Show over substance
February 7th, 2011 at 6:34 am by David FarrarJonathan Marshall in the SST reports:
Auckland Mayor Len Brown said last year he’d start commuting to work by train – and he did. But while he rides, his mayoral car, a V6 Holden Commodore, kept in his home garage, makes the same trip via the motorway with no passenger.
Critics claim his ticket to ride is a PR stunt that’s doing nothing about pollution or congestion.
On Friday the super city’s first mayor completed – for the fourth time – his $5.10 journey from Papatoetoe to the downtown Britomart transport hub, travelling with mayoral aide Jansje Tobeck, and walking 1.1km from Britomart to his office.
But with his driver on the motorway into Auckland at the same time, comparisons are being drawn with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was caught in 2007 boasting of catching the subway from his home when he was having his limousine drive him from his home to a station closer to his destination.
On Friday Brown’s driver Ronald Showler arrived at the mayor’s home around 7.40am, having travelled the 11km from his house in his own car.
Moments later Tobeck arrived in her car, driving 19km from her east Auckland home in order to car- pool with Brown to Papatoetoe station, while Showler began the 25km trip to the city.
Len seems to not understand how most people use public transport. It sort of defeats the purpose to have your car follow the train to work. The idea of public transport is you walk to a bus stop, bus to the train station and then take the train to work, and do it in reverse in the evening. That way you leave the car at home.
Tags: Len Brown
February 7th, 2011 at 6:37 am
That’s what happens when you try to be all things to all people. Did Len pay for his train ticket on his council credit card?
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 6:51 am
How good is that integrated public transport now you have to use it eh Len. Bit of a hike up Q St you say. Buses unreliable you reckon. Trains a bit shite. But Britomart is pretty.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 7:20 am
From the same article… “I’d imagine the effect of the mayor taking public transport would outweigh the consequences of whatever petrol was involved, or any inconvenience suffered by the citizens of Auckland.”
More likely the effect of the mayor taking public transport when it’s plainly inconvenient and inefficient for him personally will underscore for everyone the fact that public transport rests on the assumption that enough people are able to organise their lives around norms defined by the community at large and that the rest of you are willing to pay for it. Good luck with that.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 7:28 am
Len wants to use Public Transport, but within limits.
His limits.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 7:31 am
If he doesn’t understand this simple stuff what does he understand. He really is a “THICK PRICK”.
Vote:New name for Cullens lefties.
February 7th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Comrade Brown is completely phoney, not only flakey but a fake too.
In the medium term it doesn’t matter: the same illiterate mob who voted in him will repeat the stupidity in three years time, and Auckland will again be saddled with this demagogue and non-performer.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 7:57 am
Lightweight Len Brown is going to come unstuck bigtime!
Populist, lack of gravitas mayors have but brief incumbencies.
Look the the intellectual giant who foisted those sad, sad palms on Queen Street.
Lightwight Len’s reign will be equally brief and forgettable.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:02 am
This is Len’s mayoralty in a nutshell.
All style, no substance. Much like his 100 new things in 100 days, 75 of which were not new, or part of his job in the first place. Well done Auckland. This was a real victory for the left.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:05 am
inventory2 – re use of Council credit card. It all depends on whether a Mayor or Councillor is entitled to travelling expenses to Council meetings which AFAIK they are entitled to. For example it would be quite reasonable for a Great Barrier Island resident to claim such expenses although it is easy to mock such a councillor politically. The Auckland Mayor, being an ‘Executive Mayor’ arguably should met his own travel costs to work, and if the Council pays, it should be treated as a fringe benefit for tax purposes.
In this regard Celia Wade-Brown with her bike has it all over Len Brown.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:19 am
So not only do right-wingers have to deal with public institutions like this foisted on us and that we have to pay for via our taxes, but now we actually have to explain to lefties how they’re supposed to use them?
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:27 am
Amazes me that this was a grown and allegedly smart man, sitting there, thinking up this ‘great’ PR idea, thinking that it will not back fire. What do they smoke at his office??!!
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:35 am
The shallowness of the man is increasingly becoming evident – “talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk”. Only two more years for Auckland voters to catch on.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:41 am
Len nicely illustrates why I pay much more and drive my own car into town. It isn’t just that I like the flexibility and comfort. It is also that when I am in town, I have a vehicle ready and waiting to get to all the places public transport doesn’t go, and at a moment’s notice. Having that option to get to places quickly and at short notice really matters, and is why I will never use public transport if I can help it, and why it is grossly unreasonable for councils to spend ratepayer money to force more ratepayers onto public transport.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:45 am
Len isn’t a necessarily a hypocrite – he is simply highlighting how useless public transport is if the goal is to get to lots of different places quickly, which as mayor he presumably does. Yes, Len, thank you – public transport IS hopeless for frequent and diverse travel needs. Thanks for the reminder. Now, how about respecting the fact that many of us, like you, rather value and indeed REQUIRE the freedom cars bring and public transport does not, and start providing the infrastructure necessary to support the transport most people in Auckland actually and demonstrably want: motor cars.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Well, I guess the Mayor of Auckland has got himself into a bind.
He’s trying to please everyone who thinks it would be good for him to take the train and the bus and to walk.
But he runs into the rock of his and their double standards when the reality of his situation becomes clear.
He might find it better if he just said: “Bugger it, I’m the Mayor of Auckland, and I need to have a car available so that I can do the job as Mayor of Auckland.”
It’s an approach that worked for the various ‘people’s’ central committees and Politburos and ‘nomenklaturists’ in socialist and communist ‘people’s democracies’ of the past, so why shouldn’t it work for the Mayor of Auckland?
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Len’s trainride is just an empty gesture, from an empty vessel.
Wellington’s mare has it all over Len – she rides her bicycle to the office, no bullshit pretence from her.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Yup – classic lefty. I think people should use public transport. Other people that is. Because I’m too important, it isn’t convenient for me. But other people should make compromises – it’s easier for them.
Funny thing, if it were so easy, everyone would do it without the government having to intervene so much. The fact that people are prepared to be stuck in their cars on the motorway, and pay all that money for petrol and parking, tells us just how crap public transport really is.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 10:30 am
LOL @ 3-coil
“Wellington’s mare…”
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Len should go and plant another tree on one tree hill every time he takes the train.
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 11:50 am
PaulL, I think lefties consider the fact that people CHOOSE to use their own cars over public transport as evidence of ‘market failure’.
And ‘market failure’ to them simply means, choices other people make that they disagree with and cannot understand. When the choice is between a failure of the market and a failure of their imagination and intelligence, then it ought not be a surprise that delicate ego Lefties routinely choose the blame the other thing. Just like how theists find proof of the existence of god in their own ignorance, “of course God exists, otherwise how do you explain the tides?”
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Ha Ha. Aucklanders voted him in. Even when they know has credit card use was ‘dodgy’. What would you expect than this story about the train.
Vote:Any finality yet on what / who he bought dinner for using ratepayers money.
February 7th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
We didnt really have any other worthy candidates up here
Vote:February 7th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
The really curious thing is that any car carrying two people is 50% loaded for the whole commute trip both ways.
No bus or train can match that performance in terms of energy efficiency, pollution, or carbon footprint or whatever you chose to measure. When did you last see a bus fifty percent loaded from start to end of its journey?
Therefore this gesture actually “makes things worse”.
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