RIVERLEA THEATRE TO BE SOLD? Another stupid short-sighted decision by an idiot right-wing Council, this time affecting the arts community - sell the land under the Riverlea Theatre acquired for a song some years ago for just under $500,000 - a sale price that Hardaker & her fellow travelers on Council know full well is out of reach of this community arts organisation, and will either force them to close, or to relocate to the expensive and unfit for purpose Clarence St Theatre. Those that voted for Hardaker must be aware by now (even though she denied it during the election campaign) that her strategy is to flog off those community assets she can - all of them - at the same time, so that the outrage is spread so widely and thinly it will reduce in effectiveness. And if she cant sell it, she will see that the charges & fees for using it hurt (and cripple some of) the community organisations forced to meet them. And what of the newly-elected & other Councillors - all of whom claimed they would listen better to the community than the previous lot? Well Gary Mallett & Karina Green are at least honest about their right-wing intentions - you know where they are coming from; Andrew King claims support for the community & the little man, but consistently supports every move to sell community assets or jack up prices (despite having his own causes benefit from Council support in the past); Rob Pascoe is a sanctimonious know-it-all, who believes he is Councils mover & shaker, but cant help letting his own deep blue politics drive over his claimed support for the arts community; Leo Tooman is a disappointment in every area except transport where his personal experience leads him to support good community outcomes, but he just cant see the connection with anything else and ends up being led by the nose, or like a sheep to slaughter, by Hardaker; Philip Yeung is too quiet, too timid, but is being driven to regular opposition to many of Hardakers moves simply because his experience as a Council staffer has shown him the other side of the picture; Gordon Chesterman thinks being deputy Mayor means you have to blindly support your boss no matter what - use your brain, Gordon!; Margaret Forsyth is a strange, cold, person who occasionally clashes with Hardaker when she has had personal experience of the effect of her policies, but on every other occasion backs the Mayor to the hilt & beyond; Angela OLeary runs with the hares & hunts with the hounds - whoever is on top, she will back shamelessly and thoughtlessly - one of those cheerleader types that they feature in TV sitcoms that we all snigger at because of their ridiculousness; Ewan Wilson himself says the Mayors over-the-top right-wing agenda has driven him towards supporting community causes 99% of the time; Martin Gallagher consistently opposes Hardaker & supports the community and is becoming increasingly strident (surprising even himself); Dave Macpherson (the author) - you can judge for yourself. stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/10551235/Riverlea-Theatre-could-face-final-curtain
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 22:31:16 +0000
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