Why local government matters

Penny Tucker is retiring off the Orakei Local Board. Instead of a valedictory she has written a letter to her children. I think it is a great summing up of why people should get involved with their local council, or board, so am republishing it here. Hope you don’t mind Penny!

Dear Lucy, Zara and Violet.

Your Great Grandmother on my side loved Auckland. She wasn’t popular at the best of times and her her civic endeavours hardly endeared her to officialdom. She petitioned hard to double the size of the harbour bridge when it was initially conceived and was told by the blokes in charge to back off. She thought that a lack of cohesive planning in the city’s development would lead to aesthetic and social disconnects. My generation, she said, would be left to pick up the pieces.

As President of the Auckland Historic Places Trust, she fought to keep the trams and the proximate land they used. She thought both would be valuable assets in due course. So passionate about history was your Great Grandmother that when she and some mates founded MOTAT, they nicked whole cottages to put in it. She was not someone you could invite for tea without having a sound house and contents insurance policy.

If she’d had a personal motto, it would have been ‘don’t be a bystander.’ Stand by she did not.

I know you thought my standing for the Local Board was a rather incongruous decision. How wrong you were. Look at what you’ve gained. How many young adults, confined in a car with their mama, get to hear valuable insights into cliffs, berms, bus stops, bike lanes, cats, parks, rubbish, rubbishy developments, poorly sequenced lights, inadequate signage, crossings, people cross about crossings, crime, swans, asbestos, drains, dogs, playgrounds and inconceivably bad traffic management.

Those minutes stuck in traffic fly by, just like cars on Kepa Rd used to before we buggered it up.

Being a bystander never fixed anything.

It is often quite little things that impact quality of life in our neighbourhoods. It’s a stand of trees which grow into a point of pause on a daily walk. It’s watching a kid read the wind and go about in a sailboat at the Landing for the first time. It’s a bench near a beach where familiar faces and some passing new ones register the beauty of sitting by the tide. It’s hearing the rubbish truck and knowing that the red bin real estate is about to be freed up for another week. It’s a park where kids squeal with pleasure and even adults not connected to them look up from their phones for a second.

It’s knowing that someone is worried about water getting to where it should be. And is dealing with water where it should not be. It’s getting kids safely to school via walking or actual buses. It’s a waka with mana and memories carved into it back home in its own sheltered place on the edge of the sea. It’s the hope that someone will advocate for your house and your rights. Because what you see out of your window may be right there or far away but it is an achingly important component of how you view the world around you.

It’s a library full of mystery and activity for all ages. Sports fields where dirt and dings are badges of honour. It’s investing our resources back into our community and swatting away other Boards swooping in to thieve them in the manner of aggravating seagulls in Mission Bay. It’s a broken street light being fixed to cast a pool of comforting clarity in a palette of shadows.

Actually, it’s just life

What’s my hope for the Board? As with most families, our Board is idiosyncratic. A product of our democracy and the offices and institutions that support it. Sadly, there’s a distinct shortage of Ancient Greeks on social media platforms to whom we can address complaints. Thus, we have to muddle on. I hope our Board will continue to be an environment where perspectives, not the people airing them, are criticised. Where our critics feel they are treated with as much legitimacy as our collaborators. I hope people are treated with empathy and respect.

So that’s really it, daughters of mine. As always, I have been extremely grateful for your help. Not many kids have been dispatched to check forged dog signs in parks, put hundreds of poppies into an ANZAC Day crosses, take photos, deliver things here there and everywhere and to form a generational bridge at quiz nights. You are part of the team and I am proud of you.

I am often struck by how blessed I am to have a husband as long suffering as the one I managed to corral and I pass no judgement on him for going all the way to Saudi Arabia to avoid this presentation.

Also, if Auckland is about to be made more vibrant by the CRL, I am made more joyful by my KRL – that’s Kirstine, Rebecca and Lisa, my hoodies.

I never cease to be impressed by the passion, smarts and sheer energy our Councillor and Deputy Mayor brings to a tricky role. I know never to blow off a call from Desley because, like a draught in an old kauri villa, thinking you can ignore it isn’t even close to a management strategy. I am deeply appreciative of the staff and the teams at Council we work with and I hope I have not been too much of a pain. Actually, I probably have been. Sorry AT.

Last but most important, how good are our Orakei Local Board constituents? Those who participate, contribute ideas, support our projects, inspire and own initiatives, provide feedback (couple of honourable exceptions there) and make our communities the best in Auckland. We have the best iwi by far in the form of Ngāti Whatua Orakei. Their leadership from the prow or tauihu perched on a high point on our coastline is, in my view, a beacon of leadership in our city. We are so, so strong when we work together.

Bottom line. Don’t ever be a passenger in civic life if you actually expect to end up in a place you want to be. And don’t forget to tag off.

Ut Serviamus.