Wellington.Scoop
Mayor Kerry Prendergast has changed her message. On the billboard facing five lanes of traffic in Wakefield Street, her rugby world cup “party” message has gone. It’s been replaced by a briefer, up-beat slogan. Of only six words.

To which a cynic has suggested the addition of “rates up.” But Wellingtonians don’t seem to be concerned with their rates going up every year. As a result, the subject of rates isn’t visible in any of the mayoral campaigns.

Councilor Celia Wade-Brown has extended her mayoral campaign advertising into Newtown. This poster is in a bus stop outside the regional hospital. She also has a new message – about transport. No doubt she’s pleased that her policy promoting light rail seems to be popular with many people, even if it isn’t mentioned in this poster.

Read also
Mayoral candidates outline their policies

by Rachel Wattie and Damian George
It may not have got him over the line last time, but Lower Hutt mayoral candidate Ray Wallace hopes using the same approach will get his nose ahead in this year’s election. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
“Willis Street complete” is one of the headlines in the Wellington City Council’s effusive display advertisement in the DomPost today.

But the headline isn’t accurate. Only part of the job has been completed. Though it’s true that “the paving is complete” on this part of the new bus route, the council doesn’t mention that another stage of the project is yet to begin – on Thursday, linesmen will start the complicated task of rearranging the network of overhead wires for trolley buses.

And something else that the council doesn’t mention: the work has taken much longer than planned. When we published the above photo on July 23, work in Willis Street had fallen behind the mid-July completion date shown on the sign (and that date had been changed from the original target.)

The woes of retailers who’ve lost business because of the prolonged roadworks have been well reported. Today’s advertisement suggests another threat to the incomes of business people: the city is to have a “carnivale” theme during the Rugby World Cup, and the council wants the waterfront to become “the must visit” “fan zone” destination for entertainment and cultural activities. If Courtenay Place entertainment venues are wondering why the council wants their customers to move away, they are being offered only two days’ compensation – “fan zone action will move to Courtenay Place … for the quarter finals weekend of 8 and 9 October 2011.”

Today’s council advertisement also tells us that the city “will be dressed in its party finest” for the Rugby World Cup.

Which happens to connect, of course, with the theme of the advertising for the Mayor’s re-election.

Wellington.Scoop
Pedestrians in Taranaki Street were today bemused to see this new billboard – four storeys high – which has just been erected on the Cogent building. It’s a competition which travellers are not likely to be hurrying to enter. Not for a while, anyway.

Wellington.Scoop
On the day of the Canterbury earthquake, Wellington had blue skies and sunshine – a perfect Saturday.

There was even snow on the Tararuas.

In Cuba Street, if you decided to climb the steep stairs ….

you’d have found that Mighty Mighty was crammed for its market afternoon, from 1 to 5. There was hand-made icecream. Someone was selling a gas mask. Not your usual market.

Outside on the street, a meditation group was so motionless that you might have expected them to start levitating.

And just around the corner (after several people had claimed that he wasn’t using any street advertising this year) there was a poster of mayoral candidate Bryan Pepperell, inside the window of Scooterazzi and next to an impressive selection of Moto Guzzis. A recycled poster?

Wellington.Scoop
Mayoral candidate Celia Wade-Brown has added her outdoor advertising to the growing number of billboards around the city. This warmly-toned billboard is in Newtown, opposite the schools of drama and dance. Nearby …
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Wellington.Scoop
by Lindsay Shelton
The Wellington City Council’s inability to respond to public consultation has been confirmed again. This time, the criticism has come from the Civic Trust, which has told the council that its consultation on the city’s Draft Waterfront Plan has been a meaningless exercise. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
The Terry Serepisos name re-appeared today as an election issue – this time for the mayor of Hutt City who seems to have said too much about the property developer’s overdue rates. But in Wellington, since Mayor Kerry Prendergast’s meetings with the Serepisos-owned Phoenix football team to discuss its request for financial support from ratepayers, the city council has tried to make the Serepisos name go away, by saying nothing at all. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast took everyone by surprise this week by enabling a headline which stated uncategorically: Green light for second Mt Vic Tunnel. But there’s no evidence of a green light, or even an orange one. Read more »

by Alana Bowman
Consistency must count for something in Mayor Kerry Prendergast’s strategy, but it was conspicuous by its absence in a 24-hour period this week. On Tuesday, she honoured Forest & Bird and their project to save little blue penguins. One day later came her action to remove from city ownership and protection a piece of land that is a home for some of those same little penguins. Read more »

by Lindsay Shelton
This is the first Wellington election billboard that I’ve seen since nominations closed. It’s above the empty space at the back of Reading Cinemas, facing five lanes of northbound traffic on Wakefield Street. Read more »

by Councilor Helene Ritchie
The Wellington City Council has neglected Johnsonville for far too long. It is the centre of the Northern Ward, and the fastest growing area in Wellington -already the size of a city. Read more »

by Councilor Andy Foster
There’s been a lot of angst from some people in Johnsonville about Plan Changes 72 and 73. Let’s look at the big picture first. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
The Johnsonville Progressive Association has today been describing a basic fear of property owners whose savings are in their houses. The association says that Johnsonville residents are upset by the Wellington City Council’s District Plan Change 72, which councilors will be voting on tomorrow (Wednesday). It fears that the changes will push their suburb down the socio-economic ladder. And if Johnsonville goes down, down with it will go the value of the houses. Read more »

Wellington.Scoop
Here’s a new issue to add to the growing list of election issues – the Wellington Phoenix football team owned by property developer Terry Serepisos is asking ratepayers for financial assistance. Read more »