submissions mean to the running of this city. As chairperson of the Henderson-Massey local board, I’ll read every submission that is made on the plan. I expect to receive about 800 pages of suggestions on what’s going right and wrong, but no doubt a majority of these submissions will be missing the youth voice. Although every page is important to us, I think my colleagues save the special orange highlighter for submissions from young people, and we truly hang onto every idea.

The reason for this is simple: there’s so much more at stake for young people. If you’re under 30, you’ll likely experience at least 50 years’ enjoyment of this beautiful place, so you’re the best bet that we have to make sure that it suits your needs. Older people also carry the same level of responsibility for Auckland’s future, but the older you are, the shorter amount of time you have to live with the decisions that are being made.

When I was first elected at the age of 26, I was Auckland’s youngest-ever elected representative. Even now at 30, I’m still usually the youngest person in the room. On that first day in office I hoped that by the age of 30 I’d be considered an old hand. So far, not yet. Decision-making in this city is still largely the preserve of those above the age of 45. Without an active population of politically-savvy young people to keep them on their toes, elected representatives find it more of a challenge to know what young people actually care about. We all try our best, but the more we know, the better our city will be.

So what’s the long-term plan about and how will it affect Auckland’s younger generation?   

Firstly, there’s a proposal for a regional fuel tax of up to 10c per litre. I think we can all agree that Auckland’s transport system is shocking for a world-class city. Auckland is continuing to grow, and while we’ve made huge gains in the last five years, public transport is still a non-starter for much of Auckland, especially to and from the airport and our outer suburbs. To fund extra infrastructure, the Council is asking whether we’re willing to pay more to get it right.

Second, there’s a targeted rate proposed for environmental management. Our natural spaces have degraded sharply, so much so that the Waitakere Ranges have had to be closed to stop Kauri dieback – a tree disease that threatens to wipe out most of the forest. If Auckland agrees, the Council will accelerate environmental protection.

Third, we’re facing a potential crisis if we can’t get our stormwater system up to scratch. Many of our underground pipes were installed over 50, sometimes 100 years ago, so it’s no wonder that the system is beginning to fail. We already have pollution warnings at some of our west coast beaches, and if we don’t act soon, our rivers and streams will be next to go, which will devastate our natural environment. The Council has proposed an extra rate to install large stormwater infrastructure to meet our city’s growing needs, and we need you to tell us what you think of this.

Finally, your local board has set their own priorities for your local community, so it’s in your interest to find out what they’re doing for your area. Let them know if they’ve got it right, or suggest improvements if you have other ideas on where we should be going. If you think we need a park upgrade, new cycle lanes, more events or anything like that, now is your chance.

More Reading

I have long worried that government at a local street level is something that just happens to young people, rather than something they are actively encouraged and able to participate in.  For our city to succeed and be world-class, the younger generation needs to drive the change.

Auckland Council is open for feedback on its 10-year plan until March 28, 8pm. 

This section is made possible by Simplicity, New Zealand’s fastest growing KiwiSaver scheme. As a nonprofit, Simplicity only charges members what it costs to invest their money. It already has more than 12,500 plus members who, together, are saving more than $3.8 million annually in fees. This year, New Zealanders will pay more than $525 million in KiwiSaver fees. Why pay more than you need to? It takes two minutes to switch. Grab your IRD # and driver’s licence. It really is that simple.

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pragerfeat

AucklandMarch 15, 2018

The Spinoff Reviews New Zealand #56: Lisa Prager’s sledgehammer technique

pragerfeat

We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Madeleine Chapman winces while watching cycleway protester Lisa Prager swing a hammer.

As Lisa Prager diligently swung her sledgehammer over and over again in an attempt to break a concrete block, my back started to hurt. She was side on, with no hand movement, and swinging low. She was doing everything to guarantee that any force she wanted going into that concrete block would instead go straight into her wrists and spine, leaving her whole body very sore tomorrow. I watched her and I wept. The only thing worse than seeing someone suffer a self-sustained injury is seeing someone perform a task poorly. With sledgehammer in hand, Lisa Prager was doing both.

