News and information for those involved in Resource Management issues

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Owen McShane
1104 Oneriri Road
R.D. 2
Kaiwaka
Northland
0573
New Zealand
Phone: 64 9 431 2775
Fax: 64 9 431 2772

straight thinking on line

Mobile: 0274 767 814

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Columns
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# Article Title Hits
1 A Tsunami of Dissent? 37
2 Who do we Think we Are? 66
3 “Impossible Dream” or “Achievable Nightmare”? 63
4 Why we must learn to love partial asset sales 99
5 Why we must learn to love partial asset sales – Part One 122
6 Fighting the Battles on the Home Front? 62
7 Good News will Help us Come to terms with Gas 150
8 Let’s Get Close to the Water! 83
9 DIGGING THROUGH THE DURT 95
10 Questions for Auckland Councillors 107
11 When Plans prevent Action 135
12 The Reactionaries and the Modernists – Maori at the Crossroads 84
13 Let’s Unleash Auckland and aim for 10% Growth. 119
14 Another Option for Inter-City Rail 116
15 The Costs and Benefits of Roads 131
16 Let’s Build on Auckland’s Brand 157
17 The Budget and the Four Percent Dream 141
18 Why our Productivity is Stuck in the Mud 187
19 The Public Transport Revolution – Why does it never Arrive? 180
20 Housing Affordability – A right wing Plot? 177
21 Increasing the Build Rate – What Councils can Do 174
22 Boosting the Residential Build-Rate 155
23 Why isn’t the economy doing better? Part One. 220
24 More Thoughts On Health as a Major Earner 201
25 396 Thoughts for 2011 170
26 Why Large Scale Cities require Small Scale Advisors 355
27 Straight Thinking: Rail Alert – time to stop the crooked costings 377
28 How about building a Competitive Countryside? 258
29 Can the Auckland Council Survive? 359
30 Making the Super-City Work 464
31 How High Speed Broadband gets People out of their Cars 351
32 Planning the future - Puhoi to Mangawhai 368
33 Why we have to learn to love Subdivision – Again 403
34 The Disappearance of the Next Middle Class 415
35 When Politicians have Visions the People get Nightmares 407
36 What is a Spatial Plan? – And Whose is it? 492
37 Long Live the Recession 503
38 The Economic Meaning of Village Markets 487
39 The Good News and the Bad News 380
40 Why do We Love Things that Just Don't Work? 533
41 Falling off the edge of the Pacific Rim? Thoughts on Wicked Problems. 568
42 No other Gods before Them 763
43 It’s a Small World – or it Should Be 557
44 The Invasion of the Money Snatchers 481
45 Taxing Property to Death 558
46 Pushing out the Boundaries – and stretching out the facts 551
47 Spontaneous Order – a Solution to Traffic Congestion 620
48 Closing the Gap – why we seem destined to fail 672
49 The Report of the 2025 Housing Task Force 803
50 When do fines become taxes? 552
51 Climate Change Reporting 517
52 Putting the Brakes on Growth 574
53 Freedom to Build 664
54 It’s About Productivity – Stupid! 644
55 It’s All About Control - Stupid 641
56 Digging Deep to find our Blind Spots 603
57 Greenhouse Gas Emmissions 632
58 Improving Auckland’s Ranking 1292
59 Let’s have some Smart Thinking in our Cities! 1322
60 Stop Funding the Sustainababblers 644
61 Getting down to the coal face 639
62 Why do Social Engineers Hate the Motorcar? 727
63 The P.M. has a Chief Science Advisor – but what should he do? 750
64 US Farmers sell their carbon credits – how come? 881
65 They’re still not sleeping in Seattle! 696
66 The Governance of a Multi-Nodal City 1265
67 GETTING NZ BACK IN THE FAST LANE – FIVE 746
68 On Getting into the Fast Lane (Part Four) and Creating Jobs 735
69 On Getting into the Fast Lane (Part Three) – and getting rid of humbug 905
70 Getting into the Fast Lane (Part Two) 868
71 Getting into the Fast Lane Part One 756
72 The High Costs of Central Planning (Part 2) 875
73 The High Costs of Central Planning 910
74 Where we do we go from here? 869
75 Council Revenues Are Drying Up 941
76 Why R and D Tax Credits are not a Good Idea 834
77 Can a New Government Actually Change Anything? 951
78 The War on Dairy Has Begun 1214
79 Evidence of Entrenched PC Ideas in Policy Statements 919
80 Oil Bubbles and Speculation Part 2 896
81 Oil Bubbles and Speculation 923
82 Dealing with Depression. 1079
83 Cities face a choice – and they need to get it right! 1090
84 Why Councilors should seek independent advice 1107
85 Two Bubbles Bursting. 1127
86 Houston – the well-planned City without a Plan 1120
87 The Star City of the Lone Star State. 1403
88 Affordable Housing – how to get it 1104
89 The Commissioners’ Dillemma 1041
90 Council action could save many companies, and the life savings of many New Zealanders. 1398
91 Auckland’s Looney Tunes 1204
92 When will we ever Learn? 1059
93 Why Mobile Phones and Broadband are so good for Urban Transport. 1064
94 What would life be like without the RMA? 1276
95 One Week in Bali 1237
96 More myths bite the dust. 991
97 More myths bite the dust. Part A 1018
98 Councillors or Commissioners? That is the question. 1067
99 The Other “Clash of Civilisations”. 1062
100 Fourteen Tips for New Mayors 1112
101 “We looked up to the Environment and when we looked down the land was gone!” 1086
102 Who knows how to make a Carbon-Neutral Pencil? 1319
103 We can get by with some help from our Friends – a review essay. 1043
104 Great News for Couch Potatoes! 997
105 Irresistible forces meet an Immovable Object? 995
106 Super City – or Mega Flop? 1361
107 Some random thoughts on Sales, Marketing and Fair Trading. 1000
108 Our Two “Established” Religions. 929
109 Does Auckland have a Death Wish? 1018
110 Why Rush to Kyoto Judgment? 967
111 Why are Australians Richer than Us? 1048
112 You must go down to the coast today 1028
113 The Selfish Generation gets Greedier by the Day 1146
114 Select Committee to Consider Housing Affordability 1075