A Question to all Auckland Mayoral Candidates in the local body election: PUBLIC TRANSPORT

A Question to all Auckland Mayoral Candidates in the local body election: Have you looked into lowering the cost of Public transport? What are the profits and revenues being made by public transport service providers? As an Aucklander I feel the cash price of 5 dollars for two stages from (Mt Albert to Auckland) is way too much. I have a Hop card and student concession and it is still very expensive. People I know drive cars and get lifts to avoid the costs of public transport. I don't see why Goldcard holders should be allowed free transport while Students are not! I feel the cost of Public Transport needs to be reexamined and lowered to entice people to use it! Christchurch had some free and very cheap bus fares when I last visited a while ago now! If we are a Supercity we can do much better Moss

If I was standing for Mayor of Auckland I would...

If I was standing for Mayor of Auckland I would collapse the Auckland housing market and get rid of all domestic and international price speculation and Capital gains people are making from the market. Houses are for living in they are not a means to a profitable business by exploiting others who are not privileged enough to own a home! If you want to have a business there a plethora of other industries and other ventures to look into. Buying up houses and renting them out to families struggling to get by makes my blood boil. Worse are people who jump into bed with banks purchasing houses to flip them months later slicing off a tasty immoral profit. I have seen half of my extended family who lived in Auckland immigrate to Australia to improve their quality of life. The condition of the housing from what I know dramatically increased. Auckland not yet a Supercity!

An Ode to Billy Joe the Human Squirrel of ‘Pennys’

A man called Billy Joe liked to collect copper Penny’s in America. For 45 years

or so he picked up every penny that ever came across his path, it’s hard to imagine

he ever missed one. And yet every time he discovered a shiny strawberry relic 

pressed by some big coin machine in Washington he stared up high into the

heavens and thanked the universe and endless cosmos for his good fortune.

If someone ever dropped a nickel or a quarter dollar he would always run 

after them chasing them down a few blocks to give it back to them, 

but he would never do the same for a penny he was like a jealous lover

and wanted them all, all of the time. His magpie eyes would search out

even the slightest glint of red metal like a roving street sweeper he went

onto amass over 500,000 U.S certified legal tender pennies. 

Sadly one day the man who ran on pennies like a meaningless slot machine

that never payed out fell on hard times, due in part to the current economic

recession, old age and supporting his family. Facing destitution and homelessness

the man made the melancholic decision to cash in his life’s work, every good

damn penny, because he simply couldn’t afford to live, he was quoted as saying;

“Lord put some food upon the table, help me paya weeks rent,

I don’t really need no cable as long as my children been feed”  

Much later he conveyed to media how excruciatingly painful it had been to cash

up his life’s work for a measly $5000 dollars, a tiny cheque on flimsy paper 

could never fill the void left by losing his hard won mammoth coin collection.

He recounted how the saddest idea for him was the thought of all his beloved

penny’s sloshing around in the financial system only to be lost and taken for 

granted again, and how this time he didn’t have enough time to find them all 

because he was dying.

From a philosophical point of view isn’t it strange how the small amount of money

Billy earnt in the end was utterly dwarfed by his supreme joy even ecstasy of

chasing and hunting pennies such a simple act that he adored almost above 

everything else in life except his family. I’d be interested to know if the reader

thinks it’s a gift or a curse finding value were there really is none?

Despite Old Billy Joe succumbing to his phantom illness that struck him down

like a thunderbolt after selling his pennies I can still imagine him like the mad

human squirrel he once was and forever is; galloping down suburban pavements

in Los Angeles searching for worthless stained red gold, that only he could see.

  Never forget that there was once a poor humble human bean called Billy Joe

who treated unwanted pennies littered on the streets like lost magical talismans.                  

Hopefully we can all start discovering our ‘Pennys’ too, an action that brings us

untold joy with no real productive end just guided by our own free will, passion

and desires (now that sounds very millennial indeed).         By Moss