Camped out on the corner of Richmond Road and Surrey Crescent, Prager is putting into action her promise to stop Auckland Council from making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Her target? A kerb recently constructed on the side of the road, apparently to create a safe cycleway through Grey Lynn. Prager said no, that won’t do, and set about literally dismantling it with the help of a sledgehammer and crowbar.

But how did she really do? David Farrier (posting Sophie Musgrove’s video) thought she was very good. Farrier has been right about many things but this isn’t one of them. Lisa Prager is terrible with a sledgehammer. I’m no expert lumberjack, but I’ve swung enough sledges in my life to know when it’s being done wrong. My dad taught me how to chop wood when I was ten. It took me a while to get the technique right but it’s come in handy a lot since then, especially last year when I used sledgehammer swings as training for throwing the javelin.

So let’s break down Prager’s technique and see where she’s gone wrong.

Step 1: stance

Prager stands perpendicular to the concrete block she wants to smash. This is already lessening any force she hopes to generate. Ideally, you want to be standing square in front of your target, or facing the target with your weak foot forward. Granted, the ground is uneven but standing unevenly sideways is much worse than standing unevenly in front. She’s not off to a promising start.

Step 2: grip

This is perhaps Prager’s biggest technical error. While her left hand is well placed at the bottom of the handle, her right hand is far too low to be generating any sort of useful power. When swinging a tool such as a sledge, your strong hand should begin right up the top of the handle, basically touching the metal head. This allows for more control as you swing and encourages a higher back swing. A higher swing equals a longer arc equals more downward power generated. Which brings us to…

Step 3: backswing

Oh boy. This is bad. At the peak of her backswing, Prager is hunched forward. Say a prayer for her back. To get the most force bearing down on her enemy, the concrete block, Prager should be as tall as possible with a straight back and nearly straight legs, ready to begin a natural downward motion and letting the weight of the sledge do most of the work. Look at those angles that I masterfully drew and try figure out which one would be more effective in transferring energy from Prager to concrete. She’s not in a good place but there’s no going back once your downward swing begins.

Step 4: contact

A few things wrong here. The first is the bent arm. Bent arms and hunched back means Prager has relied solely on her own strength to generate power. If humans had the arm strength to break concrete, we wouldn’t need sledgehammers. Making contact with bent arms means a) Prager is standing too close to her target, and b) she has approximately no power in her swing. Sadly, of the little force she’s managed to generate with her biceps, most of it is about to be absorbed by her right hand. Remember when I said the right hand should begin at the top of the handle? Well it’s supposed to end at the bottom to allow for the longest downward arc and to distance them from the impact. What Prager’s done is plant her right hand in the middle and leave it there. That’s too close to the point of contact and a lot of the shock from metal colliding with concrete will be felt in her wrist. Let’s put up another prayer for Prager’s skeletal system.

Had she used her implement correctly, Prager should have been able to remove a concrete block every few minutes. But she didn’t, and that’s why the four swings shown in the video resulted in a puff of dust and nothing more, not unlike a concrete fart.

After doing everything possible to reduce power in her swing, Prager is left with just the weight of the sledge as force. She would’ve been just as effective holding a shot put above the concrete block and letting it drop.

I feel bad that Prager will wake up tomorrow feeling like her back has been torn in two but at the same time it’s a relief knowing that had she been given all the time in the world to break up that kerb, she’d still be there two weeks from now, valiantly patting the concrete with a 5kg metal sledge.

Instead, Prager has been arrested, supposedly for damaging public property, though the only damage I witnessed was to her body and to my eyes.

Verdict: Good sledging can break concrete, bad sledging can break your back.

Good or bad: Bad

This section is made possible by Simplicity, New Zealand’s fastest growing KiwiSaver scheme. As a nonprofit, Simplicity only charges members what it costs to invest their money. It already has more than 12,500 plus members who, together, are saving more than $3.8 million annually in fees. This year, New Zealanders will pay more than $525 million in KiwiSaver fees. Why pay more than you need to? It takes two minutes to switch. Grab your IRD # and driver’s licence. It really is that simple.