A number of elected members got their feet back on the ground with an interesting tour of inspection last week. Nothing like knowing what you're talking about with first hand experience is there? First up First call was to the Otumoetai swimming... Read More

Since 2001, City Hall's annual income (operational income) has gone up at least 74 percent ($73.365m to $127.743m). During the same time, rate collection has gone up 54 percent ($46.666m to $72.318m). User pays fees have made up the difference in the... Read More

I can say that, you see, because it is a fact and we all know it. We are all quietly thinking to ourselves, ‘Lockwood Smith is right,' but these days of political correct claptrap, politicians are not allowed to say what they think. I was having... Read More

Some media commentators have been speculating that the recession might be showing signs of improvement, others suggest it's a Dead Cat Bounce. That's a curious term from the finance sector that I think should be explored further. Firstly, I've never... Read More

Council has formally commenced the new Waiari Water Supply project last Friday with the inaugural meeting of the project steering group. For me its déjà vu going back to 1995-96 and the Joyce Road Microfiltration project. Back then there... Read More

The Art Gallery saga, Episode II. But first. There has been a development. On Friday morning, October 17 - the day the Weekend Sun first mentioned that I had relaunched Upstairs Downtown as an online blog - the director of the Tauranga Art Gallery, Richard... Read More

Back in 1989 the government-decreed new-look councils came into being. On the one hand large councils gobbled up lots of small community-driven councils. On the other hand, legislation decreed that the operations of these new, larger councils would be... Read More

We see some pretty strange things on the roads around the Western Bay of Plenty. You think 16 sets of traffic lights at one intersection will be weird? Well not as bizarre as the characters who drive through those intersections! A scary example, (right)... Read More

There's been quite a lot of comment lately about my body. I know, the bossman often rolls me over on the mat after dinner, massages my sprawling acres of handsome dog underbelly, and gently croons 'Your Body is a Wonderland.” Okay, so it might... Read More

This column gained a whole lot of new readers this week (well - a few anyway) as some of my elected colleagues came out of the closet and said they would be reading my column this week to see if I had reported the goings on at the Projects and Services... Read More

Did you know that Tauranga's charitable trust Art Gallery is actually a thumb_art_galleryCity Council owned and controlled facility? I discovered this to be so via the 2008/09 Annual Plan (budget). In that document I discovered that the Art Gallery is... Read More

A formal dress evening of great music, gourmet supper & wine. Entertainment includes songs from Schubert, Celine Dion & jazz performed by Cathy Harris of Tauranga Vocal Centre, Janelle Harris & students from Bethlehem College & Te Puke High. Held Oct... Read More