mt victoria, wellington

Next week the moving truck will arrive, and MVRA President Jessica Closson and family will begin the long trip back to the United States to take up new jobs and residence in San Francisco.

Jessica has been a stalwart of the community and the Residents Association since she, her husband Morgan and son Luke arrived in Mt Victoria four years ago. For the last two years, Jessica has been President of MVRA and has led some high-profile campaigns, notably the successful High Court challenge against the resource consent granted to the Pirie Street brothel.

Everyone who has worked with Jessica over the last few years can testify to her energy and enthusiasm for our community. She has done an exceptional amount of work over that time, writing, researching and presenting the many submissions that MVRA makes to local and central government, convening and attending a huge number of meetings, and talking to everyone from concerned residents to creche mothers and councillors about the issues of the day.

Jessica's passion for our community will be sorely missed in Mt Victoria, and we wish her and her family every success in San Francisco.

The Capital Times has a story this week about the intersection of Pirie Street and Kent Terrace, saying that motorists are frustrated at the long delays when trying to exit Pirie Street for Kent and Cambridge Terraces.

As many locals will know, it's potentially a long wait at the lights. The Capital Times explores the idea that recent (well, actually not so recent) changes to the intersection have resulted in much longer delays for Pirie Street drivers. This is put down to pedestrians suddenly being acknowledged as legitimate road users by the traffic engineers. So far, so good - it's an interesting hypothesis, and definitely worth investigation.

Then into the discussion leaps Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean, who in a flash of lateral thinking proceeds to blame the Mt Victoria Residents Association for the changes and resulting delays! It's a fantastic story - those pesky and pushy residents have been disrupting the flow of traffic due to their unreasonable demands! Blame them!

If only it were true.

Pirie Street residents have reported a significant upswing in the after-hours parties occurring at the Victoria Bowling Club on the edge of the Town Belt over the summer. In early January a very large party with a live band ran into the small hours of the morning, leading us to wonder about how the Bowling Club reconciled its supposedly sporting activities with renting the facilities to partygoers.

Spotted at the entrance to the bus tunnel, in the middle of the evening rush-hour:

Yes, that black dot silhouetted at the Hataitai end of the tunnel is someone running through. After dodging at least four buses ....

... he duly appears at the Mt Victoria end, running like a demon.

Yup - young, male and stupid. He seems to be a living testament to the fact that we are unable to learn from the misfortunes of others.

... get your digital copy here.

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Visit the festival pages to the right for more info, and to get involved...or email tania (at) mtvictoria.org.nz

Innermost Gardens is running a movie night at Charles Plimmer House next Wednesday, and all are invited.

Kathleen Gallagher’s latest film Earth Whisperers/Papatuanuku was shot at spectacular locations around New Zealand by Alun Bollinger and Mike Single. This absorbing feature documentary focuses on 10 visionary New Zealanders out to prove that a shift in consciousness can heal our environment.

7:00- 7.30 Mix and mingle
7.30 – 9.00 Movie
Charles Plimmerton House, Mt Victoria.

*KOHA WILL BE APPRECIATED

How to get there: Charles Plimmerton House is the Community house on the old bowling green in Mt Victoria. The easiest access is from Lawson place, at the top of Majoribanks St, walk across the field and you will see the community house. It is also possible to access us from the top of Pirie St, you will need to walk past the Victoria Bowling club to the Community house.

innermostgardens@gmail.com
www.innermostgardens.org.nz

As we depart from a recession-plagued 2009 to the sunlit uplands of 2010 (hopefully!), it's worth looking backwards on what a big year it's been for our neighbourhood.

The year got off to a huge start with the inaugural Mt Victoria Festival, which - despite an unseasonably rainy day - attracted a big crowd from across the city to sample the food, be entertained and informed, and to generally have a great time sloshing around in the puddles. It was such a success that a bigger and better Festival is planned for Saturday 27 February 2010, so mark your calendars now!

Funky Junk doing their thing on the street outside Crossways...even a little rain couldn't dampen the lively vibe!

The venue for the festival is the New Crossways Community Centre in Roxburgh Street, which resulted from local residents banding together to lease replacement premises after the original Crossways was sold from underneath the community by the Presbyterian Church. New Crossways has gone from strength to strength and has more than double the usage of the old facility, so it's been a hugely worthwhile addition to Mt Victoria. The Trustees threw a well-attended party in October to celebrate being open for the first year.

The NZ Transport Agency staff responsible for the Basin Reserve traffic improvements (read: flyover) fronted up to last night's MVRA meeting as part of their community engagement. This was a very welcome development from an agency that has traditionally been reluctant to talk to the people who will be most affected by their roading projects, and Frank Fernandez and Tony Brennand from NZ Transport Agency were very forthcoming with the consultation approach they intend taking.

The process is likely to work as follows:

• NZTA will launch a website before Christmas that will provide the full range of information about the project, which will gradually be improved as more information is added to it.
• A brochure about the project will be sent to all homes in the greater Wellington area in February 2010, a week or two before the formal consultation process commences at the end of February.
• The consultation process will run for six weeks from the end of February and will include multiple mechanisms for getting community input.
• Once the responses have been collated, recommendations will be made on which options should go forward into a detailed design phase, and a decision will be made by the NZ Transport Agency board as to which one will be adopted. Construction is currently slated to begin in 2013/14, but this date is subject to change.

There was robust and vigorous feedback from the MVRA committee and considerable concern expressed that NZTA have already made the decision to build a flyover. Both Frank and Tony claimed this was not the case, and that all options were still on the table. They also said that the decision on which option would be selected would be made by the four government agencies involved - the Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, and the NZ Transport Agency - rather than the decision being made solely by NZTA.

MVRA will keep residents informed about this project, which is likely to have a significant impact on the southern end of our neighbourhood.

A meeting will be held at Crossways THIS week on Thursday 3 December, 7.30pm for residents and businesses in Caroline and Roxburgh Streets who will be affected by the closure for the festival.

The closure date is planned for Saturday 27 February 2010 from 8am - 5pm (the festival will run from 10am - 3pm). The committee has planned for a rain day option for Sunday 28 February.

Come down and discuss the closure and festival with the 2010 Festival Committee, so we can ensure the event meets the needs of the community. We'd love to have your input!