Comments
Is David Beckham worth it?
If you live in Wellington or have ever been here, chances are, you’ll have heard of the Chocolate Fish Cafe. I wrote about The Chocolate Fish Cafe a while ago, and often hear stories about lazy Saturdays spent eating delicious breakfasts and downing coffees in the sun, just around the bays.
The Chocolate Fish Cafe is a Wellington icon. We LOVE it. When Wellingtonians and lovers of Wellington heard that the council is raising their rates to compensate for the extra seating the cafe requires, to a point that The Chocolate Fish will have to charge $7 for a coffee to keep going… they were outraged. The fact of the matter is, we think the owners SHOULD be making a fortune out of us, we love their place, we love taking guests from out of town there, we love it how people come to Wellington and head directly to The Chocolate Fish.
How often do you come across a business that we’re all willing to ’subsidise’ through allowing reduced council rates? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before.
In the meantime, the council is shelling out a ‘modest’ contribution to the $1.5 million cost of bringing David Beckham over to play 55 minutes of football.
I abandoned my emotional side and looked at this situation from an economic point of view:
Despite the councils unwillingness to divulge how much they have actually paid for Bavid Beckham, lets say it’s $100,000, which, I believe is roughly the increase in rates they are demanding from the Chocolate Fish Cafe. Let’s examine two scenarios where the council ’spends’ roughly the same cash:
David Beckham comes.
Wellington is hit with football fever for a day, they attractive a massive one off crowd to watch the game and are gambling (I assume) that many people who go to watch David, will fall madly in love with the game and continue to support the Wellington team, thus earning Wellington some good coin.
The council leaves the Chocolate Fish Cafes rates where they are
The hugely successful Wellington icon will stay open. For the next 5, 10, 15 years… The Chocolate Fish will continue to enhance Wellington’s image as a vibrant and quirky city, will continue to inspire visitors to drive or bike around the bays and take in Wellington beautiful scenery, will continue to pay significant rates and benefit the council.
I don’t get it.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Well put. Anyone know Peter Jackson? Maybe he can help…
September 18th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
The best long term thing to do would be to vote in the local body elections (the voting papers come out later this week), and put more enthusiastic and community minded people onto the council, rather than the status quo incumbents. Usually well under 60% of eligible voters participate, which is unfortunate, given the leverage that the council has on important local issues.
The council has set themselves up to be able to siphon huge amounts of money out of the “base general rate” into schemes like the Beckham one, with very little transparency. I think as residents, we have to demand more transparency and accountability, and I hope that with a few changes of face, we may have more pressure on council to make itself more accountable to residents, who are their customers/shareholders after all.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Good point. I’m a big believer of that on a national level - the key to a good government is politically aware citizens, and I was thinking about getting into the local body elections this year (I even went to the launch of a mayoral campaign!) - Is there a website for finding out more about candidates?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I definitely think it’s time for a review of the way rates are allocated and spent in Wellington, as many residents feel like they’re just not getting a fair deal. I really hope that some kind of deal can be reached over the Chocolate Fish situation - having Beckham in town for a day vs losing a Wellington icon? It just doesn’t add up right, but that’s the way the numbers go as far as council is concerned.
Not sure if there is a website with all the candidates, but most of them have their own sites…
http://www.elections.org.nz/local_elections_2007.html
Personally, I’m going to vote for Callum Strong and Ed Van Son (of Eds Juice Bar fame), mainly because they’re old friends of mine and represent the interests of my generation… Hopefully this next term will see the end of the horrible factionalism that has divided the council for the past few years, that’s the main thing I care about, regardless of who gets in.
According to this site only 42% of eligible voters turned out for the last election:
http://www.localcouncils.govt.nz/lgip.nsf/wpg_URL/Councils-A-Z-Councils-Wellington-City-Council-E1
September 18th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Thanks I just updated my details but it’s very difficult to find a list of candidates! I saw Ray Ahipene-Mercer’s launch, he was pretty interesting, I thought his speech fell short when he started talking about ‘leadership’ instead of what he’s actually achieved (which is quite significant).
I’ll look up your guys :)
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:00 am
I’ll be voting for Roger Ellis, but that’s just personal preference because I know him :)
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:05 am
Good comparison.. and yes I’m sad about loosing starfish!